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Arthur

Maybe this isn’t an iPhone-sized line, but the product they’re seeking costs twice as much. The Microsoft Surface Pro, running full-on Windows 8, starts at $999, and the one you want may easily come to $1200.

I call that impressive. Look, I realize Microsoft Stores aren’t common. I know the inventories at Best Buy and other locations may have been skimpy. And I suspect Microsoft purposely kept their inventories lean, fearing a flop, haunted by heaps of unwanted Surface RTs.

Nevertheless, in the middle of launch day, Microsoft proclaimed a sellout for the 128 GB Pro – and by 5:30pm EST, they announced that 64GB models were gone online.

A business exec in my Twitter feed may have spoken for many who didn’t get one. “MS blew it today” he posted, “turning away clients w/ $ in hand.” All the same, when I asked him if he still intended to buy, he responded yes. In fact, he intends to order a major hardware refresh for his company.

He wants all his sales teams to have the Microsoft Surface Pro instead of the MacBook Air.

Hear that, Apple? In your eagerness to keep iPads and Macs distinct – iPads for touch, Macs for power-users – you may have lost a big piece of the business pie. WHY? Well, I asked the same guy why he wanted the Surface Pro:

“1 Device, Pen actually works, software loads fast, design, amazing resolution…”

Let’s take his points one by one, because they neatly describe where the Surface Pro wins big.

1 device. This is Apple’s soft underbelly. I own both a MacBook Pro and an iPad. WHY? Because Apple doesn’t make anything that does everything, that’s why. I know their argument, but it doesn’t stop me from shaking my head every time I pack an iPad on top of my MacBook Pro with Retina. With a Surface Pro, I could have my touch, a movie screen, a reader, and a VERY serious computer that competes very well with the MacBook Air. Granted, it doesn’t match the speed of my 15” MacBook Pro. Yet.

Pen actually works. This gets my vote for best-kept secret about the Surface Pro. It’s a jaw dropper. It doesn’t just “allow stylus input.” IT LITERALLY READS YOUR HANDWRITING. I tried out a Windows 8 Samsung Ativ with a similar feature and was blown away. I dashed off my pathetic scrawl across the screen – instantly, it turned into text. It actually works, and much, much better than any iPad or Android app. You can write and draw better than on paper. It does for writing what Kindle did for reading. This feature is revolutionary and appallingly under-promoted. You’re used to hearing this about Apple, but on properly equipped Windows 8 devices, writing works. And I adore it. Unless Apple wakes up very soon, I’m going to buy a Windows 8 device this year for this feature alone.

Software loads fast. iPad, MacBook Air and Ultrabook users take this for granted, but it’s important. If you don’t have an SSD, you’re deprived. Combine one with an Intel core i5 processor, and there’s no going back.

Design. It’s gorgeous. It feels great. Apple territory.

Amazing resolution. Hear that, MacBook Air? For the same price, Surface Pro runs just as fast and delivers full HD. Don’t underestimate this advantage when business users comparison shop. Hey look! Suddenly, the 11” MacBook Air’s 1366 by 768 screen looks fuzzy…

Well, maybe by now you’re thinking “this may be better for me than a MacBook Air”…

But you’re probably not going to give up your iPad Mini for a Surface…

So I’m thinking, finally Microsoft has the Windows 8 hit that it sought for so long. But it’s not what they dreamed. Not an iPad killer. Instead it’s a PC Killer. And perhaps not an MacBook Air killer, but maybe a make-you-think-twice device.

So. A bit of a bitter victory. Microsoft Surface is here to stay, but not-quite-good-enough partners like Acer may fall by the Windows 8 wayside.

Digesting one day’s Twitter feed, my gut informs me strongly that Windows 8 has scored a big win in the business market, but not with iPad-toting consumers.

Not yet. Early days.

