Gaia GPS

Big Update for Our Online Map

by Staff Reports March 18, 2014

written by Staff Reports

Go look at the Main Map page today, and you will see millions of tracks and POIs representing places you can visit outdoors. Click items on the maps to find out more, and download trip data, or browse the list of nearby reports on the left.

Users of Gaia GPS on iOS and Android have long seen similar POIs overlaid on the map, as have users of our company’s original website trailbehind.com. But, the data we just launched on the GaiaCloud online map is much more expansive and recent. This data is also periodically re-indexed by our crawler, and includes fresh information from sources like Wikipedia, EveryTrail, and of course GaiaCloud.

Displaying these trip reports on the main GaiaCloud map is our first step in sunsetting TrailBehind.com, and fully integrating the web crawler and trip data into the Gaia GPS platform. TrailBehind was our first project when we founded this company, and some of its ideas and technology still suffuse the work we do today!

For this update, all of us users have Gaia’s newest employee Josh Braegger to thank, who is an amazing all-around engineer, and has contributed a bunch to both the GaiaCloud website and Android app in his first couple of months. And of course, Anna Hentzel Johnson, for building the original TrailBehind crawler, about 5 years ago.

March 18, 2014

Gaia GPS v5.3.5 for Android – Route-maker Tweaks

by Staff Reports March 3, 2014

written by Staff Reports

We released a small Android update that has several tweaks and bug fixes, mostly for the new route-maker. You can download it on the Google Play store.

We hope you find making routes a little cleaner and more touchy-feely on Android. You can read the full release notes here.

March 3, 2014

Gaia GPS New Features

Gaia GPS 8.1 for iOS – Auto-Publish Your Tracks

by Staff Reports February 26, 2014

written by Staff Reports

The most important change in version 8.1 of Gaia GPS for iOS is the new ability to “auto-publish” your tracks. There are many smaller changes that you can read about in the releases notes, but that’s the big one.

If you are the sharing type, you can now flip a switch in Gaia GPS to automatically share all of your tracks, on the GaiaCloud public gallery. Or, you can also publish individual tracks rom the Details screen in the app. By doing this, you are helping other people find their way, and letting them use your data to navigate in the forest.

Previously, you could share a track with friends using the app, but to actually make the track public to all people, you had to go to cloud.gaiagps.com. With the 8.1 release, we expect to see an exponential increase in the amount of tracks published, since you can now do it from the app.

Within a few minutes of releasing this update, we are already seeing over 10% more public tracks, and we’ll see many thousands of tracks go public by next week it looks like. Here’s a new public track, brought to you by someone wandering around Italy.

Anyways, lot’s more to come for the season. We’re in the middle of our big spring development effort, and we’ll be rolling out a lot more great changes across iOS, Android, and the web.

February 26, 2014

Gaia GPS New Features

New controls on cloud.gaiagps.com to mass-delete and sync tracks and other data

by Staff Reports February 22, 2014

written by Staff Reports

Many users have asked us for controls on cloud.gaiagps.com to manage data en masse. So, now the pages to view your tracks (and photos, waypoints, routes, and maps) have typical controls to select many items, and set those items to delete or not sync to your devices.

In software, I really do think it’s the little things that count, and starting off with a simple base and working with users to understand their wants and needs leads to the best sort of software. GaiaCloud started off without any web front-end at all – just a service that synced tracks and waypoints (not even photos or maps) between devices, intended to keep that data backed up, and for convenience. That’s what we considered to be the “minimum viable product.”

With all the effort we’ve been able to put into GaiaCloud recently, though, the project has bloomed terrifically, and the website has become one of the distinguishing characteristics of Gaia GPS.

February 22, 2014

Gaia GPS

GaiaCloud Update – Improvements and Stats on Usage

by Staff Reports February 21, 2014

written by Staff Reports

I wanted to take a blog post today to share about some improvements we’ve made to GaiaCloud, along with stats about who is syncing data.

First off, pop over to the Main Map and Trail Gallery, and see the detailed footsteps and photographs of intrepid adventurers from all over the world. We hope you find both pages to be fast and easy-to-use, in helping you find places to go and plan your trips. We have been working to simplify the interface and optimize speed.

