Team-BHP - Waze - Free satellite navigation for your smartphone

Official Site: www.waze.com

This is applicable to most smartphone platforms and should benefit every driver in the country who likes to be told where to turn by a posh sounding lady in a little expensive device. I've used quite a few satnav apps on my smart phone (The Motorola Milestone/Droid) and none of them come even close to Waze.

Let me begin the review by saying it's completely free. Second of all, I was at first extremely skeptical and cynical about it's functionality in good ol' India but after I drove to office this morning with it, I'm just completely blown away. It's got every narrow street and by-lane, and named correctly too. Now that's like every other satnav tool you might say, which now brings me to the twist offered by Waze.

Waze is like a powerful satellite navigation tool and a social app thrown into one. Other waze users are visible in real time on the map, zooming along, their speeds are visible too! Users can choose their own little icon for their car on the map which is pretty neat too (like a board game!). Now it just gets better. The more miles you travel on the map, the bigger your character gets, i.e. you level up! RPG fan's like myself will rejoice at this, as did I. As you drive along, you get little candies and goodies which you drive over on the map and get bonus points to level up! Along with all this madness, your online waze profile gets updated periodically.

As I reached office, I went running to a colleague who owns an iphone and got him to install waze too. Soon he popped up on my map, and I could ping him too. It's just fabulous. Now I'm going to explain how this can help improve our driving lives as T-Bhpians.

In real time, one can report traffic from where they are, and other waze users can see the report on their maps. For example, my friend and I take similar routes home. On my way back, I notice a massive traffic jam on the ring road and mark it on my waze map (in real time). My friend gets to see the report and actively avoids that route! This can REALLY save you time and effort and more importantly, fuel! Users can also create groups on waze (I will be creating one for New Delhi, but I won't advertise here).

On closing, I urge T-BHP'ians from all cities in India to use Waze on their smartphones. It is going to prove EXTREMELY useful on our daily drives. Also there's loads of fun features I haven't mentioned here. You should see this for yourself. It's an extremely easy and user friendly app! Good luck!

Those who have a data plan, visit Download waze from your smartphone. The site did not list my phone (E72) as being supported, but when I visited the mobile site, I got a list of supported platforms: Nokia Keypad, Nokia Touchscreen, Blackberry, Windows Touchscreen, Windows Touchscreen WVGA, Android, and iPhone.

For Nokia keypad, the software is 3.32MB in size. The install is straight forward - pretty much the same as installing any apps, but it takes a bit longer. It took about 9 MB from my phone. After installing, it downloads the language of choice -even English is still downloaded.

Once installed, the app told me that the maps in my country are still being drawn and I will be "paving roads where there are none" :)

It created an account for me, and showed me on the map within a few minutes. It also gave me an option to sign in to tweeter - which I skipped (No, I do not tweet!).

I suggest the app be installed in the memory card rather than the internal memory, looks like it will be downloading data as we go.

Interesting concept and tool, lets see how it spans out when I go driving next!

(My E72 is v51.018, hacked with RomPatcher+, so not sure about signing and stuff)

Quote:

Originally Posted by HappyWheels (Post 2107859)

Hope all planning to Waze are on a good data plan with your mobile service provider. :)

I hope 2GB a month is enough. That's the data plan I'm on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DerAlte (Post 2107973)

@ByDesign, are you commercially and / or technically involved with this application?

In no way. I'm just an android enthusiast. Otherwise, I work as an associate in a law firm.

Quote:

Originally Posted by akshay4587 (Post 2108049)

Somehow i am not able to open the link:Frustrati
Does this application,support an Iphone?
EDIT:Got the answer,it does support an Iphone,but still i am unable to access the link.

I'm not sure, maybe the site was down. Yep, my friend installed it on his iphone and it works fine.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ph03n!x (Post 2108087)

Nice. I love the road paving feature too. While I was driving back from work the other day, I got a good idea of the features. Another waze user was driving around (I could see him on the map). He left traffic updates at certain roads and even uploaded a photo of the traffic situation with his mobile! Now this is what I mean by 'it could save us hours of traffic'. If we could all just be active and help each other out on the streets.

I Invite all BHPians who use Waze to join the www . team-bhp . com group that I have created in Waze. Here is how:

Head to www.waze.com
Click on My Dashboard - login using the same username that you created in your phone while installing Waze
Click on "Create, join or manage groups" link in the bottom right (IE is not supported according to the fine print next to this link)
Click on the magnifying glass icon and search for www. team-bhp .com (without the spaces)
Join!! (Set it as your main group if you want to - will tell you why in the next part)

Symbian S60 does not seem to have a supported groups module, hence I am asking you to head to the website. Those with other platform, see if there is a way to do this from the phone itself (Waze > Menu > Groups)

Now configure the Waze app on your phone to include messages from this group.

Open Waze > menu > Settings > profile. Set a nickname, preferably your TBHP handle followed by "-TBHP". Ex: Mine is ph03n!x-TBHP
Scroll down and open privacy, ensure it is set to "Nickname"
Set I agree to be pinged if you want to receive messages from others
Now open Waze > Menu > Settings > Groups
Choose Pop-up reports and set it to "from my main group" if you set this group as your main, and do not want pop-ups from other group members
Wazer group icons: Set it to Main group only (if you have set this as your main group, and want to see fellow BHPians alone in the map)

All set! Now we can spot as well as catch-up with BHPians in a jiffy!

Quote:

Originally Posted by ph03n!x (Post 2108428)

I Invite all BHPians who use Waze to join the www . team-bhp . com group that I have created in Waze. Here is how:

Head to www.waze.com
Click on My Dashboard - login using the same username that you created in your phone while installing Waze
Click on "Create, join or manage groups" link in the bottom right (IE is not supported according to the fine print next to this link)
Click on the magnifying glass icon and search for www. team-bhp .com (without the spaces)
Join!! (Set it as your main group if you want to - will tell you why in the next part)

Open Waze > menu > Settings > profile. Set a nickname, preferably your TBHP handle followed by "-TBHP". Ex: Mine is ph03n!x-TBHP
Scroll down and open privacy, ensure it is set to "Nickname"
Set I agree to be pinged if you want to receive messages from others
Now open Waze > Menu > Settings > Groups
Choose Pop-up reports and set it to "from my main group" if you set this group as your main, and do not want pop-ups from other group members
Wazer group icons: Set it to Main group only (if you have set this as your main group, and want to see fellow BHPians alone in the map)

All set! Now we can spot as well as catch-up with BHPians in a jiffy!

i tried to Access the group option,through my Iphone,but what i am able to access it,but its not in english,even after i selected english as default language at the time of setup:Frustrati
EDIT:somehow was able to join the team-bhp group,i am there as Akkizma,now to figure out,how to use it effectively.

after a lot of hard work (every time the the download from GPRS kept failing - had to connect to my wifi network at home to finally download it!), finally downloaded Waze and installed it on my HD2. it's an awesome application! on my way to work, i'll keep Waze on and see who i bump into! i just hope it doesn't hog on the GPRS - i just have 500MB per month!

btw, my call sign is IronH4WK (no points for guessing that right).

@ph03n!x: i've joined the Team-BHP group. it currently shows seven members.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ph03n!x (Post 2108498)

The app is a bit sluggish, and I do end up in blank menus at times

today on my way to work i used Waze and after some time it did get sluggish - even with a 1Ghz processor and 448MB RAM! after reaching office i was going through the settings and found there the map can be displayed in 3D and 2D. i think this might be the thing causing the sluggishness.

have changed the display to 2D and will see if it is still sluggish on my way back home! :thumbs up

btw, i picked up some candy i think en-route, which gave me points! :D