Saturday, July 18, 2015

Catch the Waze Craze

For those who aren't yet familiar, WAZE is the latest craze in navigation apps.  It is free from your app store, and it's really one of the coolest ways to navigate I've used in a long time.



It relies on users to report incidents such as cars on the side of the road, police presence, construction, accidents, traffic slowdowns and much more.  When you are about to reach a user-reported incident, the alert pops up on your phone to let you know.   You can also confirm that the incident is still active, or report that it is no longer there.  Of course, the app also provides turn by turn guidance to get you where you are trying to go and redirects you around traffic slowdowns and onto the timeliest routes.  

One of the coolest features I have taken advantage of lately are the celebrity voices that provide the navigation guidance.   About a month or so ago, Arnold Schwarzenegger started providing turn by turn guidance for me.  And it was pretty cool.  Whenever we came to a "hazard", he would say "Get Down!!", and when we arrived to our destination, he would tell me "Hasta la vista, baby."  The only problem was I kept calling him Bruce Willis, and he did kind of get stuck on phrases to the point that it was wearing me out.  He kept saying "I insist" after every turn.  I'm not sure what that was supposed to mean- is that a phrase from one of his movies, I guess?

In any case, his days were numbered and Waze has now rolled out the next celebrity voice.  It's none other than Rusty Griswold!!  Actually, it's Ed Helms who plays good old Russ in the latest upcoming Vacation movie.  He says things like "Breaker, breaker one nine, there's a hazard reported ahead.  Over."  And when you reach your destination, he wants to know if you are at Wally World.  I like this one.   Has me wondering who will be next.  Celebrity voices seem to coincide with new movie releases and last about a month.

So that's the nitty gritty on this app.  They also have a Facebook page to keep you up to date on all the latest (including which new voices are available and when existing voices are about to come to an end.)  Check it out and see if you aren't catching the craze too!

No comments:

Post a Comment

You Might Also Be Interested In