Show HN: Lumatic - a new kind of city map | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Lumatic - a new kind of city map

lumatic.com

38 pointsmippie_moe18 comments

Wow, you couldn't have picked a better time to get this out there. I hope this can become a replacement for Apple's botched attempt at the Maps app.

Doing our best. Please push us.

Hey,

Really cool app (and great timing!). I have some feedback though about the website (haven't used the product):

* I can't find anyway to contact you guys directly. Checked the Twitter page for an email address (no luck). Checked the blog for an email (no luck). Couldn't even find anything in the WHOIS (no luck, privacy protection enabled). You should add for a way to people to contact you (if not an email address, then at least a contact form)

* The Developer features look awesome! I am interested but I don't see any way to get more information.

* Seems like there's a lot of demand for more cities (while you're at it, add Toronto and Ottawa please :)). I think you should capitalize on the demand and add a form on the website for people to sign-up for notifications. So, something like "Not yet in your city? Enter your email and select your city and we will notify you as soon as it's available". This should help a lot with marketing once the cities are available.

* Little design nitpick: The text under "A new kind of city map" is hard to read because of the white-font. It might make it better if you make the background image a bit darker.

Otherwise, the app looks amazing and I can't wait until it's launched in Canada!

Thank you. The private messaging stuff is inside the app/ on Facebook, but feel free to use rafer at [companyname] dotcom.

The developer site will go up when the iphone5 rush is over, just so we don't screw up on support. I can send API docs to people who need them sooner.

Good call on the city form.

I've been using this for about a day now, and I have to say I'm really impressed by the thought that's gone into it, as well as some of the technical problems that must have been involved. The natural-language use of landmarks for wayfinding and contextual street views really make this feel like a next-generation mapping app.

Overall it's a well-considered UX, though some of the controls seem a bit awkward, like the persistent caption on the share button and the fact that "Nearby" is the label for starting a new search. I'm pretty excited to see where this goes next.

Thank you! It's been a long road even to here, and we'll keep pushing.

Does the iPhone app cover more locations than the Android one? Or is this just an out of date description:

iOS: "City Maps covers 27 metropolitan areas..."

Android: "Lumatic currently covers San Francisco and New York City, with many more cities coming soon."

Hi Mike, yup. Our Android app is behind for now. We busted our butts to make the iOS 6 launch and that's what dropped. We are hiring a dedicated android dev, hopefully for our Singapore office if you know someone who wants it.

It looks really cool, but it's also going to be very expensive (time and money-wise) to get enough prominent ROI and street-level images. Is there a solid plan in place to scale this beyond giant metropolitan markets, or are you leaving those for Google?

We currently work with Nokia on street imagery. We also have a bunch of (we hope) interesting facebook integration including photos that will start to build our own library over time.

On geo coverage (http://coverage.lumatic.com), we're nuts about cities and expect to do them all.

You should weigh the PATH train negatively, favoring the F/M trains instead (unless you're going to Hoboken).

PATH is cheaper, cleaner, and except late at night runs very frequently. I've taken it for entirely-within NYC trips when it makes sense.

Unfortunately you can't use any of the MTA's unlimited passes (daily, weekly or monthly) to get on the PATH.

Hi Nate, we need to work up to real personalization. Per greg's comment below (hi greg!), people's feelings on this stuff varies widely and doesn't correlate well with transit agency performance data.

Your blog suggests this is US only, is it?

We are US only at the moment. http://blog.lumatic.com/post/31800648260/preparing-for-wedne...

We're legally HQ'd in Singapore and funded by Joi Ito, so SG and TYO are near-term as should be london, sydney, toronto, and vancouver. I hope to be 2k+ cities this time next year. what's important to you?

Tokyo please!

awesome app. love the integration with apple maps for transit here in chicago.

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