Where To? by Future Tap is one of the most popular apps ever released for the iPhone. In fact, I remember buying the app years ago on my original iPhone, and I still have it. Where To?, like many other alternatives that eventually came out in the App Store, gives you detailed information of nearby points of interest using the iPhone’s built-in GPS technology and Google Maps. It features a popular and unique “click-wheel” interface that Apple even used in patents to describe functionalities of iOS apps and, overall, it’s powered by a great design that’s really a pleasure to look at.
A few minutes ago, Where To? got a major update that introduces a neat 3D Augmented Reality feature I’m just playing around with as we speak. The Future Tap developers added this new option as a $0.99 in-app purchase that’s a no-brainer for as much as it’s well realized and perfectly consistent with the rest of the app. As the app fetches your location and provides you a list of POIs, you can switch to the usual map view and you’ll notice a new “eye” icon in the bottom toolbar that activates Augmented Reality. Unlike other AR software, Where To’s 3D implementation stands out because of the use of OpenGL that brings smooth animations to the reality layer captured by the iPhone’s camera. When pointing the iPhone, the app will create a virtual grid that displays POIs as boxes, all based on the distance between the user and the target. The developers explain:
Our solution: First, results are displayed in a real 3D world and their size and stacking order depends on the distance. Then, you can zoom in and out using the gestures already known from the map: Double-tap to zoom in, two-finger-tap to zoom out, pinch for fine grained zooming. Zooming of course affects the camera picture as well.
Where To? 3.5 also uses the gyroscope for much smoother AR animations and location info. In my initial tests, I’ve found the system to work exactly as the developers described it in the introductory blog post; you can zoom it and pan out with two fingers, tap on a POI’s box to get to the usual portrait view. The UI is gorgeous.
Where To? 3.5 is available here at $2.99. To see the app in action, check out the promo video below.
