Date: Mon, 5 Nov 2012 15:53:18 -0500
Reply-To: Derek Drew <derekdrew@DEREKMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Derek Drew <derekdrew@DEREKMAIL.COM>
Subject: WAZE Kilo Proximity Indicators For Syncros
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
Often times when driving on the highway you will see another Syncro
go by that is interesting and you wonder if you know who this person
is from the Internet or group events.
There now seems to be a way, which is that if you have a smart phone
you can download and install the excellent and interesting WAZE
application that is a traffic and navigation application that you can
put onto your phone.
When people see a car stopped in the middle of a highway, for
example, WAZE allows you to post a notification as to where the
hazard is on the highway and everybody else behind you will then be
warned. WAZE also notifies you of speeding cameras, hiding police,
and traffic jams, amont other things.
There is a new feature in the last update which makes it so that if
one of your Facebook friends (or one of their friends) is near you on
the road, Waze will show that person to you and their name. (You can
turn this off or on as you wish.)
So, if everybody on this list were to download WAZE to their
smartphone and then indicate that they would be visible to all their
facebook friends, they will always know when their friends are nearby
as long as they are within 1 kilomoeter of each other.
There are other ways, within the Waze application, to be notified of
where your friends are when you are caravanning to an event, such as
to a van meetup or going on expedition with other vans that look very
useful because if you got lost from the group, you might be able to
find your way back to them by looking on the map.
This all assumes that you have a Facebook account and a smart phone.
It further assumes that you have made Facebook friends (or friends of
friends) of the other people on this list, which initially seems like
a tall order. But you can more easily become friends of friends of
everyone on this list if you join a few facebook group pages for
Vanagon owners. I'll provide a list of these that I know of further
below in this email.
If this sounds like fun to you, do the following:
1. Install WAZE on your phone. If you have an Adroid phone, you would
go to the Google Play store (it is free and search for Waze). If you
have an apple device, then I am sure you already know what to do in
the applie app store.
2. Consider making your WAZE name your real name (I did but nobody else does)
3. Click on SETTINGS > SOCIAL NETWORKS > Facebook and then CONNECT to
facebook providing your login. Click the option MY FRIENDS AND THEIR
FRIENDS TOO.
4. Within the facebook settings consider UNCHECKING the three boxes
that say "Automatically Post To Facebook" the traffic reports, road
summaries, and gaming reports. Otherwise, you will look like a dufus
if every time you report a downed tree in the road it also appears on
your facebook page.
5. From within *facebook* using your computer, consider joining or
friending the following groups that may apply to you:
VANAGON OWNERS >
<http://www.facebook.com/groups/154433611260033/>http://www.facebook.com/groups/154433611260033/
SYNCRO >
<http://www.facebook.com/groups/36419276257/>http://www.facebook.com/groups/36419276257/
LIMBOBUS >
<http://www.facebook.com/groups/limbobus/>http://www.facebook.com/groups/limbobus/
SYNCRO WESTFALIA >
<http://www.facebook.com/syncro.westfalia>http://www.facebook.com/syncro.westfalia
It is possible that only the last entry will work to become a friend
of a friend because the first three are "organizations" whereas the
last one is an individual (Facebook thinks).
Another tactic might be to friend some of the vendors who are now on
Facebook or anyone else who has a van that you know is on facebook
because then friends of friends will be shown to you
6. You may also decide to accept friend requests on facebook from
people who you know that have VW vans rather liberally (as I do) even
if you are very restrictive for ordinary friend requests.
After you are done with all of this, when you are within 1 Kilometer
of another syncro on the road, Waze will notify you of that they are
there and show their real name, and you can even send them a message
through the WAZE system.
I would imagine that this functionality would be the most fun in the
pacific northwest where there are the most Vanagons on the road and
you could reasonably expect to encounter them frequently while using Waze.
What I don't know is if the same functionality is also available via
another vendor, such as a mashup with Google Maps. Also, it strikes
me that my list of van-focused facebook pages must be incomplete. One
could imagine that somebody will make a Facebook personal (not group)
identity called WAZE Syncros and then joining that one might be a
means to seeing all the vans near you on the road for people who
think this sort of thing is amusing or fun.
