• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Froogloid ~ a2b Application coming soon!

Hi everyone, we're releasing our first android application this week, a2b. Simply put, it's a navigation application.

A2B - GPS with a brain! Have you ever lost your car in the parking lot? How about getting lost in the woods, on campus, or even on the lake? With a2b you’ll never be lost again! a2b provides an intuitive, easy solution for navigating from point A to point B and back again. GPS with a directional arrow, pictures, notes, and voice recordings to get you back to where you need to be!


Check out the user video I've recently posted on our site. Any comments, suggestions, or opinions are appreciated. Thanks!

http://froogloid.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/android-fee-based-downloads-game-on/
 

Attachments

  • a2b icon copy.jpg
    a2b icon copy.jpg
    7.1 KB · Views: 485
the video didn't show any interfacing with maps... so are we to assume that A2B is not a traditional driving gps app with anything like a turn by turn point to point navigation app?

You didn't see the map? There are 3 tabs when navigating from point A to point B; Map tab which provides a directional arrow, distance b/w both points, and way points for both A and B; Picture tab which provides a picture of location you're navigating to; Notes tab which shows free text notes as well as provides playback of the voice recording.

Here's the youtube link to the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYPK_-sowHs

Hope this helps.
 
Upvote 0
Yes I had looked at the video before, and from what I could see the the line between point A and B was a straight line and did not take in a path by streets... so i could not tell from video that there was an underlying map present ...

BTW the music playing in the background is very distracting to the presentation ...

Another question is .... Does the program lend inself to setting waypoints ... like for camping or hiking ... you start out just exploring and want to record points along the way that you can use to find your way back ... ?
 
Upvote 0
That looks really awesome guys...nice job on the video and the app.

@jim - It would seem it is gps oriented so anywhere you can use gps would seem to work. Though by the title you would have to constantly set up points along the way, which would allow you "get back" the way you came.

They could probably in the future add, a-b-c-"n" so that like Google Maps you can have multiple stops saved in a trip.
 
Upvote 0
Yes I had looked at the video before, and from what I could see the the line between point A and B was a straight line and did not take in a path by streets... so i could not tell from video that there was an underlying map present ...

BTW the music playing in the background is very distracting to the presentation ...

Another question is .... Does the program lend inself to setting waypoints ... like for camping or hiking ... you start out just exploring and want to record points along the way that you can use to find your way back ... ?

It definitely integrates with a map.... google maps. The reason a straight line is used is to keep it simple. Additional way points could certainly be added, and with minimal development, but for all intents and purposes for this app it might not make that much sense. Bottom line, we're trying to navigate a user from their current location (point A) to the previously stored location (point B). How the user arrived at there current location is somewhat irrelevant.

Btw, I agree with the music.....this video was shot in an outdoor mall and my video editing skills are not savvy enough to edit out the annoying background music...
 
Upvote 0
One more thing for the dev, I was just in the downtown area and got turned around, it might help if you showed a video not related to use in a car situation but more like a tourist might use it. For example, "set location" of my hotel and then go out into the city and use it to get back.

This is a great idea. We plan on shooting several how-to videos.... navigating in downtown...on a lake...hiking... etc etc etc.... there are a wide variety of uses for this application, not just locating your car.

Btw, thanks for the positive comments!
 
Upvote 0
As long as you are posting here...question...how do you feel about the Google My Tracks app? I see yours as simple for the everyday user and their's as more complex for a very small niche market. Honestly a bit unlike them.

One word of caution, your app is basically a "feature" of their maps. When they added "Latitude" it eliminated a lot of other G1 social mapping apps, though most boast more features and other things, the basic premise was just a feature.

I think if you keep evolving your software it will make harder for them to swipe at this. Maybe somehow work with 1 click direction or some of the other mapping apps.
 
Upvote 0
As long as you are posting here...question...how do you feel about the Google My Tracks app? I see yours as simple for the everyday user and their's as more complex for a very small niche market. Honestly a bit unlike them.

One word of caution, your app is basically a "feature" of their maps. When they added "Latitude" it eliminated a lot of other G1 social mapping apps, though most boast more features and other things, the basic premise was just a feature.

I think if you keep evolving your software it will make harder for them to swipe at this. Maybe somehow work with 1 click direction or some of the other mapping apps.

Ironically enough, I just finished walking my dog (Bert the wiener dog) and I used MyTrack every step of the way! I really like this app! For what it's designed to do, which is track a path you've taken, it does a very good job! Bert and I walked 2.02 miles at an average speed of 2.93 mph :) Keep in mind, MyTrack is not a navigation app and thus can not be used to navigate you back to any previous location. It merely tracks where you've been and provides statistics regarding your journey. Regarding latitude features, as touched upon, latitude is designed for social networking. As such, it shares your current location with your friends and vice verse. a2b is not a social networking app, nor is it a tracking app.
Simply put it navigates you from point A (your current location) to point B (a previous location you've stored). In addition it also allows you take a picture of Point B (your car, a store front...anything you want), let's you make a voice recording ("the trail head starts on the north side of walnut creek"), and also allows you type a free text note about the saved location. Once you're ready to navigate back to point B you can use this information to remind you of how to find your way back to point B!

