This is a guest app review by David Konig, co-founder of PIOSocialMediaTraining.com. If you want to guest post or review on this blog, check out the guidelines here.
Must Have Droid App Solves The “Dude Where’s My Car” Dilemma
One of the things that I tend to stress about when going to events like EMS Today is where will I park. There can definitely be anxiety when you are unable to find your ride in a sea of automobiles which is then compounded by the nervousness of being in a foreign city. Granted my truck was manufactured last century (making it an antique) but ever since watching Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, the whole idea of valet parking is something I am vehemently against.
Enter the Droid application Car Locator by Edward Kim from Lindy Labs.
This app solves the potential for a “Dude Where’s My Car?” dilemma. What it does is basically save your location where you park your car. Once you are ready to return, it will guide you back using either a compass style display as well as integrating with Google Maps. Considering I (completely unknowingly) parked my car 1.4 kilometers away from the Pizzeria Uno where I ended my day at the Fire/EMS Blogger Meetup, this app was a real time saver since I was able to take some side streets to knock off at least an extra kilometer of walking all the way around the convention center.
Features
The application has some really nice features including a Parking Timer and a Sonar Display. I think the Parking Timer is a huge win for when I park in the municipal lots so that I can avoid getting a ticket for an expired meter. The Sonar Display not only adds to the geeky cool factor, but is pretty easy to follow even when the novelty of Hunting for Red October is over.
GPS Reliance
There is really only one problem with this application, which is it reliance on GPS. While it works great for street or open air parking, there is a dependability issue when it comes to parking in a concrete garage such as the one at the local mega mall. The application does come with a notes/photo feature so you can make a note of a section where you park in or take a photo of a pillar marker, but there won’t be any automatic directional help inside.
Personally, I’m all about the Sonar.
Trial Version
Not sure if this is the app for you? There is a trial version that will allow you to use it a few times for free, or you can just shell out the $3.99 to get the full version right away and alleviate any parking anxiety you may potentially feel.
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