Will the Surface Pro change the tech landscape? No, but it’s still day one. Yes, MacBook Air may go Retina this year, but I’ll bet you lunch it won’t go touch. And I’ll wager dinner that Surface Pro will be back in the fall with 10-hour-battery-life, adjustable kickstand, thinner body and other improvements to make me run off to my near-enough Microsoft Store – and buy.

In fact, however, any product that attracts so much heated discussion is already not cool.

I still like my iPhone. I still like my Samsung Galaxy SIII, although, it must be said, a bit less.

But there simply comes a time when a brand becomes so successful that it stops being cool. Even if it's incredibly and consistently excellent.

It just is.

The iPhone has arrived at "just is" and Samsung's Galaxy line will get there by June.

The truth: iPhones have gone from being cool to being the standard. Like blue jeans or Rolex watches or Herman Miller Aeron Chairs. This doesn’t mean it's outré to own an iPhone. It's just outré to imagine that owning an iPhone makes you cool.

Samsung has successfully played against
iPhone’s success to appear cool, but...

In 2013, this tactic will fail of its own success. The time is close when Samsung is, if not your Dad's phone, then your uncle's. It is destined to be Pepsi to iPhone's Coke.

Samsung will, as before, cultivate a young-at-heart image and pack its phones with flashy-but-usually-useless novelties.

The iPhone will -- or had better -- Just Work.

Both phones will still have their fanboys, but the fanboys will not be insiders. More like football or sitcom fans. Jane and Joe Average.

Android's presence in Samsung phones will shrink into the small type. If Samsung's agile marketers have their way, average Galaxy owners will not be aware they’re running Android and may in fact not be running Android.

Heavy Android branding will be relegated to cheap phones that have no other cachet.

Exception: rooted and modded phones
of any stripe will always be cool...

CyanogenMod will remain ultra-cool and obtainable only by dedicated acolytes.

But Android itself will become like Scotch Tape. Ubiquitous, opportunistically cloned, continually improved, sometimes appreciated and heavily consumed, but not cool.

Is Windows Phone 8 cool? Yes, very, but...

Windows Phone 8 devices are still too expensive for high schoolers to cult-ify and too obscure to be aspirational.

Will BlackBerry 10 become cool? I’m hoping desperately. Love the software. But it really depends on the hardware and, I’m sorry, sliders will never be cool. Problem is, BlackBerries must have hardware keyboards. Must. And now they must have large touchscreens too.

I can imagine a long, tall, Hershey Bar BlackBerry 10, the size of an iPhone-5-plus-10mm. BlackBerry, over to you.

Meantime we who crave cool gear will have to look beyond phones and tablets.

And The Pebble ain't it.

Google won’t, of course, The Android releases powering these appliance-brains include open-source variants of Honeycomb, possibly the most harebrained of recent Android spawn. I have trouble imagining them including Maps or the Play Store or Google Plus.

And this evening, as I was contemplating the eruption of Android Everywhere, it struck me that we’re seeing something straight out of Jurassic Park The Android dinosaurs have jumped the electric fence, and they’re replicating whenever they damn well please, wherever they please, which is anywhere and everywhere.

And Google’s response to this is seemingly to applaud! Last year, they poured their talent and treasure into two different Nexus tablets, priced so low as to be irresistible to consumers – and deadly to Google’s responsible Android manufacturing partners. It’s almost as if they WANT to destroy the only companies who have signed onto the Open Handset Alliance, promising to install Google goodies inside their Android variants, so that Ma GOOG can extract at least a small bit of ad revenue from her children.

Another way to think of it. There are parasites—like the one-celled organism Toxoplasma gondii – which take over the brain of their host. These organisms will basically zombify you – making you do nutty stuff to spread the parasite, even if that stuff is NOT in your interest.

Mice infected with toxoplasmosis will lose their fear of cats, and may even be attracted them. WHY? Because the parasite wants to be eaten, and invade the brain of the cat! In the words of Christoph Koch, writing for Scientific American It sounds like a cheesy Hollywood horror flick, except that it is for real.

