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Google Maps New Transit Tool

14/02/2020 Tracey Dowdy 268 Comments

By Tracey Dowdy

Once upon a time – well, 2005 to be exact – Google revolutionized the way we interact with maps when they introduced Google Maps. To celebrate its 15th birthday, they’ve taken user feedback and implemented updates and features that make it an even more integral part of your life.

Though it started out as a simple navigation tool, each update brought a more robust service that allows users to find restaurants, gas stations, and even EV charging stations along your route. The latest update will be especially useful for commuters using public transit with displays of how hot/crowded a route may be as well as if there is normally security present. The update also makes several tools you had to hunt for in previous versions more easily accessible. Don’t worry if you don’t have the new version yet. Google tends to push out app updates slowly over a period of days and weeks.

In the updated Explore tab, you can see events happening around you and discover places to eat, shop, and other activities.

The Commute feature from previous versions of Maps has also been upgraded. Here, you can get step-by-step instructions here for your trip whether traveling by car, public transit, on foot, or by bike. You can see how crowded your bus or train is, plus access real-time rider-supplied information regarding accessibility features, temperature, if there is a women’s-only section or carriage, and if there is security is present.

In previous iterations, places stored in Saved were buried deep in the navigation menu up in the upper left-hand corner. Now, you can find those places under the Saved tab at the bottom of the Maps app.

The Contribute tab, previously called Your Contributions, allows users to share reviews and photos of places you’ve visited, suggest edits to the map, add photos, business reviews, and even add a missing place on the map. Plus, users who join Google’s Local Guides program can earn points for contributions, and those points help you reach higher levels of the Local Guides program. At Level 4, you unlock your first Local Guides badge and higher levels lead to special perks and early access to Google features and rewards like a free six-month subscription to Google One.

This new Updates tab is similar to the For you tab. It allows users to see what’s happening in your area, with guidance from locals and from publications such as Surface and The Infatuation.

Tracey Dowdy is a freelance writer based just outside Washington DC. After years working for non-profits and charities, she now freelances, edits and researches on subjects ranging from family and education to history and trends in technology. Follow Tracey on Twitter.

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Apple Maps Tips and Tools

08/02/2020 Tracey Dowdy 53 Comments

By Tracey Dowdy

My early experiences with Apple Maps was less than impressive. From sending me to a disused grocery store parking lot instead of a funeral home and directing me the wrong way down one-way streets, I dumped the app and turned to Waze and Apple Maps for directions.

Apple has made multiple improvements since then, and its latest redesign finally gives Google Maps a run for its money.

Share your ETA

As of iOS 13.1, Apple lets you share your estimated time of arrival through Apple Maps, iMessage or text when you’re using Apple Maps navigation.

Open Apple Maps and get turn-by-turn directions to the location.
When viewing the directions, swipe up from the bottom of the area that displays your arrival time and shows the end button.
Tap Share ETA.
Select the contact or contacts with whom you want to share.

Apple Maps will be used to share your location, route, and ETA, if your iPhone is running iOS 13.1 or newer, and you’re sharing your ETA with someone with an iPhone on iOS 13.1 or newer. However, if you share your ETA with a non-iPhone user or someone running an older version of iOS on their Apple device, a message will be sent. Plus, if you run into traffic or another delay that extends your trip more than five minutes, the app will send an update with an adjusted ETA.

Maps are more detailed

Apple has worked hard to improve Maps and the new design features “better road coverage, pedestrian data, more precise addresses, and detailed land cover.” The updated, more detailed maps were included in iOS13.1 – no need to update manually.

Apple Maps now features Look Around, similar to Google’s Street View. It uses photos to show you exactly what a location looks like in person and allows you to move around the city streets. Currently, Look Around is that only available in New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Oahu, Houston, and Los Angeles, though Apple plans to add more cities in the future.

The good news is that even if you don’t live in one of the supported cities you can still check out Look Around to see it in practice.

Open Apple Maps and zoom in on a city that has Look Around.
Zoom in to a specific area, or until you see a pair of binoculars show up in the top-right corner of the map.
Select binoculars.

When the window opens, expand Look Around to full-screen mode by tapping on the double-arrow icon.

Once the window is open you can swipe around to change the direction of the photo, tap on the street to move further down the block. You can tap on the name of a business to zoom in on its address, hours, phone number and website, just like in Google Maps.

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Make the Most of Google Maps

26/11/2019 Tracey Dowdy 125 Comments

By Tracey Dowdy

According to data from AAA – or what most of us refer to as triple-A, – more than 55 million travelers are making plans to kick off the holiday season with a trip of 50 miles or more away from home this Thanksgiving…The vast majority of holiday travelers will drive to their destinations and, INRIX, a global transportation analytics company, expects Wednesday afternoon to be the worst travel period nationally, with trips taking as much at four times longer than normal in major metros.”

