GPS Widget by Wolfgang Knecht
The GPS Widget might have some use if you are hiking, or know anything about navigation by latitute and longitute. Otherwise, it just makes you look smart when people glance at your android over your shoulder. But you own an android phone―you know you’re smart already.
The benefits: the home screen widget gives you your geographic coordinates, including elevation in meters. On the plus side, it integrates with Google Maps, so it may show what street address, ZIP code, or city you are in, depending on the settings. The pay version, for $1.99, allows you to share your location in SMS and email messages. It also lets you use different location formats, like Universal Transverse Mercator, which is useful if you are into Geocaching (the outdoor “treasure hunting” game). And that’s about it.
On the sour side, activating the widget continuously uses the GPS, which is an increase in drain on the battery. To alliviate this, one setting lets tells the widget to disable GPS usage after an hour or less. So, unless you are actively climbing a mountain, geocaching, or passing through different ZIP codes, you’ll probably end up leaving this widget off most of the time. Nothing bothers us at FinestAndroid more than inactive widget clutter.
Another small annoyance is that many locked features give the option to unlock with confusing “Good Karma Points.” Investigating this option brings you to a list of promotional deals you can sign up for. This sneaky bombardment of ads leaves this reviewer a bit disgruntled.
Of course, there are other free all-in-one navigation apps out there, such as GPS Essentials and Maverick, which offer more features than the GPS Widget for no cost. The pay version doesn’t offer much more than the original package, or more than other free apps. If you do happen to try this widget out (if you just want to look smart), and you like it, but want more, maybe you should try out the extremely popular Smart Compass. If you want the simplest coordinate-tracking app out there, then this one is perfect for you.
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