Might this be happening to Google? Will there someday be a freaking enormous phenomenon called ANDROID ruling us all – including a Xerox-like has-been called Google?

Consider that Google makes many times more money from each iOS device than from each co-equivalent Android entity. Then ask yourself WHY Google seems dedicated to wiping out its greatest source of mobile ad revenues.

Has Android jumped the electric fence? It’s not all that weird a question, is it?

How Google is squeezing the stuffing out of manufacturers, by fielding magnificent new machines with nearly no profit margin.

Long ago, I worked for a company that was convinced its future depended on selling a collection of gardening books. 

Trouble is, nobody wanted them. Near desperation, we hit on the notion of giving the first book away for free. At this we succeeded handsomely.

What then? We had no idea, but daydreamed that we did. Just put our product under people's noses, we told one another, and the quality of our amazing gardening books will do the rest.

We were idiots of course. The new "customers" we acquired by giving our product away weren't buyers, but freeloaders. They took the freebies and ran.

Laugh away! But tell me now, what separates my own clueless crew from the geniuses at Google?

They're just as obsessed with selling Android tablets as we were with gardening books. They haven't quite made them free yet, but they're edging close with their Nexus line. 

Nexus is Google's own signature brand. There have been quite a few Nexus phones,and we'll discuss them elsewhere. But what fascinates me right here and now are the first two Nexus tablets -- the 7-inch Nexus 7 and the Nexus 10, whose size you can guess. 

Both tablets are cutting-edge, both have devastatingly low price-tags, and both appear to be winning market share from Apple.

Yay Google! You beat up the iPad! But as the smoke clears, something else floats into view...

And that "something else" is called the law of unintended consequences.

These two dreadnought tablets are also blasting the entire, emerging economy of Android tablets to smithereens.

The Nexus 7 and 10 have both won widespread acclaim. They have set the new standard by which all future Android tablets will be measured. Which means that, from now on, anything more expensive than these murderously cheap machines will be perceived -- and described by reviewers!-- as bloated and overpriced. 

I'm calling it The Nexus Effect. And you can't stuff this genie back into its rainbow-hued Nexus box.

The Nexus Effect may have dented Apple's dominance, but it's also flattening tablet prices like a MOAB daisy cutter. Henceforth anyone except Apple who dares field more expensive fare is going to get their heads handed to them. 

I'm talking about you, Acer. And Asus better worry too, even though it makes the Nexus 7 itself. HTC too. And just about every other Android partner except Samsung. (Watch Samsung. You too, Google. Pat your pockets after you meet with Samsung.)

WHY? Well, let's take a close look at the armaments of these Nexus tablet juggernauts. First, in June of 2012, we were dazzled by...

NEXUS 7: razor-sharp and breathtakingly cheap

The 7" Google Nexus 7, made by Asus, debuted with a base price of $199.99. And six months later, that's still a droolworthy price for an HD tablet with quad-core, Tegra 3 processor. Comparisons with the new iPad Mini are tough, for reasons I'll get to later, but Nexus 7 scores big on at least one important feature.

THE BIG DEAL: Nexus 7's 216 dots-per-inch (dpi) display easily out-specs the new iPad Mini's 163 dpi screen.

How big is this advantage? Theoretically, it's immense. I mean, if there's one thing I hate even more than small type, it's fuzzy small type. And Nexus 7 is indisputably unfuzzier than anything else of its kind. Weirdly, it's not such a huge deal after you play with both tablets for a couple of weeks, whereupon you discover that iPad Mini has richer blacks, truer colors and brighter everything, but for the purposes of selling the tablet to family gurus and trend setters, Nexus 7's 216-dpi him display is absolutely killer.

Plus, Nexus fun to use, which could not be said of previous Android tablets. So let me repeat, at 199.99, Nexus 7 remains a breathtaking deal. I bought one for myself immediately and then purchased two more as gifts. Sales aren't even close to the iPad,  but Google says it's been selling close to a million a month. All this with practically zero advertising and and chaotic distribution. Try Best Buy, Newegg or Google itself and good luck.

