Have you ever desired more apps that can help you on your daily commutes? Whether you are commuting to school or work, there are many different apps you can download to make getting where you’re going and maintaining your car easier.

Have you ever had a senior moment in the parking lot and can’t find your car? Well Car Locator is a very nifty app that allows you to save your vehicle’s location when you park your car. You can find your car in no time without having to wander around walking through numerous rows of cars. If you ever park in a garage, instead of writing the level and row number on a scratch sheet of paper, you can use Car Locator to record notes about where you parked. You can even use this app to send coordinates to another phone. It’s definitely an app to look into if you have a hard time remembering where you parked.

Have you ever wanted to use your Android in the car without the police chasing you down for texting? CarHome Ultra makes navigation and receiving updates much easier than ever before. By allowing users to create up to 18 shortcuts to launch specific applications, CarHome Ultra makes driving with a smartphone easier and safer. The app incorporates all your driving apps into one interface, including navigation and maps, and by giving them shortcuts, CarHome Ultra makes it easier to get where you need to with little to no run-ins with the law.

Have you ever wanted to gage just how much of a liability your car is? With FuelLog Pro you can organize all of your car’s information into one app. FuelLog Pro allows users to monitor their fuel consumption as well as enter in recent maintenance done to the car. You can enter the last time you had your oil changed and set a reminder for the next visit. FuelLog Pro also allows you to enter additional vehicles into its database. It’s very helpful for those who have older cars, and it may give them a reason to upgrade if they find there are too many things going wrong at once.

Have you ever wanted an app that tells you exactly what your speedometer tells you? SpeedView Pro delivers that and more. In fact because the SpeedView uses GPS to track your speed, it is more accurate than your vehicles speedometer and is also useful for running, biking and hiking. The app is can alert you if you are going over a set speed limit and has many other unique features to track your average speed. SpeedView Pro, just like CarHome, is especially useful if you are prone to speeding, as it will hopefully alert you before you see the flashing lights in your rear view.

Have you ever downloaded an app after reading a review? You might want to give it a try especially if you have ever encountered any of the above challenges. These apps will meet all of your car needs.

Lindsey P. is a writer and editor living in the Midwest. She is considering enrolling with an online university to further her writing career.

The best way to prevent your GPS from being stolen is to take it with you when you leave your car. However, this may not be practical for everyone as it can be a real hassle to try to remember to put the GPS back in the car every day and your GPS may be too heavy to carry around comfortably.

The second best thing you can do is to stop using a windshield suction-cup mount. An alternative mount is the friction mount, which attaches to the dashboard instead of the windshield. A friction mount is easier to detach than a suction-cup mount, it doesn’t leave any tell-tale marks for thieves to detect and it’s easy to hide underneath a seat. Always make sure to remove the mount when you leave your car. If you’re stuck using a windshield suction-cup mount, there are still ways you can protect your GPS device. Every time you exit your car, remove the suction-cup mount and wipe the windshield to remove the smudge left behind.

Make sure to write down the serial number and make of your GPS. Also, register your GPS with the manufacturer. If your GPS does get stolen despite your best efforts and the cops manage to recover it, you then have proof that you own the device. There’s also a hope that the thief will send the device to the manufacturer at some point to have it repaired and the manufacturer will be able to return it to you, but the odds of that happening are low.

Many GPS devices come with a lock or a password feature. Utilize this feature – it may not help prevent your GPS from being stolen and it can be easily cracked within a few days, but why not make it as difficult as possible for would-be thieves?

About the Author

Trevor Stuart is from the website Complete Insurance. They provide car insurance in Calgary and other Canadian cities.

In their typical grand spectical style, Apple announced their much anticipated iPad 2 today.

In a lot of ways, this is an incremental upgrade, not some giant leap forward in terms of technology.

