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Fog of World

fogofworld.com

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Re: Fog of World

#131

Post by chubs »

MrScruff wrote: post #67
kristofferR wrote: post #20

This looks really nice. I recently switched to Android (which, in my mind, with version 4.1 finally is able to compete with iOS in smoothness/stability while vastly surpassing it in features and usability), so I'm hopeful for an Android version. An Android version would also bring added benefits of smarter/less battery intensive background operation which could make this run all the time. Constant GPS-monitoring like…

* An Android version would also bring added benefits of smarter/less battery intensive background operation which could make this run all the time. Constant GPS-monitoring like Latitude or this seems to run way better on Android for some reason. * I'm curious, what makes you think this would more power efficient on Android?

It's quite simple: most iPhone apps just leave the GPS turned on 100% of the time when in the background, as it's complicated to do otherwise (or you can use the borderline-useless 'significant change' cell-tower location api's).

Android gives you the option of leaving it turned off for 10 mins, fire your app up for a minute, turn the GPS on, then turn it off again and go to sleep for 10 mins again. Huge battery savings. You can technically do this on iOS, but it's a challenge and kinda-sorta breaking the background running rules so big companies like google don't tend to do it in their apps.

There you go :)

Re: Fog of World

#132

Post by InclinedPlane »

podperson wrote: post #84
beatpanda wrote: post #65

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…

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.

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

Re: Fog of World

#133

Post by olliwang »

gurkendoktor wrote: post #129
olliwang wrote: post #121

I'm the creator of this app. I'd like to explain the idea behind this app a bit. Our dream is to go around the world, so we create this geo/map/game hybrid app to remember everywhere we have been in our whole life time. We want to use the exploration map to memorize our entire life when we are old and unable to walk. We also use the map to find out places nearby where we live but we never know. We actually got surpri…

But what if the hotels aren't there anymore? All you'll know is that you have been at these geo-coordinates once. I have the same plan for when I'm old, so I take pictures with my iPhone whenever I want to hold on to a moment (and taking a photo is convenient). The image quality may be crappy, but I end up with one more GPS-tagged picture on the world map. The iPad Photos app nicely visualizes this, before that I'd u…

Even though the hotels aren't there anymore. We can still memorize the hotels we visited before. They are not there, so we can memorize, right?

Mapping photos to the exploration map is planned in future version, or even for a Mac version. But there are a couple of higher priority tasks we need to do before that, such as support for sync between devices.

Re: Fog of World

#134

Post by olliwang »

mainevent wrote: post #130
olliwang wrote: post #121

I'm the creator of this app. I'd like to explain the idea behind this app a bit. Our dream is to go around the world, so we create this geo/map/game hybrid app to remember everywhere we have been in our whole life time. We want to use the exploration map to memorize our entire life when we are old and unable to walk. We also use the map to find out places nearby where we live but we never know. We actually got surpri…

Love the idea. Just downloaded. I agree with some of the other comments that using it in some of the places I've travelled would be unrealistic due to battery life. Would be great if I could import a csv of my Flight Diary data [1] [1] http://flightdiary.net/willjennings

The Flightdiary looks great. We'll invest the possibility of adding it as a import source. Thanks.

Re: Fog of World

#135

Post by densh »

That's an incredible idea. I really wish it was available a desktop application though. Such an app could gather information from multiple sources (including companion mobile apps) and maybe even location-aware social networks. It's useful on a mobile phone but i would rather buy a dedicated gps device to track my progress as constant usage of gps on a phone will definitely decrease it's battery life. Also I really feel uncomfortable handling this kind of historical data to any sort of SaaS. I would definitely pay as high as $10 (or maybe even more) for something like that.

Re: Fog of World

#136

Post by densh »

olliwang wrote: post #121

I'm the creator of this app. I'd like to explain the idea behind this app a bit. Our dream is to go around the world, so we create this geo/map/game hybrid app to remember everywhere we have been in our whole life time. We want to use the exploration map to memorize our entire life when we are old and unable to walk. We also use the map to find out places nearby where we live but we never know. We actually got surpri…

Please do continue your work. I'm especially hopeful to get it as a desktop app for Mac. Thanks for building something really useful but not another social network. Please don't make it social, don't make it a SaaS. Something personal and local is so much better and comforting. (My another comment https://news.ycombinator.com/edit?id=4592630)

Re: Fog of World

#137

Post by olliwang »

densh wrote: post #136
olliwang wrote: post #121

I'm the creator of this app. I'd like to explain the idea behind this app a bit. Our dream is to go around the world, so we create this geo/map/game hybrid app to remember everywhere we have been in our whole life time. We want to use the exploration map to memorize our entire life when we are old and unable to walk. We also use the map to find out places nearby where we live but we never know. We actually got surpri…

Please do continue your work. I'm especially hopeful to get it as a desktop app for Mac. Thanks for building something really useful but not another social network. Please don't make it social, don't make it a SaaS. Something personal and local is so much better and comforting. (My another comment https://news.ycombinator.com/edit?id=4592630 )

Thanks. That's basically what I thought, too. ;)

Re: Fog of World

#138

Post by icebraining »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #132
podperson wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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

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?

Re: Fog of World

#139

Post by olliwang »

jasonkester wrote: post #127
hnriot wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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…

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.

Re: Fog of World

#140

Post by Wintamute »

jasonkester wrote: post #127
hnriot wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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…

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.
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