Earthcomber is one of those pleasant surprises that winds up on your deck and after several uses you have to wonder how you got along without it! I first heard about Earthcomber by updating the Nokia content download application that comes embedded on most new Symbian S60 devices from Nokia. Content downloader is another great channel to market that Nokia reserves for the best of the best... you update the available content, and Nokia provides suggested applications from select developers and business partners... only the best apps ever see the light of day on the Content Downloads.

What's rather cool about getting Earthcomber on your S60 device is that browsing the company's website doesn't seem to provide you with any information that leads you to believe that there's an S60 version. The company recently announced an iPhone compatible version and also supports other devices running Windows Mobile. No need to fret though... S60 devices (like the N95) are indeed supported)

Earthcomber has been designed to enable the user to spot things and people around them. Locate cool places, events, see the results on a map, get directions, and even keep in touch with friends that are using Earthcomber. Users can set their location, or, what's very cool is the application is location-aware and will take advantage of your position if you happen to be using a Nokia N95, Nokia Navigator, E90, or the new Nokia N82... all of which are GPS-enabled.

Once you have the application installed, Earthcomber will be setup based on your location... this can be set based on the location provided via GPS. Then, searching becomes a local experience, providing you with search results and mapping/routing based on your location... imagine heading out on the road to a city you aren't familiar with... now you can easily get routed to anything you need! Big deal you might think.. indeed, perhaps this has been done before but what sets Earthcomber apart is the very simple UI, the fantastic results, and the intuitive search. As a bonus most results are only a couple of clicks away, the pre-defined search categories are excellent, and the community feedback rocks!

Start the application, you'll first be asked if the application can use your positioning information and send/receive data. The the main screen is displayed along with navigation aids to help locate nearby favorites and what they call "peeps". The initial tab is where your favorites are stored... these seem to be hits based on your recent and most frequent searches... my favorites are turning up places near me that provide coffee, gasoline, and free wi-fi. Because I have no friends nearby using the application I can't take advantage of any of the friend finder utilities... too bad! Changing location is easily done using the change location tab.. you can enter a new one or get an update via GPS fix. The heart of the app is the Spot Things tab where a detailed category list is provided, enabling quick access to popular destinations - categories include fun, outdoors, events, let's eat and many other useful categories. For example, I might be looking for coffee.. I simply enter on the coffee tab and results are displayed according to distance from me (nearest are first). I can easily see that there's a Starbucks only 2.7 miles away, clicking on that entry provides the address and then a detailed description. Finally, clicking the options tab I can then show the store on a map, get directions (based on my current location)... very useful, smart, and simple. The images below show the application and it simple UI - shots captured using Nokia N95 (first edition).

Earthcomber for PC

I met with a company rep at CTIA Wireless IT in October and he informed me that the company is also rolling out Earthcomber web, a PC friendly version of the application. Indeed it is available (Beta) and can be found at http://mobile.earthcomber.com/webcomber/com.earthcomber.WebComber/WebComber.html. Users of the web version can optionally register and assign their location (it is smart enough to detect roughly where you are based on IP). Signing up enables you to keep track of your friends if they are using the app and you can share your locations and other cool pieces of information. The application uses the Google Maps API to provide a very pleasant and friendly UI. Once you set your home location you can then easily toggle on popular search categories like Bank ATMs, Cafes, Gas Station, Pizza, Night spots, or what have you... the results are very accurate and the community provided content is very accurate and relevant. Once you have the detailed information for a place of choice you can then easily get directions (click get directions and get routed there on the map) and print the results.

Using the web version you set your location and create a free account... this can  interact with your mobile client also.

Getting Earthcomber on your mobile is a snap. You can explore the Nokia Content downloader or simply jump to http://mobile.earthcomber.com/ where you will then specify your carrier and then retrieve the application - Note: the mapping currently only supports the USA.

See http://www.earthcomber.com & http://mobile.earthcomber.com