Correction — "Know the Area You Have Explored Around the World, Around A Continent, Or Even Around A Country, Where Your Phone Had A Full Battery, GPS Was Available, And There Was Reliable Electricity For Recharging!"
This is dumb. Any given user is going to have massive holes in their map, which, at least according to my experience, will be the best parts of their trips — the parts where they didn't have their phone turned on and didn't care, because it didn't matter.
The problem with all of these dumb travel apps for smartphones is they only seem to be geared toward people who travel with defined itineraries, pay money for accommodation and travel, and only travel in more developed, predictable places. In other words, the most boring kind of travel.
Vayable is the only company I've seen trying to make money from adventurous travel, but even then, it's for purchasing adventurous travel for people who can't find it on their own.
And I still can't find a reasonably good offline maps app for Android, for when access to the Internet isn't so easy.
People turn their phones off? We must know different people because everyone I know has their phone switched on all the time.
Not all travel has to be to wilderness, there's just as much enjoyment to be had in visiting regular places, not just middle if nowhere kind of places. They might be boring to you, but that's a very narrow kind of thinking to assume that of others.
And unless you're spelunking, there's a very good chance that GPS is available. It's designed for the military, so reliability and accessibility are important. There are very few places on the earth that cannot see enough satellites to get a decent fix.
Not all developed countries are boring! It's just as much of a jungle in NYC as it is in any South American rain forest.
A lot of you misinterpreted what I said. I'm not necessarily talking about being outdoors.
For example — this summer, I was travelling between Skopje and Belgrade. After hitch hiking the whole day to Skopje, my phone was dead. I only had 30 minutes in the train station to charge my phone, and electricity was not available on the train.
By the time I got to Belgrade in the morning, my phone was dead again, and charging it would have meant hunting down a cafe with outlets and wasting two hours waiting for it to charge.
At that point, it was easier to just ask people where stuff was than screw around with my phone to get maps working.
"Passive location" apps like this just add to that stress, because it's just draining your battery faster for marginal benefit. "Be a painkiller, not a vitamin" and all that.
I think there's a huge opportunity in web-connected paper maps for relieving travel stress. I know that's what I needed this summer.
Yes, well, unless your doing something dangerous like climbing Everest, any travel you do completely pales in comparison to the early world travelers who went from Europe to Asia or America. It must make you nearly suicidal to think how boring and mundane all your life experiences are in the context of history.
All this boring travel you disdain encompasses 95% of tourism spending. It may be boring to you, but it's hard for me to get mad at a product that targets a market that huge.
A lot of seriously dedicated "off-the-beaten-track" types will have solar chargers for their iPhones (or whatever), GPS works everywhere except near US Military Bases.
I hope they've been judicious in their use of power while in the background. It seems like a cool idea to me. I can easily imagine simply trying to fill in the area I live in much the same way as I would explore nooks and crannies in dungeons maps.
You can use a separate GPS logger to record your tracks and import them back to the app. GPS logger is usually small, light-weight, long batter life, and better in receiving GPS signal when there is no Internet connection. You just need a GPS logger and a charger. That's all.
I recommend RMaps for Android. There's an alternative version of Mobile Atlas Creator out there on the internets that makes map downloads from multiple sources like Google Maps, Bing Maps etc possible.
Thank God this costs $5 dollars. I might have even gone as high as $10. To all those that think 5 bucks is too much: for you to actually get any value out of this app you have to use it over a non-significant portion of your life. We're talking on the timescale of years; I find it hilarious that 1 dollar is fine but 5 whole dollars is outrageous.
I think apprehension comes from never realizing $5 worth of value. Myself and others have come to spend money on many apps only to be dissapointed. Theres more times that I will use a free app and pay for the premium version after realizing the value. $1 is a simple impulse buy, $5 not as much.
I'm the creator of this app. I'd like to explain the idea behind this app a bit.
Our dream is to go around the world, so we create this geo/map/game hybrid app to remember everywhere we have been in our whole life time. We want to use the exploration map to memorize our entire life when we are old and unable to walk. We also use the map to find out places nearby where we live but we never know. We actually got surprised many times that we found a lot of new places around where we live but we hadn't been in the past ten years.
I visited Japan four years ago, but honestly, I really don't remember those places I had been at that time, except few really famous places. I don't even know what hotels I lived, what roads I walked that time. And that's why I build this app. Now I can see the map and memorize what happened at those places I had been.
The app is such a great idea, so I bought it immediately, but I have to say I'm disappointed. Much of my travel abroad happened when I was young. There were no smartphones, or GPS.
But I know plenty of the places I've visited, hotels I've stayed in, train routes I've ridden, etc.
