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GasBot

Posted Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 at 1:20 pm by Android Tapp 5 Comments

User Rating3.03/5

GasBot is an Android App that allows you to search for gas prices in all of the gas stations around you.

AndroidTapp.com Review:

Usefulness:

GasBot proves useful in these times of financial global recession, everyone is budgeting a pinching-pennies… this app can help with the guilty budget sucker: Gas Prices! It’s cool to have an app that shows you the cheapest prices in your vicinity. You can customize your settings if you have preferred stations and gas grades.

Ease of Use:

Simply whip out your G1 or Android powered device, launch GasBot, select from 2 search options, voila… shows you the cheapest gas prices sorted low to high by default.

Features:

GasBot has 2 main features: By Location and By Address.

By Location when tapped, searches gas prices nearest your vincity sorted low to high. Tapp on anyone of the gas stations that appear and you get more detail and features such as; price update time/date, plus the full price list at the pumps… Unleaded, Mid Grade, Premium and Diesel. Within the details are 2 more features; Map and Directions. Tapp “Map” and GasBot shows the gas stations on the map nearest you. (You can view the map aerial views in either vector Map View or Satellite View… terrain details) Tapp “Directions” and GasBot shows the option to view in the browser or Android’s built-in Maps app. Select “Maps” and GasBot gives you turn-by-turn directions to that station, in which you can Edit or Show the map.

By Address feature works the same except it allows you to save your own address(es) and get the cheapest prices. This feature is great for price comparing different locations.

What’s also cool, you can go to the Settings menu to set: gas grade type, search radius, sort criteria, number of stations to display, and brand preference.

One comon drawback everyone experiences is the app price. We recently interviewed the creator Chris Kelly, explains why there is an annual $7 fee for the app:

Unfortunately getting access to this data is
extremely expensive and takes up 85-90% of the subscription fee.

Hopefully donations and features enchancements can offset the cost, because we would hate to see an app like this go away.

Another is the accurracy of your location to the gas station. I even read a bashing negative comment and review rating in the App Market; stating sarcastically that the app placed them 5 miles away from their actual location. (Please be clear, slight flaws like that are faulted by the Android Maps app. This can be improved if you turn on GPS… granted GPS drains your battery life so use sparingly.)

Frequently Used:

Qualifies use at least once a week per car you own. Or use it to test, curiousity or cool app factor

Interface:

The interface graphics are rather cheesy yet distinctive, still optimized for thumb/finger navigation and easy to use.

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