Dear readers
This month I am going to have a look at 2 different SatNav apps for mobile phones.
There are many free ones out there but also some paid ones. I like a good free app, and for me the best has to be Google Maps. Why? It just has such a wealth of information that it’s hard to find anything comparable. It has live updates so when someone reports a mobile speed camera or an accident, it can automatically reroute your or inform you about it. However, because it is based on live traffic reports, sometimes if someone is feeling mischievous, you can have reports of speed cameras all along a road, when actually there is nothing. Not that I am condoning speeding of course!
There is a close second, Waze. I used this one many years ago when it first started out, and although there is a paid version, the free version is equally as versatile. While doing my research on this subject today I have discovered that Google now owns Waze. But upon further investigation, they operate quite differently. Wave relies heavily on crowdsourcing. This means it pulls a users GPS information and calculated any road issues etc it also on the use of user reports.
Although both of these operate in a similar way and will of course get you from A to B using all the technology it has available, it really does boil down to your preference. I like Google because I have search for a specific business or address and know it’s probably going to be the right one as it pulls information for many years of data collection. That’s not to say I don’t or won’t use Waze. When I need to share a live location while I’m driving I use Waze. Although Google offers this service as well, it’s new a bit clunky to find.
There are others out there, Garmen, TomTom etc, but they don’t seem to be as reliable or “switched on” like google or Maze with regards to address or businesses and live user feedback, but they do work. The premium paid for versions are good, but quite expensive if you are not a big user of SatNavs.
