iPhone Software Park'n Find
Park'n Find offers a wide range of features to get you back to your parking spot every time. In addition to showing a map view that automatically zooms and pans as you move closer to your parking location, iPhone 3GS users are provided a "go this way" arrow. You can add an optional description, attach one or more photos, and record a voice note to help remind you where you parked. Park'n find can also remind you when it is time to pay the meter with a push notification.
Screen Shots
Finding a Previous Parking Location
Entering a Parking Location
Miscellaneous
Reviews
Featured on AppCraver.com in "8 Apps You Need to Make it Through Black Friday."
Features
- GPS Mapping with auto-zoom which pans and resizes the map as you move closer or farther from your parked vehicle.
- If you are using an iPhone 3GS, combines compass with GPS to provide directional arrow and distance to your parked vehicle.
- GPS coordinates are automatically approximated to a street address.
- Push notification reminders for events like paying a parking meter, moving your vehicle, or when the parking location closes.
- A real-time clock indicating duration of time parked. Useful for tracking how long you have parked in metered or long-term parking locations.
- Enter as little or as much information you need to find your vehicle. Everything is optional.
- Take photos and record a voice note to help fully document the parking spot. Have a visual or audio record of nearby signs, walkways, stairwells, nearby landmarks or any other relevant information (iPhone only).
- Track unlimited parking locations; not just one or two. Useful for travelling when your primary vehicle is parked at the airport and you need to also track your rental cars.
- Data entry interface designed for easy single-handed "on the go" usage. Only one optional entry utilizes the "keyboard" while all others uses buttons or circular wheels.
- A large variety of parking spot data types are available for selection, supporting nearly any parking location. Just tap column headings to toggle through several selection types.
- Several features can be customized in the application preferences. Default data entry options are selectable from preferences so you can set commonly used wheel categories. This provides efficient parking spot recording for people who frequently park in the same lot or garage.
Availability
Park'n Find 2.1 is available in the Apple AppStore. It is optimized for use with iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G. This application is NOT RECOMMENDED IPOD TOUCH devices due to its extremely limited hardware capabilities.
Frequently Asked Questions
- I have an iPhone 3GS but the "go this way" arrow
is grayed out, or a notice is in its place. What's wrong?
The iPhone GPS has a low degree of accuracy, and can be off by as much as 50 feet even with an excellent GPS signal. If Park'n Find detects that your current distance from your car is well under the estimated error radius, the "go this way" arrow will not be available. Version 2.1 of Park'n Find will display a notice to describe why the arrow is unavailable.
- Does Park'n Find work on an iPod Touch?
Although Park'n find will run on an iPode Touch, available features will be limited to the capabilities of the iPod Touch. For example, GPS, camera, voice notes, and the "go this way" arrow will be unavailable. This application is NOT RECOMMENDED IPOD TOUCH devices due to its extremely limited hardware capabilities.
- The units are listed in feet and miles. Can I change that to meters and kilometres?
Yes, go to the devices Preferences screen and scroll down to the Park'n Find icon. You can change the units to metric.
- Why does the direction of the "go this way" arrow seems to
contradict the location markers on the map?
As with most maps, the top area of the map is north and the bottom area is south. Although the map automatically zooms and pans as needed, it does not rotate from the north/south orientation. The "go this way" arrow points the direction you need to walk to get to your car. If it points to the top of your device, walk forward. If it points to the bottom of your device, turn around. Therefore, the map may show that you need to walk south, yet if you are facing south the arrow will point towards the top of the device. The ring around the "go this way" arrow has the compass direction.
- Is Park'n Find available for other mobile phone
platforms, such as Android or BackBerry?
Park'n Find is currently only available for the iPhone platform.
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Will Park'n Find work in an underground parking strucutre?
The advanced GPS and mapping features will not work well in an underground parking garage. However, Park'n Find is designed to be useful in all parking situations. There are rotating selectors which allow you to record details like parking garage level, row, section, spot, etc. You can also attach a voice memo and one or more photos. If the phone is able to receive a cellular or wifi signal it may be able to approximate the physical address of the parking structure.
How to Enter Parking Details
Park'n Find allows you to enter as little or as much information as you need to remember where you parked.
The following information will be automatically saved with each entry if your device supports GPS:
- GPS Location
- Address of Location
- One or more photos
- A voice memo
- A description of the parking location
- Parking Garage Level
- Parking Lot Section
- Parking Lot Row
- Parking Space Designation
While adding a new parking location, the following entry screen is displayed:
At the top of the screen you can enter optional information such as a description of the parking location, record a voice memo, or take multiple photos.
On GPS enabled devices, Park'n Find works to resolve an address for your location. A signal strength indicator shows GPS accuracy. Once a GPS location is identified, the address of your current location is displayed under the optional description box. Depending on GPS signal strength this address may not be exact, but should provide you a close approximation of your location. As the GPS signal improves Park'n Find will update the address of your location.
