Trapster, Like Social Networking for Speeders

Besides being a low-ranking Marvel Comics super-villain, Trapster is a free application that went live on the App Store last Friday, allowing users to share information real-time on speed traps.

Besides the iPhone (naturally the highest-profile device in the bunch), the app runs on GPS devices like Garmin and TomTom, as well as on smartphones such including Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and Nokia S60 and N95 and other Java/J2ME phones.


How does it work? You click on button in the app or call a toll-free number to report a speed trap. Other user's phones will alert them as they approach the trap. Trapster learns the "credibility" of traps based on how many users agree with the report. Trapster also learns the credibility of each user, over time.

Sounds sort of like social networking for speed traps, eh?

As a user's rating or "karma score" goes up, traps are color-coded as green, yellow, or red, with red being the most certain.

Right now the stats on the Trapster home page show the following:

Actual number of iPhones using Trapster:	31133
Number of Trapster users world-wide:	110755
Number of traps reported world-wide:	53958

Trapster can be downloaded from the App Store here. For the others, you'll have to sign up for an account to get a download link.

In their press release announcing the application, Trapster President pet Tenereillo said:

"This is what a location-based application is supposed to look like. Our users have been providing feedback about how we can make Trapster easier to use right from the phone, and for the first time built-in, real-time GPS capabilities in the iPhone and BlackBerry make Trapster functionality one touch away."

Trapster's new Virtual Radar technology, at least for the iPhone and BlackBerry/J2ME applications automatically follows the user's position on a map, providing an animated visual display of traps as the user approaches them along with audio alerts.

You can watch a demo of Trapster here.