One of our favorite apps for Android so far, Sherpa, is a prime example location-awareness done right.  Already a great app to begin with, it’s about to get greater.  We received an advance notice that Geodelic is gearing up to release Sherpa 2.0 in December with improved speeds and a host ofnew features.

The first thing that users should notice is that the app loads 40% faster than its predecessor. The burst can be attributed to optimization and code retooling.  Also immediately visible is a refreshed user interface.  You can see from the pictures that Sherpa makes better use of the space and cleaned up the graphics.  Dare we say that it looks iPhone-esque in its design?

Among the new features in Sherpa 2.0 is integration with other API’s and tools.  For example, OpenTable makes it possible to reserve a table at a restaurant while CinemaSource gives you movie showtimes for the second half of your date night.  Twitter also gets mixed in as well.  As Geodelic explains it, “cupcake connoisseurs will automatically see tweets with codewords to get free cupcakes when they look at their mobile phones at Sprinkles Cupakes locations.”

Keep an eye out for the official press release from Geodelic as it should be hitting the wire in the coming weeks.  If your an iPhone user, you’ll be happy to know that they’re releasing a free app in early 2010 for you too.

Author: Scott Webster | November 10, 2009

Universal Studios Hollywood^SM is partnering with Geodelic to introduce a free mobile onsite application for the theme park’s “Halloween Horror Nights” event, enabling iPhone and Android mobile device users to obtain park attraction directions and minute-by-minute updates and tips, including wait times and show schedules.

Designed to enhance the “Halloween Horror Nights” experience by creating an interactive snapshot of the overall event, the iPhone and Android application will provide guests with continuously updated and relevant information during their onsite visit.  Access to wait times and locations of mazes, scare zone, shows, attractions and restaurants will be easily accessible from anywhere within the theme park throughout the 16-night run of “Halloween Horror Nights.”

“While a traditional website gives a brand marketing reach to users at home, our onsite publishing platform allows businesses and destinations such as Universal Studios to push information that is immediately relevant to customers at their own location,” said Rahul Sonnad, CEO of Geodelic Systems. “Universal is clearly leading the way on mobile technology with this ground-breaking experience, and will provide a showcase for others in the travel, hospitality, and entertainment industries.”

Geodelic’s Sherpa app, available on Android, aggregates many consumer mobile experiences — Yelp and CitySearch for customer reviews of restaurants and destinations, Zillow for real-estate information, Google Local for business listings — and associates them with locations that are relevant. The idea is to see everything around you on the screen in your hands. It’s largely navigational today, but that’s not the end game, Mr. Sonnad said.

“Everybody’s got a website, but nobody has a mobile experience right now,” he said. “Next year, probably the end of next year, if you pull your phone out and you’re in the Hilton hotel and it doesn’t tell you information about the Hilton, either your phone is broken or the Hilton’s broken. If you, as a business, own a location, you’ve got an interesting shot at reaching your customer.”

That’s a bullish prediction — more bullish than most mobile experts would make — but Mr. Sonnad is building his business on the premise. He sees the “mobile experience” as something every hotel chain, big mall owner, theme park, or convention center will need, as well as an opportunity for more traditional marketers. Think about a credit-card rewards program, he said, and what it could do with a better understanding of its customers’ travel patterns.

Just because you’re not scaling Mount Everest doesn’t mean you don’t need some assistance getting around–and Sherpa’s here to help. A free local discovery application optimized for Android and powered by a learning engine dubbed GENIE–i.e., Geodelic ENgine for Interest Evaluation–Sherpa promises a customized user experience that improves each time you use it, recommending retailers, restaurants and attractions as it begins to understand your likes, dislikes and behavioral patterns. Sherpa also takes into account the larger world around you, combining your interests and location with related contextual information (for example, time of day) to aggregate and present personalized, site-specific recommendations and insight about the places and things in the immediate vicinity. With Sherpa on your smartphone, it’s a small world after all.

Already one of the top apps in the Android Market, Sherpa is about to get better.  Today sees Geodelic announcing a partnership with Skyhook Wireless which will make the application much more accurate in reporting locations.

Skyhook offers a major enhancement to the application’s location awareness. This allows Geodelic to more accurately target content for a user, whether they are in a mall or walking down the street. We developed Sherpa to give users a customized experience based on their location and interests. Skyhook provides the location performance that our application demands. – Rahul Sonnad, CEO, Geodelic

For those unfamiliar, Sherpa allows users to find the most relevant information based on their locations and preferences. Over time, the application uses your likes and dislikes to prioritize results. The app can be used to find restaurants, attractions, retailers, and much more!

