Waze is a free turn-by-turn GPS service for mobile devices. There are versions for iOS, Android, Symbian, and Windows Mobile. And they’re all free. What sets Waze apart from other services, such as the free navigation tool that comes with Google Android, is the community aspect which provides real-time traffic, construction, and other information as you drive. You can also find Facebook friends on the road or check in to destinations using Foursquare.

Version 2.0 was released last week, and it adds support for Commuting Groups, ranking symbols for achievements, and new maps with 3D views and improved animations and movement.

If you bought into the Dash Navigation concept, as I did, you’re going to want to check out Waze 2.0.

While things didn’t quite work out the way we had hoped at Dash, Waze is carrying this torch. Heck, they’re more like Dash 3.0 at this point. Unfortunately, like Dash, the core navigation could still use a little work… as Waze was unable to find my weekend Calvert Cliffs destination by address and, in some cases, initial routing experiences haven’t matched the Telenav service I also use. But these guys are off to a great start and I dig what they’re doing.

You can find Waze in the Android market or download the free iOS app from iTunes. Windows Mobile and Symbian users can grab download links from the Waze web site.

A version of this article originally appeared at Zatz Not Funny

via Gizmodo

Microsoft is the latest company to add free turn-by-tun directions to mobile devices. Google Maps can already turn some Android phones into mobile navigation systems. And now if you have a supported Windows Mobile phone, you can use Microsoft’s Bing App to do the same thing.

The new Bing App is available for download from m.bing.com.

In order to use the navigation feature, you just fire up the Bing app and hit the Navigate button. As you drive, Bing will track your position by GPS and give you up to date directions as needed. If you don’t feel like looking down at your phone while you drive, don’t worry. This is voice-guided navigation, meaning you’ll also hear a voice through your phone’s speaker telling you where to turn.

Bing has a few neat features up its sleeve, including the ability to select a route that will avoid toll roads or traffic.

Ready for the catch? The new navigation features is only available for US phones on the Sprint, T-Mobile, and AT&T networks. It looks like Verizon customers are out of luck for now. You’ll also need Windows 6.x to play. You can find a list of supported phones at the Bing blog.

While free navigation is a pretty nifty feature on a mobile phone, it’s not a complete replacement for a dedicated GPS unit — at least not yet. That’s because the maps aren’t actually stored on your phone. They’re on the web instead, and your phone pulls them down over a 3G network as needed.

If you stay on the path your phone draws out for you at the start of your journey, that’s not really a problem as your phone should keep providing directions whether your 3G coverage is spotty or not. But if you have to take a detour or if you miss a turn, your phone won’t be able to draw down fresh data if you’re in a 3G dead zone. Not that this has ever happened to me… like last week.

The new Bing app also has a redesigned home page, which makes it easier to search for directions, maps, movies, or other information from the main page.

If you have an Android or BlackBerry phone, you can use voice recognition in Google Maps to search for an address by talking to your phone. Now you can do the same thing on Windows Mobiel and Symbian S60 phones.

Google rolled out Google Maps 4.1 for the two platforms this week. In order to speak your query, you launch the Google Maps app, hit the call button on your phone, and tell your phone the search term. You can search for a business, type of business, place or address. For example, Airport, Pizza restaurant, or Joe’s Record Shop should all return results — assuming there’s a guy named Joe with a record shop in your town.

You can install Google Maps for Mobile 4.1 by visiting m.google.com/maps in your phone’s browser. I tried installing the app on a Windows Mobile 2003SE device, and not surprisingly it didn’t work. But if you have a phone running Windows Mobile 6.0 or newer you should be all set.

This update means that the only mobile version of Google Maps that doesn’t support search by voice is the iPhone app.