{"id":4330,"date":"2010-07-17T01:22:35","date_gmt":"2010-07-17T05:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/?p=4330"},"modified":"2010-07-17T01:28:30","modified_gmt":"2010-07-17T05:28:30","slug":"everytrail-guides-now-on-iphone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/2010\/07\/17\/everytrail-guides-now-on-iphone\/","title":{"rendered":"Everytrail Guides now on iPhone"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the Big Moment for those of us in the Everytrail Guides Authors Guild (created right here as of this moment, I suppose): Guides are now available on the iPhone (via Everytrail Free<\/a> and Everytrail Pro<\/a>). <\/p>\n

\"Everytrail<\/div>\n

I wish I could brag that I was the most prolific Guide author, but that honor goes to Stuart at Trailspotting,<\/a> who has left the rest of us in the dust with guides for Hawaii, Lassen Volcanic National Park and a host of High Sierra locales.<\/p>\n

This feels very much like the day back in about 1996 when I realized I could learn to create Web pages. Not like being present at the Creation or any such hype — just a sense of being part of something that was going to be huge. <\/p>\n

I felt the same thing the first time I noodled around with my iPhone just two summers ago. When the founder of Everytrail dropped me a note last summer asking if I’d like to be a part of this plan to create location-aware, GPS-enabled travel guides, it took about a half-second to say “when do I start?” (didn’t hurt that my so-called newspaper career perished practically the same day). <\/p>\n

In 10 years every amusement park, shopping mall and museum will be using this kind of technology to help people find their way (to the bathroom, mainly); it’ll be as second-nature as GPS guidance systems in cars. <\/p>\n

Everytrail hopes people will pony up $1.99 for the privilege of using Guides on their iPhones. I can’t imagine outrageous fortunes flowing from that trickle of a revenue stream, but the technology is so new that nobody really knows where it’s going. <\/p>\n

I have no illusions about the hurdles Everytrail has to overcome: I hiked every weekend for half a decade without once using a GPS unit, much less a GPS travel guide. Furthermore, the very idea of taking an iPhone into the wilderness is a huge conceptual leap: after all, it’s a cell phone. Why would you take it where there’s no cell service? Legions of inventors have seen their brilliant, world-shattering ideas wallow in obscurity — just because people can<\/em> do something does not mean they will<\/em>.<\/p>\n

For now, though, it just feels good to be there at the start of something really cool. <\/p>\n

Incidentally, these are my most recent Guides:<\/p>\n