GPS sport watches have become quite popular in the last few years, but soon smart watches may replace them for versatility and style. ViewRanger, the popular mapping app for smartphone and tablets, has announced it is compatible with the highly anticipated Android Wear, allowing for more hands-free GPS navigation and tracking with your smartphone and smart watch. The app will be compatible and ready-to-run on smart watches from LG, Samsung, Google and Motorola. Similar to more expensive GPS watches, this app will turn your smart watch into a GPS, complete with information about your location and route, altitude, heading, waypoint distance, distrance travelled, height gained and a large navigational arrow that uses a compass function in the watch to point you in the right direction.
ViewRanger, the already-popular off the road GPS app offers detailed maps on your smartphone or tablet that can be downloaded for offline uses as well as track recording, planning a route, marking POI, waypoint navigation and realtime sharing of routes and web services for POI. Many of these features will also be available on the smart watch, so cyclists and hikers won’t have to stop and pull out their phone to travel from waypoint to waypoint, risking damage to the device and taking their eyes off the trail.