In short, it’s lighter, has a longer battery life, thinner, has cameras, is faster, and has a few more nifty touches than the original iPad – oh yeah, and you can get it in white!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqxjpCwf1co

What’s New

The Apple iPad 2 - Now Available in White

It Has 2 Cameras & Does Facetime

One of the biggest complaints about the original iPad was the complete lack of cameras.  the new iPad 2 now has two cameras, a rear camera that can record 720p HD videos and a front facing VGA camera for use with Facetime.  Apple also introduced a new App called Photo Booth today for the iPad.

New Sensors

To make gaming on the iPad 2 better, Apple added a 3-axis gyroscope to the mix.  There’s also a digital compass now.

Faster

While some were speculating that the iPad 2 might feature some new fangled quad core processor, that turns out not to be the case.  It actually features a dual core 1GHZ Apple A5 processor – what most people were predicting.  Still, it’s a pretty beefy upgrade and should keep the iPad 2 nice and responsive no matter what app you’re running.

More RAM

Probably the most needed upgrade was more memory.  While it didn’t get the full gig of RAM that most were hoping for the 512MB in the unit make it feel snappy and responsive even when using memory intensive applications.

Two Colors – Black & White

While the white iPhone 4 never materialized Apple has managed to make the return to white products as the white iPad 2 will be available on launch day.  You can still get it in black if you prefer – the choice is yours.

It’s Thinner & Lighter

The iPad 2 must have had a good personal trainer, showing up at the press conference 33% thinner and 16% lighter.  It’s now thinner than the iPhone 4 and the Wifi version weighs a mere 1.33 lbs (603 grams)

Smart Covers

I have to admit that Apple manages to get a person excited about little things.  Remember those PC vs Mac commercials where they made a big deal out of the fact that Macs had magnetic power adapters.  It’s one of those nice little touches you wouldn’t think to ask for but definitely want once you know it exists.

That’s how I view Smartcovers.

I really didn’t understand what the big deal was until I saw the demo video on Apple.com.

Here’s Apple’s demo of the product.   Even though I’m not a big fan of putting a cover on something that looks so nice, these things are pretty nifty and it’s actually pretty useful for a variety of tasks.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbl_6DmzO4g

What Didn’t Change

Screen Size & Resolution

There were plenty of rumors that the iPad 2 would have this amazing new retina display resolution.  That isn’t the case.  The iPad 2 has the exact same screen size and resolution of the original iPad.

Battery Life

While this isn’t necessarily surprising, it’s still impressive that Apple managed to keep the battery life the same while making the iPad 2 faster and lighter.  You’ll still get 10 hours of battery life.

Price

In what is a pleasant surprise, the iPad 2 is the same price as the original iPad was – starting at $499 for the 16GB Wifi model – and the original iPad is coming down in price by $100 to start at $399.

Storage Space

Just like the original, the new iPad 2 comes in three storage flavors – 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB.

Connectivity

No 4G/LTE connectivity here – you’ll have to settle for Wifi and 3G only at least until the iPad 3 comes out.   It will work with both AT&T or Verizon (both antennas are built into the same 3G model so you can always switch providers). Also, just like the previous version, GPS (assisted GPS chip) is only available on the 3G model.

Conclusion

Like we said, there really wasn’t anything unexpected or super amazing about this particular update to the iPad.  It’s a nice upgrade to be sure and should help Apple to continue dominating the tablet market – the only surprising thing is that there really wasn’t anything all the surprising in todays announcements – all of these upgrades were in line with expectations.

Motorola was the first to unleash a worthy competitor to the iPhone back in 2009 and perhaps with the Motorola Xoom, it’ll be the first to have a tablet that can stand toe to toe with the Apple iPad.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNCBT8Hlims

While there have been many tablets announced recently, most are uninspiring at best and others are downright lowsy.

The Motorola Xoom on the other hand sure seems to compare favorably to the current generation iPad, but the real test will be if it can stand up to the iPad 2 when it comes out in the next few months.

But right now there is a lot to get excited about!

Motorola Xoom - Dual Core - 4G Tablet - Running Google Honeycomb

Let’s start with the specs. Some of the highlights are that the Xoom is the first tablet to be sporting Google Android 3.0 Honeycomb. It will also feature a beefy 1GHZ DUAL CORE processor and according to Motorola’s official press release, it will still manage 10 hours of video playback.

