REVIEWS / IOS / SWIFT COVER

Stuck for iPad: Geomapping Your Troubles

31 May, 2011, 3:47 pm IST | by Padmini Harchandrai | iOS

iOS

Stuck logo

Stuck logo
Adding a stuck update
The stuck homescreen
Zooming into an update to see where it came from
Stuck updates in Mumbai

PRICE IN INDIA

Free

TECH2 RATING

7.0

AVERAGE USER RATING

4.0

How we test

CONTACT

Swift Cover

 http://www.swiftcover.com/stuck-iphone-app/#Stuck%20Features

Stuck for iPad is an app that geomaps people who are 'stuck'. Now 'stuck' can be anything, stuck in traffic, stuck at work, or even stuck on a boyfriend/girlfriend or stuck in your head. The app is an iOS only app right now and given its design, it looks way more impressive on an iPad than any other iOS device. It describes itself as a social networking app but I really wouldn't call it that because you can't really connect with other users more than reading what they update and emailing or tweeting their updates. It seems to be owned by an insurance company, Swift Cover, which is actually an interesting marketing move if that is what the app is (it's not made obvious, at all).

The stuck homescreen

The stuck homescreen

 

 

Design

The design of the app, more than its features, makes it really cool. The homescreen consists of a globe suspended in space. It rotates to show you the location of the stuck updates that come through. You can spin it with your finger, click on a particular country and city to check stuck updates there and maybe also indulge in a geography lesson.

 

Features

The features of this app aren't mind blowingly innovative but the idea of sharing 'stuck-ness' is pretty cool. Of course you have your generic, "I'm stuck in traffic, *sadface*" and "I'm stuck in a boring relationship/job *angry face*" updates, and then there are some unique updates like, "I'm stuck NOT being on holiday" and "Being stuck is bad for you". As the world rotates, you see stuck updates pop up at random from various locations around the world. You can also filter what kind of updates you want by pushing the "filters" tab on the top bar. If you want to not get "situation" or "journey" stuck updates, you can deselect them here. You can also look at stuck updates near you by pushing the "near me" tab. It will take you to a map (powered by Google maps) and it will show you a number in one section of the map. When you click on the number, you then click on the 'i' and a left hand side screen pops up showing stuck updates near you. This is a good way to find out if there is a traffic mess anywhere near you, but of course, this function only works if many people keep updating the app.

Adding a stuck update

Adding a stuck update

 

 

When you add a stuck update, you push the 'stuck' tab in the top bar. When you do that, you first choose your category of being stuck in the scroll menu. So you choose "journey", "place", "in my head", "situation", or "politics". Each of these categories gives you other sub categories, for example "politics" gives you "defence", "immigration" and more while "in my head" gives you "song", "thought" and others. You then choose an emotion between, angry, sad, ok and happy and then a status on the side which is the result of the category and sub-category you chose. You can edit these statuses by clicking on the highlighted ones. The categories are pretty cool because they allow for some pretty colourful logos and symbols on the globe. You can always click on any icon you see on the globe to see where the stuck update is coming from.

Zooming into an update to see where it came from

Zooming into an update to see where it came from

 

 

You can share stucks to Twitter if you sync the two accounts but for some reason, it showed me an error when I tried to link "stuck" to my Twitter accoumt. You can also give yourself a profile name and picture, however, since the app doesn't really facilitate true social networking, making a personality for yourself really doesn't make too much sense.The stuck updates that pop up are random and the order isn't indicative of any sort of chronological structure. It would have been really cool if that feature was added because you'd notice different people around the world 'stuck-ing' about different relevant things, based on time difference as well.

Stuck updates in Mumbai

Stuck updates in Mumbai

 

 

Conclusion

The app is a fun app for unleashing some frustration on the world, literally. It's a cool concept and would really be useful if it were constantly updated. It calls itself a social networking app, however, it really isn't. It is a nice geography lesson and the graphics are just really fun. The app is available for free from the App Store.


Tags:

iOS , Apps , Swift Cover , Stuck , Social Networking , Social Networking apps , iOS Apps , Geomaps , Geolocation

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