The Waze To Go

Like many other folks, I do a lot of driving to get to science fiction conventions.  While I don't mind driving, I do mind running into traffic jams and other complications that make the trip more wearisome than it should be.  When I was in San Jose to visit with the Other Daughter for her surgery, she had me use an app called Waze to navigate around the city instead of using a GPS.  I didn't download it then since I don't drive much at home, but when we started planning our Florida trip, I thought it would be a good time to check it out.  It turned out to be a real timesaver.

Since we ran both our GPS and Waze at the same time, I could directly compare the two.  As far as map accuracy, Waze was more accurate -- my GPS was two years old and the maps weren't current.  Both showed the same position for our car, so the tracking was good.

At first it was just amusing -- watching out for stopped vehicles and confirming them or reporting them "not there."  But Waze showed its real worth when I spotted a notice of a big wreck on the interstate ahead and figured out from the messages and reports that the mess stretched for about six miles and average speed on that part of the road was around 4 miles/hour.  A quick view of the maps showed that we could avoid it all with a pretty simple detour.

The interface is pretty simple -- just a map and two buttons.  The one on the left allows you to customize your account; the one on the right allows you to report on-road issues to other drivers.  The app alerts you (if you wish) when you're within a half mile of cops, stalled cars, and various road conditions including roadkill and weather.   

The maps are all real-time maps and are generally more current than your GPS, since Waze gives you points for making edits to correct road conditions -- places where other maps might not be updated (recent construction that's closing the roads, for instance.)   It was better at identifying accidents than my GPS (which only reports based on the state's Department of Transportation status reports), and some of the features (tires in road, bad weather conditions) were alerts that turned out to be very useful.  Also included is a "gas prices" feature -- Waze gives you points for reporting updated gas prices, but because it can only be done when you're actually stopped at the gas station (the software has a method of checking), it isn't quite as useful as GasBuddy.

 Waze shows your position on the map with a custom icon that also indicates your activity if you're in the top 10% of active users for your state.  While this is fun, it also leads to some false reporting, which is a problem in some cities.

If you're the only person in the car, it can be a  very distracting app, since you will be tempted to respond to alerts.  This is especially true if you're driving in a city, since the number of alert messages can be pretty high.  But it's THE perfect app to hand to your passengers, and it's a real timesaver (and sanity saver) for long trips.

Waze is available as an Iphone app and an Android app.

UNINSTALL It!

It's rare, but every once in awhile you get a really badly behaved app for your Android-- one that just won't work for you or isn't right for you or even locks up your device.  But a misbehaving or inappropriate app can become more aggravating if the thing simply won't uninstall.  It sits there, taking up space on your phone or tablet, and attempts to get rid of the thing end with your system hanging up and nothing being done.

I ran into this situation myself after trying out the highly rated Nun Attack and its successor.  After a few attempts at the program (and at turning OFF the sound), I decided that these games just weren't for me.  So I tried uninstalling them... only to find that the built-in uninstall program for these games just didn't work on my Samsung Galaxy 5 phone.  Annoyed, I went into the settings for my Samsung phone and tried using the file system to uninstall, but they didn't go away.

And that's about the time that the whole situation got on my last little nerve.  So I did what any good geek does -- went out and started hunting down an application to get rid of it.  After a few tries, I came across a little app called "Uninstall" by Diya.

This is a little freeware gem for your android phone software problems.  It doesn't need fancy permissions, it doesn't throw ads at you.  It brings up a display of your apps (in alphabetical order) and you tap on the one that you want gone for good.

And it uninstalls it.  Just like that.

I gave it 5 stars.  You can find it here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=diya.android.uninstall

Four Fabulous Apps For a New Android

This time on "Glorious Time Wasters" -- 4 Incredibly Useful Apps for a new Christmas Android device!

Tis the season to be giving -- and getting -- and the best thing to get right now is a new Android device.  They come pretty fully featured, and a lot of them come with pre-loaded software (some of which I'd actually recommend).  But whether yours is a humble device that only connects via a nearby wireless hotspot or whether you've got the latest high-end Android with lots of bandwidth and cellular transmission, there's ten types of applications that EVERYONE really should have.  I'm staying out of some of the more interesting ones (like rootkits and so forth.)  This list is a "really should have this" list for anyone getting (or giving) a new Android device.

...and you KNOW how much fun it is to hop off to Marketplace and show someone how to get goodies, right?  So get them started right with these apps!

#1 -- Google Maps.  Why do I have THAT on the list?  One word -- traffic reports.  In the case of Dallas, it gets its info from TXDOT, so it's not "up to the second" reliable, but it's free.  And it gives you "good enough" warning about problems.

#2 -- Dropbox, the file mover of choice.  Some of us can do it via Bluetooth, but for a lot of people, "Bluetooth" indicates someone with really bad dental hygene (come to think of it, there's times when I'm trying to get Bluetooth devices to talk to each other when I think it would be easier to go in for major dental surgery.)  If you love Bluetooth and it works for you, stay with it.  For the rest of us, there's "Dropbox."  Dropbox is basically free web storage for your files.  You take whatever it is you want, upload it to your Dropbox, and it's now available for every Android device that you've got. It will automatically load anything you put up there to your regular computer.  It's great for backups and less of a hassle than Google can be.



In this day of "you can totally lose track of your life if you lose your phone, computer, blackberry, etc, backups are a gooooood idea!  Listen to the geek, folks.

#3 -- Astro File Manager -- a better file handler than the one that comes on most devices.   There's no real consistent scheme out there -- and some of the ones that come with the Androids are full of Mystery Meat Navigation (do I double tap to move?  Where's that file located?  Why does it pretend I've got 2 SD cards?)    Astro File manager's interface makes sense, and it's fairly intuitive to move files between directories.  It also accesses the top level directories, something that some apps don't let you do.

#4 -- Flashlight and Candle.  Okay, that's two apps rather than one.  But our phones and Androids are becoming extremely versatile devices and there's lots of times when having a small amount of light really helps.  I like Candle Free if I'm just wanting to find my way through the dark house to the bedroom without tripping over the cat.  Flashlight Free is for when... well... ya need that extra light.  We also use Candle Free for birthday parties (yes, you can blow out the candles), and yes my family is in the Entirely Too Geeky To Live In The Real World category.

If you don't have these apps on your devices, you might like them.  If you do, don't forget to suggest them to everyone around you.  You'll look awesomely uber-geeky when you show them how to avoid the shopping traffic when they head out to buy your gift for Christmas.