We’re putting a lot of work into GaiaCloud, because it’s getting a ton of use. Below you can see a snapshot of our internal stats dashboard. With the recent Apple feature and improvements to the website to make it useful without the iOS or Android app, sign-ups have never been stronger, and we just passed 20,000 people syncing with GaiaCloud in the past week.

From all this usage, the data is piling up. With about 140,000 tracks and 1.4 million waypoints synced so far, Gaia GPS is spending a lot of time in the woods. Look for a big surge in “Public” tracks next week, as the new Gaia GPS release goes live for iOS, which lets app users easily publish one or all of their tracks.

February 21, 2014

Gaia GPS New Features

Route-Planning and More for GaiaPro Subscribers on cloud.gaiagps.com

by Staff Reports February 19, 2014

written by Staff Reports

It’s a big day for GaiaPro, which is extra-special because Gaia GPS is also being featured today on the homepage of Apple.com.

GaiaPro subscribers can now make routes and waypoints on cloud.gaiagps.com (in addition to printing maps). Also, GaiaPro subscriptions now work seamlessly across iOS, Android, and the website, and GaiaPro subscriptions can be purchased conveniently everywhere, too.

The GaiaCloud website is a free resource, which anyone can use. With or without a GaiaPro subscription or app purchase, the website displays great topo and aerial maps of around the world, lets you browse and download public GaiaCloud trails, and upload and share your tracks and photos.

Beyond that, I can also say the best is yet to come. We’re going to keep improving the website, apps, and GaiaPro add-ons, and we have our biggest releases of all coming for spring 2014.

February 19, 2014

Adventures Gaia GPS

Apple Features Gaia GPS in “Your Verse – Elevating the Expedition”

by Staff Reports February 18, 2014

written by Staff Reports

I’m delighted to share that Apple’s “Your Verse” ad campaign is now featuring Gaia GPS.

You can read the story, Elevating the Expedition, in which elite mountain guides Adrian Ballinger and Emily Harrington lead their group to the top of Ama Dablam in the Himalayas, with the aid of Gaia GPS on iPad. This “verse” is foreshadowed in Apple’s TV commercial – you see Adrian and Emily trekking across the Himalayas, echoing the pictures in the web story.

I am told summiting Ama Dablam is a treacherous, technical, and death-defying feat. Our whole team feels honored to have our software carried to such great heights, and to see the name Gaia GPS rise up in the news. We want to see Gaia GPS in all of the wild places on Earth, and with the guides of Alpenglow Expeditions carrying our app, we think we’re much closer to that goal.

We’re doing a sale today on iOS – just $9.99 to celebrate the release of Elevating the Expedition.

February 18, 2014

Gaia GPS

Print Maps with GaiaPro on cloud.gaiagps.com

by Staff Reports February 2, 2014

written by Staff Reports

Anyone with GaiaPro can now print maps online, across a range of topo maps, road maps, and aerial imagery. Just tap the “Print” button in the top right corner of the map, and the printing layout will default to a portrait standard-sized sheet.

You can choose from a variety of paper sizes, set portrait or landscape, and make a nice PDF for printing and sending to friends to print. You can get GaiaPro on either iOS or Android, and coming soon on the web.

This is a simple, but hopefully very useful, printing feature. There is a lot more we can do to enable better printing of maps, to automatically get the right scales and do multi-sheet maps for larger areas. It ends up being a Pandora’s Box sort of feature, but we plan to improve it based on your feedback.

We think having printed maps along is a must for any serious adventure, since electronics are prone to malfunction or run out of batteries at the worst moments. Hopefully compass and map skills won’t be totally lost in our modern life.

Send your comments to support@gaiagps.com.

February 2, 2014

Android Gaia GPS

Gaia GPS for Android Update

by Staff Reports January 31, 2014

written by Staff Reports

We had another furious week of work, and we ended it by pushing a new update for Gaia GPS for Android (5.3.3). The version is available now and has several improvements related to routing and downloading maps.

better controls on Downloads screen (long press items for options)
tap near active route to change what route point you are guiding to
improved routing UI
delete saved maps fast and reliably
fixed incorrect compass readings in landscape orientation (also fixed course-up arrow in landscape)
other bug fixes