The Next Web

Mobile Dead: go on a New York killing spree with your Blackberry

Written on October 30, 2008 – 3:14 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

The people from Perk Mobile are helping companies out which have no idea what to do with “this new mobile web thing”. Some of the world’s largest companies ask the New Yorkers to figure out problems concerning mobile devices and software.

But the consultant life alone isn’t enough for them. They need some excitement - something weird. I know one of the founders personally, even consider him a great friend, and seriously, I haven’t met anyone with such a bizarre sense of humor that even comes close to his. I could go into details here, but let’s skip that for now and see how these New York city boys fulfill their somewhat freaky needs.

What about… a zombie-themed location-based game? Grab your Blackberry, hit the streets of Manhattan, and slash some random strangers. You might even become friends afterwards. That’s basically the idea behind Mobile Dead. It uses GPS (or other location data) to find your position and the position of your enemies. You’ll recognize them by their color. Humans are blue, zombies green.

Of course it’s a bit more sophisticated than that, as you can also pick up items along the way. Such as health packages and weapons. Use the latter in fights, which consists of taking turns in slashing. You hit, wait for the nasty reply, and hit again.

It will be interesting times for the developers, as they need a lot of participants before the game becomes interesting. Supporting of the iPhone, Android, and other smart phones will definitely help. One thing is for sure, they’ve picked the right city. Everybody’s commuting all the time over there.

Wikiloc, how a hobby grows into a Google darling

Written on September 1, 2008 – 11:20 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

It must be a real pleasure when you’re a Google Maps developer and see some people taking your product to the next level. Like Jordi Ramot did. He’s a Spanish software engineer specializing in geospatial interoperability field and when he’s not behind his computer, he likes to be in the mountains hiking, back-country skiing or mountain biking. Since 2006, he has been developing Wikiloc, a Maps mash-up that allows users to upload GPS waypoints and trails so that other outdoor fans can use it on their trips.

It started as a hobby project, but has grown to a large community of thousands of outdoor enthusiasts sharing their best outdoor routes from anywhere around the world. Several voluntary translators have made the service available in twelve languages. Ramot told Spanish Web 2.0 blog that Wikiloc recently has become a full time project.

And it gets even better now that Google has announced the integration of Wikiloc in Google Earth. Users can now pick routes from the Wikiloc layer. So if you ever feel like skiing near La Monta in Switzerland, be sure to check this map:

Even when you’re not into the whole outdoor extreme sports thing, this post still is relevant to you. It shows that with enough passion, you can even let a hobby project become a successful company.

Travel sites wake up: Nokia to offer €8 mobile Lonely Planet guides

Written on August 22, 2008 – 7:39 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Cnet reports that Nokia has announced a deal with travel guide empire Lonely Planet to sell mobile versions of their books to Nokia Maps 2.0 users. Traveling Nokia users will be able to download information for than 100 cities - and that’s just the first shipment.

This perfectly fits into Nokia’s plans to become a service company. To honor this strategy, the Finnish company earlier acquired Navteq ($8.1 billion) and geo localization social network Plazes (undisclosed)

What struck me about the partnership, is the price for each download. Nokia users will have to pay €7.99 to download the maps and background info to their mobile. I’m pretty sure people would be willing to pay this if there were no free alternatives. Isn’t it about time for some travel sites to offer some?

Of course there are services like Tripsay (review here) and Wikitude, which are accessible via mobile phone. Wikitude even works like a location based service, offering you Wikipedia pages based on your GPS position. But the problem is, mobile Internet in other countries than your own is way too expensive.

As long as international data plans aren’t mainstream, mobile travel guides are not so interesting when traveling abroad. What we really need, is a service that offers travel guides of great quality which can be installed as apps. Maybe they are around already, but not really salient. But as soon these guides become more popular, Nokia and Lonely Planet will only reach the hardcore fans and those afraid of new ideas. The rest will be savvy enough to look it up for free. So Tripsay, Wikitude, and competitors.., wake up!

Ipoki.com, GPS-based social networking

Written on August 5, 2008 – 8:47 am
Joop Dorresteijn, Contributing editor

Every week we publish an interview with a start-up. We ask five questions, hoping the answers will give you inspiration and new views.

This time we’re interviewing Diego Fernández Domínguez, the co-founder of ipoki.com. Ipoki lets you get the most of your GPS by connecting you with others to share geolocation information. Ipoki lets you share your current location with others in real-time. Also, you can see where your friends are and track them on Google Maps and Google Earth. Ipoki lets you keep track of your routes and use it to geolocate photos in flickr automatically. Invite your friends to see where you are and find and follow them across the world.

How did you come up with the idea of your Ipoki?

“We started to work on Ipoki when the firsts GPS-enabled mobile-phones were put on the market. We notice that there were some services on the market about geolocation without its democratic internet version (open and free).
First, we started creating some location based services like put and get alerts fro users around specific places, but then we realize that we need to add social features to our services if we want to make it really massive, opened and easy for every possible internet user.
So, we decided to create a social network based on location sharing. People share photos, videos and a lot of things over the internet and we think that it would be very interesting to share your location in real-time with accuracy, like some pay-services plus social features.
Finally, we have added new services to our social network like integrations with Twitter, Flickr or Facebook.” (more…)

Bikelogger: GPS tracking service for cyclists

Written on June 8, 2008 – 9:00 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Geeks like you and me need to work out, especially in the summer. We can’t spend the whole week behind our PC without developing symptoms like an ever growing belly, sun-frightened skin, and black pouches under our eyes. So I’m looking for ways to stay fit. I play ping-pong, hallway soccer, and basketball with my Next Web office buddies, but that’s more about the fun. No, I’d to like sport more seriously, like long-distance cycling. Yet, as a city boy, I have no idea where to go on my bike. German-based start-up Bikelogger is going to help me out. This GPS tracking service helps people find biking pals and saves all the tracks of the community by using the Google Maps API.

Who else than a bike fanatic like Bikelogging founder and CEO Manuel Kirchner can explain better what this service is about? In the opening post on the Bikelogger corporate blog he wrote:

The basic idea of bikelogger is to constantly upload the tracklog of your GPS system, so that friends and other bikers can watch your tracks, download interesting routes and find bike partners in your area.

Geo localization is the next big thing in social networking. It will make the whole experience a different - and more exciting - dimension. I’d love to go to a club and see which Facebook friends are there as well. So it’s not surprising that many developers are now working on the geo localization killer-app. Bikkelogger won’t be the one, but I’m sure Kirchner found himself a good niche within this trend. Cyclists are real sportsmen who in general tend to be crazy about their bike. So a useful application that also gives them the possibility to connect with other bicycle-minded folks will be a welcome attribution to their digital life.

Success won’t come for free though. The beta version of Bikelogger misses a sports-appeal as the design is plain boring. Also, cyclists would probably want to show off with their incredible tracks on Facebook and blogs. Hence the call for some more API magic. If Kirchner combines this with some serious community management, he might become a well-known name in the bicyclists scene.