App Store Essentials: Snapr – snap.tag.map – Available Now

Available Now

Go get it folks, Snapr is available for download through the App Store now. You’ll want to get in quick to secure your user name of choice.

– Snapr

And don’t forget to bookmark the website – Sna.pr

Hit the “read more” link to find out more about the Snapr iPhone app and a sneak peak at the Snapr web-service.

"Snapr" selected as a finalist at SXSW in 2010

With SXSWeek just around the corner upon us we thought we’d give you a heads-up about an awesome looking new web-service and their iPhone app which has been submitted to Apple and due to be released any time is available now.

Snapr is a new social media company from New Zealand and they have been selected to present at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas this March as part of the “Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator” competition. Snapr is one of only eight finalists in the “Social Media – Personal” category and out of over 200 international entries Snapr is the only company from New Zealand to be selected for this prestigious technology event.

First up here’s the press release to give you a little info:

New Zealand social media company “Snapr” selected as a finalist at SXSW in 2010

Snapr brings together geo-tagged images taken on mobile devices and shows them on a map that updates in real time. The Snapr map is an exciting way to see what is going on in a particular place at any time.

Snapr mobile apps make it easy to shoot and upload photos to the map, browse the map on the go, and share your mobile photos through other services such as Twitter and Facebook.

Founded by Rowan Wernham (Designer/Developer) and Edward Talbot (Business Development) in April 2009, Rowan commented:

“It’s exciting to get this opportunity to present our business to some of the worlds leading technology opinion makers and investors. The concept behind Snapr is something that many people in the tech world have been anticipating, so we must have impressed the judges at SXSW that we have the capability to execute the idea well, and to build a brand around the idea that will help it catch on.”

Snapr enlisted the help of New Zealand based developers, Cactuslab, to build the app. Cactuslab have built some other great apps you may have heard of… Mobile Fotos, World Surfer and Becks List and so before seeing the app we knew the build quality would be great.

So how does the app actually work and what does it look like? Well we have been fortunate enough to get our hands on a pre-release of the beta iPhone app which has been submitted to Apple and will be available for download, for Free, very soon. Now remember this is in Beta at the moment so there are a number of features that are missing and some that need tweaking. All of the features that I mention that either need to be tweaked or are missing the Snapr team are aware of.

Snapr beta available soon!

The basis of the app is to allow you to snap a picture and upload it to a map, with a tag (120 characters), and share it with all your friends or the general public. You can also share your images on Twitter and soon it will also allow you to post to Facebook.

On launching the app you are taken to the camera screen where you can take a picture, select an image from your media roll or hit the nav slider to open more options.

Camera view

Now because this uses the iPhone’s GPS the photos in your iPhone photo library are likely geo-tagged with where you took them, unless they are being loaded from the library of images you have synced, so they will show on the map where the image was taken. If you upload an image that hasn’t been geo-tagged then it will use the location from where you are uploading.

An update is currently in the works to allow you to upload an image and select where it was taken. This is a much needed feature so we hope it’s not to far away after the first release. You are able to edit the location field but this just allows you to change where it says it is, the map still shows the image where it was uploaded. I would like to see the little locate button next to the location text be an active button that takes you to the map where you can drop a pin or search to select the location.

Tag it and Upload

Once you have taken or chosen your image from your library you then need to tag it, decide whether it’s going to be public and tweeted, and then hit the upload button. The first time you try to upload an image you are presented with the sign in / register screen and once you’ve entered your details you’ll be able to upload. If you choose for it to be Tweeted then you’ll also be given the chance to add your Twitter user name and password after you register / sign in. If you have already registered and don’t tweet the first time you upload an image that’s fine, it’ll only ask you for your twitter details when you first choose to tweet.

Sign me up baby!

Once uploaded you can view the photo on the map and see other photos that have been taken around you (that have been made public). The map view has a number of options at the top; ‘search’ (to search by location), ‘locate’ (to pin point you using the built-in GPS), ‘bookmarks’ (view and add favourite locations) and list view. While you are in map view you can search for a location to view photos in that area. If you want to scroll around your area don’t forget to switch off the locate function other wise it springs back to where you are.

The map, and all the images around you

On the screen you can see thumbnails of the images taken at certain locations. Tapping on one of these thumbs takes you to the main image for the location and then you can swipe back and forth to switch between all the images around there. One thing this needs is the ability to show more than one image on the map for any given location. My suggestion is that when you tap and hold the thumbnail it should fan out and show you all the images that have been pin-pointed with the same GPS location.

Image view

As you can see at the bottom of the image above there is a pop up arrow, Tapping this gives you location, tag, user and date/time info on the picture. Tapping the image or the arrow will bring this info up, but tapping the image also brings up the options to go back, delete the image (if you own it) or view the map.

Image detail

‘My Snaps’ is where you will find… err… your snaps. Presented in a list view you can tap on any of them to be taken to the photo view. At the top you have a map button and a search box, where you can search through your images based on the tags you set when you uploaded them (note the search from here only works for the tags not where it was taken).

Look at all 'My Snaps'

The ‘Search’ view allows you to search by ‘tag’ or by ‘user’ and you have to select which before you start to search. It is good to be able to refine your search options, but this is one area that does need some work. I would like to be able to search by tag, user and location from any of the search boxes in the app. If I want to refine my search then I can use the search tab, but it does need to have location there as well.

Searching....Searching

We don’t know too much about the web-service, but from the screen shots below you can see the general idea. It has a clean, polished and simple to use interface. Our understanding is that the map is updated in real-time so it will be a great way to actually ‘see’ what is happening around you.

Snapr web-service

One thing I would like to see in the future is Flickr integration. It would be great to be able to upload to Snapr and have the choice to post it to Flickr at the same time.

Overall the app looks great and has no bugs that we could find. Throughout the app the same interface is used which makes it easy to pick up and start using without having to get your head around too many options. Possibly the only thing I would change, and this is personal preference, is the map icon. It just isn’t as self explanatory as other images, but hey that’s just my opinion.

The ‘Snapr’ service to me is a great idea and one that has a lot of potential to be huge. It’s yet again fantastic to see Kiwis at the forefront of this kind of development. The app will drop to the App Store very soon so keep your eyes peeled, you’ll want to get in and download it straight away to get your user name of choice, as I am sure this is going to be very popular.

Oh and by the way, the app has been entered into our App Store Essentials collection.

– Snapr

Hit up the gallery for more hi-res images and let us know what you think in the comments below.