HipGeo weaves travel pics, maps into collage
"If Tumblr and Foursquare had a baby, it would look like the new HipGeo," says the app's Rich Rygg.
If you love sharing your travel stories and photos, road-tripping app HipGeo recently got a redesign that lets users document and share their experiences with remarkable ease.
The free iPhone and iPad app from Los Angeles-based HipGeo passively records your location as you travel. It can then mash your pics and comments into an animated map and travel diary for sharing.
The app tags photos, adds captions, and pinpoints its location on a map. You can share by logging on to the HipGeo site and clicking on "create and share trip." Dead simple.
HipGeo for iPhone was first released in September. An update announced at CES 2012 adds a new blogging format including "place blogs that are crowd-sourced, and redesigned ways to access previously uploaded content tagged "nearby." That can help you discover new places.
You can chronicle your journeys abroad with cell network, roaming, and data links turned off to save money. HipGeo caches the GPS points and photos until you reach a Wi-Fi signal.
Meanwhile, if you don't want it tracking your every move, you can change the settings to only record certain locations.
The fine print, however, does warn that tracking GPS in the background "can dramatically decrease battery life."
HipGeo is attractive in that it seamlessly combines tools that are already popular on other platforms and redefines the social aspect of travel.
As HipGeo's chief product guy, Rich Rygg, said in a press release, "If Tumblr and Foursquare had a baby, it would look like the new HipGeo."