erebrus Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Hi everyone, I'm relatively to this whole scene. Still, as many of you, I've wondered what to do to share my trips with my loved ones when I'm the road. So I created this mobile app, that allows me to record my route, add geo-referenced photos and notes and then publish this on a website I also developed. The website ends up working as a travel blog which you can see here http://www.roamingonwheels.com . It animates the route we've done, placing pictures and notes on their position in the map and also displaying them on a side panel as a travel blog. On top of that, the mobile app also also allows you to record expenses, like gas, parking, tolls, and then compute statistics like average speeds and fuel consumption by each trip segment. This part isn't visible in the website yet though, just in the mobile app for now. I did this primarily for myself, but some friends have insisted that maybe other people would find it useful to use something like this. If there would be interest I could make this available to others, but I'd only want to go through that work if this was actually something that others would use it also. As such, I thought that maybe this forum would be a good place to ask. What do you guys think? I'm looking forward to hear your thoughts. Thank you! PS: If you find any bugs don't judge me too harshly hehe PPS: If you have questions on how to use the website, let me know please, but mostly you just use the back/play/forward controls display the trip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erebrus Posted January 15, 2015 Author Share Posted January 15, 2015 Hi everyone, It was brought to my attention by a friendly forum user that the likely reason for the lack of feedback (even if many have visited the website from this forum) was the "fear" that I was selling something. I was actually just sharing, but meanwhile there has been a great deal of interest in other forums, so I've had to look into what would it take to allow others to use it and there are hosting costs involved so if I move forward I'll have to charge a minimum to cover those costs. I don't mind sharing with others the product of (hundreds of) hours of work, but it isn't really feasible to pay for hosting for everyone else. I'm also looking at funding alternatives, but it's still too early to know. In any case, I'm not sure yet if I'll decide to do it, because currently I have something more or less unique for myself, and I have to evaluate of losing that and still having to do much more work would be worth it, since I wouldn't be making a profit and my end goal would be to try to create a community where people could share their trips and be both inspired and well-informed for planning their own trips. If anyone feels interested in using it, just let me know using the contact link in the website and I'll give you the details. I'm gathering interested people and then I'll conduct a survey with them to see exactly the best way to proceed. Safe travels! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve64 Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 I must be missing something as the link takes me to a site with a name at the top Roaming on wheels and then no other information or data at all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erebrus Posted January 16, 2015 Author Share Posted January 16, 2015 Hi, Thank you for the reply. Somebody commented in another forum that his adblock was blocking the rest of the site. The site has no ads, so I'm not sure why it happens. It doesn't happen with my adblock. Could you check if its being blocked by your adblocker? Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keithl Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Yep, being blocked by my adblocker as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erebrus Posted January 16, 2015 Author Share Posted January 16, 2015 Could you tell me which adblocker do you use? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keithl Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 AdBlock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanS Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Hi It works perfectly and what a useful tool. I have not read much of the text but had a quick look at the pictures and the mapping. How clever are you ! Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyishuk Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Just to say that when I loaded the site (Firefox, no adblocker on XP laptop) nothing showed apart from the banner and the loading indicator was static. However when I refreshed the site by clicking the refresh on the web address bar, the site did load. Maybe it takes a time to cache material ? After loading seem to do what it said on the Tin (so as to speak) Rgds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Joe90 Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Works OK on Google Chrome...........now do you want to come round to see my pictures. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erebrus Posted January 19, 2015 Author Share Posted January 19, 2015 Hi again everyone, As it turns out, there have been members of this forum that have expressed their interest in the app. As such, I felt it would be appropriate to go into further details in this post so that if anyone else that might be interested has already some information on how I intend to proceed: These are not in any way final values, but I'm currently thinking of: 1- Selling the mobile app for 5€ 2- Charging 10€ yearly for the website A few points should be noted: 1 - The website will allow all data to be exported (e.g. to files compatible with Google Earth and Excel) in case the users wishes to cancel the account. 2 - The mobile app does not publish the data to the website in real time, both for privacy reasons and for connectivity issues (internet abroad is always more complicated) 3 - The mobile app and the website work together, but can also be used independently. The mobile app can be used alone to view the route taken (even if not as nicely as in the website) and see the reports. The website can get data from the mobile app, but also allows manually entering a trip - my moroccan trip in the website was added like that. If there is enough interest, I'm also considering: 1- A free lite version of the mobile app, with limited capacity 2- A 30 day trial period - no trip exporting allowed here though. Also, in parallel I'm looking into funding options (which can have an impact in these values) and establishing protocols with associations - exchanging endorsement for discounts. I'm looking forward to hearing from all those who are interested. If you are interested, contact me directly via PM here, or to roamingonwheels innovationtm com (adding at and dot on the spaces). My idea is maybe send out a simple questionnaire surveying the interest in different features and as soon as I get a minimum number of users, proceed with the development. I'm starting some parts already. Meanwhile, when I can I'll try to get some screenshots of the mobile app and share here so you can have an idea of it looks like and how it works and I'm trying to look into the adblocker issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erebrus Posted January 26, 2015 Author Share Posted January 26, 2015 Hi everyone, I finally got around to taking some screenshots of the mobile app. The aesthetics still need some work - it has only been used by me, so I focused on functionality. As you can see, most of it is very simple. The main menu: http://i.imgur.com/IiVYZnf.png The main view, where you press the start/stop button to start/stop tracking and the add/photo buttons to add a marker (note or expense) or a photo. http://i.imgur.com/MStlXnm.png http://i.imgur.com/PktEXvh.png http://i.imgur.com/osGwxWG.png http://i.imgur.com/16wrQqQ.png Here are some more advanced features, namely the push/pull buttons, which are used to download or upload from/to the website. http://i.imgur.com/YcrfuSM.png As you see, it is relatively simple to use. You basically just have to press the start button when you start your trip and stop when you stop. I'm planning on adding a feature for either automatically tracking if the app is online or at least warn the user if the app is on and the user is on the move, because one can always forget to press start. Even if I do forget, it's not too serious though, because the website allows you to add the missing points on the map. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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