Ariadne GPS vs BlindSquare

There are hundreds of gps apps. Do we really need one more? Ariadne GPS is more than a simple gps app. Besides offering you the possibility to know your position and to get information about the street, the number, etc. it also lets you explore the map of what's around you. What do we mean by saying "explore"? You'll deal with a talking map. If you have VoiceOver activated on your device, you will be able to know the street names and numbers that are around you by touching them. Just put your finger on the screen of your device, when showing the map and moving it you will be told the info's about the street you're touching. Your position is on the center of the screen. What's in front of you is on the top half of the screen and things behind you are on the bottom half of the screen. You can also explore a different region than the one around you by telling the app the street and the city. You can ask for information about your position at any time, also activating a function, called monitor, that will give you this info periodically (Please read the note below). This app has also got some other useful features that might help when walking or traveling by bus, train etc. If you add your favourite points to the app database, you can be alerted when you get closer than a certain distance to one of them. This app is completely accessible using VoiceOver and gives you access to information that are normally unavailable to people using the speech synthesizer and can be therefore especially useful to blind and partially sighted people. Note: The features of Ariadne GPS are based on the location services and on the Maps server for what concerns the information about the position. This information may not be accurate, due to the location accuracy, which is generally below fifteen metres but in some cases can be few tens of metres and to the Maps service, which might be unresponsive at certain times (Ariadne GPS will tell you if this is the case). The aim of Ariadne GPS is to give you an idea of your position and what is around you. Please do not completely rely on it. Please note that the use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life. For more info and suggestions please visit http://www.ariadnegps.eu

BlindSquare is pioneering accessible navigation both indoors and outdoors. Know where you are, know where you're going, travel with confidence. BlindSquare is a new solution that combines the latest technology to help the blind with their daily lives. It has been developed in collaboration with blind people and carefully field tested. You need either an iPhone or an iPad to get started. It also supports some additional accessories to enhance the experience. How does it work? BlindSquare uses GPS and the compass to locate you. It then gathers information about the surrounding environment from FourSquare. BlindSquare has some unique algorithms to decide what information is the most relevant and then speaks it to you with high quality speech synthesis. “What's the most popular café within 200 meters radius? Where is the post office or the library?” You can control BlindSquare also through voice commands. The Voice Command feature is a premium service requiring purchase of credits for continuous use. Voice Command Credits are available as an in-app purchase on the App Store. Using BlindSquare as a GPS solution: When you start the app, it will start telling you the interesting places and street crossings around you. By changing the radius, you can limit the area you are interested in. You can also search by search term or by category. You can select an interesting place from the search results and perform the following tasks: 1) Get contact info (address, phone number) 2) Open twitter feed or restaurant menu (if provided) 3) Make a phone call 4) Start tracking the place (BlindSquare will assist you by repeating the distance and the clock face direction) 5) Start your favourite navigator for turn-by-turn instructions (TomTom, Navigon or Apple Maps) BlindSquare is aware of when you travel by car, bus or train and starts to report interesting places in front of you (for example, the next stops) and street crossings when you are passing them. You can also save your own private places to iCloud so they will be found with your every device. Using BlindSquare as a Foursquare client: If you like to play Foursquare, you can do the following with BlindSquare: 1) Get a list of nearby FourSquare venues 2) When you are in a place, you can check in by shaking your device 3) Do a check in with commenting and twitter/facebook sharing 4) Correct the location of the place BlindSquare supports the following languages: English, Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean (South Korea), Norwegian, Polish, Portugues, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish. VoiceOver usage is supported but it also includes higher quality additional speech synthesis by Acapela Text-To-Speech from Acapela Group. Instructions in English: https://www.blindsquare.com/user-guide/ and https://www.blindsquare.com/faq/ Please note: This app retrieves data in real time from Foursquare and Open Street Map. Use of a flat rate data plan is highly recommended. Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life. Having only been released in May 2012, BlindSquare has already received several prizes and awards: - GSMA: Global Mobile Awards 2013, Best Mobile Health Product or Service - Apps4Finland 2012 - OpenCities App Challenge 2012 - The Finnish Information Processing Association: Best Product 2012 Please note: To use BlindSquare, your iCloud account has to be active so BlindSquare can access it to save your settings and places. Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.