I'd love a way to "paint" the fog away manually, and maybe tag that "painting session" with some metadata (dates, at a minimum, maybe photos, etc).
But what if the hotels aren't there anymore? All you'll know is that you have been at these geo-coordinates once.
I have the same plan for when I'm old, so I take pictures with my iPhone whenever I want to hold on to a moment (and taking a photo is convenient). The image quality may be crappy, but I end up with one more GPS-tagged picture on the world map. The iPad Photos app nicely visualizes this, before that I'd used iPhoto.
Maybe you could add support for this too and overlay it with the "fog of world"?
Please do continue your work. I'm especially hopeful to get it as a desktop app for Mac. Thanks for building something really useful but not another social network. Please don't make it social, don't make it a SaaS. Something personal and local is so much better and comforting. (My another comment https://news.ycombinator.com/edit?id=4592630)
I think it's a great idea. But to be persistent over my entire life, there really needs to be an export option so that when smartphones are no longer around and we got neural implants or something I can still make use of the data collected now.
Also 1% of the world seems impossible considering the line of sight when walking around. Even 1% of most countries is impossible.
I think it's a fantastic idea. Will it work while the device is locked though, or do I have to walk around with my iPhone/iPad open all the time? The page doesn't really make that clear, and it's the most important decision factor for me since I'd want to just have it passively tracking in my pocket or backpack.
This looks really nice. I recently switched to Android (which, in my mind, with version 4.1 finally is able to compete with iOS in smoothness/stability while vastly surpassing it in features and usability), so I'm hopeful for an Android version.
An Android version would also bring added benefits of smarter/less battery intensive background operation which could make this run all the time. Constant GPS-monitoring like Latitude or this seems to run way better on Android for some reason.
* An Android version would also bring added benefits of smarter/less battery intensive background operation which could make this run all the time. Constant GPS-monitoring like Latitude or this seems to run way better on Android for some reason. *
I'm curious, what makes you think this would more power efficient on Android?
We should have hints on titles like "Apple only" so we don't have to read for 5 minutes and then see that it was a total waste of time, having no Android version.
When I used to live in SF, I would always go on walks and explore the city. I found that it would take several visits before I could fully remember the details of a new route or area, but once I knew that place I would move onto a new area. This was enjoyable and I got to see the innards of a beautiful city.
Now this? Congratulations, you have turned a peaceful and enjoyable experience into a slot machine. Now rather than enjoying where I am, I can enjoy hearing my phone go DING! You will lose all connection to the places you go. Rather than rely on my own memory, which takes a few trips, I will just go to a neighborhood once, cross it off my checklist and probably never go back. Because going back wont give me the exp I need to level up and release endorphins.
Gamifaction is the public relations term for addiction.
This is neat, I wish Google Latitude had it. For that matter, I wish Google Latitude had any useful visual representation of the 2+ years' worth of location data I've been feeding it. =|
I love everything about it except the gamification. They were really onto something inspiring, and then I got to the part about achievements and leaderboards. Beyond a certain audience, that's patronizing, and it undermines anything more serious you're trying to do (c.f. "your whole life journey").
Cool idea, but I think my life will be way longer than the lifetime of this app.
I think I could do something similar in an open format that will still be accessible in 50 years: an image of the world map, with an alpha channel that has pixels where I've been made opaque.
In fact, I did came up with this idea one year ago.
My idea was to cover the whole world with fog of war, and to make people team up to discover the world. There would be challenges, where you would pay like 0.50$ to participate, and then big reward for the first team achieving the challenge.
My idea was a free app with paying challenges. Uncovering 25% of the world ? $1 challenge, 20k$ reward. It's a really easy win. People tend to like these kind of idea, they would contact their friend abroad to team up with them, then pay to join the challenge, etc.
I finally decided, after 3months of thoughts, not to realize this project. It's currently impossible to rely confidently on geolocalisation data from any mobile device. People could cheat from iPhone dev. simulator, etc.
Well, kudos to people who did it ! Different from my idea, but anyway. Now that it's been done, I can finally explain the idea I had ! :)
Uncanny. I can claim in true honesty that I had a remarkably similar vision for a comprehensive life 'experience quotient' app not even 2-3 weeks ago. The travel portion looked very similar: GPS enabled tracing of a global map space with percent coverage. But travel would be but one table in a comprehensive database of life experience: financial, relationships, science, arts, drugs, sex and everything else worth living for. An algorithm would tally a grand 'statistic'. It's the stuff of Borges' wildest fantasies, n'est-ce pas?
This is a wonderful idea. It would be really interesting if you could "ally" someone else to combine mini-maps. With this feature, you wouldn't just know where everyone has been, but you can also map their social graph!
