This is something that could turn out big. A new iphone app called Dreamwalk provides users with a geocaching game that raises the ante a little by getting local businesses involved. Users can use the software to seek out "treasures," just like any similar game. Except, in this case, participating companies get to hide their own prizes for players to pursue, allowing them to get new prospects through the door in the process.
When you launch the app, it shows you a map that details where prizes are hidden. There are three ways to collect bounty - Instant Prizes, Collector's Stamps and Treasure Hunts - all of which require going out into the real world. For Instant Prizes, you simply have to go to the marked location on the map to get the reward added to your onscreen prize bag. Tap that and get instructions on how to redeem. Do note that these are usually simple stuff, like free fries at a local restaurant or cheap tickets to a show.
Collector's Stamps, on the other hand, require you to travel to different locations, gaining letter stamps at each one that spell out the words to the final destination. Treasure Hunts work similarly, except you gain clues instead of stamps. Since they're harder, the prizes for these two are usually bigger (e.g. videocams and gaming consoles).
Because they've only just launched, there are only a few thousand hidden treasures across the US, most of them concentrated in large metro areas (think New York, LA and Washington DC). However, developers at Dreamwalk Pty Ltd are negotiating for new businesses to come in and, potentially, make the loot more lucrative for avid treasure hunters across the country. Participating merchants, by the way, can easily upload new prizes via Dreamwalk's website, which will then turn up on gamers' maps.
Dreamwalk's beauty is that it is a win-win for all parties involved. Businesses get very hip marketing and users get a chance to win loads of free stuff around their area. An excellent concept that's totally worth the free App Store download.
[Dreamwalk Mobile]
Like to leave your impressions of places you've been to for the world to hear? Then you'll love Voice Mark, which lets you create geotagged audio recordings of any spot on the map, as well as listen to those made by others.
GeoGraffiti calls each recording a "voice mark," which is essentially a short phone message that's geotagged to a specific location and piled away into the system's database. You can either create the recording and send it over your data connection, or you can ask GeoGraffiti to call you so you can leave a voice mail. The latter, by the way, is a considerably faster option.
Now, say you're a user who's driving in an unfamiliar part of the city and you spot a diner that looks good. Is it a good idea to eat there? You can get help by launching the app, finding the establishment and listening to the voice marks left by others.
The software uses the Google Maps interface to locate the areas you're interested in. You can toggle the view to show the previous audio geotags from other users scattered throughout the map. Simply tap the placeholder and listen to the message. The UI is very intuitive, making the process of getting your prerecorded reviews an uncomplicated matter.
Like all reviews-based apps, this thing will only take off if users actually take the time to leave their own voice marks. I'm lazy about these things, but I'm guessing there's a whole plethora of people who will. I'd be more optimistic if the "reviewers" actually had some kind of incentive to post their audio recordings, though.
Voice Marks is available free from the App Store.
[Voice Marks Website]
Voice Mark Lets You Listen To Geotagged Audio Reviews Of Spots, Record Your Ownunratednoel2010-02-07 13:24:07
App Reviews,iPhone AppsVoice Mark Lets You Listen To Geotagged Audio Reviews Of Spots, Record Your Own
The battle of the iPhone GPS apps is on, as the fourth title for the platform has finally come out. The CoPilot Live brings capabilities along the same lines as other competing releases, with a few factors swaying heavily into its favor.
First off, it's the fastest of the lot, wasting very little time from launch to getting a signal to routing. Turn-by-turn services are, largely, on par with existing apps, with a wider selection of languages for the voice-guided system.
Like Navigon, it offers switching between various modes of travel, namely car, RV, motorcycle, bicycle and pedestrian. The feature is particularly easy to use in CoPilot Live, allowing you to change modes of transport mid-trip with just a couple of taps.
The app's best value-added features (assuming they all become available soon) are the Live Services option, which includes Live Traffic (traffic updates), Live Weather (weather updates) and Live Link (location sharing). The first one is a coming-soon feature, the second is working and good, and the third is very useful for finding out areas to avoid (based on your friends who get caught in traffic). Live Services does require an extra purchase ($20), though.
There's no text-to-speech, which is acceptable for an iPhone GPS app, since none of the others offer it either. But, that's not the worst of it.
