Another City

From time to time we all take trips to destinations that are thrilling, but getting there may be a bit less so. Fix that problem by taking Another City on the road with you. With Another City, you will always know what city you are driving through, and you will be notified when you reach the next one for endless fun and discoveries.

The app is integrated with Facebook for easy publishing of your discoveries and achievements. Also, it may automatically save screen snapshots of various events into the camera roll.

In addition, the app keeps track of various fun facts, such as how many cities or countries you've discovered, and will rank your exploration achievements in quite a few different categories. When the rank of the next level is near your grasp, you may find yourself wishing that your destination wasn't reached yet, and that you could have discovered just one more city to reach your next rank. You may also feel compelled to take an alternate route to wherever you may venture to collect some never-before-discovered cities. (Believe us, we've done it many times!)

Who knows, you may even hear less of "Are we there yet?" and more of "Aww, we're there already!?" from the backseat!

When you launch the app, you will see three sections at the bottom of the screen. The left one displays the number of achievements you have earned. The one in the middle shows how many cities you have discovered, and the one on the right informs you on how successfully the app is acquiring your current location, and its ability to determine your current city. If it shows a green pin with green circles expanding around it, then the app knows where you are. If you see the yellow intersection dimmed, then the app is having difficulty determining your current city, which is most likely due to weak reception in the area.

Each section is also a button leading you to more detail concerning that section. For example, tapping the middle button will lead you to a list of all the countries you have discovered so far, showing the number of discovered cities in each.

Once you have tapped the middle button on the main screen and gotten to the list of discovered countries, you may tap on a country's name on the list to view all of the cities you have discovered there.

The cities are grouped by states in the US, (provinces in Canada, etc.) and you may jump to a specific state by using the index on the right. Each state's section header lists how many cities you have discovered there.

Tapping on a city's name will pinpoint the location on the map to show you where the city is located.

The button in the bottom right corner of the main screen will lead you to a map where all the cities you've discovered are marked with pins. Purple pins represent cities in your trip log, which you may reset by tapping the Clear Trip Log button. The red pins represent all other cities that you have visited. The blue dot on the map represents your current location. For better views, you may pinch the map in and out. If you tap on a pin it will show you the name of the city it marks.

You may also get to the map by tapping on a city within the list of discovered cities you have. If you did that, then the city you've tapped will be marked with a green pin.

Now for the entertainment aspect of the app. While you are roaming and discovering cities, you are also collecting achievements and titles. For example, when you discover your very first city, you acquire the first rank in the Cities category, which is Visitor of Cities. There are achievements for countries, states, cities, and many more-most of them are hidden away until you stumble upon them...for more fun!

For each category of achievements, you will see a dimmed entry giving you a peek at the next rank that awaits you once you fulfill the criteria for it. For instance, if you see 21/50 shown there, that means that you have 21 cities of that kind out of the 50 needed to advance your rank.

A few tips...

- As with any navigation application, your iPhone will be much happier if you ran it while charging. As a plus, when you arrive at your destination your battery will be topped off so you can take more photos and shoot longer videos with no worries.

- Don't be selfish! Find a convenient place for your iPhone on the dashboard where everyone in the car has a good view of the phone, and since you may be driving for hours on end, your hands will be relieved from the weight of the phone.

- Another City requires an internet connection to determine your city. If your road sign slides offscreen and the intersection on the map button goes dim, the app is indicating that it is having difficulties determining the city. In this case, you don't need to do anything. The app will keep retrying and the sign will return once the connection is restored.

- Also, the app makes fun sounds whenever you enter a city or achieve a new achievement, so make sure your volume is up. If you don't want sounds altogether, you may turn sounds off completely in Settings.

MANY HAPPY DISCOVERIES!