GPS may be the key information needed for surface lots or street parking but it may not be useful in a large, multi-level parking structure. A large variety of rotating selector types are available to accommodate challenging parking locations and help identify levels, rows, sections, and parking spots with letters, numbers, letter/number grids, primary colors or cardinal directions. To change the selector type, simply tap the wheel label to change the type of data available.
The middle button on the bottom of the screen can be used to swap between parking data entry and a map view. Use the accuracy indicator or map view to determine if the location accuracy meets your needs. In most cases you should obtain the best possible GPS location available at your parking spot in less than one minute. Parking structures, thick cloud cover, tall buildings and other objects that obstruct your view of the sky can lead to low GPS accuracy.
If you find the GPS location on the map view to be inaccurate, you may change to manual pin placement mode by selecting "Manual" on the lower portion of the map view.
Manual mode will drop a pin are the last known GPS location; you may move the pin to the desired location. Simply touch the pin for about a second, and then drag it to the new location. You may need to pinch and zoom the map to display the desired target location prior to dragging the pin. You can drag the pin as many times as needed, or switch back into GPS mode as needed.
Devices with push notifications enabled will show a "Meter Reminder" wheel as the leftmost rotating selector. Rotate the selector to the amount of time you want to pass before receiving a reminder. Entries saved with 0:00 will not receive a reminder.
After all parking information is entered, select "Done" (lower right). This will save all information entered and return you to the main application screen. If using GPS you may chose to save your parking information at any time, regardless of GPS accuracy.
Retrieving Parking Information
Select a previously saved parking location from the main screen to view the saved information. Use this information to navigate to find your parking location.
If the parking location was saved with GPS coordinates, a map will be displayed at the bottom of the screen. A blue dot is used to show your current location, and a red dot is used to show your parking location. As you get closer to your parking location, the map will automatically zoom and pan to keep the two dots on the screen while showing as much detail on the map as possible. If you want to manually manipulate the map, automatic zooming can be toggled on and off with the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen.
If your device has compass and (iPhone 3GS) a compass will also be displayed with an arrow showing what direction to go to find your parking location. If you are very close to your parking location, the arrow will fade away since it will not be accurate as you get close due to GPS inaccuracy. The farther away from your parking location you are, the more accurate the arrow will be. Holding your device more horizontal than vertical will also improve the accuracy of the compass and arrow.
If you took photos of the parking location, the "next" and "previous" arrow buttons will be enabled on the bottom of the screen. Park'n Find uses the same area of the screen to display the map or photos, so to get back to the map you may cycle through all the photos.
A "play" button will be available on the bottom of the screen if a voice memo was recorded. When playing, the button changes to a "stop" button and may be pressed to stop playback.
Parking Entry Management
You can retain parking information for any number of parking spots. This may be helpful when travelling where you need to remember where you parked at an airport, yet are driving a rental vehicle while travelling.
All information associated with a single parking event are grouped together in a single record. Park'n Find can store information about as many previous locations as you need.
When a parking entry is no longer needed, it can be deleted. Select "edit" on the main screen to delete several records. To delete a single entry, you can swipe your finger from left to right across a parking entry and select delete when prompted.
Setting Preferences
You can personalize some of the Park'n Find features, such as what kind of map view you need, if you want imperial or metric distance measurements, or you can disable GPS if you do not want Park'n Find to use it. To set Park'n Find preferences, select the iPhone "settings" icon that is usually found on the top-level iPhone OS screen and scroll down to the "Park'n Find" icon.
If you routinely park in large parking structures where GPS is ineffective, you may want to disable GPS in the Park'n Find preferences. Disabling GPS will prevent use of GPS and mapping features by Park'n Find, even for previous parking locations that were saved with GPS information.
The auto-zoom feature allows Park'n Find to automatically zoom and pan the map while you are finding your parking location. This feature can be disabled by default in the preferences, or dynamically enabled/disabled while running the application by tapping the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen.
The data entry defaults section of the preferences screen allows you to select default data types for the rotating selection. This could save time for those who frequently park in the same facility. For example, if the parking structure you routinely use numbered levels but uses lettered sections you could set those selection types as default. Setting default entry types does not prevent the user from selecting other types of parking information, just touch the wheel labels to view other data types.
Additional Information and Feedback
Refer back to this web page for the latest information on Park'n Find, including instructions, frequently asked questions, and other news.
You can e-mail us questions, bug reports, or suggestions for improving Park'n Find to park-n-find@affinicore.com.
If you would like to post a review for other iTunes users to see, go to the Park'n Find iTunes Application Page and scroll to the bottom and click on the "Ratings" section.
Thank you for using Park'n Find. We hope you find this tool useful.
 Nominate Park'n Find for Best Use of Location Services  |
Park'n Find was nominated by SlapApp.com for "Best Use of Location Services" in the 2009 Best App Ever Awards. If you agree that Park'n Find makes great use of the iPhone GPS and 3GS compass, please nominate Park'n Find as well. |