Anyone who uses CoPilot Live right now will immediately notice one thing: it feels rushed. Since the first three turn-by-turn apps for the platform have already gotten a massive headway, the company probably felt compelled to bring it to market half-baked. The result is a buggy software that can prove a headache for daily use.
You'll notice various bugs throughout working with the app, along with a noticeable lag when changing the map's orientation. The most unforgivable for me is the app's terrible performance at reading addresses in your contact list. While we chastised the TomTom for passing on contacts with no ZIP code, CoPilot Live seems to just refuse to read the majority of addresses on my list. Even worse, if it can't read something about a contact, it just left all the fields blank, forcing you to enter every part of the address one by one.
Overall, CoPilot Live is a decent GPS app. At $35 for the first year, plus $20 after every 12 months, it's the cheapest one available for the iPhone. If you can live with the problematic reading from the contacts list, it could be a good purchase. Just keep your fingers crossed that they end up fixing the bugs shortly.
CoPilot Live: Best Price, Tons Of Potential, Has Many Bugsunratednoel2009-09-03 13:28:06
App Reviews,iPhone AppsCoPilot Live: Best Price, Tons Of Potential, Has Many Bugs
TomTom finally released their turn-by-turn navigation app for the iPhone this week. The third full-featured GPS app for the platform, it's also the most expensive, coming in at $100. Is it worth the price?
Here's the gist of it, if you'd rather not read the whole thing: it's good, but not perfect. If you remember our review of Navigon MobileNavigator for the iPhone, it was exactly the same way. As such, there's no clear cut winner here. Best read the review and decide if the app's strengths are exactly what you're looking for.
First up, it's the fastest GPS app I've seen on the iPhone, loading in just around five seconds (about 10 seconds less than other options) and finding a signal almost immediately. The maps look fine (though it is, arguably, the least visually-appealing of the three iPhone GPS apps) and there's barely any learning curve.
The app's interface is great - very easy to use with accurate controls. Input mechanism is particularly convenient, hinting at a properly-designed user experience. I haven't seen TomTom's previous efforts on other devices, but they might have perfected the UI process because their app is definitely enjoyable to work with.
Despite those positives, however, this app suffers from some serious flaws. The maps and POI database, for one, aren't the most up-to-date. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if these were at least a year old - it couldn't find a couple of newer addresses I plugged in, apart from showing points-of-interest that, as far as I know, no longer exist.
Pulling the addresses from your iPhone's contacts database is a major pain, as the app can only recognize entries with zipcode. If you haven't been in the habit of adding zipcodes to your contact lists, best do so or you'll have to enter the addresses manually every single time.
Like the two available iPhone GPS apps (Navigon and iGo My Way), it skimps on many extras, including text-to-speech, traffic updates and similar features. It's not a deal-breaker, but not having them makes it less enticing of a choice - especially for $100. Unless you need a GPS app for the iPhone right now, I'm more inclined to suggest that you wait for someone else to fill the gap, because what's available right now just isn't all that great.
TomTom GPS App For The iPhone: Good, But Not Quite There Yetunratednoel2009-08-21 17:35:12
App Reviews,iPhone AppsTomTom GPS App For The iPhone: Good, But Not Quite There Yet
Want the same traffic updates on BMW in-car systems without actually buying a BMW? Now you can, with the Inrix Traffic app for the iPhone.
Covering 126 cities in the US, the software shows a map of your vicinity (using the onboard GPS), combined with a graphical visual of local traffic flow and road incidents. Information is pulled from various sources, including local traffic authorities, traffic probes, event schedules and accident reports. Like Waze, the app phones home, sending data on your speed and location to its servers, which are automatically taken into consideration as an additional variable for their traffic reports.
One feature Inrix offers that isn't available in other traffic systems is a forecasting function. Using historical information and local data, they can map out a prediction of possible traffic situations for up to one hour in advance, allowing you to plan your immediate road itinerary.
Simple and clean, the app is very easy to use and should be a permanent fixture for motorists still holding out on buying a full-featured GPS app for the iPhone. In case you're looking for a more robust GPS solution, though, the upcoming TomTom Navigator app for the handset will include data pulled directly from the Inrix servers, apart from turn-by-turn navigation.
Via GPS Lodge
Inrix Traffic App Gives Free Traffic Updates, Forecastsunratednoel2009-08-09 23:16:21
App Reviews,iPhone AppsInrix Traffic App Gives Free Traffic Updates, Forecasts
