I wanted to spotlight these two tracks a couple of users published to GaiaCloud today and yesterday. They both have gorgeous pictures and a cool track!
Here’s a hike near Reno showcasing a heck of a sunset.
And here’s a hike around Stinson Beach, north of San Francisco – bright red berries, beautiful trees, and a jaunt down to the sand.
Our online map viewer is now to the point where you can link to a set of layers, along with the center and zoom of the map.
For example, here you can see MapBox Cloudless Aerial imagery, overlaid with GMUs, WMAs, and public land ownership. This is a good combination for hunters, and you can achieve the same layered effect, offline in the woods, with Gaia GPS for iOS. Or perhaps you would like to overlay US Forest Service Maps over the more broad coverage of the USGS maps – this is a very typical combination for me hiking around Tahoe.
Like Gaia GPS, this web viewer already brings together a really useful and diverse array of maps from CalTopo, MapBox, and ThunderForest. We are also doing a lot with Leaflet and TileMill now, to expand map coverage, and the tools you can use online with these maps.
We love our little nook in Berkeley.
Yesterday, we quietly released a big update to the beta version of Gaia GPS for Android, and we plan to roll these changes into the main version next week, just in time for Christmas.
Most notably, this release lets you add photos to waypoints and tracks, and you can also tilt and rotate the map for a semi-3D mode. With photos, we’re getting very close to feature parity between iOS and Android, and we should get all the way there before the spring. The 3D additions on Android are also something the iOS doesn’t have at all. Here’s a peak at tilted topos:
Tilted Topos on Gaia GPS for Android
We wrote up a quick Help article to tell you how to customize the stats that show on the bottom of the map on Android. It’s easy to do, but hard to spot!
We also have a big Android release coming this week or next… stay tuned.
These days, everyone “checks in” code at Gaia GPS – all seven of us checked in some sort of technical work this month. Like many software developers out there, we use GitHub.com to collaborate and keep our code in version control, and we see “check-ins” flow in each day.
This is what we do in our office each day, and how we spend the money you spend with us:
Android – Jesse & Anna – Jesse and Anna are both hard at work on our Android app, and we’ll have a new release for Gaia for Android out today.
GaiaCloud – Anting – Between classes at Berkeley, Anting has made many improvements to cloud.gaiagps.com recently, ranging from bug fixes, to KML uploads, to improvements to the Gallery page this Monday – continuing his work from his internship this summer.
Maps – Savannah – Savannah completed two maps using CartoCSS and PostGres, via TileMill – US Inland Rivers and USGS Geology. She also leads our user support, and wears many hats in general.
GaiaGPS.com – Steve – Our website has long been in need of some improvements, and Steve has done a lot to make the site convey more information and behave like a modern website. Notably, you can now browse Gaia maps on the site, and yesterday Steve overhauled the Apps page as well. The GaiaPro page is up next.
Weather – Ryan, aka GutHook – We are working with a Gaia GPS user in Maine who develops his own trail guide apps, to work on our weather capabilities. He checked in a bunch of interesting stuff this week. Like Jesse, Ryan thru-hiked the PCT.
Bugs and Misc – Andrew – As for me, I’ve has to resuscitate trailbehind.com this week, which failed after Google Maps transitioned to API v3. I also did point releases for Gaia GPS and Skipper to address user-reported bugs.
Earlier this week, we launched a Gaia Maps page that lets people browse our map sources online – useful for potential buyers, or even users who want a convenient look at the map from their laptop or desktop.
We have also now made a few more tweaks to the page:
We re moving along with our development of Skipper, and we just released both an updated app, plus an updated set of Inland River Charts from the Army Corps of Engineers. I’m happy to report that Skipper has accrued almost 1,000 paying subscribers since we started in August, and Skipper is used by hundreds of boaters daily.
Our last update, v1.2, was a big overhaul, and 1.3 is limited to bug fixes and optimizations. A few hours after Skipper 1.3’s initial release, the app has been loaded hundreds of times and is super-solid, besides being packed with features of data collection and charting on the water.
Skipper also now has good charts of the Mississippi and other central rivers, along with NOAA charts, USGS topos, and satellite imagery of the world.
Jesse is off in Nepal for his honeymoon, “dog-fooding” the new version of Gaia GPS for Android. Here’s his latest trip report – he has been keeping a daily diary of the trip.
We have now added the ability to upload KML files directly to cloud.gaiagps.com/upload (in addition to GPX). You can also upload pictures along with tracks, directly on the website.
If you use Gaia GPS on iOS or Android, these uploads will automatically sync to your devices via GaiaCloud, for use in your adventures. You can also use this feature without owning the app, so you can share your tracks and view them on the website.