===============
WAZE HELP NOTES
===============
To view Facebook friends who are currently connected to Waze, select
the main menu, then "My Waze":
And then "My friends":
In this window, see all friends currently connected (as indicated by
a green dot), and the status of those connected recently.
What exactly can they see?
1. Friends see you on the map when you're close to each other. We'll
show you on the map, along with your Facebook picture, to your
friends when you both within 1 kilometer of each other. Your exact
location will be offset.
Friends who aren't physically close to you can never see you on the
map, or find out where you are. It's impossible zoom out or scan the
map to find your friends.
2. Friends see when you're driving to the same destination, along
with your ETA. We show your destination to the people who you're
likely to run into when you get there: friends headed there right now
too. If you drop a parking pin when you arrive, arriving friends will
see where you've parked.
While they know where you're headed, there's no way for them to see
where you are, or the route you're driving to get there.
3. Your connection status. Whether you're currently online, driving,
recently parked, or when you last connected to Waze. These are
visible through the 'Friends' screen which you can access from the
main menu, or while navigating by tapping your ETA. A recent report
may be shown here as well.
==========
PR
==========
Oct 31, 2012 -- Waze, the world's social driving app, is once again
improving everyday driving for its community of 28 million drivers
with its newest release. A pioneer of crowdsourced maps, traffic, and
road info, Waze now unveils the easiest way to meet up with friends
and family on the go.
Only a small part of regular driving involves navigating to unknown
destinations. By contrast, the majority of everyday driving entails
countless social commitments. An Omnibus survey of 1000 American
drivers, commissioned by Waze, found that over 50% of drivers
regularly pick up friends and family:
* 52% of drivers polled indicated giving rides to other people at
least 1 to 5 times per month, and 20% do so daily.
* 28% of all drivers polled indicated regular pick-ups of
children; 23% of drivers regularly pick up a spouse.
The new features released in Waze 3.5 are designed to make everyday
driving experiences like these simple and fun:
* Driving to a restaurant with friends: See everyone on the way,
with their real-time ETAs. When you arrive, you'll see where friends
have parked, and know who's still on the way.
* Picking up your spouse: No more painstakingly explaining where
they are. Send a Waze pick up request to instantly grab their
location and navigate directly to them. They'll get a live map of
your route and ETA, and watch as you approach -- even if they don't have Waze.
* Let the kids know you'll be home for dinner: The days of "Mom,
when are you coming home?" are over. Share your drive by sending a
weblink to a live map of your location and route, and let them see
exactly where you are and when you'll be there.
"We may be alone in the car, but most of the time it's only because
we're on our way to meet others at work or at home, or out to join up
with friends. It's only natural to be better informed about the
location and timing of those you are about to meet or pick up, and be
able to share the same info back with them. With this version Waze
takes drivers out of the dark, re-imagining everyday driving as a
much smoother experience," said Yael Elish, VP Product & Marketing.
Along with new social features are built in privacy protections
throughout, letting users control which features to interact with on
Waze, and letting them "go invisible" to hide from the map anytime.
Waze 3.5 also reveals newly designed maps, moods, and interface,
giving Waze a slick graphic overhaul throughout.
New Features for iOS & Android:
* Social: See friends driving to your destination, share your
drive, pick up, meet up and communicate your status from the road.
Check in at destinations without having to exit the app.
* Facebook Single Sign-On: Drivers can now log into Waze with
their Facebook account.
* Nearing destination quick links: Convenient shortcuts to stop
navigation, mute, drop a parking pin and see friends on their way.
* * Features for everyday convenience: Indication of toll road
usage in routing, private messaging, save your parking location.
_______________________________________________
Derek Drew
Washington DC / New York
derekdrew@derekmail.com
Email is best normally but...
PHONE: 202-966-7907 (Call the number at left normally)
(alt/cell for diligent calling only): 703-408-1532
