If you haven’t yet heard of HipGeo, you will soon. Officially launched at this year’s CES, this awesome mobile app is like a Twitter-Instagram-Tumblr mashup just for travelers.
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In a few short weeks, the app has garnered some seriously awesome press from a few publications you might know of:
“6 Apps Worth Downloading This Week”
– Sarah Kessler, Mashable“The app offers a unique and snazzy interface that is designed to let mobile users post text, places, and photos.”
– Rip Empson, Techcrunch“It’s the next generation of location and sharing and blogging all in one and it’s so easy to use …”
– Jennifer Hicks, Forbes
Microblogging (think Twitter) is a trend that’s grown exponentially in the past two years and it’s set to truly explode in 2012. For travel bloggers interested in being on the cutting edge, we think HipGeo looks very, very promising.
The Skinny
In their own words:
HipGeo allows people to easily record and share what they do on their travels, excursions, and vacations using smart phones.
HipGeo automatically groups photos, comments, places, tags, likes, and dates together in interesting ways allowing users to search and follow real travelers who go interesting places. As people go about their normal posting, we create place blogs with user generated content. Besides seeing what your friends or family are doing while out and about, you can also access this user generated information to help plan a trip or discover something interesting.
In Detail
While there are a ton of mobile travel apps that promise to make your travel blogging a cakewalk, HipGeo, in my opinion, is the first that truly delivers.
Design & Interface
The interface is slick, minimal and super easy-to-use. Upon opening the app, users are presented with three rows of photos: Nearby, Featured, and (for Vagabondish.com users) Vagabondish.
Using real-time GPS, the first row reveals photos that other users nearest you have recently posted. The Featured row displays the most popular photos from all users, app-wide. And the last aggregates photos from all Vagabondish users into a single photo pool.
The app features a persistent navigation bar with five straightforward buttons: Activity, Auto, Photo, Post, and Me. Updating your personal blog page is as easy as clicking the Photo or Post buttons, filling out a few short fields and publishing. That’s it. What’s more: users can cross-post their updates on Twitter and Facebook with one simple click.
Start (Micro)Blogging
Augment your own posts and photos by enabling the app’s Auto tracking feature. This creates private posts that automatically track your travels and places. You can then make them public from the app’s Me tab.
But the biggest win for travelers – the one killer feature that HipGeo offers – is the ability to stitch your travel blog together on a mapped timeline. Every status update, snippet of text, travel photo, and destination you’ve blogged about are all made available on your profile page in chronological order. This allows you and your fans to see where you are and where you’ve been.
For example, user jordonh spent the past two weeks traveling through Turkey and his HipGeo profile detailed the entire trip. cpchannel’s daily walks detail much of London’s unique urban artwork – including a variety of street art and sculptures. And user maacin‘s blogs reveal a fascination with Japanese urban culture and street signs.
Now reliving your own travels and sharing them with friends, family, and fans is incredibly easy!
Pricing & Availability
Available now for free from the iTunes store. An Android version is scheduled for release in February 2012.
But Wait … There’s More!
In the interest of ensuring HipGeo’s grand entrance into the mobile travel app scene, we’ve partnered with them to offer a few great prizes for new users!
Sign up with Hip Code Vagabondish and start blogging today! You’ll be automatically entered to win:
- $50 Amazon gift certificate each week for the best post in the Vagabondish Hip Group, PLUS:
- $100 Amazon gift certificate for the best blog post in the Vagabondish Hip Group in the month of February!
Sign up with HipGeo now! And don’t forget to enter Hip Code: Vagabondish!