A crazy ride with Flickr

First, let me thank Marissa Mayer for taking this to the next level! Yay for Flickr/Yahoo!

As many of you know, Stuck On Earth has been immensely popular, just passing over a million updates on iOS for the iPad. Then we released the Android version, and now the Mac version is in final testing (see below if you want to join the open beta today!). The app is totally free and has been a personal labor of love for me and the rest of the team. I built it first for myself, since I wanted a new kind of travel guide, one that focused on visiting the best locations to go stand and take photos, which also happens to be the most beautiful places either in your own backyard or for your upcoming vacation.

Seeing beautiful places when you travel is perhaps the greatest aspiration for many people around the world. I wanted to make that more efficient, fun, and approachable for everyone, so we built Stuck On Earth. That’s why we call it, “The ultimate travel guide for explorers, photographers, and daydreamers!”

The Problem with Flickr – Throttling

It turns out the app was so popular that we were seeing all kinds of strange bugs, such as pictures not showing up. This was especially true of the newly upgraded Mac version because it has a really cool feature in that it pre-loads the photos so you never have to wait while flipping through photos to find a good place to take photos. We found out that many photos were getting denied (black screens!) because there was just too much demand.

Interview just before launch at Buck’s with Robert Scoble

Here’s the original video right when we were about to launch. I didn’t know how big it was gonna be back then!

Update – Marissa saves the day!

Is she the Dagny Taggart of the Internet? Maybe! 🙂

So now, thanks to an upgrade in the relationship, all throttling has been turned off and we have full access, unencumbered to the billions of photos inside of Flickr. Now everyone will be able to use the app with no issues at all, and I think you’re really gonna love the Mac version. Using this at 6000 or more pixels across is a sight to behold.

What is Stuck On Earth?

Hehe… maybe I should have started with this video

Beta Test the Mac Version now!

Try now, even before it gets into the App Store for Free!

Enjoy! All I ask, is that if you have any bugs that you contact [email protected]. The amazing development team here will patch up any problems before official release. Here are some cool new features beyond the Android and iOS versions, and even well beyond the original video we created below!

– In the background, we download all the images so that you can quickly cycle through all the images in a given area when looking at Featured Photos (the main view)

– Stretch your window as wide as you want, even 10,000+ pixels across multiple screens!

– Double click (or use two fingers up and down) to zoom in and out of the map

– Try the DOWNLOAD ALL button in the lower left to grab all the images from the window and turn them into a new trip.

– Swap the view around from Satellite to Standard to Hybrid to get another view

– Start building your trips NOW for submissions for the Editor’s Pick! See below.

– Need Trip-Ideas? Easy! Just click on the HOME and go to the Featured Lists to see things like Top 50 Castles on Earth or Top 50 Secret Spots in New York City.

– Want to change your “Personality” in the app? Go to the Settings on the Home Screen (the little gear icon) or Click on the big Stuck On Earth logo in the upper right.

– Submit your trip for an Editor’s Pick! Note that we actually prefer the trip that you put together not to be your own photos so there is a better selection for other people visiting your city or a favorite spot… You can start building the trips now for submission! 🙂

Download Now

Mac Version Download Link: http://goo.gl/BN7XIu – It’s a zip file. Just unzip and drop into your Applications Folder. Enjoy! 🙂 Having trouble opening the app on your Mac because of permissions? See this!

Thanks again to the incredible team with Mark Powell, Will Kelly, Topher Martini, Andy Gillis, Karen Hutton (voicework!), Curtis Simmons, Luke Lakatosh, Antonis Karalis.

Below, thank you SOE!

Thanks to Stuck On Earth, I found this amazing place below… this is one of the cottages of Marie Antoinette just outside of Paris…