NEXUS 10: spec'd and priced to leave iPad 4 in the dust

Made by Samsung, the 10.05-inch Nexus 10 will set you back $399.99, a hundred smackers less than the 4th generation iPad.

Now, $399 ain't dollar-store pricing, but in context, it's a jaw dropper. Barely more than two years ago, Samsung introduced its first Android slate-- the 7" Samsung Galaxy Tab -- starting at $599. That was $100 more than the first-generation iPad. Critics wondered how it could possibly sell, and it didn't. Lesson learned.

By contrast, the new Nexus 10 was evidently engineered to kick the iPad's aluminum butt. And that it does...

For starters, it boasts a breakthrough 2560 x 1600 pixel display.

How amazing is that? Really, truly. This is actually more pixels than Apple's new flagship DESKTOP computer, the 27" all-in-one iMac!

To be sure, some argue that Samsung's 300 dots-per-inch (dpi) screen doesn't really trump the iPad 4's "mere" 246 dpi Retina display. Apple's marketing hype might have been correct; as tech-journal-of-record Ars Technica notes, your retinas really can't tell the difference. Under magnification, however, the Nexus 10 definitely rules and you can't deny the screen is an absolute stunner, second to none.

Then there's Sammy's Exynos 5 processor. In-freaking-credible. By at least one set of measurements, it beats the bits off the iPad 4 cpu. My favorite tablet testbed -- Geekbench 2.3 -- crowns the Nexus 10 engine king of 'em all. Yes, even with the Android handicap. Apple's iOS 6 tablet software is more efficient than Android Jelly Bean 4.2, but Geekbench takes this into account.

And the Nexus monicker seals the deal,
making both  incontrovertibly godlike.

Specifically, "Nexus" not only means reference-quality hardware. You also receive latest and greatest version of the Android operating system pretty darned close to release -- in pristine, unskinned condition -- maybe not forever, but for two years, which is close enough to eternity in tech reckoning.

So what? SO EVERYTHING. I kind of suspect most Nexus buyers don't have a clue what Nexus means, and if they did, nine out of ten might view the entire upgrade thing as a nuisance. But for Android true believers like yours truly, this is the holy grail. 

You must understand that, unlike mollycoddled Apple-fanboys, we Android geeks are a band of digital orphans. Receiving near-zero support from the jerks who made our amazing devices, we are forced to rely almost exclusively on one another. We huddle together in ragtag forums with unadorned names like "Android Forums."

Here, like Fagin's Boys, we teach one another the tricks of "rooting:" breaking into our own machines, because it's the only way to keep the danged things up-to-date...

So just imagine! A tablet that updates itself without rooting! For we, the Google-forever faithful, Nexus devices therefore occupy a sacred space at the dizzy tippy top of the Android acropolis.

So consumers are getting a great deal for sure, and I want to be clear that I love, love, love both Nexus machines. LOVE 'EM! My dear spouse gave me a Nexus 10 for Christmas, after considerable hunting...

But what about manufacturers? What exactly is in it for them?

The way I imagine it, Google talks a manufacturer into making a Nexus device by promising fame and glory.

You'll be a NEXUS player, they promise, high above the common riffraff. Your machine will be the Princess Kate of tablets, photographed endlessly, gossiped about on thousands of blogs, envied and longed for by millions -- literally torn apart by iFixit -- fondled on YouTube for month after month. And then comes the pitch...

"Of course, you will make no money on this, BUT AFTERWARD..."

Well, what about afterward? Maybe you're thinking "Lots of companies sacrifice short term margins for longterm market share." And they do.

But what happens to them? In particular, what's happened to PC makers? Once the world's biggest PC maker, HP nearly quit the business after years of 5% margins. Dell's been in the same hell. All they've been getting in  return for their own thin margins is broke.