That may sound grim, but with careful planning and a few hacks from Google maps, though you may not beat last year’s time, you can ensure that you arrive at your destination with minimal aggravation and frustration.

Not only does Google Maps allow you to store regularly used addresses like Home and Work, but you can also include stops along your route to determine a more accurate arrival time to get a more accurate destination, download maps for offline use, or have it help you find a parking spot.

Use Maps offline

Without fail, when we travel to Toronto to see our daughter, there are several stretches of the road where we have no signal. Because we know the trip well, it’s not usually an issue, but if we have to find another route because of construction or heavy traffic, it’s a problem.

Fortunately, Google Maps allows users to download the route ahead of time so when emergencies happen, you’re not stranded.

Open Google Maps app and enter your destination.
Tap the name of the place or the address at the bottom of the screen
Tap the three-dot menu in the upper-right corner.
Tap Download offline map.
Tap Download. The map for the area you’ve selected is now available offline.

Android users can go off the grid with Incognito Mode

A new feature for Android users lets you go Incognito while using Google Maps. This allows you to hide your location from other Maps users, as well as locations you’ve searched for.

Open the Google Maps app.
Tap your profile icon in the top right corner.
Select Turn on Incognito Mode.
To turn the setting off, follow the same steps and select Turn off Incognito Mode.

Include stops in your route

When you type in your destination, Google Maps will tell you the length of the trip based on posted speed limits and historical traffic patterns to determine your ETA.

Open Google Maps app and enter your first destination, like a gas station or coffee shop.
Tap Directions.
Tap the three-dot menu in the top-right corner.
Tap Add stop. Continue to add as many stops as you anticipate taking.
Press Done when you’re finished.

Find Parking

Finding a parking place can be such a nightmare that shows like Seinfeld have dedicated entire episodes to it. Instead of driving in circles or rolling the dice on being ticketed, or worse, towed, let Google Maps find you a spot.

Open Google Maps app and enter your location.
Tap Directions.
You’ll see a P (for parking) icon next to your ETA – tap it. If the P is red, it means parking will be limited. Blue means finding parking will be easy to somewhat challenging, but there are spots available.
Find parking.
A list of parking areas will appear. Simply select one of the options and tap Add parking. The parking spot will then be added as the first stop on your route and you can continue on to your next destination.

See what your destination really looks like.

If you’ve ever booked a hotel or restaurant reservations without having seen first in person, you may have been disappointed to discover what it – or the surrounding area – really looks like.

Save yourself the hassle of rebooking by checking out the area through Google Maps before you book or arrive.

Open Google Maps app and search for a location, like a hotel or a restaurant.
In the bottom left corner, tap the small box with a photo of the building.
Zoom in and out to check out the area by swiping your finger across the screen.

Tech Trends/Lifestyle, Online Safety, How To, home

Is Google Big Brother-ing You?

25/10/2019 Tracey Dowdy 34 Comments

By Tracey Dowdy

Did you know that everything you do while you’re signed in to your Google account – and even some things you do when you’re logged off are part of your Google profile?

That doesn’t just include your Google searches, it includes every song you listen to, Twitter rabbit hole you fall into, cooking video you watch, and even whether you’re using an Android or iOS smartphone. Perhaps even more concerning, Google Maps tracks you wherever you go, remembers the route you take, when you arrive and what time you leave, even if you don’t open the app.

With everyone from Facebook to Dunkin Donuts admitting they’ve fallen victim to data breaches, Google announced they had created a privacy hub that allows users to access, delete, and limit the data Google can collect from you. The downside is that navigating all the terms and conditions, sorting through what you need and don’t need, and deciding if the features you’ve turned off leave you vulnerable, can be confusing, to say the least.

These tips will help you sort through the jargon and limit what – and with whom – you’re sharing information.

The first step is to find out what information you consider private GooglTracey Dowdy is a freelance writer based just outside Washington DC. After years working for non-profits and charities, she now freelances, edits and researches on subjects ranging from family and education to history and trends in technology. Follow Tracey on Twitter.e considers public.

To see what Google is sharing about you:

CNET suggests that if your goal is “to exert more control over your data but you still want Google services like search and maps to personalize your results, we recommend setting your data to autodelete after three months. Otherwise, feel free to delete all your data and set Google to stop tracking you. For most of the day-to-day things you do with Google, you won’t even notice the difference.”

Open a browser window and navigate to your Google Account page.
Enter your username
From the menu bar, select Personal info and review the information. At this point, you can change or delete your photo, name, birthday, gender, password, and any other email addresses and the phone number connected to your account.
If you’d like to see what of your information is public, scroll to the bottom and select Go to About me. From here you can edit and delete, though there’s no way to make your account private.

