Chimani Celebrates National Park Week with the Release of Five New National Park Mobile Apps and New Innovative Features

Yarmouth, ME (PRWEB) April 16, 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