We just got the word that our next update was approved by Apple. It should show up any moment now.

This version has significant performance improvements including way better UI responsiveness and lower memory use. Pinching works much better now and you can also double tap the map to zoom in.

Oh, we also fixed the long sync bug, so now everything should be fast and slick.

And of course Ping-a-Wazer is included!

Here’s a recap from our previous Android post:

But the fun bit is this – we have a cool new feature to unveil: Ping-a-Wazer, where you can ping other wazers to get the ‘word on the street’ on what’s happening in other locations. Just look for the wazers with a blue bubble on top of their avatars – this means that they agree to be pinged.

Important to note: If you’d like to make yourself available to be pinged, too, visit the profile section, under settings, and click ‘I agree to be pinged’. Without changing these settings, you will not be shown as available for chat.

Note that for safety, just like with other waze reporting features, typing is disabled while the car is in motion, but go ahead and ping a wazer before you set out on the road, at those annoyingly long red lights, or from the shoulder of the road – and have fun with it!

Lastly, though your message will pop up on the screen of the user you pinged, make sure to keep in mind that all conversations are publically viewable under ‘chit chat’ – so be good! 

That's Yael figuring out how to make the perfect product

We’ve just submitted a new version to the iPhone Appstore and, similar to our newest Android release, this new version will have some very significant performance updates. You’ll notice that all functions will perform much faster than before and since the update is designed to use less resources, running waze won’t drain your battery like it might have in the past. We’d be happy to hear what you think, and if you notice the difference…

In addition, the new iPhone version will include the Ping-a-Wazer feature, too. We’ve already seen folks having a lot of fun with it on Android, but again, a reminder – though you can ping a wazer and it may appear as a private conversation, it’s not. All chit-chats are publicly viewable, so use your best judgment, wazers! It may take about a week +/- for approval from the Appstore, but it shouldn’t be too long now and we’ll update you here on the blog once it’s good to go…

Beyond the stuff that’s coming down the pipeline in the near future, we’re also thinking ahead and having plenty of meetings (in our white lab coats, of course) to discuss how to take waze to the next level, so make sure to stay tuned…

And lastly, if you didn’t already know it, the waze badge on Foursquare is now up for the taking (and has been for a few weeks). All you have to do is check in to anywhere on Foursquare via waze three times and – poof!- it’s yours…

Car won’t start? Stepped in dog doodie? Got the flu? What you’re in need of is a little good (instant) karma…but how? Well, acts of selflessness are a good place to start…like voting for waze in the last week of voting for the ‘Best App Ever’ awards, for instance. All you have to do is click on the badges below to vote for waze as ‘Best GPS Navigation App’ and/or ‘Best use of Location Services’ – who knows what will happen as a result?! 

Vote for
Waze – Community GPS navigation, …
in
Best GPS Navigation App

Vote for
Waze – Community GPS navigation, …
in
Best Use of Location Services

Under the watchful eye of Area Manager, pfa1982, Sao Paulo has begun to be mapped and there’s some pretty awesome progress being made, as evidenced above.

Respect to all of you Brazilian wazers! Other fast growing metropoli include: Porto Alegre, Florianópolis, Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia….keep it going!

Nice recognition came yesterday in the form of us being chosen as a finalist in the Mobile Premier Awards, taking place as part of this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Delegates from 250 cities were vying for the chance to present in front of an influential crowd for the title of ‘Innovator of the Year’, and after being shortlisted with 59 other companies, we were chosen to present at the event as one of the 20 finalists.  Wish us luck!

Happy to announce that we’ve got a new version up on the Android Market, to be followed soon by a similar version  on the iPhone Appstore – more info on that, once we have it…

First off, this version has some significant  performance improvements including way better UI responsiveness and lower memory use. We hope that you’ll notice a big difference the next time you start wazing…

But the fun bit is this – we have a cool new feature to unveil: Ping-a-Wazer, where you can ping other wazers to get the ‘word on the street’ on what’s happening in other locations. Just look for the wazers with a blue bubble on top of their avatars – this means that they agree to be pinged.

Important to note: If you’d like to make yourself available to be pinged, too, visit the profile section, under settings, and click ‘I agree to be pinged’. Without changing these settings, you will not be shown as available for chat.

Note that for safety, just like with other waze reporting features, typing is disabled while the car is in motion, but go ahead and ping a wazer before you set out on the road, at those annoyingly long red lights, or from the shoulder of the road – and have fun with it!

Lastly, though your message will pop up on the screen of the user you pinged, make sure to keep in mind that all conversations are publically viewable under ‘chit chat’ – so be good! 

If you’re one of the folks who won a prize in the Holiday Treasure Hunt but are wondering where your stuff is – sit tight, we wanna let you know that your prizes will be on their way to you shortly. For a bit of an update, we ordered some items from abroad and had crazy long delays in shipping/importing the items, so it took much longer than we anticipated. We’re in the process right now of sorting who gets what and hope to have those boxes headed your way in the next few weeks. Many thanks for your patience, wazers!