I don’t know if there is anything I hate quite as much as listening to traffic reports on the radio. The grating voices, the lightning-fast run down and the annoying background noise make it impossible for me to keep track of what it is they are telling me. Especially if I want to think back to what they said before making a route choice.
Besides, in the world of satellite radio and in-car MP3 players, who listens to the AM/FM format while driving anymore? But I, like most, still love traveling by car, and so traffic jams are always a risk. Checking the net for traffic information isn’t helpful if you can’t do it on the road, with conditions changing through the day and a sudden accident enough to lock up a freeway for hours.
That is why I have turned – as I so often do – to my Android phone and the many apps that have been created to maximize convenience in today’s busy world. It is great that they now have traveling and traffic apps, because this smartphone is in my hand so often that my family probably thinks a prankster has super glued it there.
Here are some of the best apps for avoiding traffic jams to download onto your Android phone:
This can officially be labeled a classic choice. Google is the single largest web company around, and they are famous for their many products. One of their most used is their Google Maps, which you can now get on your phone.
You get the usual features of looking up any area on a map grid, but there is also a navigation aspect that they have on the program itself, which will give you good directions. It will also let you know of any traffic problems in the area so you can find and follow an alternative route.
A handy GPS unit, Waze is socially based, just like all of the biggest Internet products. It works by allowing you and other drivers to build interactive maps based on the on-board GPS unit in your Android phone.
They have a navigation tool to plan rroutes for walking, running and driving, as well as real time traffic updates to avoid trouble spots. But it tends to have more information than some other apps, such as information on local areas and a social networking feature.
Where is like an all-in-one travel app. Not only does it give you current traffic conditions updated in real time, but you can find local restaurants, events, places of interest, deals and offers from nearby businesses and more.
You can save personalized ”favorites” that keep track of spots you visit often to target results when accessed, such as any accidents or slowdowns on the way there.
There’s a similar app for iPhone coming later this year from Cheaphotels.org.
Conclusion
Don’t get stuck in traffic, or stuck listening for a quickly-spoke traffic report on the radio. If you have an Android phone, the details are just a few clicks away. What are some of your favorites? Let us know in the comments.
The Washington Post has been working on one of the most advanced news reader applications for Facebook. Here is the Social Reader for Facebook! The social reader is a fully interactive news reader application for Facebook. It brings all worlds best news stories into one place.
Fences found here is a simple program that you download and install and then your desktop looks brand new. Fences allows you to make boxes on your desktop to organize you files and folders. You can label each box and make it as big or as small as you would like. It also has a couple prebuilt boxes so if you don’t wanna make a design it will do it for you. Another cool features is that if anything ever happens to your desktop you could restore it if you saved it prior. It does any auto save before fences is installed. One way it helps you is if you double click on your desktop it will hide all the icons and boxes. You can choose which boxes/files you do and don’t wanna hide. The last neat feature is that you can change the color of the boxes and even the transparency. All in all if you desktop is messy your gonna want this. There is a free version and a paid but I am fine with the free version since the paid doesn’t offer much else.
Synergy is simple program that does the task of allow you to use one mouse and one keyboard on multiple computers. It also allows you to transfer copy and paste data over too. So if in screen 1 you copy the text “Testing” when you paste in screen 2 it will paste “Testing”. By simply going off the screen it will move your mouse to the next computer there is no need to press any buttons unlike KVM. It is also going to support other draging and dropping features soon such as file drag and dropping. Curently the only problem I have is sometimes on windows 7 when the UAC screen pops up the mouse sometimes stops working.Also it only allows computers around it to be connect sort of. Basiclly what I mean is one computer is 5ft off the ground and the other one is 2ft and to the left there is no way to only have the bottom left corner move your mouse onto the other screen.All in all it is a good program to have handy if you have alot of computers.
Raptr is like all the Instant messaging services you use combined into 1 program. It allows you to connect to facebook, xbox, psn, and many more. Although it does not work with skype which I am pretty bummed about because if it did support skype I would probably uninstall skype. It also supports ingame chat which I have not tried out yet though and it also checks what games you have installed and when you play that game it will show you as playing it which is kinda cool. Each game also has its own page like a Facebook page that you can like and write on.All in all it is a good program to have if you have alot of different Instant messaging services.
Give Away Of The Day is a website that everyday has one free program to give away. It could be anything from audio converters to security software. Each program is avaible for free for only 1 day or 24 hours. The only bad part about this is you also have to install it within those 24 hours or it will not be free. Sometime they will ofter a program for free for more then one day or offer 2 programs one day but this is really rare. You can also submit your program to go on their site. They also have another site that gives away a game every day. Although they do not offer a game every day it is still good to get free games sometimes. Check Game Give Away Of The Day out Here.
Phrase express is a quick and easy solution if you find yourself typing the same thing over and over again. Phrase express saves you time by replacing “How many I help you” with @Help or @HM or w.e. you want to replace it with. It allows you to replace text with other text. It also supports calculations as an add on so if i type 5+5 it will solve it for me. Also you can set hot keys with it so for example when I type H while holding ctrl and shift it will Replace H with Hello. This program also learns what you type and will offer you suggestions. So if you are always saying Whats up next time you type Wh it will say press tab to type Whats up. Another neat feature it has is it allows you to input the current time. So when I say see you in 2 hours it will replace 2 hours with what the time will be.One more cool feature is the ability to launch programs, open an email, open a website or open a file by simple typing a phrase. It also supports servers and clients and allows you to share phrases with other users on your network. I use this program all the time and it saves me loads of time.
Below are a list of its features from their website which I summarized above but for a full list go Here
Hachi is a website that allows you connect with new people through your friends. For example if I wanted to become friends with someone (Person1) and my friend(Friend1) is friends with that person it would show you all the possible options to become friends with person1. You must connect via Facebook and it also allows you to connect with LinkedIn for even better results.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Yahoo will soon launch their own personalised mobile content play. This smart platform is expected to be launched at the upcoming Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Yahoo’s upcoming software will power a number of mobile applications serving content in several contexts. This is new tool would be available over the web, on any device, but is developed to cater mobiles platforms such as Android, iOS and other OS.
Did you ever picture yourself using a 3D desktop on Windows? Aximion is the application available for converting our Windows desktop in a very cool 3D environment.
Windows desktops are indeed one of the most common places where we feel very comfortable, the simplicity and the fact that it did not have significant changes through the years are one of the reasons. But also, among the years, other possibilities appeared with other operating systems, making some interesting tweaks in user’s desktops.
Aximion makes our desktop look really cool, but it could take us a while to get used to it. One of the disadvantages is that the “Start” button is not available, so we must find our applications browsing around.
Requirements to use it:
Windows XP 32/64 bit, Home/Pro, Service Pack 1/2/3
which I am pretty bummed about because if it did support skype I would probably uninstall skype. It also supports ingame chat which I have not tried out yet though and it also checks what games you have installed and when you play that game it will show you as playing it which is kinda cool. Each game also has its own page like a Facebook page that you can like and write on.All in all it is a good program to have if you have alot of different Instant messaging services.
