Hasta La Gadget!

Let’s be frank: most Windows Phone users already have some form of navigation on hand, whether it’s Nokia’s Here Drive+ beta or one of the alternatives. However, it rarely hurts to have a free choice like MapQuest’s new app for Windows Phone 8. The suite offers voiced, turn-by-turn directions for driving and walking, along with live traffic and the usual point-of-interest searching. The app is comparatively basic, and it’s only available in US English right now — but if it’s all you need to get from point A to point B, it’s available at the source link.

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Mobile

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Via: All About Windows Phone, Windows Phone Blog

Source: Windows Phone Store

Last month news leaked that Facebook might acquire crowdsourced navigation / traffic / mapping app Waze, but now two papers in Israel say Google is about to close the deal. Globes and Calcalist both peg the potential sale price at $1.3 billion US, with the company’s development team remaining in Israel after the sale and not moving to the US. Where they will work from is cited by Globes as one reason why negotiations may not have worked out with Facebook, along with the price tag. For those unfamiliar with Waze, the app generates mapping data in real-time based on its nearly 50 million users and reports of accidents or traffic jams.

Update: Not to be left out, the Wall Street Journal also claims that Google is near buying Waze. The newspaper hears that the Waze app could soldier on while Google beefs up its own mapping app with data from its reported target. Likewise, Google Maps information could slip into Waze.

Filed under: Internet, Mobile, Google, Facebook

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Source: Globes, Calcalist

It’s not hard to navigate to a Facebook Event if there’s an address: it’s much harder if the organizer simply assumes that we’ll know where to go. Thankfully, we can now lean on some collective help through Waze 3.7 for Android and iOS. The update not only populates the destination list with Facebook Events, but fills in the blanks for everyone involved — enter an address and it will be sent to others on the guest list. It’s also easier to be fashionably late with the new app, as Waze members can see when others are likely to show up. Anyone who’s ever had to navigate to “that place near the guy with the thing” will likely want to grab the 3.7 upgrade at one of the source links.

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Mobile, Facebook

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Source: App Store, Google Play

Waze is a navigational app that offers crowdsourced information on things such as traffic conditions, with the information and map updates coming from users themselves. The app has long been the source of acquisition rumors, with word having surfaced back in January that Apple was looking into buying the company, something that was later denied by sources. This was followed up earlier this month by a new rumor, this time that Facebook is looking into buying the company for $1 billion, and now new sources are saying Google is considering tossing a bid into the mix.

This new information comes from sources who are likewise unnamed, said to be familiar with the matter and having access to the private talks. Says these individuals, Google hasn’t made a decision either way, but is considering making a bid on Waze. The navigational company is looking to get at least $1 billion in an acquisition situation, but is also looking into staying independent and instead going the venture capital route.

According to Bloomberg, two sources have both stated that Facebook has, indeed, been in talks with Waze, considering a purchase of $1 billion. If such is the case, and Google is indeed also interested, the independent company could see itself in the middle of a grand-scale bidding war. That isn’t the case any time soon, however, if the sources are correct. None of the companies in talks with Waze, which are said to be more than just Facebook and Google, are close to forming a deal.

Although there was speculation that Apple was in talks to buy the app, with very little information surfacing about the matter, sources have told Bloomberg that Apple is not “currently part of” the business talks. Whether that means the rumors earlier this year were true and Apple has since then backed out, or that the company was never considering the purchase in the first place, is still unknown.

It is particularly interesting to contemplate a Facebook acquisition of Waze, considering the vast amount of data that Facebook already has on many Internet users across the globe. A Google acquisition could be similarly interesting, although for different reasons, and it isn’t too much a stretch to imagine the Internet giant nabbing the crowdsourced navigation app to keep it out of the hands of competitors.

SOURCE: Bloomberg

Google reportedly considering bid against Facebook to buy Waze is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Never get lost on the road again with Chinavasion’s latest 7.0-inch touchscreen GPS navigator ‘CubiWin’. Priced at just $80.04, the device is equipped with a 7.0-inch 800 x 480 resistive touchscreen display, a 468MHz MT3351 processor, a MT3329 GPS chipset, a 128MB RAM, a 4GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot (up to 16GB), an FM radio, a multimedia player, Bluetooth, a 1100mAh battery and runs on Windows CE 6.0 operating system. [Product Page]