Driving

Trapster is a Windows Phone app designed to help you avoid speed traps, avoid traffic jams, and generally have a safer time on the road. The app was recently updated to version 1.2 to bring a handful of performance improvements as well as a new map and more language support.

For those not familiar Trapster is a social network app where users post alerts to speed traps, red light and speed cameras as well as accidents and other roadway hazards. These dangers are mapped out to allow you to worry less about getting a ticket and better concentrate on driving.

It’s no secret that we’re fans of mapping applications and with Windows Phone 7 we had a very capable built in mapping app created by Microsoft themselves that used the Bing mapping at the backend. Since then Microsoft have switched Bing to use Nokia's mapping platform on the web and now with the latest version of Windows Phone.

With Windows Phone 8 we see a marked upgrade to the baked-in capabilities of maps, as Nokia have embedded their “where” platform right into the heart of the OS. Nokia have just updated their Nokia Maps app to 3.0 and with it we start to see some of the big improvements that these underlying changes to the OS will bring. We think you're going to like it.

The other day we mentioned how the company GPS Tuner was gearing up for a release of their offline mapping solution for Windows Phone. What makes 'Turn by Turn Navigation US + CAN' unique when compared to the newly released Navigon is that you can select individual map regions to download as opposed to the whole country. As you can see above, we're downloading the Northeast US and it comes in at a humble 231MB which is a lot lighter than the 1.6GB Navigon makes you download.

The app is priced at $28.99, which considering the options you're getting, sounds pretty decent. Navigon is similarly priced in the US but that's just temporary until it gets bumped to $50, in that sense in the long run this app is certainly more cost efficient. Other features include:

• Voice-Guided Turn by Turn Navigation with premium audio quality
• Full detailed Navteq maps
• Automatic Map rotation according to your heading
• POI and address search
• Add POI-s or locations to Favorites
• Route calculation based on Time or Distance
• Supporting Portrait and Landscape mode
• Automatic re-routing if you miss a turn
• Speed dependent Volume control
• Driving and Walking directions
• US and Metric units are supported
• Itinerary (turn list for planned routes)
• Avoid Highway/Toll roads option

We're obviously in the middle of downloading some maps and we'll see about throwing up a video. Oh and best part? Unlike Navigon, you DO have a trial, so give it a go here in the Marketplace. And we expect a European version sometime soon too.

One thing that we can gripe about? It's not a Mango app. So no fast app switching nor is there any contacts integration, making quick routing a pain.

Thanks, TheWeeBear, for the heads up!