Three GPS apps to get you home for the holiday

With the holidays approaching, many students are looking forward to going home to enjoy a home-cooked turkey dinner. Everyone wants to find the fastest and most efficient route to stuffing and mashed potatoes, and these three GPS apps will provide that.

Waze

Waze Social GPS, Maps & Traffic is a fun and active way users can join forces with other drivers. The free iPhone and Android app helps drivers outsmart traffic, conserve gas money and save time by improving their routes.

Waze keeps drivers up to date with alerts about accidents, road or weather hazards and police whereabouts. The app uses input from other users to inform drivers of the nearest and cheapest gas stations on their route. Similar to Siri on the iPhone, Waze comes with a voice guide. If a driver takes a wrong turn or gets lost, Waze has an automatic re-routing system.

But the app is not purely a navigational system. It's also a game.

Users compete to be on top of the "scoreboard" in their country, state or group of friends by gaining points for miles traveled, maps edited and road problems reported. Waze even connects to Facebook so users can compete with friends.

Every beginner starts off as a "baby waze," and for every mile users travel using Waze, they boost their levels and "road statuses."

Scout

Telenav, Inc., outdid itself with Scout GPS, Maps, Voice Navigation. Scout is powered by over 100 million traffic sources that make it a dependable GPS.

In addition to providing drivers the most time- and fuel-efficient route, the free smartphone app offers live updates of accidents, police and traffic reports and other traffic roadblocks, like speed traps and red-light cameras.

Scout users can search for destinations on the app's home page while driving, like where to find coffee, food, gas and ATMs, in addition to which events are happening in the driver's location. There are tabs to find restaurants, airports, shopping spots and more. The app can even guide users to fun activities, including live music shows, tourism sites and landmarks.

Each of the app's menus and tabs has a one-click accessibility to help users who might not be technologically savvy.

A downside to Scout, however, is it only has map information for America.

iWay GPS

iWay GPS Navigation, created by Soleasoft SARL, connects to three route providers: Google Maps, Bing Maps and MapQuest.

iWay offers turn-by-turn navigation in 193 countries, and it can guide travelers in 45 languages - a feature Waze and Scout lack.

Similar to Scout, iWay offers tabs for users to look up restaurants, hotels, ATMs, entertainment, shops and more.

One version of iWay is free, but Soleasoft SARL also developed a $2.99 version. That edition, opposed to the free iWay, offers Google Street View Implementation.

Both iWay apps can guide travelers in three different ways of transportation: driving, biking and walking.

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