In strategy games, there is a fog over areas where you have no vision (ie places you dont have any units that can see exactly what is happening at that moment). This introduces uncertainty and allows for more strategy based on positioning and vision.
While people have described this in regards to RTS games, I feel that it might be more appropriate to link it to RPG games where unexplored parts of the map are obscured by a fog until you visit them.
It's worth also noting that some gamers who are real completists love visiting every location to remove the fog, and there's often achievements linked to this.
In (particularly real-time) strategy games the map is often hidden or grayed out at the beginning of a match beneath a "fog of war". As you move your units around the map the area in their vision is revealed. This is particularly important as there may be enemies/objectives in sections of the map which are unexplored.
That's an incredible idea. I really wish it was available a desktop application though. Such an app could gather information from multiple sources (including companion mobile apps) and maybe even location-aware social networks. It's useful on a mobile phone but i would rather buy a dedicated gps device to track my progress as constant usage of gps on a phone will definitely decrease it's battery life. Also I really feel uncomfortable handling this kind of historical data to any sort of SaaS. I would definitely pay as high as $10 (or maybe even more) for something like that.
Couple of questions if anyone has bought it and can answer:
1) Extending the fog of war metaphor, do places gradually 'fade' or 'grey-out' or similar the longer you are away from the area? Or is it a case of once-seen always seen?
2) This seems great for the devices that have GPS, but I'm sceptical of it's value on say, my iPod Touch, which IIRC relies entirely on Wi-Fi triangulation.
I think this is cool, despite the fact that it will undoubtedly leave out some interesting experiences. However, it also serves as a visceral reminder of the kind of data being made available to third parties when using this type of app. It makes me want to create something similar which I and everyone else wishing to use it can then keep entirely to ourselves.
I love this concept, I already think about maps this way in my head, I'd love a way to externalize it!
Unfortunately though I don't want it on game center, I want it in some sort of open exportable data that I can access, perhaps make a widget for my website out of, or update from other devices.
[+] [-] beatpanda|13 years ago|reply
This is dumb. Any given user is going to have massive holes in their map, which, at least according to my experience, will be the best parts of their trips — the parts where they didn't have their phone turned on and didn't care, because it didn't matter.
The problem with all of these dumb travel apps for smartphones is they only seem to be geared toward people who travel with defined itineraries, pay money for accommodation and travel, and only travel in more developed, predictable places. In other words, the most boring kind of travel.
Vayable is the only company I've seen trying to make money from adventurous travel, but even then, it's for purchasing adventurous travel for people who can't find it on their own.
And I still can't find a reasonably good offline maps app for Android, for when access to the Internet isn't so easy.
[+] [-] hnriot|13 years ago|reply
Not all travel has to be to wilderness, there's just as much enjoyment to be had in visiting regular places, not just middle if nowhere kind of places. They might be boring to you, but that's a very narrow kind of thinking to assume that of others.
And unless you're spelunking, there's a very good chance that GPS is available. It's designed for the military, so reliability and accessibility are important. There are very few places on the earth that cannot see enough satellites to get a decent fix.
Not all developed countries are boring! It's just as much of a jungle in NYC as it is in any South American rain forest.
[+] [-] kristofferR|13 years ago|reply
http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2012/06/go-offline-with-g...
[+] [-] beatpanda|13 years ago|reply
For example — this summer, I was travelling between Skopje and Belgrade. After hitch hiking the whole day to Skopje, my phone was dead. I only had 30 minutes in the train station to charge my phone, and electricity was not available on the train.
By the time I got to Belgrade in the morning, my phone was dead again, and charging it would have meant hunting down a cafe with outlets and wasting two hours waiting for it to charge.
At that point, it was easier to just ask people where stuff was than screw around with my phone to get maps working.
"Passive location" apps like this just add to that stress, because it's just draining your battery faster for marginal benefit. "Be a painkiller, not a vitamin" and all that.
I think there's a huge opportunity in web-connected paper maps for relieving travel stress. I know that's what I needed this summer.
[+] [-] dasil003|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] drumdance|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] podperson|13 years ago|reply
I hope they've been judicious in their use of power while in the background. It seems like a cool idea to me. I can easily imagine simply trying to fill in the area I live in much the same way as I would explore nooks and crannies in dungeons maps.
[+] [-] olliwang|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lisper|13 years ago|reply
You want this:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ulmon.andr...
[+] [-] unicornporn|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 1123581321|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] timsally|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Dramatize|13 years ago|reply
That means this is not a product I would be able to get most of my social group to use.
