[beatpanda]

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.

[hnriot]

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.

[jasonkester]

Hi, I'm Jason. I don't generally even carry my phone around with me. It sits plugged into the wall most of the time (often switched off), unless I'm going out and know that I'll need to meet up with people.

Now you know me.

Incidentally, I spend an awful lot of my year traveling in places where my phone wouldn't get any signal, were I to switch it on. I think this app would work a lot better for somebody backpacking around Europe than banana boating down the Amazon.

[olliwang]

A dedicated GPS logger is what you need. You just need a device smaller than your hand and some room for the charger in your backpack. You can import them back to the app later.

[Wintamute]

You don't need an internet connection to get a GPS fix, so this app would work fine anywhere I think. You then need internet connectivity to sync your accumulated lat/long data back to your account.

[vhf]

Not only you don't need an internet connection to get a GPS fix, but also iPhones geolocation data don't rely on GPS only.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assisted_GPS

[pm90]

>I think this app would work a lot better for somebody backpacking around Europe than banana boating down the Amazon.

The former may be the exact people the makers are targeting. For instance, my parents usually go on 'package tours' where a travel company takes them around in a group; usually its to Europe, AU etc.

[corwinstephen]

I agree. Just because your definition of travel is apparently centered around outdoorsy activities that take you far away from civilization doesn't mean that there aren't other reasons to travel that are just as viable, but not nearly as desolate. I for example, prefer to spend my time in big cities. That just happens to be what I like. If I were to take a trip to Tokyo, I would want to spend a lot of my time eating at Japanese restaurants, meeting new people and hanging out at Japanese bars, and just experiencing what life is like for the average person who lives there. And honestly, for that sort of travel, this service could be really cool.

On another level, it's even useful for finding the parts of a city you've never seen before. I've lived in Los Angeles my whole life, and have begun to find it very boring, but perhaps if I were to unlock parts of the city that I didn't realize I'd never been to before, I could make some interesting new discoveries and keep myself entertained without even having to travel!

[kristofferR]

The official Google maps app has an offline mode that works great for me at least.

http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2012/06/go-offline-with-g...

[lostlogin]

Now that is a feature. I'd happily download my home town and run it offline always. Waiting for 3g cell reception to get the map to see where you're to go next is very tedious.

[beatpanda]

Awesome! Thanks for the tip.

[bmelton]

In addition to that, if you're traveling a route, you can (at least as of a few Android versions ago) cache the list-view directions as well (though obviously not the turn-by-turn as no signal means it might not know where you are).

It's a life saver if you're traveling through middles of nowhere.

[beatpanda]

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.

[olliwang]

It is always recommended to use a dedicated GPS logger in a long-distance trip. You won't experience these issues if you have one.

[dasil003]

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.

[drumdance]

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.

[beatpanda]

95% of existing tourism spending. There's a big untapped market out there.

[adambratt]

It's true. The stuff off the beaten path usually hasn't been commercialized. Thus it makes sense why it would only account for 5% of the spending

[kisielk]

Once it's commercialized it won't be off the beaten path for long.

[podperson]

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.

[maurits]

I don't think so. I am a mountain climber and my phone is off and for emergencies only. It is not even a smart phone as they are way to vulnerable and consume to much energy to run.

[microtonal]

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.

Or just switch their phones off, unless they need help, if you are lucky enough to have reception. The "off-the-beaten-track" types that I know use paper maps, or a Garmin GPS that lasts two days while continually using maps on two AA batteries, that can handle occasional drops and water.

I like hiking every now and then, but do not really see use for this. What does it give me over uploading my tracks on the many 'show my last hike track' websites?

Besides that, I can really see this being harmful for nature, people destroying vulnerable plants and animals just to remove a particular piece of fog. It's as sad as people completely 'flattening' a some spot to find a particular Geocache.

(I do like responsible Geocaching, but people should be made aware of damage that they could make.)

[InclinedPlane]

The point of serious backpacking, hiking, and backcountry climbing is to get away, not to stay tethered to facebook.

[icebraining]

Who said anything about Facebook?

And if you're talking about the Internet at all, that's not the point of serious backpacking, hiking, etc, that's your point.

For example, João Garcia, who reached the top of all the 14 highest mountains in the world (Everest, K2, Annapurna, etc) without an oxygen bottle, had an internet-connected GPS logger with him - a system which also happens to have an iOS app. Was he not "seriously hiking" because of that?

[olliwang]

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.

[lisper]

> I still can't find a reasonably good offline maps app for Android, for when access to the Internet isn't so easy.

You want this:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ulmon.andr...

[iso8859-1]

Did you try MapDroyd? How does it compare?

[unicornporn]

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.

[1123581321]

The app has a GPS import feature that can import from Dropbox or iTunes. It's not supposed to be used with the phone constantly on the person.