When Nokia launched free Navigation through Nokia Maps, I often ended up in the wrong direction. It frequently got confused when I went to areas with narrow lanes and also ended up confusing me. By the time it finished saying “turn left after 10 meters,” I would find that there were two lanes, not one. Only after I was about 100 metres inside the wrong lane would it try to correct me.

. Google's Latitude app also has its frustrations. One day my boss called me at work on the office landline. “You're at work? ,” he asked, surprised. “Latitude shows you're somewhere else,” he said. Now I realised what had happened. The day before, I was using Google Maps, but had switched off at some point when I realised it was draining my phone's battery. My Latitude application had got frozen at the point where I had switched off the map.

I now have an Android phone. The advantage now is that there are lots of map applications. Apart from Google Maps (and Latitude), I have the option of downloading several other maps - some paid and some free. Good options are Sygic, Navigon and MapQuest. However a particularly interesting app is Waze, “a free social traffic and navigation app that uses real-time road reports from drivers nearby to save commuting time and improve your everyday driving. “ For instance, if you encounter a traffic jam, you can report it. Other Waze users will be alerted through a pop-up. You can also send out alerts if you see a cop checking motorists randomly or let users know about accidents and other hazards.If you discover a road that is not there in the map, all you have to do is to activate the Record New Map option under Update Map option and drive on the road. The map will be updated instantly.

Remember the days when the only maps you knew were the ones in your atlas?

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