Garmin offers lifetime free maps with upcoming GPS products

Were you ever trying to find your way to an address you’d never visited before and thought to yourself, “If only this frustrating experience had been gamified!". Your wish hass been granted. Waze, a free (and quite capable) iOS navigation app, relies on its users to populate its maps and provide automatic and manual traffic reporting—all with an overlay of game playing.

If you can't beat 'em, acquire 'em. Garmin, maker of personal navigation devices, has snapped up its Germany-based competitor Navigon. The companies won't say how much money is changing hands in the deal, which was completed through a Garmin subsidiary.

As if this week didn't have enough privacy snafus already, GPS maker TomTom now admits that it helped Dutch police set speed traps by selling anonymous user data.

Have you ever been running late to an important business meeting or client presentation only to find yourself stuck in a two-mile traffic jam due to an accident on the highway, or having to reroute around a flooded road? Of course you have. Checking traffic conditions ahead of time can be helpful, but it's even better if you can get real-time updates from those in the best position to know the current conditions--other drivers.

Personal navigation systems are about to get a lot more personal. Japanese engineers have created a prototype device that places GPS navigation technology into a pair of wearable, seemingly everyday, glasses.

Vodafone is closing down Wayfinder Systems, a navigation company the British operator acquired in December 2008. The introduction of free turn-by-turn navigation services from Google and Nokia has completely turned the sector on its head, according to Vodafone.

A new version of Nokia's mapping service Ovi Maps will include turn-by-turn voice guidance for walking and driving navigation for free, Nokia said on Thursday.

If you're looking to buy a dedicated GPS navigation device, you'll quickly discover that every manufacturer offers an almost dizzying array of products -- each with slightly different features. The challenge, then, is to determine which features are must-haves and which would just be nice to have.

An impressive feature of Google's new Android 2.0 mobile device operating system is Google Maps Navigation, a that's not only free to use, but is fairly easy to learn as well.

TomTom's new GPS navigation application for the iPhone may sound appealing, but it's true cost and capabilities are still a mystery. The app costs $100 and allows the iPhone to function as a real-time navigation device that provides turn-by-turn directions.

Ah, trip planning. If you'd like to set your itinerary of points of interest, landmarks, and destinations on your PC rather than struggling with a GPS's touchscreen, then EasyGPS is a nice, free solution. It works with numerous models of Eagle, Garmin, Magellan and Lowrance GPS receivers. It doesn't work with TomTom, nor does it work with the GPS receivers embedded in many popular mobile phones.

I went on vacation recently, and during that time I realized how dependent I have become on GPS applications to find what I am looking for. GPS devices maximise my vacation time by letting me drive less, since by using them, I never get lost. And driving less means I'm living a greener life, too.