While it has many features that the iPad doesn’t, one of the major ones is that it will run Adobe Flash so all of the Internet is available to you, not just the Internet Steve Jobs says you can see.

Motorola Xoom Specs

• 10.1″ Screen
• Google Android 3.0 Honeycomb OS
• Dual Core 1 GHZ Tegra 2 Processor
• 1 GB DDR2 RAM
• 4G Upgradeable (available Q2 2011) – will intially be 3G (available Q1 2011) through Verizon
• 1280×800 resolution
• 5MP Dual LED Flash Camera
• 2MP Front Facing Camera For Video Chat
• 802.11N WiFi
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• 32GB On Board Storage (faster than external SD card)
• 10 Hour Battery Life With Video Playback
• 1.6 lbs Weight
• Adobe Flash
• Accelerometer & Gyroscope For Enhanced Gaming
• GPS (This thing will make a beautiful dashboard replacement GPS unit)
• 1080P Video Support

Motorola Xoom Demo Video

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAseudjhvD0

All in all, this is one tablet worth being excited about. Can’t wait to get my hands on one.

Keep in mind the antenna issue doesn’t seem to be present on all phones, but it certainly does appear on a lot of them.  I was using my friend’s iPhone 4 last night and despite my finest efforts of deliberately trying to put my fingers in the correct places to get the reception to drop, I got nothin’… not even a measily 1 bar drop.

However, if you are expereiencing these problems, here are some solutions you could try.

Scotch Tape

This is the simplest and  cheapest of the solutions and many have said it works so if you don’t mind putting a little bit of clear Scotch Tape on your phone, this could fix you up for less than a penny.   Just put a small strip of tape over the little black strip on the bottom left hand corner of the phone.  The theory is that it will stop your skin from shorting out the antenna.

Get A Bumper

The standard Apple response has been to either get an iPhone case (the $30 bumper) or that there is no problem.  While

Vapor4

The Vapor4 is an aluminum case that can solve not only the antenna issue, but will also make it a lot tougher to shatter your phone if you opt for the carbon fiber back plate ($100).

Magellan Toughcase

If you want to make your iPhone 4 nie invulnerable and waterproof to boot, then Magellan has the solution for you – the Magellan Toughcase.  Though it costs as much as the phone ($199), and is targeted towards those who want to use their iPhone like they would a rugged outdoor GPS unit, it will certainly fix those pesky little screen shattering and antenna issues.   It also improves GPS accuracy and gives you even more battery life (has a built in 1840mAh battery built in) so you do get quite a bit for all that cash.

If none of these solutions satisfy you, you could join the class action lawsuit, or take advantage of the 30 day return policy offered by Apple and AT&T and return the damn phone.

Yeah, GPS is for the dogs.

Seriously.

Garmin just released the latest version of it’s Astro Dog Tracking System.

Geared towards hunters, it allows you to keep track of your dog from miles away so he can do his job of tracking and flushing out game and you’ll still be able to find him and up to nine friends.

List price is $599 but if you should be able to pick it up for $500 of less online (Amazon had it for $488 last I checked) .

The latest one, the DC-40 now allows you to track up to 10 dogs on the same receiver.

Garmin Astro DC-40 Dog Tracking System - GPS

Looks really cool, but haven’t actually used one of these systems myself since I don’t actually hunt or even own a dog for that matter – anybody care to chime in with their thoughts?  I’ve noticed the old system, the DC-30 is pretty well rated on Amazon and people seem to really like it.

When will it become socially acceptable to put these things on our kids too?

I love GPS – I have almost no sense of direction, and even when given clear directions, frequently follow them incorrectly.

However, I was reading this article in the Washington Post and it got me to thinking about the dark side of GPS.  Namely, that we assume the GPS device is smarter than we are and we throw common sense aside and blindly follow the route calculating algorithms built into our phones of PNDs.

