MarcForrest.com

Category: iPhone GPS App

  • Google Introduces Live Traffic on Google Maps in South Africa

    The chaps at Google have introduced another really cool feature to the Google Maps in South Africa, by including Live Traffic Data as an overlay for some regions. So far only Cape Town & Jozi have it, but it will only be a matter of time before we see the rest of the country included.

    The one feature I do really like is that you can also specify a day & time to see what the traffic conditions are like at that time, which could be handy if you looking to buy property in a certain area.

    Have you used the Google Maps Traffic feature yet ? Was it accurate ? Keen to hear your thoughts in the comments belo

    Hat tip to Tinus for the heads up on this one ;)

  • Waze takes off in SA

    I have been using the Waze (iTunes Link FREE) app for a couple of months now, and am really excited that the community is growing in South Africa. To sum up what Waze is, this intro from the iTunes App store explains it in a nutshell->When you download Waze, you not only get a free traffic & navigation app, but also become part of the local driving community in your area, joining forces with other drivers nearby to outsmart traffic, save time, and improve everyone’s daily commute! 

    So basically, you have a fully fledged & free navigation app, as well as a community alerting you where & what traffic to avoid. Genius ! The app has proved popular around the world, and now the team from Mix Telematics have partnered up with Waze to bring it and manage the product in South Africa. The app is free from the iTunes app store, and there is no charge (apart from data costs) to use the app. The South African community is also slowly but surely growing steadily, so we will soon start seeing more and more people connecting, and helping reporting traffic issues, making our lives easier. Bliss !

     

    Here is some more info from the Mix Telematics guys:

    Free, user generated services like Wikipedia have been adopted in a number of industries, the most recent of which is in the field of GPS navigation through an app called “Waze”. Waze is a free, user generated traffic app that has seen an impressive global uptake since its international launch in 2010 and has a current user base of 12 million.

    Brought to South Africa by MiX Telematics, a global provider of vehicle tracking and fleet management solutions, Waze is the world’s first community-based traffic and navigation app for smartphones. The app allows drivers to outsmart and beat the traffic together by sharing the information the app passively transmits about a user’s speed and location to identify where traffic is moving slowly.

    “Waze was developed to alert and route drivers around slow-moving traffic, road hazards or accidents,” says Uri Levine, the co-founder and President of Waze. “In doing so, drivers benefit from time saving as well as less spend on fuel and reduced stress levels linked to driving in heavy traffic.”

    “Waze uses existing technology to overcome the debilitating traffic problems that many people face on a daily basis,” says Charles Tasker, Managing Director of MiX Telematics (International). “Also, the beauty of Waze, besides the fact that it’s free, is that the more people use it, the more the community benefits from the data collected and shared.”

    Wazers can also create or join groups with friends, colleagues and/or drivers that share similar routes. This enables users to communicate directly with the members of that group to inform them about things like accidents, road conditions or closures that are specific to their particular route. For safety purposes though, typing is disabled while driving and users are advised to only use Waze in conjunction with a hands-free car kit.

    Gamers will also appreciate the “geo-gaming” aspect of the Waze app where users can gain points for activities such as reporting traffic information, validating roads and collecting drive-through “candies” that are randomly scattered throughout the map.

    Ultimately these points count in the user’s favour if he or she applies to become an area manager. On applying to become an area manager, a user’s status is evaluated and if they’re granted permission they are then able to process pending road deletions and update requests from other users on the map in their chosen area.

    Much like the Wikipedia model, the Waze community ensures that the data users input is legitimate and that any incorrect map data entered is corrected in order to improve everyone’s driving experience.

    The global success of Waze has seen adoption figures grow from five million users in July 2010, to 12 million users in the past six months. To date, Waze has over 30 000 early adopters in South Africa, but if the global figures are anything to go by, this figure is set to increase over the course of the year.

