Visiting the national parks this summer? If youâre carrying your smartphone in your pocket, youâll have all the guidance youâll need to get around rough terrain with apps from the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Chimani Celebrates National Park Week with the Release of Five New National Park Mobile Apps and New Innovative Features
Chimani, the leading developer of mobile apps for national parks, plans to release five new national park apps and introduce new features including an augmented reality viewer, crowd-sourced maps, and a social-sharing tool for park visitors which uses Near Field Communications (NFC) technology.
Yarmouth, Maine April 22, 2013 - Chimani announced today a range of products and new features to enhance national park visitors experiences while in the parks. The announcement coincides with the celebration of this year’s National Park Week, which runs from April 22-26.
In honor of each of the five days of National Park Week - a new park app will be released for each day. The new Chimani mobile apps include Grand Teton National Park, Glacier National Park, Olympic National Park, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, and Bryce Canyon National Park. These, as well as all other Chimani apps, will be available for free on Apple iTunes, Google Play, and Amazon AppStore starting Monday, April 22 - the first day of National Park Week.
Each new national park app includes all the core technologies which has made Chimani the #1 mobile app platform for visiting national parks. The new park apps continue Chimani’s goal for helping visitors get the most out of their national park experience.
Each app delivers constantly updated content, detailed maps, ranger-led event schedules, auto touring points of interest, hiking details, restroom locations, free shuttle bus schedules, and breaking news alerts. Users can also view sunset and sunrise times for the most memorable scenic overlooks, access tide schedules along the coast, review lodging options, and much, much more. And as always, each Chimani app is designed to work without a cell phone signal.
Chimani’s Viewport Augmented Reality Tool
Chimani’s new Viewport tool - an augmented reality viewer available as a $1.99 in-app purchase - allows users to access an entirely new layer of information as part of their park experience. “Whether it’s the South Rim of the Grand Canyon or Glacier Point in Yosemite, visitors often overlook the richness that surrounds these dramatic viewpoints,” says Kerry Gallivan, CEO/co-founder of Chimani. “Using Chimani’s Viewport tool, visitors can pan around the scenic outlook and identify points of interest which are often left undiscovered. It is yet another Chimani tool that allows visitors to get the most of their park experience,” says Kerry.
Cell phone signals are poor and non-existent in most national parks, therefore Chimani apps are designed to function without any type of data connection. This ability also applies to the new Chimani augmented reality viewer - visitors can be in the most remote corners of a park and still discover new points of interest.
Crowd-sourced topographic maps
Chimani continues its innovation in mobile mapping technology for the outdoors by introducing topographic maps based on data from Openstreetmaps.org - the largest online mapping project in the world. Chimani is now able to produce rich topographic maps which are updated monthly with the most recent data available for park visitors.
“Chimani users are now able to actively contribute to the national park community and help build better geo-spatial data for each of the parks,” says Kerry Gallivan. “A great example of this is Openstreetmaps.org’s user Tomthepom who spent the winter meticulously editing the park data within Grand Canyon. Thanks to Tom, the data found within the Chimani maps is the most detailed and up-to-date available anywhere - digital or print,” says Kerry.
Many visitors don’t realize how often trail data changes so having access to the latest details helps enhance the park experience.
Social-sharing using Near Field Communication (NFC) technology
For the Android versions of the apps, Chimani has introduced a beta feature of a social-sharing tool that uses Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to connect with other Chimani users and share contact information. “We modeled this feature after the tradition on the Appalachian Trail of exchanging something with people that you meet on the trail,” says, Kerry Gallivan. By touching two Android phones together, the users profile is exchanged using NFC. No cell phone signal is required and when the exchange occurs within a particular park, a unique badge is unlocked between users as a bonus.
Chimani’s suite of National Park Apps
The Chimani suite of national park apps include 14 of the most visited national parks in the United States. These include Acadia National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Cape Cod National Seashore, Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Glacier National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, Grand Teton National Park, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Olympic National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park, Zion National Park and the National Parks app - which is a virtual passport tool for all the National Park Service units.
Each of the national park apps are an indispensable resource for anyone visiting our most treasured national parks. Each delivers constantly updated content, ranger-led event schedules, auto touring points of interest, hiking details, restroom locations, free shuttle bus schedules, and breaking news alerts. Users can also view sunset and sunrise times for the most memorable scenic overlooks, access tide schedules along the coast, review lodging options, and much, much more.
The Chimani apps are available for the iPhone, iPad, Amazon Kindle and Android devices. They can be downloaded directly from Apple’s iTunes App Store, Google Play and Amazon AppStore (keyword: “chimani”).
About Chimani
Located along the rocky coast of Maine, Chimani has become a leading developer of mobile apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android. Chimani is comprised of a small group of developers who are passionate about helping people get the most out their outdoor adventures. Founded in 2010, Chimani apps have totaled over 450,000 downloads and rank #1 in each of the major app marketplaces for individual parks. For more information visit http://www.chimani.com or view the app demo filmed in the Grand Canyon National Park: https://vimeo.com/58183356
Contact Information
Kerry Gallivan
Chimani
http://chimani.com
(207) 221-0266 ex700
iOS version 2.3 now available for all parks apps!
iOS version 2.3 now available is now available for download in the Apple App Store. It includes:
✓ Improved map downloads
✓ Improved main menu for 4-Inch Retina displays
✓ New Past notifications panel
✓ Fixed rotation rendering glitches
We want to hear from you! Send us feedback at support@chimani.com, @chimani on Twitter or facebook.com/chimani.
Chimani is proud to be the lead sponsor for evening’s Maine Outdoor Film Festival benefit for Teens To Trails - a non-profit organization supporting high school outing clubs throughout the State of Maine.
To learn more: http://www.teenstotrails.org/maine-outdoor-film-festival-benefit-t3
Our 2.2 updates have hit the App Store and are rolling out now…
Oooh, liking the @chimani update for Cuyahoga Valley NP app. #HappyInCle Go find a Blue Blaze!
— Barbara Gifford (@Blue_Blazes_) January 11, 2013
Say hello to our next app: Maine’s Baxter State Park!
Throughout Maine yesterday we celebrated the 50th anniversary of Baxter State Park, and as the evening ended, I handed Baxter’s Superintendent Jensen Bissell an iPod Touch with a development build of the Chimani Baxter State Park app. While the Park Authority reviews it, we are putting the finishing touches on it. Just like a AT Thru-hiker heading to Katahdin, we’re getting excited as we approach the final stretch of this journey.
Fan Mail: an app for Glacier National Park?
Colleen writes:
Thanks for creating a fabulous app! I was just wondering if you would be adding Glacier National Park to your supported park list anytime soon?
Yes, Glacier is in the works. I was actually hoping to release it by this summer but we fell behind schedule. It’s a very special place, and park, so it’s always been on the bucket list of the apps.
If you’re interested in contributing to it at all (i.e. photos, writings, etc.), I’d love to chat more. In the next several months all the apps are going to begin promoting more user contributions for current and future apps. Let me know if you’d be interested at all!
-Kerry
Founder/President, Chimani 
I love getting fan mail for users. Here’s a short blog post from Carol regarding the Chimani National Parks app. She and her husband are gearing up for a RV trip across the United States and loving that they discovered the Chimani apps. Have a blast Carol!!!
“I cannot wait to use this later this fall when Man and I start THE Trip, THE Encore, to explore new areas out west. Actually, we have had fun playing with it this week, marking off the parks we have been to over the last, hmmmmm, XX years or so.”
