Apple My friends made a navigation app for walking

A bunch of friends from my (ex) university made an awesome (and free!) navigation app for traveling around on foot. They got the idea after some music festival (I think it was Coachella 2011) when it was impossible for them to navigate the festival on foot for lack of maps and proper signage. While its genesis was in a music festival (and it was pretty popular at Coachella this year) it's useful for any sort of walking anywhere, as long as you know the start and end points.

For example, I used it whilst hunting a few weeks ago, and set the destination as the cabin where we were staying, so I could wherever I wanted and still know which way was home. I went out for kilometres in the jungle and had no trouble getting back. I also used it to calculate as-the-crow-flies distances from my home to various places around the world, so that I could make one of these signs.

It's iOS only at the moment (hardware issues with Android phones, since the app needs a compass and a reliable one at that) but since some of the devs and their friends are Android users, they are trying to get it together for other platforms as well. No timeframe on that.

Anyway, the app is called Falcon and if any of you are interested, give it a whirl!


Just to be clear - I wasn't and am not part of the dev team for this app. I did help them with some UI tweaks and general ideas during alpha and beta testing. I have nothing to gain from this plug except the joy of seeing my friends' app gain traction in the marketplace. They aren't making any money off it and it is completely ad-free.

 

That looks pretty good actually, if it was on Android I'd definitely try it out.

I assume you can also set your current position as a start point, so you can wander at will and find your way back to where you started from? I can think of so many uses for this.

 

Jep. Like I said, I did that on the hunting trip.

 

Just downloaded it on my 4S. Interesting idea. I'll give it a try when I'm next out and about

 

That’s great! I will try it out whenever I get an opportunity.