France Map Paris Tourist
Jan0
The city of Paris boasts of more than 45 million tourists every year. If you are one among them visiting Paris soon, then this new application from Geodio called Visit Paris has to be on your iPhone. And even if you are not, it is an interesting way to journey to the city of love without actually having to traverse the miles.
Visit Paris takes not only one but three features of the iPhone to bring us an experience of Paris that is not only informative and visual but also makes it a ‘live’ event. The GPS feature lets us explore the city in a unique way, as we can stroll around and then stop at any tourist attraction to view a video and also get details on it. But fret not if we are not in Paris, for we can look at it ‘from a distance’. Personally, I would use this application for this very purpose itself; to see what the city has to offer and sample its fares, if I may.
The application has an array of 48 videos ranging from 15-30 seconds to 5 minutes in duration that are easily downloadable. We can scroll through the list on the main screen itself. The top portion of the screen is filled with part of the map of Paris, while a search box and the list of videos take up the lower part of the screen. Tapping on the map gives us a larger view of it.
The text accompanying the videos is a helpful aspect, and easily takes the place of any tourist guide. Visit Paris ensures that we do not just see the sights but also get to know about them too.
The application has an easy to use and well-designed interface. The only thing lacking, if any, would be more of what is already available, meaning more content. Who can get enough of a good thing, especially something as enchanting as the city of Paris?
- App Name: Visit Paris
- Price: $1.99
- App Category: Travel
- Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.
- Developer: Geodio
Tags: App Store, apple, Geodio, iPhone, iPhone applications, iPhone developers, Visit Paris
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Visit Paris Rating:
Don’t just see the sights, learn something about them too.
‘Visit Paris’ is the first application to let you explore Paris through videos on an iPhone or I Pod Touch. Relive in pictures the building of Notre Dame cathedral, or the last days of doomed Queen Marie Antoinette. The new price allows you, as a special offer, to access the application’s 50 videos until the end of the year.
Combining some of the iPhone’s most prominent features is Visit Paris which has a video library of tourist attractions on a map of Paris and adds GPS to the mix. This is designed to let you walk around the city of love, spot an attraction and watch a video about it before venturing further if interest grabs you. Thankfully you don’t have to be in Paris to do this as should the GPS function find you outside of Paris when you run the app it will, rather oddly, ask you if you want to visit from a distance. The reason I find this odd would be the fact it’s a yes/no question and should you tap no it will simply quit to the springboard, which raises the question why would you want to run the app if you didn’t want to visit from a distance?
Keep in mind, those looking to save cash on roaming charges, while videos are downloadable from just about anywhere but keeping your iPhone in airplane mode as you walk around the streets of “pari” will disable GPS. While nothing to do with the developer, this knowledge isn’t as common as you’d think and a message when running the app with airplane mode turned on couldn’t have hurt rather than leave the user scratching their head.
A lot of thought has been put into the interface, as you’d expect from the platform but this goes a step further with some free thinking away from your standard fare. You have 1 screen divided into 3, at the top is part of the map of Paris (stored locally) towards the bottom is a list of available videos and between them is a search box letting you filter the video library in the same way as you would your address book. Tapping the map shifts the video library down and off the screen and tapping the search box would bring the keyboard up, however to bring the library/search up from the map view requires a tap of the Eiffel tower button in the bottom left corner.
Content here is king and with 49 videos that vary between 15-30 seconds and 5 minutes I certainly want to see more. Going more in depth into larger places like the Louvre, maybe even proper tours using the same GPS, Map and Media combo. I would also love to see a ‘pin where I’m staying feature’ so you could plan your own tour and find your way back again should you get lost, something that’s easily done in the massive city of Paris.
While this app is a great idea and a benefit to those exploring Paris I feel there is so much more potential to be fulfilled than what is already here.
The Good
- Great combo of iPhone features
- Online library of videos…
- …That are downloadable
The Not So Good
- Needs more content
- Untapped potential
- Needs a few warning messages
Reviewed by: @TylerDurdan
Price: $1.99 (free version available) as of Jan 07, 2010 (iTunes Store Link)
Version reviewed: 1.6
Size: 5.9 MB
Seller: Les Routes du Reve
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