When I’m driving in towns I’m familiar with, I frequently power up my GPS because I like to know how far I am from destination and the ETA seems pretty accurate when in town (when on the Interstate, it’s crap, but that’s another story).  However, I almost never follow the directions to the letter.

Heck, just last week I was driving up to Omaha for a concert just to get the exit number I needed.  It wanted me to take the wrong one.  Then when we took the correct exit, it wanted us to take the longer way.  All in all I turned the GPS on because I needed three turns, all three were wrong.  Had we blindly followed the GPS, out trip would have certainly taken longer.

When using GPS, the best tool in your arsenal is common sense.   If it seems wrong, don’t do it.  Of course, it’s easy to override the GPS when you’re in an area you know.  However, when you’re traveling I recommend having paper maps handy just in case or that you use a service like Mapquest to map out your planned route ahead of time just so you can see if something is really wrong ahead of time.  Mapquest certainly isn’t infallible either, but it tends to give pretty good directions, in my opinion.

Bad Directions

When following a GPS, it’s critical to make sure you pay attention to street signs… especially one way streets.  Most GPS devices know which streets are one ways, but they’re not 100% accurate so you always need to make sure that street signs match up with directions.

Keep in mind that there can be errors on maps as well.  I remember my first GPS was a TomTom and it had an error on Interstate 76 when heading to Denver.  It always wanted me to get off the interstate and take a couple highways to go around.  I never followed those directions because I knew it was wrong.  I finally figured out that the map in the system didn’t have Interstate 76 going straight through so it always wanted me to go around.

Of course, the experience I had that really takes the cake and constantly reminds me that I can’t be 100% dependent on GPS is an experience I had in Northern Colorado when driving to Steamboat Springs to go snowboarding.  It was my first time taking the trip my GPS was a shiny new toy to me at the time so I didn’t bother to grab my maps before I left.  I figured the GPS was smart enough to get me where I was going and since the route was pretty straightforward.

All went well through Nebraska and Wyoming until I about 30 miles from my destination.  For some reason, the GPS thought that a snowmobile trail was a road and it took me down a gravel road that then turned into a dirt road that then turned into a mud pit.  I nearly got myself stuck 15 miles from the closest town in winter in an area with no cell phone service.  Fortunately, I got out of the mud, backtracked to the previous town and got directions from a real human being.   While a major incident was avoided, I’ve always tried to be cautious with my GPS even though I love it so.

Do you have any GPS experiences you’d like to share?  Whether it’s a case where it got you in trouble or saved your bacon, chime in with your experiences in the comments section.

Have a great day!

Sure, some of the suggested uses like waiters using it to take orders and uses it for interactive textbooks for students seemed cool, but pretty nichey.

I did eventually conclude that it’d be useful in my business when making presentations to clients, but again, that’s a pretty specialized use.

I’m not at all convinced it could replace my trusty laptop on a trip.

However, since this is a GPS site (or we used to be, once upon a time), I quickly concluded the iPad could easily be used as the ultimate GPS navigation device in your car.  With it’s gigantic 9.7 inch screen, it makes even the large displays found in Mercedes and Infiniti navigation systems look small.

I know that I sometimes strain to see the screen on my Droid for directions, but with an iPad that’s a thing of the past – you can see everything clearly.

Gear Required

To make this all work nicely, you’ll need a little gear.

• iPad 3G (no wi-fi only devices)
• CoPilot Live HD (built specifically for iPad’s huge screen $29.99)
• An iPad Car Mount (and don’t even think about putting this thing on your windshield, dashboard or cup holder mounts only, please)

At that point, you’re ready to navigate in style, and you’ll get incredible bang for your buck considering that a built in system with a screen that size runs about $2500.

However, if you’ve been reading my posts lately you’ve probably seen more stuff written about phones than dedicated GPS units… a sign that the times they are a changin’.  Dedicated handheld units are being phased out and fancified smartphones with AGPS chips in them are taking over.

So if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

And I’ll be honest, smartphones (like my Motorola Droid) can do a lot of really cool stuff that regular old GPS units can’t.

