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| There are a few things in tech that we really, really care about. |
| Our smartphones, and using them for social networking, entertainment, taking selfies, and food porn. |
| Our streaming players, as Roku and Amazon Fire Stick and connected speakers such as Echo and Google Home, to continue the entertainment experience at home. |
| And handful of apps including Uber and Lyft to get around, and Google Maps and Waze to tell us how to get there. |
| So when we asked this week about your preference of navigation apps, we were surprised at the chord we appeared to have struck, and the passion. |
| "Waze or Google Maps?" asked Bob Whitmore on Twitter. "How about both?" |
| Google Maps, he says, scans for alternate routes, which Waze doesn't do, while Waze has toll and transponder information, and that's something not seen in Google Maps. "Both. Easy answer," he adds. |
| We were inspired to dive into this story based on a recent Google Maps update, which added new Waze-like tools, such as the ability for people to report crashes, speed traps and traffic slowdowns. These capabilities were long available on Android phones and are now opened up to Apple's iOS community. |
| Google also added the ability to report four new types of incidents – construction, lane closures, disabled vehicles, and objects on the road (like debris) – to alert others about these potential obstructions. |
| This, indeed, makes Google Maps more like Waze. |
| But does it matter? |
| It won't stop Nikki Ackerman from using both at the same time. |
| "Waze on my way home to see why there's more traffic than usual and Google Maps when I'm traveling to find the closest restaurants or hotels on the road," she wrote us, on Twitter. "I usually have Waze running too because it has gas stations on the map." |
| But not everybody shared the sentiment. |
| On Facebook, Kathy Carson Newman said she swears by Google Maps. Period. |
| "It integrates the Waze info without informing of every tire on the side of the road (which gets annoying) as well as gives you other info like restaurants that are in the area." |
| And Brian Hawkins, also on Facebook, steers away from Waze because it "seems too eager to use side streets which seem to save only 3% of time at expense of a 300% increase in stress." |
| Bob Boden, a Hollywood TV producer, didn't even consider Google Maps when he needed to get home to the San Fernando Valley Thursday night, in the midst of giant wildfires in Los Angeles. |
| They impact traffic heavily, and he figures that it he had stayed on the freeway, the jams would have been so excessive it would have taken 90 minutes to get home. Instead, with Waze, and some really wild and curvy side streets that he'd never seen before, he made it in just under an hour. |
| "Given the jams, it was a miracle i got there as quickly as I did," he says. |
| Boden opts for Waze because it "just works," he says, and he enjoys altering the voices of the navigator, a fun feature for Wazers. Sometimes he does Cookie Monster from Sesame Street, and now he's listening to a British female voice, because he likes the way she pronounces Boul-E-Vard. (You can even record your own voice, if you prefer to be navigated that way.) |
| These kind of extensive options are just not available in Google Maps. For now at least. |
| In other tech news this week |
| Facebook News launched with several top publishers, including USA TODAY. Other publishers involved in the project include the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Dallas Morning News, Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, Business Insider and Buzzfeed, |
| This week's marketing promotions: Sign up for Spotify and get a free Google Home Mini (a product that's been discontinued), or switch to Verizon Wireless for your cellphone service and you'll get the new Disney + subscription service, for free, for a year. Disney+ launches on Nov. 12. ICYMI, Apple TV+, which kicks off Nov. 1, will also be available for free, for one year, with the purchase of an iPhone, iPad, Macintosh computer or iPod Touch. |
| With Black Friday just about four weeks away, a consumer alert for shoppers: be on the lookout for skimming devices that crooks install at ATMs or at gas station pumps. E-Skimmers are also watching our online shopping carts, to steal our credit card and debit card information. What to do? Experts suggest that consumers don't use debit cards to shop online, because that's an easy tool for hackers to get access to your checking account – and to avoid entering credit card details into a website. Large stores, such as Amazon, will store your card in your account. |
| This week's Talking Tech podcasts |
| Foodporn: Why you're seeing so much of it on Instagram. |
| Waze or Google Maps? |
| Apple's first Hollywood premiere: Behind the scenes at For All Mankind, with Carly Mallenbaum. |
| Nude Selfies? Not a good idea. |
| Amazon getting really serious about one day shipping. |
| Readers: |
| Listen to the daily Talking Tech podcast on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. |
| Subscribe to the weekly Talking Tech newsletter, http://technewsletter.usatoday.com |
| Follow me on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, @jeffersongraham |
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