I think you'll find our application is very distinct from others and I'm sure you can find some terrific uses for it!
 
Upvote 0
Ironically enough, I just finished walking my dog (Bert the wiener dog) and I used MyTrack every step of the way! I really like this app! For what it's designed to do, which is track a path you've taken, it does a very good job! Bert and I walked 2.02 miles at an average speed of 2.93 mph :) Keep in mind, MyTrack is not a navigation app and thus can not be used to navigate you back to any previous location. It merely tracks where you've been and provides statistics regarding your journey. Regarding latitude features, as touched upon, latitude is designed for social networking. As such, it shares your current location with your friends and vice verse. a2b is not a social networking app, nor is it a tracking app.
Simply put it navigates you from point A (your current location) to point B (a previous location you've stored). In addition it also allows you take a picture of Point B (your car, a store front...anything you want), let's you make a voice recording ("the trail head starts on the north side of walnut creek"), and also allows you type a free text note about the saved location. Once you're ready to navigate back to point B you can use this information to remind you of how to find your way back to point B!

I think you'll find our application is very distinct from others and I'm sure you can find some terrific uses for it!

I think the app is distinct and looks great. I realized I might have been a bit unclear...

I think in general a lot of devs on new platforms (myself included) get involved in developing a missing feature, which often times is very useful to the userbase. My word of business caution was that Google or TeleNav (when released) could easily add your apps feature set to theirs. While your app would still exist, it might be redundant. Atrackdog is the first example of this. While I liked that app a lot, it seems to be un-needed these days with the RC33 update.

In the same regard I understand exactly what Latitude is, and was not comparing it to your app, but more to the other location based social apps in the Market. (and actually Latitude is going to be a Google product not just an Android product so it will likely push many mobile app developers for other platforms as well.)

It is just a worry I always express, that a great feature is tough to capitalize on when a large company can throw their resources around and use their brand name. Google has done this very well with acquisitions or just building something better - maps, youtube, gmail, calendar, etc and then letting a large eyeball population go to town.

I remember a great application for the Palm, that allowed you to use a desktop and web sync to share 2 people's calendars. Google's Calendar makes this a feature. [/soapbox]

Anyway...when does it come out?
 
Upvote 0
The app is ready, we're waiting on google to kick off fee based downloads. I just blogged about it here http://froogloid.wordpress.com/2009/02/18/hello-world-i-think-froogloid-is-ready/

Honestly, even if our app does become obsolete, I'm not worried. As our mission statement for Froogloid reads, "if you're not riding the wave of change, you're getting swallowed alive". :) a2b is only the first of many other user friendly, robust apps that we plan on releasing.

FYI, once the app is "officially" for sale on the marketplace, I'll post up here.
 
Upvote 0
The app is ready, we're waiting on google to kick off fee based downloads. I just blogged about it here http://froogloid.wordpress.com/2009/02/18/hello-world-i-think-froogloid-is-ready/

Honestly, even if our app does become obsolete, I'm not worried. As our mission statement for Froogloid reads, "if you're not riding the wave of change, you're getting swallowed alive". :) a2b is only the first of many other user friendly, robust apps that we plan on releasing.

FYI, once the app is "officially" for sale on the marketplace, I'll post up here.

Forgot to ask before will the app only use GPS or will cell-location be available as well ? and what happens when I am hiking ,,, I have GPS but no data and therefor no maps .. do I still get bearings / compass to find my way back to my "B" point ?
 
Upvote 0
Forgot to ask before will the app only use GPS or will cell-location be available as well ? and what happens when I am hiking ,,, I have GPS but no data and therefor no maps .. do I still get bearings / compass to find my way back to my "B" point ?

Great questions. If cell tower triangulation AND GPS are available, a2b will default to using GPS. If you don't have a data connect unfortunately the map will not show.... however... here's the cool part. Since the on screen directional arrow relies on GPS and the accelerometer/compass hardware you will always have an on screen navigation arrow to lead you to point B!
 
Upvote 0
Great questions. If cell tower triangulation AND GPS are available, a2b will default to using GPS. If you don't have a data connect unfortunately the map will not show.... however... here's the cool part. Since the on screen directional arrow relies on GPS and the accelerometer/compass hardware you will always have an on screen navigation arrow to lead you to point B!


That's great to know ... since the bearing/compass will be the critical parts in the woods :)
 
Upvote 0
Upvote 0
Upvote 0
WASH DC ... Just starting getting paid apps ... But market is slow.... first sign I got was network not responding while I was trying to update older apps ...

lots to explore now ....

There doesn't seem to be any order or rime or reason to how the appear in the list ... even if they are suppose to be in there by date .... (maybe date submitted) ... ???
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones