Tell HN: My Start-Up Launched our iPhone App Today - Gaia GPS | Hacker News Reader

Tell HN: My Start-Up Launched our iPhone App Today - Gaia GPS

gaiagps.com

You can find out about all of this on the website, but basically Gaia GPS includes a GPS Recorder, topographic and road maps, waypoint search, and other cool features.

If you are a hiker, you have probably heard of MyTopo maps. Gaia GPS is the first app to provide these maps on the iPhone, and in my own travels, they are really great. You can download as many map sections as you want for no additional charge.

http://www.gaiagps.com

Just downloaded it for myself. I figure I've read more than $3 worth of your HN posts in the past to justify buying the app regardless.

Just purchased. Already like it better than MotionX. Is there a way to search for nearby trails (other than the trails on the scanned topo maps)? not just waypoints?

edit: just noticed the other posts about TrailBehind app. Awesome. Now I am all set.

Sorry Joel, no way to search for Trails yet. However, we are thinking about further integrating the EveryTrail API so you could search their trail DB, insead of just doing uploads.

Better than Motion-X huh? You make me feel all warm and fuzzy. Feel free to say something to that effect in your review :)

There are some trails in the Places list, but not based on the trail track. USGS just has a waypoint indicator for a bunch of popular trails.

This is fantastic work guys, thanks for doing this. It's especially useful since Topozone.com became expensive.

Anyone who's had to head to EMS to pick up paper trail maps or spend hundreds on the National Geographic map packs (me) should be equally ecstatic.

Distant, distant future feature request: a little augmented reality - let me mount it on my dash and display a 3D view of what I'm looking at.

Thanks for the compliment, and let me just say... we bought the Nati-Geo map software for over $100, and MyTopo's maps have more details, more trails, and more landmarks. Just hands down better.

And were working on a game overlay for this now called Gaia Quest :)

Stay tuned!

That seems like a great app - well done.

Minor niggle, change the tacky stock photos in the header and footer of your web page. People make subconscious judgments on the quality of your product by subtle clues they pick up on in how you present it. You've done all that hard work in the coding, seems a shame to not to maximise your potential sales by not giving your full attention to your sales page.

There's not stock photos in the header, though there are in the footer :)

And I guess I just disagree. I think our designer did a great job, and the page conveys the right things.

I thought the same thing as movix- that footer is definitely the weak point of the page.

I get it- they are supposed to convey travel/adventure/situations where your app would be useful- but the images mostly communicate "hastily edited clip art" to me. (Maybe try the same gradient as the header?)

Otherwise, nicely done.

hey, i don't know if your particular market knows all about this and i don't but you mention "kalmin filter" for improved accuracy. I doubt many users know this term, certainly not your average hiker. I think including an explanation would make the site more accessible for users

I did include a description, but buried it. I was hoping people would be intrigued and Google it.

Here's is the description (from http://www.gaiagps.com/acknowledgments)

Kevin Lacker's Kalman Filter - Underneath the hood, Gaia GPS uses a "Kalman Filter" to get more accuracy from the iPhone GPS. The Kalman Filter code was written by Kevin Lacker, a technical advisor to the Gaia GPS team, and egineer at Google. The Kalman Filter code is now open source and available for anyone to use. You can read more about Kalman Filters on Wikipedia, and you can download the source code on GitHub.

"engineer". Otherwise, very nicely put together, I feel.

Fixed.

The Kalman filter code is in C and available via Github in case you're curious to take a look -

http://github.com/lacker/ikalman

Any chance we could get some votes on our gimmick marketing post on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/9mr0z/ok_reddit_...

Andrew, I don't hike, but a buddy of mine is always hiking. I forwarded him the link. Very cool looking screenshot on the homepage. I almost want to buy the app just to see it work as I walk down the street for coffee. Good luck with the app.

Hey, thanks a lot!

Even if you don't hike, this app is pretty useful. I don't know if you have bought an offline maps app, but that's built into this. So you can select sections of OSM or MyTopo maps.

Taking geo-tagged photos around the city is fun too :)

the app looks great. as a hiker the topo maps excited me more than anything else. paper maps are expensive!

only other thing is i wonder why you don't use mapkit for regular maps instead of another map source. with mapkit you get the same great user experience user's expect and all the mapkit improvements coming for free.

We used route-me, since with mapkit we wouldn't have been able to draw tracks or download tiles for offline use.

Can I buy this in the UK? I clicked on the AppStore link on your web site which took me to a general iTunes splash page.

No, sorry, we aren't selling this internationally right now, because the Topo maps only cover the US and Canada. We will be releasing an international version, as well as two other apps that will be available near you soon: Gaia Maps and Gaia Places.

Maps and Places are cheaper and are standalone features from Gaia GPS.

Hi Andrew,

I like it. My 2 cents:

1) Once i read your statement below I understand the app. I think you should make it plainly obvious that the app is for hiking (if that is your target market)

2) (This is based off the assumption that the target is hikers) The people who will use this are outdoors people. The app gui should be geared towards the market. I feel the app & web layout is geared for the high tech crew. Look at some legendary brands' color schemes (http://www.coleman.com/). Maybe partner up with a casing designer to provide rugged iphone cases (they'll be taking their iphone outdoors).

3) Why are you better than GPS motionx?

Cool app and I hope you can give me your feedback when our (phone halo) app releases.

Hey CGH,

Thanks for your comments. I've thought about each of these issues:

1 & 2) We want to market the app to anyone who wants to take a track. It being for hikers is a nice bonus, but in our experience, the market isn't big enough. We have a fairly successful app called TrailBehind just for hikers, but we hope people use this for cars, road-biking, etc.

Note that we did have art for this app that was for hikers - just like www.trailbehind.com - but we changed it for a broader appeal.

3. We are better than Motion X for the following reasons:

- we have MyTopo maps

- we have far more complete waypoint search

- I would argue our GUI is simpler

- on things like track accuracy and batter consumption, we are equal if not better

Thanks for getting back on my questions. Hope to see your app in the top 20.

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