waze

If you've ever been driving down the highway and looked at the Google Maps application on an iPhone to see what traffic is like ahead, you may have wondered where the data behind the green, yellow, and red lines indicating real-time vehicle flow come from.

In fact, the data are coming from people just like you: users of smartphones with GPS who, by the very act of driving down the highway, are feeding back information about how fast they're going to Google, which in turn is sending it back to users of its mobile map apps.

Which means, … Read more

Using smart phones as navigation tools is all the rage these days, what with a slew of applications available for the iPhone and Android platforms that utilize those devices' built-in GPS systems in determining users' real-time location.

One such service is from Waze, which in August released its iPhone app after being available on Android for several months. Waze's service is meant to help drivers figure out where they are and how best to get where they're going, all with the help of a large community of other motorists.

Among the information that Waze provides are traffic flow, … Read more

So you finally got your MyTouch 3G and you are looking for some free apps to download from the Android Market. With more than 6,000 titles, it can be hard to find something worthwhile. I've been using Google Android since the day it came out and I've spent a good amount of time wading through the available apps. The following list contains some of my favorite free apps from several categories.

1. Security--Mobile Defense

After spending serious cash on your new phone, you don't want to worry about losing it. Mobile Defense is a free … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--We're driving through the heart of the city, cruising along at a nice clip, but just in case we hit a patch of rough traffic, I know which alternate route I can take to go faster.

That's because I've got an iPhone with Waze, a new app released Thursday that's designed to give drivers a wide range of crowdsourced road information including traffic flow, road reports, and even warnings about where the latest speed traps have been set up.

Waze, which has been out for some time on the Android platform, is new to the … Read more

Waze is an innovative new GPS app for Android that supplements Census Bureau maps with user-generated data. This social approach to road conditions offers a new level of data that is not possible with other GPS services.

Just imagine your daily commute to work. Though you may have the best route down to a science, significant delays can affect even the best-laid plans. Fortunately, that's where Waze comes into play.

By utilizing real-time information from others, Waze can optimize your drive time and help you make informed decisions. It provides helpful information such as speed traps, accidents, and road … Read more

Israeli start-up Waze is at the Where 2.0 conference this week showing off its service for collecting real-time traffic and driving condition data from its users. Currently running on 80,000 smartphones in Israel, Waze shows you traffic flows on highways, and unlike other traffic services, it also shows it on side streets, and it creates routing advice based on that data.

The service allows users to report accidents, speed traps, cops by the side of the road, and other traffic-related items. What's cool is that these items fade automatically over time, and there's also the possibility … Read more