Oh man, soon you won’t even be able to break into an old abandoned building without running into a bunch of other folks who are doing the same thing, only instead of being all cool and “urban” and fearless like you, they just got guided there by an app.
Which is my way of complaining about Kamino, an app which lets you share “Urban Hikes” (seriously) using your iPhone, and forces to use Facebook to do it.
You know how I go for a walk? I just “go for a walk.” That’s it. And if I see a cool coffee shop or a scary-looking abandoned building, I do a cool little trick called “going inside.” The best part about this technique is that it works without a network connection, and you can do it even if your cellphone battery is dead.
Kamino is actually a pretty cool idea though. It lets you make and follow “hikes” around the city, so you can share your favorite spots with everyone on the internet. Kind of like Foursquare, but for whole neighborhoods. I see a few problems though.
I wouldn’t share my secret spots with anyone, and I doubt that anyone with any really interesting routes would do so either. So we’ll end up with lots of recommendations by day tourists, which will likely be less useful than just walking and turning down cool-looking streets.
The latest version of the app lets you browse hikes without logging in, which goes some way towards mitigating the Facebook requirement. Maybe in the future, when you don’t need Facebook, and the app has been around long enough to have attracted some hikes in my area, I’ll take another look.
Kamino is free, and available now.
Source: Kamino