    The involvement of MiX Telematics in bringing Waze to South Africa is highly valuable as local users get a head-start in the form of a base road grid across South Africa. This is made possible by the injection of MiX Telematics’ existing positional data into the Waze app, thus ensuring all the major roads in SA are covered, though Wazers will still be able to map lesser-known roads as they drive them.
    Waze is freely available on the Apple AppStore, the Android Market Place, the Nokia Ovi Store, BlackBerry’s App World and Windows Market. Waze South Africa can be found on Twitter (@WazeSA) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/WazeSA). The only cost to users is the data that the app consumes and as such, users are encouraged to use the app in conjunction with a mobile data package.

    Have you tried Waze ? What do you think of it ? Would love to hear your thoughts & comments in the comments section below :)

     

  • Review: TomTom iPhone App & Car Kit

    Last week, I received a package from the good folk at TomTom South Africa. I had been wanting to test this app out for quite a while, as I had only heard good things about it, and after reviewing other iPhone GPS apps, I wanted to see how TomTom stacked up.

    The latest update to the (iTunes Link $59.99) app brings a much-anticipated feature called HD Traffic (In-App purchase $37.99 for 12 months or $5.99 for 1 month). This service allows you to see where there is traffic congestion on the map, in REAL time. I know for the guys who travel a bit during the day, this is a must have. If you have a route selected, the app will also then re-route you on the best route available, according to the traffic congestion.

    So, last week when I received my package, which consisted of a shiny new iPhone 4, and the TomTom car kit, I quickly unpacked it, and rushed off to the car to set it all up. The car kit is really simple to install, and has a great “suction mechanism”, which means that not once did I ever see the cradle bouncing up and down. The really cool thing about the car kit, is that is has a built-in Bluetooth hands free, which means no more talking and driving. Again, this was really simple to set up, as the cradle found the phone instantly, and paired the devices.Also built into the car kit is a GPS receiver, which extends your GPS signal when using the app. This is great and definitely helps with faster lock on when acquiring GPS signal on the iPhone.

    The TomTom app itself is also really simple to use, and the functionality of the app is fantastic. The navigational controls are large and also easy to use. The TomTom iPhone app also offers street name announcement, which means it tells you what road to turn into when driving to a location. This is an awesome feature, which is usually only found on much higher end models of the physical GPS units. The app also runs in the background when you exit the app, so you won’t lose your position when taking a call, or have to use another app.

    There are a couple of other features of the app, which I didn’t manage to use, that really make this app stand out above the rest. IQ Routes is a feature built into the app, which takes into various factors such as rush hour, traffic lights & even shopping crowds, when calculating your route. This means you will get to your destination faster, as it selects the best route. How cool is that !! Another great feature is called Map-Share which allows you to edit the map if there has been changes to the road etc. So if suddenly a road is closed or a boom gate is installed, you can pin point this on your map, which then gets uploaded to a central location, and is then shared with other users of the app. Crowdsourcing FTW !

    All in all, I have to admit, I was very impressed with the TomTom iPhone app. The app, which costs $59.99 in the , is well worth the price it comes at. At today’s exchange rate this works out to around R425, which lets be honest is WAY cheaper than any physical GPS unit, you will find on the market. Add in the HD traffic for a year and you look at just under $100 for full-blown GPS app. The maps also get updated fairly regularly, which is a bonus in the chaos of ever-changing street names in South Africa.

    The car kit, which can be bought at a number of stores, including Makro, Dion Wired & Cape Union Mart, retails for around R1,200. This may sound a bit high, but I can honestly say, that after using it for a week, it is well worth the price. For this you get a fully fledged iPhone cradle for your car with built-in GPS & Bluetooth functionality. I know that I will definitely be getting myself one of these for my car in the near future.

