A few weeks ago I was on a trip out of town in a large city I did not know very well. I used our family Garmin GPS to navigate around town. It worked as it should but I kept getting into big traffic jams.
There are two excellent apps I have used on my Android phone which perform similarly to a GPS. They both use the GPS system as does the Garmin, but they have differences you may find useful.
The first is called, "Glympse." This was the first app I used which would allow you to share your map location along with a map. You can send your location to someone via text or email so they can keep track of you while you are on your "trip."
It does a very good job as far as mapping and sharing your location. I do not, however care for one of their informational videos showing the pizza delivery person saying they use Glympse with their customers in order to get bigger tips. Seems like a great idea but I have not seen anyone implement it yet.
In previous times I used an Android application named "Waze" which was far superior to the regular GPS. Waze was/is also available for iPhones and Window phones. The reason I did not use it any longer comes from the fact that in June, 2013, Google purchased the Israeli application Waze. A short time after this time it failed for me and continued to be non-functional for a few weeks after that. So I deleted it and start using the Garmin.
But wait – I was talking to a geek friend in the big city. He said that, true, it was not working but had recently started back up; better than ever. Now being purchased by Google will be good for us consumers (unless of course they shut it down in a year or three, but don’t get me going). They will surely connect it with Google Maps which will be even more excellent.
The Google Maps app/site is great all alone in my opinion but Waze has total user incorporation making it completely interactive and not only for directions. Waze takes the mapping app an immense step further. It does this by allowing Waze users to be tracked by GPS and interpreting that information. With almost 50 million users (per several estimates) this makes a lot of info available for travelers. It is your choice whether or not to log in as a user. Once logged in you can choose to either provide your location via the app or not. You can also be a "lurker" and get traffic information without giving out any of yours.
But what is the fun in that? More ways to use Waze next week.