Mind you, I'm shedding no tears for Samsung. Apart from Apple they're the one outfit big enough to survive this and grow even bigger in the after-burn, like a Giant Redwood after a forest fire.

But Asus? Acer? Toshiba? HTC? Not so happy. Is Google buying market-share for Android tablets at their expense?

You bet they are. And I'm not so sure who will still be in this business a year from now. 

Except Samsung. And watch out for your own skin, Samsung. Google has been noticing that "Android," for many consumers, is just another word for Samsung. Word is that Google-owned Motorola is readying an "X-tablet" to snatch the whole business away from Samsung. But that's rumor.

Meantime? Enjoy the war, consumers. Heck, I'm writing this on a Nexus 10.

Like the folks who took those free gardening books from my poor old employer -- now all-but-defunct -- I too took the goodies and ran.

MEANTIME: A little bit earlier, Google finalizes its acquisition of Motorola, a hardware maker. Which you would expect to enrage its own hardware-making partners. So Google, in order to pacify its partners, announces it will "build a wall" between Motorola and itself. Walled off from the action, Motorola gets lonely and depressed, shedding employees and customers -- while Samsung, working hand-in-glove with Google, eats Motorola's lunch. But this is actually a triumph, because Google got what it wanted, right?

SO HERE'S WHAT HAPPENS IN 2013. The way I see it, Microsoft has one and only one logical move to make next.

Which is to buy Motorola. Because Motorola is not only fantastic at not selling tablets, but also pretty darned amazing at not selling phones.

Having unloaded Motorola, Google can then use the proceeds to buy Nokia, a company so far behind the eight ball that even HTC and LG cannot possibly see it as competition.

Realizing they are actually the same company, circling one another in parallel universes, Microsoft and Google will then collaborate to create the Ultimate iPad Killer -- a tablet that has no apps, no flash memory and no battery life, but comes loaded Microsoft Office, Chrome and Angry Birds.

The Nexus Surfboard X-Thing with Interface Formerly Known as Metro will measure 21.5" and weigh under 10 lbs., complete with convenient cover that unfolds ingeniously to become a guest bed.

It will sell for $1299.99, but after two days of no sales, the price will be slashed to 99 cents. Hobbyists and cheapskates will snap up the entire supply in five minutes, confounding Apple, journalists and even Piper Jaffrey analyst Gene Munster.

Baffled and exhausted, Apple will exit the hardware market entirely and go into enterprise consulting.

Now comes the coup de grace. Microsoft will buy up all the Apple stores and use them to distribute a revolutionary new generation of touch-enabled devices running Window-Free Android. Powered by tiny ARM processors, the machines will have 32" screens and run off photocells that extract energy from ambient light, producing an astonishing 1128 dots per inch -- no graphics, mind you, but lots of dots.

Mistaking these behemoths for the Samsung Note III, consumers will snatch them up and IT departments will have no choice but to acquiesce. Heralded as "a total game-changer," the amazing new OS for these devices will finally dispense with any semblance of multi-tasking, forcing users to focus on what they are doing and thereby multiplying corporate productivity 100-fold.

So it is that the Next, Really, Truly Freaking Humongous Thing will finally arrive -- Cloud-Free Computing, aka Actually Sitting Down and Doing Your Job.

Google's profitability will zoom, because it no longer has to figure out how to make mobile work.

Facebook's stock value will initially rocket beyond its IPO price -- because it too no longer has to figure out how to make mobile work -- and then crash, as analysts and advertisers realize that everyone really is getting work done instead of posting endless status updates and taking pictures of lunch.

With nothing more to write about, even compulsive bloggers like me will switch off their iDevices and get back to work.

THE END.

But it’ll be lighter, thinner, easier to tote. Which confirms what I’ve been thinking for some weeks now. It’s going to be:

The iPad Air

Makes sense, does it not? Apple will do with iPads what it’s already done with Macs. Papa Bear MacBook Pros for the serious work; MacBook Airs for, uh, lighter fare.

