Ever find yourself stuck in traffic, wishing your GPS device could calculate a better, faster route of travel for you? Well, Smartphone owners rejoice because there is finally a solution to all your traffic woes, and it is called Waze.

Waze is a navigation and social media application in one. It provides users with up-to-the-minute traffic data collected and recorded by users while they are driving. To get started with Waze, all you have to do is download it to your phone, open the application, and from there you can set up an account with the service. If you’re unsure about the service, you don’t need to set up an account right away to try it out. You can just bypass that step and simply come back to it later in the app’s settings.

Waze is a great alternative to such services as Google Maps, because it automatically calculates the best routes of travel for the user, according to data received from other users on the road. The app plots your course, taking into consideration accidents, traffic jams, road hazards, police officers, etc.

Waze is the first service of its kind that compiles information solely from user-generated data, and it is really easy for users to contribute to this collective. All you really have to do is open the application on your phone and drive. The app then passively records everything that happens while you are driving. It takes into account what obstacles you may encounter while on the road and from there calculates the quickest, most efficient route of travel. And, when you encounter an unexpected obstacle, the app will automatically calculate a different, faster route.

You can also take a more active role, and report any obstacles you may encounter while driving. Waze only allows drivers to execute commands when the car is stopped or parked, ensuring safety on the road.

The app is not all business, though. Developers at Waze realize not all drivers are rushing to their destination, and therefore users can calculate preferred routes as well. So, although the drive may be longer, you can ensure that you’ll pass that coffee shop you like or be able to enjoy a more scenic route.

The app also incorporates many social media elements, which sort of turns driving into a game for users. For example, the more you drive and the more destinations you reach, the more points you can rack up. That raises your rank among other users. You can also interact with other Waze users and the app is integrated with services like Bing, Google, Yelp, and FourSquare.

Waze's best feature however, has got to be its turn-by-turn voice navigation capabilities, a feature that the iPhone has been lacking until now thanks to this great application. So if you’re an iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, or Symbian user who hates traffic, you might want to check out this handy application.