To review Google’s record of your online activity:

Sign in to your Google Account and choose Data & Personalization from the navigation bar.
Scroll to Activity Controls and select Web & App Activity to see a list of all your activities that Google has logged.
If you want Google to stop tracking your web and image searches, browser history, map searches and directions, and interactions with Google Assistant, uncheck both boxes. Otherwise, move on to the next step.
Next, click Manage Activity. This page displays all the information Google has collected on you from the activities mentioned in the previous step, dating back to when created your account.
You can set Google to automatically delete this kind of data either every three or every 18 months by selecting “Choose to delete automatically” and choose your timeframe.
You can opt to delete part of all of your activity history manually. On the activity bar, go to Delete activity and choose either Last hour, Last day, All-time or set a Custom range.
Once you choose an autodelete setting or manually select which data you want to be deleted, a popup will appear and ask you to confirm.
To make sure your new settings are saved, go to Manage Activity and make sure whatever’s there (remember, if you deleted it all there shouldn’t be anything there) only goes back the three or 18 months depending on what timeframe you selected in step 5.

Access Google’s record of your location history

Sign in to your Google Account and choose Data & Personalization from the navigation bar.
Scroll to Activity controls and select Location History to see a list of all your location data that Google has logged.
If you want Google to stop tracking your location, toggle off.
Next, click Manage Activity. This page displays all the location information Google has collected on you as a timeline and a map, including places you’ve visited, the route you took there and back, as well as frequency and dates of visits.
To permanently delete all location history, click on the trash can icon and choose Delete Location History when prompted.
If you want to be sure your location data disappeared, start over with Activity Controls in step 2, then after Manage Activity in set 4 make sure the timeline in the upper left corner is empty and there are no dots on the map indicating your previous locations.

Manage your YouTube search and watch history

Again, CNET recommends setting YouTube “to purge your data every three months. That’s just long enough that YouTube’s recommendations will stay fresh, but doesn’t leave a years-long trail of personal data lingering behind.”

1. Sign in to your Google Account and choose Data & Personalization from the navigation bar.

Scroll to Activity controls and select YouTube History to see a list of all your location data that Google has logged.
If you want Google to stop tracking your YouTube search and viewing history completely, turn off the toggle on this page.
Next, click Manage Activity – a comprehensive list of every search you’ve ever made and every video you’ve ever watched
To set Google to automatically delete your YouTube data either every three or every 18 months, select “Choose to delete automatically” and select your timeframe.
To delete part or all of your activity history, on the navigation bar choose “Delete activity by” and choose either “Last hour,” “Last Day,” “All time” or “Custom range.”
Once you choose which data to delete, a popup will appear and ask you to confirm.
To make sure your YouTube data is gone, start over with Activity Controls in step 2, then after Manage Activity in step 4 make sure whatever’s there (remember, if you deleted it all there should be nothing) only goes back the three or 18 months you selected in step 5.

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Apps for Safer Trick or Treating

19/10/2019 Tracey Dowdy 2 Comments

By Tracey Dowdy

Tis the season! No, not Christmas, though if you’ve been in WalMart or Target lately there’s plenty of Christmas décor to confuse you. Halloween is nearly here and with it comes all the cautionary tales of Halloween Past. When I was a kid it was razor blades in apples, now it seems we’ve moved on to fears of drug-laced candy.

Of course, parents should exercise caution at Halloween – at what other time do we encourage children to accept candy from strangers? – particularly if your child has food allergies or sensitivities.

These apps can help ensure your little goblins have a safe and happy Halloween.

The First Aid: American Red Cross app features videos, interactive quizzes, with easy to understand step-by-step advice for all kinds of medical emergencies including allergies and anaphylaxis, so you can feel better prepared in the event of an emergency. The app is fully integrated with 911, so you can contact emergency services directly through the app. Free – iOS/Android

Spokin is a food allergy app that provides you with allergen related resources customized to your family’s food allergies, location, and experience. Protect your child from accidental exposure through Spokin’s hidden allergen feature or find answers to your questions, and even follow another user with the same food allergies and taste. Free – iOS

Google Maps lets you keep track of your child’s location in real-time or use it to access the location of a parent or chaperone who might be with them. You need at least two smartphones (or a tablet with cellular) with the Google Maps app downloaded and location sharing activated – one for you and one that goes with the trick-or-treaters. Once downloaded on both devices, open “Location Sharing” on the left-hand side menu on the app. Free – iOS/Android

Life360 allows you to set up a trick-or-treat route with your children and as they reach the next zone on the map, you receive a notification on your smartphone. The apps also share the phone’s battery life, so you’ll know if the phone did die, or if they turned it off to do a second round of trick or treating. Free – iOS/Android

For many of us, it’s impossible to know all your neighbors. The FBI and U.S. Department of Justice have sex offender registries that connect all U.S. state, tribal, and territory websites so that citizens can search for the identities and locations of known sex offenders.