We were contacted by Geodelic to tell us that Skyook is running within the app now.  They also claim that more partnership announcements are right around the corner!

BOSTON, MA‐ August 18, 2009‐ Skyhook Wireless, provider of the patented Wi‐Fi Positioning System (WPS) and the hybrid positioning system XPS, today announced a partnership with Geodelic, developer of the new Android mobile application, Sherpa.

Sherpa, developed by Geodelic specifically for T‐Mobile’s myTouch 3G with Google, allows users to effortlessly discover the most relevant information based on their location and preferences. Created by Geodelic, the application learns your likes and dislikes through behavior and user feedback, prioritizing recommended retailers, restaurants and attractions. Seamlessly blending behavior recognition, a recommendation engine and location‐relevant information, this combination of learning is exclusive to Sherpa and unlike any experience currently on the market. For brands and businesses, Geodelic also enables businesses to quickly create customized mobile experiences that provide informational and promotional content relevant to their locations.

“Skyhook offers a major enhancement to the application’s location awareness,” said Rahul Sonnad, CEO and founder at Geodelic. “This allows Geodelic to more accurately target content for a user, whether they are in a mall or walking down the street. We developed Sherpa to give users a customized experience based on their location and interests. Skyhook provides the location performance that our application demands,” said Rahul Sonnad, CEO of Geodelic.

“The most cutting edge apps like Sherpa now depend on location. Mobile consumers have come to expect content to be delivered within this context,” said Kate Imbach, director of marketing at Skyhook Wireless.

Click the “read all” link below for a full list of categories and winners.

Few apps have hit the Android Market with as much buzz as Sherpa. The location-awareness, point-of-interest finding, user behavior learning app has become one of the most talked-about Android offerings since it debuted on the U.S. market last week. Androinica.com had a chance to discuss Sherpa with Rahul Sonnad, Founder & CEO of Geodelic, the small startup that created Sherpa. Below are Sonnad’s comments to address privacy concerns, Sherpa’s usefulness, and issues affecting the app’s availability outside the United States.

Androinica: How was Sherpa conceived?

Rahul Sonnad: We really felt now that mobile phones have accurate location awareness, the consumer scenario is really powerful. If you know where you are, you should be able to come up with information that is really relevant. If you’re in front of a restaurant, you may want a review of that place. If you’re at a beach, maybe you want surfing information. I had a laptop with an EVDO modem and a little GPS and we just figured that you could really build the software to make the process of connecting internet information with locations very well.

What made you incorporate the carousel?

We looked at various [methods] for showing information like on a map or augmented reality interfaces. We decided the carousel was a very appropriate interface because it’s a little bit forgiving in that you can have an arbitrary number of items in the carousel; whether they’re spaced in a very tight area or across a wide area, you still see them all. The problem with a map is that it’s so literal that often you get crowded out or things are too small. We liked the carousel and find that it’s very conducive to letting the user take the last 50 or 100 feet and skewer it to what they really want to focus on.

Thursday was the first day you could get your hands on a myTouch, the new Android phone from T-Mobile.

The most interesting thing isn’t the phone itself. Oh, it’s a nice phone with much better battery life than the first Anroid phone, the G1. But more interesting are two apps that T-Mobile has been promoting heavily alongside the rollout.

What makes those highly touted apps of interest is that one is a smart example of what an app should be and the other is a missed opportunity. And therein may lie a lesson for the industry.

The smart example is Sherpa, an app that learns your likes and dislikes, then makes recommendations of nearby restaurants, shopping and such, wherever you go.

Sherpa is sentient. And it’s the one thing that’s kicking T-Mobile into the top spot. Developed as an application and propagated initially by the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G, this app serves as a mobile connoisseur that learns about places you search for in its wide database. Sherpa adapts your browsing habits and learns from the places you frequent, the items you browse and makes recommendations based on your preferred listings.

Sherpa goes as far as looking at the date and time and matching your results based on the time when you browse — allowing you to see relevant information such as the store hours of certain shops.

GENIE (Geodelic Engine for Interest Evaluation) is the secret to Sherpa’s success. Usually, consumers would want to download specific types of city guides catering to books, restaurants, stores, etc. Sherpa tailor fits your habits, which means that if you’ve been searching for restaurants more often, GENIE will make places to eat a more prominent search than, say, shopping.