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Tonderai Rutsito
Did you know you can travel anywhere in Zimbabwe without fear of getting lost because you can identify your current position and maps for the location that you are in for free? Yes, for free, because there are no data charges at all and in addition you can do that without even inserting that mobile line in your handset. Global Positioning System (GPS) technology has been very popular for years but most Zimbabweans are ignorant about it or have been resisting this technology due to lack of a full understanding of how it works. Although many people think that GPS is great they naively think it does not work in Zimbabwe.

GPS is a space-based satellite navigation system that provides location and time information that does not require your mobile network neither does it require your airtime to help you pinpoint your position, direction or even location of your gadget, friend or enemy.

It simply uses the satellites up in the sky and your smartphone can get direct data to and from them under the GPS technology, without being limited to some geographical shortcomings like rainy weather or lack of power. They are many GPS-based apps today that can help you achieve this task all depending to your choice but we have not tested many of these except the one that comes in pre-installed with Astro V2, called Sygic. You may download the application for android devices on Google Play- store while it’s also available for iOS devices

Sygic is a super must-have application that I have used to locate any road while I was deep down in Matabeleland and I use it every day as it directs me to and from work.

The beauty of this application is that it’s free when you buy an Astro but our efforts to download a direct one for the Playstore only showed some trial versions.

This is not the end of the road. Even Google Maps has some free GPS apps that you can use as well though they may demand you be online and download full maps first before they start functioning properly.

• The writer is the Editor of Zimbabwe’s premier technology magazine. More in-depth from www.technomag.co.zw on http://goo.gl/SRYZtf. Follow us on Twitter at TechnoMagZw or www.facebook.com/technomagzw.