Best Apps for Drivers [Appbattle]

Maybe you commute. Maybe you travel. Maybe you only desire to drive. At least, smartphone apps are key-and not just for navigation .

iOS

GOLD MEDAL: Dynolicious

It’s one of the crucial coolest apps on the iPhone, period. Dynolicious uses your phone’s built-in accelerometers to recording everything from 0-60 times and skidpad g-forces to full lap-uhh, commute times, annotated with stats. The graphics (and graphs) are beautiful, and the information recall system is intuitive. a couple of things, though: this app hasn’t been updated afterward, so the graphics haven’t been updated for the retina display-no big deal, but this bothers some people. ALSO, it’s more or less expensive! Luckily, before you buy it, you could try an identical technology in a free promotional app from Bosch . It’s slapped with advertising for spark plugs and so on, nonetheless it’s free to begin, and just $5 to upgrade, rather than $13 for Dynolicious proper. $13, iPhone

SILVER MEDAL: Road Trip

Lets you diligently track you gas purchases and consumption, in conjunction with price. Provided that you’re diligent about entering data, this app will provide an entire readout of what you’ve spent on gas, and how. But Road Trip does the alternative gas tracking apps two better, with general trip expense reporting and tools for tracking your vehicles’ maintenance histories. $5, iPhone

BRONZE MEDAL: AAA TripTik

Among the many gas price comparison apps within the app store, AAA TripTik wins for having a well-maintained database of prices, and for including a lot of extras, including a gajillion POIs and voice navigation. (Variety of: the app does mapping and routing like Google Maps, but once you shake your phone en route, it’ll yell your next move at you.) Free, iPhone

OTHERS TESTED:
• Trapster: A speed trap finder with mixed reviews, mainly for poor design and unreliable data.
• Car Finder: Do people actually use these GPS car finding apps? If this is the case, this can be a solid choice.
• iWrecked: So you’ve crashed your car into a tree. What do you do next? Pick up your phone and… open an app, for sure! Installing iWrecked is barely in regards to the most portentous act you could engage in together with your iPhone. Seriously though, this has good info for when you’ve called the cops.
• RepairPal: Kayak-like price comparison for local repair shops. Best corroborated with additional research, however it’s a tight start.

Android

GOLD MEDAL: Tasker

Okay, Tasker is more than just for use inside the car, nevertheless it can make doing things so, so easy while you’re within the car. Here’s what Tasker does: it performs a fixed of actions given certain rules and context, a if X happens, then Y will follow form of deal. So whenever you’re for your car and switch on Car Home in your Android phone, Tasker will know to also shut off Wi-Fi, activate GPS, flip on Pandora, and crank the quantity. Or it may open NPR just as you hit traffic (or a undeniable GPS point). As an added bonus you may program it to read text messages out loud. It’s an ” advanced” sorta app but while you decide the right way to program it for your liking, you won’t be capable of live without it. Turns your smartphone into a smarterphone, once you will. $6.37, Android.

SILVER MEDAL: ParkDroid

Come on, we’ve all wondered where the hell we parked our cars before. With ParkDroid, you could tag your parking spot so you’ll never need to comb through every street in finding your car again. It’ll be right where you tagged it! ParkDroid also sifts through free parking and toll parking, and might remind you when the meter’s up. a superb app for the auto, after you’re out of the automobile. Free, Android.

BRONZE MEDAL: GasBuddy

GasBuddy maps out nearby gas stations or gas stations near a definite point so you’ll always know where the simplest place to top off is. Free, Android.

OTHERS TESTED:
• Car Home/Google Maps Navigation: These apps aren’t any-brainers for any Android commuter, they’re only this low caused by their obviousness.
• Pandora: Another gimme, you’ll need new tunes to sing to while stuck in traffic
• aCar: An app which can track maintenance, fuel mileage and other mechanical type things.
• Doggcatcher: Expensive ($7!), but worthwhile podcast apps for the hardcore listeners
• Google Listen: But for casual podcasters, it’s hard to conquer the free and straightforwardness-of-use of Google Listen though
• Speedview: It’s a speedometer app, as in it’ll let you know how fast you’re going
• Trapster: Allows you to know where speedtraps are for your route

Source

This post is tagged: accelerometers, commute times, gas purchases, unreliable data, voice navigation