[+] [-] njl|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] angryasian|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mcantelon|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] olliwang|13 years ago|reply
Our dream is to go around the world, so we create this geo/map/game hybrid app to remember everywhere we have been in our whole life time. We want to use the exploration map to memorize our entire life when we are old and unable to walk. We also use the map to find out places nearby where we live but we never know. We actually got surprised many times that we found a lot of new places around where we live but we hadn't been in the past ten years.
I visited Japan four years ago, but honestly, I really don't remember those places I had been at that time, except few really famous places. I don't even know what hotels I lived, what roads I walked that time. And that's why I build this app. Now I can see the map and memorize what happened at those places I had been.
[+] [-] onethumb|13 years ago|reply
But I know plenty of the places I've visited, hotels I've stayed in, train routes I've ridden, etc.
I'd love a way to "paint" the fog away manually, and maybe tag that "painting session" with some metadata (dates, at a minimum, maybe photos, etc).
Possible in the future?
[+] [-] gurkendoktor|13 years ago|reply
I have the same plan for when I'm old, so I take pictures with my iPhone whenever I want to hold on to a moment (and taking a photo is convenient). The image quality may be crappy, but I end up with one more GPS-tagged picture on the world map. The iPad Photos app nicely visualizes this, before that I'd used iPhoto.
Maybe you could add support for this too and overlay it with the "fog of world"?
[+] [-] densh|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zxoq|13 years ago|reply
Also 1% of the world seems impossible considering the line of sight when walking around. Even 1% of most countries is impossible.
[+] [-] mainevent|13 years ago|reply
I agree with some of the other comments that using it in some of the places I've travelled would be unrealistic due to battery life.
Would be great if I could import a csv of my Flight Diary data [1]
[1] http://flightdiary.net/willjennings
[+] [-] robbles|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kristofferR|13 years ago|reply
An Android version would also bring added benefits of smarter/less battery intensive background operation which could make this run all the time. Constant GPS-monitoring like Latitude or this seems to run way better on Android for some reason.
[+] [-] MrScruff|13 years ago|reply
I'm curious, what makes you think this would more power efficient on Android?
[+] [-] miahi|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Androsynth|13 years ago|reply
Now this? Congratulations, you have turned a peaceful and enjoyable experience into a slot machine. Now rather than enjoying where I am, I can enjoy hearing my phone go DING! You will lose all connection to the places you go. Rather than rely on my own memory, which takes a few trips, I will just go to a neighborhood once, cross it off my checklist and probably never go back. Because going back wont give me the exp I need to level up and release endorphins.
Gamifaction is the public relations term for addiction.
Anyway, get off my lawn, yada yada...
[+] [-] FaceKicker|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bdr|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Aardwolf|13 years ago|reply
I think I could do something similar in an open format that will still be accessible in 50 years: an image of the world map, with an alpha channel that has pixels where I've been made opaque.
[+] [-] drawkbox|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vhf|13 years ago|reply
My idea was to cover the whole world with fog of war, and to make people team up to discover the world. There would be challenges, where you would pay like 0.50$ to participate, and then big reward for the first team achieving the challenge.
My idea was a free app with paying challenges. Uncovering 25% of the world ? $1 challenge, 20k$ reward. It's a really easy win. People tend to like these kind of idea, they would contact their friend abroad to team up with them, then pay to join the challenge, etc.
I finally decided, after 3months of thoughts, not to realize this project. It's currently impossible to rely confidently on geolocalisation data from any mobile device. People could cheat from iPhone dev. simulator, etc.
Well, kudos to people who did it ! Different from my idea, but anyway. Now that it's been done, I can finally explain the idea I had ! :)
[+] [-] quasistar|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] smilliken|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mcantelon|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Androsynth|13 years ago|reply
This is based on a real military concept: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fog_of_war
[+] [-] nemof|13 years ago|reply
It's worth also noting that some gamers who are real completists love visiting every location to remove the fog, and there's often achievements linked to this.
[+] [-] Dramatize|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thomaslangston|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dredmorbius|13 years ago|reply
http://contrastrebellion.com/
[+] [-] awolf|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] klausjensen|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] densh|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bobbles|13 years ago|reply
I travel internationally quite a bit, actually feeling a bit bummed this didn't exist a couple of years ago :(
Hopefully doesn't eat so much battery that my phone dies before the day is over.
[+] [-] lambada|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] charlieok|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] whouweling|13 years ago|reply
Some feedback on the site itself: I'm having trouble reading the text due to the low contrast. (Maybe my monitor isn't setup properly?)
[+] [-] daedalus_j|13 years ago|reply
Unfortunately though I don't want it on game center, I want it in some sort of open exportable data that I can access, perhaps make a widget for my website out of, or update from other devices.
[+] [-] Dramatize|13 years ago|reply