Well you just brought up a good point; the default maps app isn't that good on the iPhone, and it would not be very helpful outside of the US since they seem to focus on the US ore, so I definitely see use in it for those situations.
-----Original Message----- From: David [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 5:03 PM To: Katherine Moss; Chip Orange; [email protected] Subject: Re: seeking help in designing and testing a location-based app First of all, let's keep in mind, that not all people have a GPS of the accessible kind, or a cellphone with such capabilities. My guess is,, that for these, Chip is trying to make a solution that will cover a "market". And his idea is really good. Unfortunately, at the moment the app only accepts addresses in the USA, so I haven't given it a try myself, as of yet. True enough, very few people would find it of interest to carry around a whole computer, just to get walking directions. Specially so, did they not have a car, and have to walk around, carrying five grocery-bags, handling a cane or guidedog, trying to figure why we don't have as many arms as do the octapus. :) You will not be able to operate a computer on the go, if for no other reasons, at least due to weather conditions. Try bringing out your laptop, in the middle of a heavily traficated road, and when the wind blows 20 miles an hour, along with a pouring rain. Then see, how much longer you are the lucky owner of a laptop. Smile. As such, the solution Chip is creating, is of little interest. And there does exist solutions out there, that are far better alternatives for this, although they are also far more expensive. On the other hand, I really like the idea of Chip's. For those who cannot afford one of the accessible solutions, and still wants to peek around in their immediate surroundings. You likely bring your computer, when you are going to a conference. And there you are, sitting in the hotelroom in the evening, wondering where you could best get yourself an ice cream. Or, you are at home, wondering how complicated it would be, to go a given place in the other end of your city. Yes, you could pick up the phone, and ask your friend to take you there. Yet, if now it is quite complicated to get there, it might take half an hour, and your friend thought he would just pop by and give you ten minutes of help. Maybe you did not even know, what stores would be in your nearby location. Or, like me, you are planning to move to another city. You don't know anything about the city. But you know, you will need public transportation quite frequently, and you definitely want to pick up some groceries once a week. By the help of Chip's app, you can enter the address of your potential new apartment, and immediately get an idea of what is around there. Others could glance at the map, but you will never get that chance. Yet here, you have your chance, without spending a cent. After looking at the results, you deicde, this apartment is in the category "too complicated for me", and call the land-lord telling him. Or, you realize, it is only half ablock away from your friend's place, and has a shopping mall just next to you. True, if you had called the land-lord, he would gladly have informed you of the mall being next-door. But that would not really have given you too much of info, would it. After all, a mall can be anything from a handful small stores, selling cloths for kids, and offering you a movie rental place. Or it could be, the biggest mall in 150 miles distance, offering yu everything you want, by far. With the help of the app Chip here is developing, you can perform all this browsing, without even going there. Or, what if you are planning to go for a vacation trip - this yera, all on your own. Your friends learn where you want to go, and they keep telling you all that you need see and do, when you come to this and that place. You tell them, that it might be fun to go this museum, visit that tourist attraction, try out the local restaurant and so forth. Only thing is, you don't know if you can make it, walking there. Have you ever tried this? And did your friends tell you: "Oh, that is really no problem. It is just round the corner, or it is right across the street." Coming there, you realize that to get to the corner they talked about, you have to walk 2.5 miles. And the restaurant sure is right across the street, but the street shows up to be the very trans-country highway, with a warning sign, clearly stating "no pedestriants". Your friends tell you things, the way a sighted person acts, or the way they manage from behind the wheel of their car. But none of that will help you much. Using the "Walking directions" from Chip's app, you can well plan your vacation trip, even long time in advance. You can even decide, in which hotel you want to stay, since you can find the hotel that has the better amount of facilities for shopping, eating and transportation nearby. Here again, you would let the term "nearby", mean easily accessed from a pedestriant's viewpoint. And you could even determine if you want to go for a bit of a walk to get there, or if you only want hotels with everything within three hundred yards distance. True, if you are the lucky owner of an accessible GPS solution, or have a GPS and Cellphone solution, none of this is new to you. Likely, you are already doing all of this. Yet, for many a user, this is no real alternative. Hence, Chip has kindly an idea that will help those of us, who did not find the money for investing in an expensive solution. Yep, we could go to Google's wesite, pulling out all these instructions manually. Though I have never tried, my guess is, it is not really all that easy. The little I have operated Google, I have a feeling they are complicated, and pretty visual in their presentation on the web. Yet here, Chip has constructed a totally accessible interface, for getting hold of your instructions. Though I have a few suggestions for Chip to consider, in the further development of the app, I clearly see it could be useful in numerous of my personal activities, along with a number of cases for other users. Since he clearly states, that the app does not work outside the USA at the moment, I just did not give it all a try, at this point. So most of my suggestions, will have to be left alone, until I can try it out locally. One suggestion would still be, to have let the user make a set of sound