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Best Offline Travel Apps

29/06/2015 admin 77 Comments

By Tracey Dowdy

For me, one of the best and worst parts of travelling outside the country is being disconnected from my smartphone. Though I love the freedom of being untethered, it’s not always convenient. I currently live in Canada and frequently travel to the U.S. to visit family and friends, but since Canadian wireless prices are among the highest in the world, my phone gets shut off before I cross the border.

My wireless provider offers a U.S. plan as a 30 day add-on but it’s expensive and rarely worth the cost, especially for a day trip. There’s also the option of purchasing a local sim card, but again not the best option unless I’ll be travelling for more than a day or two.

However, there are times you need access to maps, currency exchange rates, first aid advice, or you just have to find out whether the menu says “grilled chicken” or “fried iguana”.

These apps work offline, ensuring your vacation stories are more “Remember the time we almost got lost in Lima?” instead of “Remember the time we got on the wrong bus and ended up sixty miles from our hotel?”

TripIt

TripIt is about to become your new best friend. Like “braid each other’s hair and have sleepovers every weekend” besties. Simply send all your travel email confirmations to plans@tripit.com and the app automatically creates a custom itinerary for you. You can sync information with your Apple, Google or Outlook calendars, get maps and directions, and share plans via email or social media.

Platform: iOS, Android, Windows, Blackberry
Cost: Free

Google Maps
Avenza PDF Maps

Google Maps has always been my go-to maps app since apparently I was born without the gene providing a sense of direction. When I die, scientists will study my brain and say, “You know what, she was right. That gene is totally missing.” A second great option for travelers is Avenza PDF Maps, which offers a massive selection of up-to-date, detailed maps from around the world. The app includes thousands of free maps and specialty maps are available as in-app purchases.

Platform: iOS, Android, Windows
Cost: Free

XE Currency

Sticking to your budget while travelling can be a serious challenge if you’re dealing with unfamiliar currencies and what may seem like a bargain can be anything but if you aren’t careful. XE Currency is simple to use, updates to current exchange rates every time you connect to Wi-Fi, and you can convert between currencies from a single screen.

Platform: iOS, Android, Windows, BlackBerry, Firefox OS
Cost: Free

HopStop

Renting a car can be costly and if you’re travelling in a major city using public transit is often a much better choice. HopStop offers subway, train, walking, biking, taxi and bus directions for over 600 cities world-wide. The app provides door to door directions, station maps, schedules, travel times and approximate cost, so you can easily determine the most efficient, cost effective or scenic route. Transit delays are updated in real-time, so you won’t get stranded if you’re trying to get back in time to catch your tour group.

Platform: iOS
Cost: Free

Triposo

You’ve arrived, now what? Developed by two former Google employees, Triposo takes crowd-sourced information and organizes into a concise offline travel guide. Download the data pack for your chosen destination before you leave and, voila!, lists of activities, recommendations on where to stay, where to eat, sightseeing, a phrasebook, maps, a currency exchange guide, and more. Best of all, it’s free.

Platform: iOS, Android
Cost: Free

American Red Cross First Aid

My sister had to go to the E.R. while travelling in Spain, my friend Gabrielle was hospitalized while travelling in Hungary and my husband needed emergency care while on a volunteer project in the mountains of Arizona – all perfect examples of how valuable a first aid app can be. The American Red Cross First Aid app offers detailed, step-by-step directions for dealing with many simple emergencies and offers helpful videos as companions to written instructions.

Platform: iOS, Android, Kindle
Cost: Free

Free Wi-Fi Finder

Most McDonald’s and Starbucks’ offer free Wi-Fi, which is great if you’re in a city or town, but if you’re hiking to Machu Picchu or relaxing in the vineyards of Provence, those hotspots likely aren’t an option. For the times you absolutely need to get online, Free Wi-Fi Finder uses your phone’s GPS and network triangulation to provide a list of over 145,000 locations worldwide offering free Wi-Fi access including a “Near Me” option to help narrow your search.

Platform: iOS, Android
Cost: Free

There are over 1.4 million apps in Apple’s app store and Android offers a whopping 1.5 million, so I’m sure I’ve missed other great options. What are your favorite or must-have offline travel apps?

Tracey Dowdy is a freelance writer based just outside Toronto, ON. After years working for non-profits and charities, she now freelances and researches on subjects from family and education to pop culture and trends in technology. Follow Tracey on Twitter.