Sunday, July 31, 2011

Amazon's Free App of the Day - Car Locator

written by: Nick Kosmides


Car Locator can be downloaded for no cost to you through the Amazon Appstore for Android, exclusive to US customers only.

Today marks the day when all your lost parked car woes are history.  For Car Locator has you covered.  Or at least the GPS module it uses to utilize global positioning so that it can display directions for you to follow sort of like a treasure hunt.  In the end, you'll find your car faster.  That is the theory.

How accurate is the GPS in a modern cellular phone?  Good question, me.  And the answer is, approximately totally depends.  That's right folks.  It depends on a number of things.  Primarily the number of satellites in clear view allowing more precise global positioning with the help of triangulation.  That's fancy for three satellites work better than two or one.  But more than three obviously work even better.  Clear view as I mentioned here, means GPS is not very effective in an in door setting.  The satellites really only work when there are zero visual obstructions from point A (you) to point B (satellite).  This includes anything from a large tree to the lower level parking garage.

Another variable is the actual GPS module in your phone and its relative software.  As with any of today's modern technology, the hardware cannot survive alone without the software.  And as was the case with my Fascinate in its early days of Android 2.1, the GPS software was all sorts of messed up.  Samsung still gets dinged in all forms of their handsets for their common inability to lock on the GPS even in the most ideal settings.

What does all this spell?  Possible failure for apps like Car Locator.  Though the code is sound and the idea is something for nearly everyone that drives or parks cars for a living, there is still the factor we tend to forget and its the GPS signal.

None the less, grab the app, then run some tests.  See if you can mark your car on the Google Map view it provides and try to get lost, then find your car using only the app.

Car Locator - $3.99 FREE