Anyhow, that’s my guess. We’ll find out in a month. Mark my words and hold me to it.

Postscript, 8/16/2012. I was so sure about this name thing that I posted before doing a search. Did that today. Turns out Mr. John Gruber, perhaps the most thoughtful Apple blogger around, guessed the same name. One day before me. And thought so little of it that he hid the name in a footnote. Dang.

PROS: Fantastic, 4.8" AMOLED screen. Videos and photos here surpass the same viewed on the retina-display iPhone 4s, although text is still much superior on the iPhone. Snappy CPU and great graphics deliver all your results lickety split. Gorgeous exterior design, although it doesn't feel as good in the hand as the iPhone. Replaceable battery that's easily swapped out in the middle of a heavy-use day. NFC to play with -- not awfully practical yet, but fun, and especially when you throw in programmable NFC tags, dubbed TecTiles by Samsung. Call reception and quality notably better than on any iPhone.

PLUS: The ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich) release of Google's Android software gives you access to Google goodies unavailable to iPhone users -- most notably Google Maps turn-by-turn navigation and the ability to make Google Chrome (or Dolphin, or whatever you please) your default browser. Samsung's KIES utility puts your entire folder tree wirelessly onto your Mac or PC screen. Access to an external keyboard and MOUSE via bluetooth.

AND: The customization possibilities are fun and almost endless. Switfkey 3 keyboard is the quickest virtual keyboard I've ever used. Unlocked boot loader (on my AT&T version) means it's more easily hacked. Google contacts and calendar are still a bit more robust than iCloud's counterparts, although the gap is closing rapidly.

FINALLY: The doubleTwist media player is still buggy and ugly, but doubleTwist's new AirTwist module lets you throw media onto your televivion -- via Apple TV! It's an awesome hack, albeit limited to stuff you can load into doubleTwist, and still pretty balky. Doubtless it will improve. If the AirTwist patents prove sound, I suggest Google should contemplate buying doubleTwist for this one killer feature alone. It's that important, and Google's own solutions (the Nexus Q and Google TV) are that embarassing. 

AND NOW THE CONS: Aforementioned WiFi bug. And, even after the fix, the s3 WiFi radio is still not as powerful as my iPhone's. ICS is getting closer, but still not as fast, fluid and elegant as Apple's iOS software. It's still herky-jerky-halting and unintuitive. (Android 4.1 Jelly Bean offers improvements in this department, but still herks and jerks a bit, and halts just as often.) Build quality very high, but the S3 doesn't feel as substantial and valuable in the hand as my iPhone 4s. The sIII isn't nearly as navigable as my iPhone, mostly because of Samsung's regrettable Touchwiz skin, but also because of a huge screen that may be too big. The Airplay simulation, although impressive, is available only on doubleTwist and not on a system level. Finally, the s3 bluetooth keyboard integration is full of bugs. I was going to write this entire review on my S3 via bluetooth keyboard, but had to quit after the first two sentences.

Oh, and Samsung's S Voice -- their heavily hyped answer to Siri -- was plainly rushed to market. The results are so bad, it's sad. Not even laughable. Google's new voice-to-text engine is another story. Very impressive, although it doesn't do capital letters as well as Apple's. I do like the ability of Samsung S Voice to do system-wide stuff like opening apps and posting to social networks, although you'd be crazy to post the stuff she spits out in her attempt to take dictation.

SUMMARY: I think quite a number of loyal iPhone users may defect, at least temporarily, if they get a chance to play with this very cool new phone. The NEXT iPhone may mop the floor with the Galaxy s3, but right now the iPhone 4s is under siege in the office of this Apple fan. If the new iPhone comes out in August as now rumored in some places, that might be a sign that Apple's sales are starting to validate my gut feeling.

