navigation

There's already a lot to like about the Waze, the social GPS and live traffic app for Android and iOS devices. It saves you time with its turn-by-turn directions, saves you fuel by helping to avoid jams with its crowd sourced traffic data, and (possibly, most importantly) it doesn't cost a penny. With the new 2.3 update that should be hitting the app marketplaces today, Waze now moves toward actively saving you money by helping you and other drivers to find and buy the cheapest fuel around.

Starting in version 3.2, users will be able to … Read more

In light of Apple's recent announcements about its maps app, the idea of another navigation app for the iPhone might seem redundant, but Apple's program will have a hard time matching the route guidance capabilities of Telenav's Scout.

This recent free navigation app builds on Telenav's extensive experience in mobile navigation. Telenav came up with a new interface design and made the app free as a way of competing in the increasingly cutthroat world of navigation software.

Scout's major drawbacks are that it is strictly an online app, and voice prompts require a $9.99-a-year … Read more

In light of Apple's recent announcements about its Maps app, the idea of another navigation app for the iPhone might seem redundant, but Apple's program will have a hard time matching the route guidance capabilities of Telenav's Scout.

This recently released free navigation app builds on Telenav's extensive experience in mobile navigation. Telenav came up with a new interface design and made the app free as a way of competing in the increasingly cutthroat world of navigation software.

Scout's major drawbacks are that it is strictly an online app, and voice prompts require a $9.… Read more

Writefit Software Suite offers you four programs combined in one package, but we weren't all that impressed with the individual programs or the overall design. And users should be prepared for quite a bit of data entry to get the suite set up.

The application's initial interface is very plain but easily understood. You're presented with four large buttons, one for each of the programs: Web Address Book, Data Confidential, ChequeWealth, and TimeWatch. There's also a smaller button to help you get started that guides you through each program. Understanding how to use the program shouldn'… Read more

Apple hopefuls didn't get the Apple TV or desktop updates they were expecting, but yesterday's Worldwide Developers Conference certainly made things more exciting for iOS users and imaging professionals.

Apple announced a new Retina Display MacBook Pro with serious specs that won't mean a thing for the average consumer who doesn't need a quad-core processor, a solid-state drive, and discrete graphics to browse Reddit and send a few e-mails. Regardless, graphics editors will appreciate the updates even if Apple did inflate its statistics.

There are also a lot of updates to iOS 6 coming out this fall, and today we'll round up a few of our favorites.… Read more

It's WWDC week, and one of the big announcements from today's keynote was Apple's new, homegrown Maps app, which will come baked into iOS 6 this fall. Here, we take a look at Apple's new offering and how it compares to the Google-powered app that it's replacing.

Built by Apple from the ground up, Maps uses a vector-based engine that maintains a crisp appearance and seamless rendering, even as you zoom in and out. For context, Google Maps has been using vector-based graphics since late 2010, so while the technology is worth mentioning, it isn'… Read more

At an invite-only press event in its San Francisco office, Google today made a few big announcements regarding its ubiquitous mapping and navigation programs, Google Maps and Google Earth. While not everything they showed off is quite ready for the public yet, we do have some initial thoughts on the announced updates.

Offline Google Maps for Mobile Even though I haven't played with this feature yet, I can already say Offline Maps is going to be hugely useful. Travelers especially should be ecstatic, as they will be able to cache specific areas and boot up Google Maps while traipsing … Read more

It's a completely new way to capture pictures that moves the process of focus, composition, and even interpretation from the photographer to the viewer. Ren Ng is the founder of startup Lytro in Silicon Valley, where they are building this new kind of camera and new kind of mindset to go with it.

The things Lytro exposes in consumer photography have always been just a little out of the grasp of the mainstream photographer. By making them simple, this company's technology could popularize some of the finer points of photography like depth of field and perspective control. Biggest challenges? Definitely the smartphone and the flight to convenience, social connectivity and low commitment that it represents. … Read more

California is not known as a carmaking state, but every carmaker is here. And few have been in Silicon Valley longer than Volkswagen Group with its Electronics Research Lab. There they try to crack the code on loading cars up with social media, connected navigation, portable integration, and more without distracting you to death.

I spent a day with wide-ranging access to the VW lab, in conversation with its director, Peter Oel. I came away with the impression that VW, like the rest of the industry, feels the tech cat is out of the bag and we aren't going back to a day when our cars are digital ghettos. That's also because carmakers know that high-touch technology is a key way they'll clobber their competitors, but they also keep their eye on the rear view as the government makes more and more noises that sound like distraction regulation. … Read more