Here are my 10 favorite Android Apps (or Droid Apps) that use GPS (all are free or at least offer free versions):

1. Google Maps Navigation Beta – Free GPS Navigation software that doesn’t suck.  In the three months I’ve been using this software I can tell you it’s getting better… slowly but surely.  Will it completely replace PND units from Garmin and TomTom – not yet.   And it’s not up to Navigon levels either (iPhone app), but for a free app, it sure as heck has a lot going for it… and the always up to date maps sure are great.
2. Carr Matey – Ever parked your car but can’t for the life of you remember where you parked it?  I know I’ve done it several times (especially at airport long term parking) which is why this app is so darn cool.  Just park you car, fire up Carr Matey and “drop anchor.”  It’s a great app and the pirate theme is just fun.  You can load up a map to find your car or use the compass and feel like you’re searching for buried treasure.  It even has a built in timer so if you’re at a parking meter, you can set the timer and make sure you get back to your car before time is up. There are other apps like Car Locator but that one costs money and does the same thing but it does add support for parking garages.
3. WeatherBug – Android 2.1 has it’s own weather app built in but until we’re all on 2.1, Weatherbug is perfect.  The latest version will track weather (require you to install an additional plugin, but it literally takes 15 seconds to do) as you travel so you always know what the temperature is.
4. Google Goggles – In an attempt to get people to use Android, Google has developed some really nifty apps.  Google Goggles is one that will seriously blow your mind.  Take it downtown or any place there are a lot of businesses.  Now fire up Google Goggles.  Point your phone’s camera at any business – Layar will pull up the businesses name, phone number, and reviews (great if you want to eat at a restaurant but don’t know if it’s any good).   You can also fire it up and find all the pizza places, coffee shops, or apartments in a certain area.  Definitely fun to play with and actually useful.
5. Where – This is another great app for finding local businesses.  You can find what’s playing at the movie theater and what the closest one is.  It also will tell you the price of gas, and again, how far away each gas station is… and it does a whole lot more – well worth downloading from the Android Market.
6. My Tracks – If you like to go hiking, biking, or running, you’ll love this app.  You can record the route you took, how long it took you and you can export the data to Google Spreadsheets.  It sounds simple but it’s really cool – try it out!
7. Instamapper / Where’s My Droid – Should you ever lose your phone or, heaven forbid, it gets stolen.  These are apps you’ll want to have installed to find it.  Both allow for remote activation so you can send a text to your phone via your computer or a friend’s cell to figure out where the heck your phone is.  And if you’re like me and keep your phone on vibrate or silent all the time, Where’s my Droid has a feature that will turn the speakers on max so you can hear it no matter what setting it’s on… great if your phone is hiding in your couch cushions.
8. Spectrek Light – I’m pretty sure this is the only game I have on my phone.  This is an augmented reality ghost hunting game.   Basically you use your phone’s GPS and camera to hunt and capture virtual ghosts.  Go find a park, field, or forest and give it a try… lots of fun.  (will keep kids busy for hours too)
9. Locale – Have you ever been in a movie theatre, class, or a meeting, and had your cell phone go off?  Locale is built to fix that problem.  You can set your phone to go to silent at certain times of the day or based on certain locations.  For example, you can tell Locale that any time you’re in or a movie theater to put your phone on silent – that way if you forget to do it, you don’t have to worry about it.  It can also work in reverse, if you’re in a place where you need your ringer on all the time so you can hear it, you can do that as well.
10. Google Sky Map / Celeste Lite - Have you ever wanted to impress your date by telling here where the constellations are in the sky?  Of course you have!  This app will help you do just that.  Take your phone outside at night and point the camera skyward.  Google Sky Map will tell you what you’re looking at.   It also identifies planets and the moon.   I also put Celeste in this list.  It tracks the sun, moon, and planets (the free Lite version only tracks the sun and Saturn).   It can tell you where the sun will be at a certain time and where it currently is in the sky even if you’re inside or it’s cloudy.

Have an app you feel belongs in this list?

Did I make any egregious omissions?

Just want to chime in and add your two cents?

Post a comment and let me hear it.