SmartGuide, as its website says, “turns your smart phone into a private guide.” The app, which is free to download for Android (not iPhone yet), offers users access to a large selection of GPS-triggered, information-rich guides to cities, destinations and more—all across the world. Each guide costs money (99 cents all the way up to $40), but you choose what you want to pay for. In almost all cases, the guides are cheaper and easier to access than human tour guides, and at the very least, SmartGuide provides, for free, a catalog of alternatives if you’re interested in knowing more about or exploring a new place. All can be downloaded over Wi-Fi for offline use.
The coolest part of SmartGuide, however, may be the fact that you can use the voice recorder and GPS on your phone to build your own guide to whatever you like. In a few easy steps, you can publish a guide to a place or attraction and, with SmartGuide’s help, sell it to other users for a profit.
Have you tried SmartGuide? What did you think?
Yes, a great idea.
But I downloaded the Android app and found only ONE tour guide – of Prague – in English and what I’m assuming to be Chinese.
Is ONE tour guide the whole show for now?
Wow! I don’t have an android so I can’t confirm. I know it’s a new site and I like the possibilities but that’s ridiculous.