PinPoint - A simple way to send someone your current location

PinPoint is the latest addition to the FirePin family currently now on the Android platform.


It is a simple way to send someone your current location.

- PinPoint finds your current location and shows you on a map



- You select an email address from your contact list

- They receive your approximate address and a map which they can click to take them to google maps

Get it now from the Android Market Place!

Sending a Trip Map to Twitter from your iPhone

Are you using Twitterrific on the iPhone? It's a great twitter app. Besides twitter browsing and posting, it allows you to send your current location to twitter. But how about putting a whole trip into twitter? 

Here in the office we like twitter. That's why we came up with the simplest possible solution to send any trip ever made with FirePin to twitter conveniently from the iPhone. 

Check out the new twitterrific button in FirePin.

Twitter a FirePin trip:
Until now it was too hard! "Select a trip, share it via email to yourself, copy the link, create a tinyurl, open twitter and paste the link."
From today it's easy to share a trip on twitter from your iPhone. We have released a brand new FirePin feature that does all the work for you and integrates nicely with twitterrific.

1. On your iPhone click the "Maps" button in FirePin.
   
   
   
2. Select a trip you want to add to twitter.
   
   
   
3. Press the twitterrific button.
   
   
   
4. Twitterrific app launches with a tinyurl link to your shared trip. -: Done!
   
   
   

You can download twitterrific for free from the AppStore so you can enjoy this new feature.

An iPhone 3G app that is different

jTribe has finished its first iPhone application. It's called FirePin and is a simple iPhone app that allows a user to track trips. 

We have chosen a minimalist approach and tried to avoid things that we found annoying on other iPhone apps.

Yes it is yet another tracking app. But this one is different. This is not a hard core GPS tracking system. It is about letting other people know where you are on a trip. Sharing and protection were the key design goals of the app.

Introducing our "no sign-up"approach

When the iPhone came out I ended up with 5 new user accounts on the Internet and stopped using apps that ask me to sign-up. Our app does not required the user to sign-up. Install and use it straight away.

"no sign-up" and still protected

The location data that is send to our FirePin location store is kept anonymous. It is impossible (even for us) to conclude who has submitted locations.

Power to the iPhone user

The user can manage and control all data from the iPhone. 

1. Creating new trips, 
   
2. sharing trips with friends and family, 
   
3. accessing trip history and 
   
4. displaying trips in the iPhone Map application.

However, access through  a non-iPhone web browser is also possible and supported and offers some more advanced feature such as post-editing trips interactively in our integrated Google Maps application. 

We are using it too

The jTribe folks (who are owners of an iPhone) are using FirePin too. Our first-time users thought: "Why should I use this app?" But then we found heaps of useful things we could do with it and it became kind of addictive. 

Things to do with FirePin

1. Letting our partners know how far we away from home.
2. Sharing our holiday trips.
3. Letting coworkers know how far we away (when stuck in traffic and running late for a meeting).
4. Record outdoor activities such as running, bike riding, hiking (not swimming).
5. Mark a fishing trip and keep it for later reference.
6. Share a trip with family members so they can track you on your way to a family gathering.
   

We hope that other iPhone users find it as useful as we do.

Ah yes, and it's actually free!

FirePin v1.0 ready for Apple AppStore.

After weeks of team discussions, heaps of trips to get test data by driving around in cars, trains, bikes, and on rollerblades. After weeks walking around in the office or around the office building - annoying our co-workers at the OpenHub. After visiting remote areas of Australia. After a lot of fun developing the FirePin service and iPhone Application we decided that it is time to show FirePin to the rest of the world by putting it in the Apple AppStore. 

Here is what you will see in the AppStore Description:

FirePin uses integrated location services to record any trips you make with your iPhone.

Your path is shown as a series of pins on the iPhone’s built-in google map, and is also accessible on the web.

Why is FirePin different?

1: FirePin is simple, non-technical and does exactly what it claims to do.

2: Quick start: just name your trip and press go.

3: Trips are stored online and securely web accessible but NO registration is required, providing complete anonymity.

4: Share trips easily and instantly from the iPhone, allowing a friend and family to monitor your progress.

5: This app and all updates will remain free until iPhone’s ‘push’ functionality is enabled by Apple. Even then we will look after our early users.

What others see when you share

In case you are wondering what other people see when you are sharing a trip we have published a "real" trip here that was shared and sent to 30 friends so they could see me traveling (live) and arriving (alive) at a campsite 500km from Melbourne.

http://firepin.com/map/mallacoota-02/55974050-68b8-012b-ee63-12313a0074a8