    Overall, the app & car kit are both great buys, and if you are looking for a quality South African iPhone GPS app, then TomTom is the way to go :)

  • NAVV GPS South Africa iPhone App Review

    You may remember just over a year ago, I did a post on the NDrive iPhone GPS app. The app was one of the first, and possibly one of the better iPhone GPS apps I have reviewed here. I found the app to have up to date maps, and loads of POI’s. But, it seems that, for some reason, NDrive South Africa, has been pulled from the app store, and  a new app, which uses the NDrive “framework” called (iTunes Link) has been released. The app is available on both the SA & US app store for a ridiculously low price (for a full blown GPS app) of only $24.99. CHEAP !

    The , is almost identical to the NDrive app (bar a colour change), and the layout and functionality stays the same. The key feature here is the larger buttons which makes things easier when driving. The maps are up to date and the point of interests have also been updated to include the newest POI’s as well as up to date speed cameras.The app info display while driving is pretty informative, and you can choose what displays you would like to show while driving. The app also has 3D buildings included in the app, which is handy when driving through large cities and you looking for a

    The app offers a whole host of languages, including Zulu & Afrikaans for South African users. The settings in the app are pretty simple, and offer a variety of options to customize the app to your liking.

    Here are some of the features of the app:

    NAVIGATION
    ? Turn-by-turn navigation for driving
    ? Voice instructions for accuracy
    ? Speeding alerts for safety
    ? 3D landmarks for making maps more realistic
    ? And more features!

    ADVENTURE
    ? Compass
    ? Geo coordinates
    ? Multiple waypoints
    ? And more features!

    POIs
    ? Cafes, gas stations, etc. – built-in
    ? Favorites with categories – customizable
    ? Google for more POIs – embedded
    ? And more – available!

    MAPS AND LANGUAGES
    ? You can NAVV in English, Zulu, Afrikaans, German, Dutch, Arabic – in total, in 22 languages
    ? NAVV maps are provided by NAVTEQ (September 2010)
    ? NAVV South Africa includes maps of South Africa

    The only thing I would change on this app, would be the fact that the keyboard provided in the app is not the standard iPhone keyboard. This can be sometimes confusing , and rather frustrating given how used one becomes to the standard keyboard. But, given the low price of the app ($24.99) this can easily be forgotten. All round, a fantastic app, and if you looking for an entry level GPS app, then this is a no brainer.

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  • Garmap iPhone App

    The guys from Garmin got in touch with me a couple of weeks ago, to let me know about the Garmap iPhone app. I been trying out for the last few weeks, and I am really impressed. I have covered a couple of the South African GPS apps, including NDrive, CoPilot & Navigon previously.

    The Garmap iPhone app (iTunes Link), which goes for $59.99 on the app store, is co-developed with the local guys from Garmap South Africa, and includes the latest mapping software & technology, as well as Turn-By-Turn voice guidance to get you to your destination. The mapset in the app is the South African are the latest 2010 mobile maps as well.The maps are pre-loaded, which means you don’t have to use your internet connection to see the maps, they are all built into the app.

    During my testing, I found the app to be one of the fastest to lock onto GPS signal on the iPhone4, meaning that as soon as you open the app, you can almost instantly see where you are.The points of interest in the app, are also very up to date, and includes all sorts of POI’s like banks, entertainment & even vehicle service centres.The app also allows you to route to a specific GPS co-ordinate, which is handy for the like of geocaching etc. Another must have in any GPS app/device is the traffic camera alerts, which the Garmap app has as well.

    There are one or two things that I didn’t like about the app though. Firstly the app does not run in background mode on iOS4 software. This means, if you exit the app, it doesn’t continue running in the background, but exits the app and then restarts it when you open it again. It would be great if the app supported background, and let it run while you on a call etc. The other thing that I found a bit hard to use in the app, is that it uses scroll up & down buttons to navigate through the menus, these should be “finger scrolling” rather, as it makes it easier to use, while on the move. This could be a personal preference thing for me though ;)

    Overall, I was pretty impressed with the app, and will definitely be keeping it in my GPS folder. For me the thing that stands out the most, is that it is from a South African company, which means the maps & poi’s are always going to the most accurate. If you looking for a GPS app for the iPhone I highly suggest this one :)