And the Award Goes To…
Sure there are plenty of applications that let you know where you parked your car. Sure there ‘s an app that lets you drop a pin a navigate back to it. But never have you used a parking application as robust as AutoPark. If you ‘re looking for any kind of credentials, AutoPark has won ‘Most Useful App ‘ award at iPhoneDevCamp ’09, it ‘s in the top 10 Navigation Apps on the US App Store, and it is the winner of MacWorld 2010 Best of Show. If that hasn ‘t got you interested, maybe this will …
Parking Space, Structure, and Lot
Ultimately, AutoPark is a car-finder. Park your car, plot it on the map, cease worrying. While this is where most parking applications end, AutoPark is only beginning. You can always find your way back to a little push pin on a map, but what happens if you ‘re in a parking structure? You ‘re left struggling to remember which floor your parked on, which color you ‘re parked in, and sometimes which section! This is when AutoPark flies into action and saves the day. AutoPark has a parking lot feature that allows you to always find your car in a matter of seconds. You can jot down the parking lot name (assuming there are multiple structures), the color code, the section, and even the slot number you parked your baby in. On top of this, you can add notes and photographs to remind yourself exactly where your car is. AutoPark ‘s interface is a beautiful thing. The majority of the application is accessible from one main home screen. Launch the app, tap ‘Park & Go ‘, and you ‘re done. It ‘s really that simple.
The Meter Effect
What really sets this application apart from the other parking apps, is the Meter Timer feature. You can input how much time you have on your meter and get push notifications sent to you when your time is almost up. This way you can casually stroll back to your car before the time is up, instead of sprinting with your fingers crossed hoping to avoid a ticket. The really great part is that the application supports meters that count down your time, and time cards such as ‘Valid until 5pm ‘ that come with structures. This application utilizes push notifications to remind you that your car is close to being ticketed or towed (haha). These push notifications definitely do support text, sound, and vibration so you ‘re going to know you ‘re out of time, wherever your phone might be.
Extra Goodies
In addition to all of these parking features, the developers have included a Nearby Services feature which always comes in handy. It ‘s nice to have this built into the application instead of having to switch to something else like Nearby or Yelp. While currently the application only supports searching for Banks, Gas Stations, and Bathrooms, the developer has promised to update with more search features.
And More
If you ‘re scratching your head with your eyes wide-open saying to yourself, ‘There are so many features! ‘, well brace yourself…because there ‘s more! That ‘s right, more! And this particular feature happens to be my favorite. Imagine for a moment that you ‘re going on a vacation with all your friends! Sounds like a good time right? Well, unfortunately AutoPark isn ‘t going to pay for your trip, but what it can do is create a formatted email that includes your parking data, an embedded map, and a picture if you decide to take one. With this, you can leave your car at the airport and send all your information to a friend that didn’t get invited on that trip or a family member. Boom.
Minor Issues
While this application seems pretty great, and trust me it is, nothing is without flaws. Though minor, they do need to be addressed and taken care of in a future release. The parking lot section of the application seems to only go up to a section 10. This is a bit confusing, as there are plenty of parking structures that go past level 10. For the time being though, I suppose you could make a note out of your section. Another problem is the choice of colors for parking areas. The developer has chosen some fairly…abstract hues to represent section colors. I ‘m sure this will be addressed in future updates, but for now you can color this reviewer confused. Again, a fair workaround is taking a picture of your area ‘s color, but that defeats the purpose of that section. Don’t forget that this is also a 1.0 release.
All in all, this is a wonderful app and I don ‘t know how I ‘ll ever park without it, especially in and around the city. The point of applications is to make your life simpler, and that is exactly what this application does. Kudos to FrolicWare.
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AutoPark (1.0) is available in the App Store for $4.99
***This app was independently purchased by the post author in the iPhone App Store. For further information regarding our site ‘s review policies, please see our About page.
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