AND ME? Personally, I may indeed start using this as my go-to phone, at least until the next iPhone comes out. It would be easy enough to forward my business calls to the house number. The s3's one huge advantage -- its gorgeous screen -- is so good that I might even give up Siri and my retina display. Stay tuned.

IT'S CALLED WAZE, and it's killer feature is that it's social. Okay, laugh away. I chortled too, but it turns out this approach to navigation is heaven-sent—if, like me, you live in an area where a decent number of other WAZE users reside. Your fellow users will spot speed-traps, accident sites, traffic jams and stranded cars with a speed and accuracy unmatched by any other app I've used. For the first time ever, I can attest that nav app advisories go beyond gimmickry and actually save me time and trouble. So many times, I've been sucked into the promise of "traffic-aware" apps, only to find them useless because their centralized model is too slow. 

THE PROBLEM WITH OTHER "TRAFFIC-AWARE" APPS. Traffic swirls and changes like an amoeba, and just a few minutes of lag-time in reports can make them as useful as week-old fish. But WAZE finally delivers on the promise of previous traffic reporting modules -- by giving itself away free in return for the potential of recruiting you to be a living traffic camera. This is huge, and what the Internet is all about. 

AND IT KEEPS GETTING BETTER. A year ago, when I first downloaded WAZE, it was a joke. My passenger and I were in stitches at the weird, windy routes it suggested. But it was free, and I was intrigued by its approach, so I kept trying it every few months. Around February or March of this year, it finally hooked me, by saving me from a big, well-hidden speed trap, and incidentally making me a more speed-aware driver. A week or so later, it suggested an unconventional route in a locale that I thought I knew well—WAZE was right and I was wrong! Its seemingly strange route, along twisty country lanes, would have spared me from a humongous stoplight snarl and carved 30 maddening minutes off my travel time. Now I'm a hardcore believer.

WHAT I'VE ALREADY TRIED.  Personally, I own and use Google Maps on our Android phone, plus Navigon (now owned by Garmin) and MotionX for iPhone and iPad, and the native Honda and Mercedes navigation apps. I also have fairly recent experience with Garmin, Lexus and Acura nav. The one nav app I have never used is TomTom. You may have heard that the iPhone will finally provide free native turn-by-turn when iOS 6 is released, and I can't wait to use it. Still, for local driving, I'll keep using WAZE.

WARNING. IF YOU'RE SEEKING A NEAR-INFALLIBLE APP to guide you to places you've never been, ****WAZE is not your baby. For these needs, I'd pony up for ***Navigon or (if you're an Android user with Gingerbread or better) enjoy your free ****Google Maps. **MotionX was never reliable and I fear it's losing ground—the UI is fun if you have a fallback, but map support is dangerously spotty. (Just today I tried it for a trip into a nearby city; it gave me good audio turn-by-turn, but couldn't deliver the street maps! Apparently I was supposed to download them at home, with WiFi support. ) Among built-in automobile nav systems, I like Lexus better than others, but face it—they're all a bad, hugely overpriced compromise, hobbled lately by dumb safety regs that force you to pull onto a shoulder in order to operate them, thereby doubtless causing more accidents than they prevent.

BUT THEN: once you have your workhorse app, download ****WAZE and use it constantly! It shines where all the rest are  clueless dimwits, saving you from traps, jams, smash-ups, construction funnels and other hazards on all the routes you rely on most. Plus, it learns your druthers and quirks with a precision that verges on creepy. On our favorite dining-out day, WAZE already knows where we're headed. "Are we going to 101 South Maple? Okay, let's go!"

GET IT? WAZE is the app for the other half of your automotive life. The routes you travel every day. The commutes that carve out weeks or even months from your precious lifespan. The roads where you spend endless, angry, futile hours stuck in snarls that were avoidable. WAZE is your way OUT of tickets, fines, honks and fumes, courtesy of fellow users. And a way to make yourself useful, by reporting traffic jams and road hazards back to your teammates, in real time. 

AND: did I mention it's free?