November 9, 2007 

Google Maps, the IPhone and my San Francisco Trip

I just got back from my trip to San Francisco (top secret project…shhhhhh), but a couple of things made this trip rather interesting. I have never really been a tourist or a photographer. Its something I have been meaning to change for a while since I do want to have something I can look at years from now and be like: “oh yeah I remember that..”. However my interests are so much more in the new and shiny things on the www that cataloging my travels seems like a chore.

However this trip I tried to mix the two domains a bit. I have a shiny new iPhone (well not so new now), and I have been meaning to play with Google’s new my maps + embeddable maps features, so here is my trip with photos from my iPhone with some information about my trip on custom markers. I have a vague color coding going on there with green markers being the first day, the blue, the second and pink the third day at SF.


View Larger Map

While this was fun, it really isnt the experience I was hoping to create. Thankfully, both flickr (where my photos are hosted) and google maps have apis so I may monkey with ‘em a bit and come up with something interesting.

  • Mike

    I really like the google maps idea. Now I don’t have to ask where you went. The less conversation with you the better. :) Hey did you misspell “stake” on purpose? Because if you did, that’s cool.

  • http://www.arpitonline.com arpit

    lol…nope…the steak stake thing was a complete mistake. Been watching too many vampire movies

  • Rob

    Even through this tiny window I almost feel like I was there :)

    I haven’t even offloaded my photos from the trip, or posted my expense sheet…let alone got around to cross referencing my images with Google’s API. Seriously this is a great way to condense a trip into a easy to use (besides the miniature display area) format and archive.

  • http://www.arpitonline.com arpit

    @Rob, thanks. This would be a lot easier if only the IPhone geo-tagged my pics ;)

  • http://www.joehamilton.info Joe Hamilton

    Hey, that sounds great!
    I just got an iPhone here in the UK. Do you have to use the Safari browser to see “My maps” or can you get them up using the Maps section of the iPhone?
    cheers
    Joe

  • http://www.arpitonline.com arpit

    @Joe,
    I dont think custom maps are supported on the iphone google maps app. Anytime the iphone reads a ‘maps.google.com’ address, it loads the map application. It then parses the url for marker coordinates and then animates the pin on the map. Unfortunately, the url pattern of custom maps is not supported. Maybe in the next version (I hope) ;) .

  • http://TheMacVideoGuy.com James

    Try this video tutorial it works great & even places an icon on your home screen.

    http://themacvideoguy.com/2009/05/using-google-maps-on-iphone-map.html