Free turn-by-turn nav app for iPhone/iPad

[McCartman]

The one (and pretty much only) thing I miss about the Droid is the turn by turn navigation that is built into Android. I don't travel much, but when I did I found it very handy. When I got my iPhone, one of the first things I did was try and find a free app to fill that gap. I tried a couple of them. One had voice directions but a very lousy user interface. The other had an acceptable interface, but voice directions was an in-app purchase/subscription - and I am too cheap to buy it for all the more I would use it. The really good nav apps cost a pile of money.

Enter WAZE. I almost skipped over it due to the childish look of it, but man, this app is great! It is actually a social networking nav app. The idea is you can "share" your driving experiences with others using the app. NOT interested in that aspect of it at all - but that crap can all be shut off in the app's settings. I've tried it out a few times. The maps are accurate, it gives you turn by turn voice directions, and creates routes very well. One neat feature is you can wave your hand in front of the phone and give it voice commands - activated by the proximity sensor. You (and others using it) can report accidents, construction zones, cops, traffic jams, etc - and it will re-route you around them if you wish. It has a very, very simple user interface - very intuitive to use.

If you can get past the stupid app icon and goofy look to it, it is a very good nav app - and free.

www.waze.com/

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdxsBx_FzKI

[tonnahope]

Eric,

I tried installing this app on my Iphone. It wants to use my Facebook login. Does that mean it is going to post my whereabouts to Facebook? I really don't want something like this feeding Facebook.

Thanks

[McCartman]

Just skip that step. I did and it works fine.

One disadvantage of this app that I was not aware of when I posted that - you cannot listen to music while the app is running. If you put the iPod app to playing and start navigating with WAZE, it will pause the music. Maybe someday they will update the app to include that functionality. Ideally, it would reduce the volume of music whenever the voice directions were activated - and then fade the music back in again.