files, each holding their individual direction. You then could drop it all, onto your portable mp3-player, and get the instructions read out to you, right from the depth of your pocket. I will get in touch with Chip directly, and labor a bit more on this, and other suggestions. :) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Katherine Moss" <[email protected]> To: "Chip Orange" <[email protected]>; <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 5:02 PM Subject: RE: seeking help in designing and testing a location-based app I'm just trying to figure out where it would be of interest since most people don't have their laptops out in the car, or at least I don't usually since my phone can do the same thing. But I'm willing to help test it if you would like. -----Original Message----- From: Chip Orange [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 8:26 AM To: [email protected] Subject: seeking help in designing and testing a location-based app Hi all, I've started to develop an app which is location-based. It makes it easy to get directions from Google maps (including mass transit trips), finding businesses and other establishment near to something, (by name or by keyword), and keeping your own database of important points. It also optionally interfaces with a GPS receiver, and should remind you of items as you come near to them (location-based reminders instead of date/time ones). I'm not sure what features should be in this app, and so rather than looking for beta testers, I'm looking for folks who wish to test out the app as it is at the moment, and could help me envision what features are needed; and given what it does do, how could it do those things better? This is especially important to me as I don't have a lot of time to work on it, and so would like to come close to what's useful to everyone right from the start. Below is the little descriptive bit I've written for the help at the moment: Beta Software! This app is very very beta; it's being distributed to ask the opinions/suggestions of others as to how it might be designed better, what features would be most useful if included, etc. It's not at the stage where I'm concerned about flushing out every little bug (yet). This app requires the shared object app named "GPS" to be installed. If it isn't present the app will offer to download and install it for you. You should allow this to happen. The GPS app can interface with a GPS receiver, but one is not required. The GPS app however is still needed even if you do not have a GPS receiver connected, as it provides support location-based programming. This app will eventually allow you to create and edit two databases: one of points of interest (using GPS coordinates), and the other of reminders related to specific points in your points of interest database. Add points to the app's points of interest database (either from your current GPS location or from an address), and then you can add reminders to the app's reminders database which are linked to the points. One of the expected features of this app will be if you have a connected GPS receiver, when you come within the specified range of a point which has a reminder, the app will take the specified action (play a sound, speak a message, etc.). (this functionality is not currently working in this beta). This app also gives you access to some of the Google+, Google Places, and Google Maps features such as showing you near-by places to a location, showing you places based on searching criteria, and access to Google Maps directions for driving, walking, or using mass transit to get from one location to another. The locations can be addresses you enter or points in your POI database, or some location near-by to one of these. The "Get Directions" feature of this app is the one which is likely to function the best at the moment. It does require an internet connection to use.. This functionality is available via the menu items of the Apps menu for this app. Some of the other app features do require that the app knows your current location; if you aren't using a GPS receiver, then right now you need to be running Windows 7 or later and you need to go into the control panel and enter your current address (via the "Location and Other Sensors" choice; and then choose "default location"). I'll add a way to store your default address in the app's .ini soon. If you are using XP, you can still experience some of the functionality; you can add a point, and when its address is fully specified in the dialog, you can make use of a command-button in the dialog to see "near-by places", but you will not be able to use the "Search near-by" app menu choice. If you'd like to hear me demo it as it is, you can download an mp3 demo from the link below: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11745142/rmw.mp3 If after hearing this you'd like to try it out and help with suggestions for design, you can download the app from: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11745142/Remind_Me_Where.wepm It's all open source and contains many examples of interacting with web sites using XML, and keeping data in large access databases, as well as utilizing GPS coordinates for any developer who'd like such examples. Please let me know if you try it, and what you think as to what it needs (even if what you think is that it's not for you after all). Thanks. Chip [email protected] If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and your message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sending your message to [email protected] so the entire list will receive it. GW-Info messages are archived at http://www.gwmicro.com/gwinfo. You can manage your list subscription at http://www.gwmicro.com/listserv. If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and your message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sending your message to [email protected] so the entire list will receive it. GW-Info messages are archived at http://www.gwmicro.com/gwinfo. You can manage your list subscription at http://www.gwmicro.com/listserv. If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and your message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sending your message to [email protected] so the entire list will receive it. GW-Info messages are archived at http://www.gwmicro.com/gwinfo. You can manage your list subscription at http://www.gwmicro.com/listserv.
