I joined this forum a couple months back because a user left a nice review about our iPhone app, Gaia GPS. I found out when people started hitting my website. Here's that thread: http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=29598

So, I thought people might like to know we have released Gaia GPS for Android now, too. It's not as feature rich as the iPhone app yet, but it provides national topo maps, online and off, and we are adding waypoints, tracking, and other features one by one.

While I think it looks cool to have topo maps on my droid eris, but i'm wondering about the practicality of putting my compass over my phone to set bearings and so forth. Any chance there will be a free version so i can test this out?

I'm getting ready to buy a Android phone, I'm with Verizon. Knowing this will help.

Now if I can just decide if the excellent fringe area performance of the Motorola Droid phone makes up for the weight, size and performance penalty compared to the HTC Incredible.

Or should I wait till the perfect phone comes out? Sigh, sometimes too much knowledge is just that.

And no I am not waiting for CDMA iPhone. Android will end up ruling. All the forecasters are saying this. And the options will be there that Apple will never allow.

No Demo, no tracking no waypoints...

No thanks

Yeah, but compared to Backpacking magazine's app, which is $10 with no demo, that's a steal!

10 bucks isn't a lot of money period. Having said that it's software and I'd like the ability to demo it.

Agreed - many paid apps for android have a "lite", ad-supported version for that reason.

Honestly, at this point I'd rather use the $10 Backpacker.com app than the Gaia even it were free.

FWIW, the Gaia app on the iPhone has a devoted following and is quite feature rich. OP says the android app isn't as feature rich yet, but that he'll be adding features as they update the app. I have no doubt he will, judging from his 'performance' on the iPhone app.

Having said all that, I'm one of those who doesn't believe a smartphone makes for a very good gps for backpacking. The battery life of even the best smartphone is dismal for such a purpose.

"Android will end up ruling. All the forecasters are saying this. And the options will be there that Apple will never allow."

Well, not all. In fact some are saying the opposite -- that many consumers prefer the consistent experience that the iPhone and its associated store allow (and other Apple products). Many consumers feel that there's little that Apple won't allow that they need/want.

It will certainly be interesting to see how it all shakes out. I certainly don't believe that Apple will stay atop forever, but I also don't think its in danger of falling any time soon.

lol Flash support will be a good start for Apple. But it will never happen. Well atleast not until they lose enough market share.

There are, of course, lots of different ways people think about that. I'm one who is glad to not have flash support - I have it blocked in my desktop browser and simply stay away from any site that's unusable without it. And I really doubt they lose much market share because of the lack of flash support, at least the numbers don't bear that out at the moment.

I think it's flash that will eventually lose out to HTML 5, and there are many others who think the same. But, of course, as always, YMMV.

Hi Andrew

I have let this one pass, but in future could you post commercial-type announcements in Gear Deals please. That's Forum policy.

Thanks
Roger Caffin
Online Community Monitor
Backpacking Light

Douglas. HTML 5 will never take over Flash. From the perspective of a designer yes I can make a photo slide show but I can't animate custom graphics etc. So the Flash platform will exist for a while. (Think cartoons.) Unless I output to a video then stream something with HTML 5.

Hi Andrew, cool app well done. Can I import my own bitmaps and calibrate them?

Hey everyone,

To answer all the questions and comments here:

1) First, I apologize to the moderator and I won't post these here anymore.

2) If anyone wants to demo the app, you can use this. This will limit the caching of tiles but it otherwise fully functional. We plan to put this on the market soon so anyone can demo first: http://www.gaiagps.com/static/beta_builds/GaiaGPS-beta-dist.apk

3) It's also worth pointing out that the Android Market makes it exceptionally easy to get a refund on any app. After you buy an app, the Buy button is replaced by a Refund button. It's as simple to get your money back as it is to spend it (unlike on the iPhone).

4) We will be adding tracking and waypoints. Since our release last Monday, we have already added UTM and other kind of coordinates, and we plan to have waypoint-marking using any coordinate type out next week.

5) We will also be adding a compass overlay to the map for those phones with compasses (most Androids seem to have them).

6) In response to the last question, you cannot import your own maps. Maybe sometime in the future though… we are working on digitizing a bunch of map content and this will lead to tools to let you do it too.

Edited by trailbehind on 05/26/2010 13:07:29 MDT.

Just to be clear, you can refund ANY app from the android market up to 24 hours after your purchase. Once 24 hours have passed you own it.

If you get a refund and then download the app again you will not be given the chance to refund again.

I'm glad to learn that... I didn't know that button ever went away :)

We're new to the Android platform, and there are lots of differences between iPhone/Android. Some better, some worse, but all in all I think I like Google's approach better than Apple's.