Google’s Field Trip? [want a non-Canadian app?]

So, I was pretty excited to hear of a new Google project.  I just love me my Google, and yet I pretend not to be a fanboy.

Anyhow, as much as I was excited to hear about it, how I heard about it was not under great terms.  I’ve been uber busy at work lately and I’m about 2-3 days behind most of my ‘reading’ for social networks and whatnot.  So when Brian sent me a message on G+ asking if I could find the apk for this new app, I knew what was happening.

I love living in Canada.  I love Northwestern Ontario.  But it’s times like these that just make me mad.  The new Field Trip app was georestricted.

That means that it isn’t available in Canada, so if we want a copy, we have to side load the apk.  I’ve covered this topic before as we did a list of some of the non-Canadian apks.  We have a page dedicated to a folder of files, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

So, what were we being left out of?

I’m still a little vague on what it is.  But because I can’t have it, I want it.

So it took me a while to find a source, and my conscience is clear because it is a free app, but I found it and installed.

I get why it’s geo-restricted.  I do, it’s because there’s no content in Canada.  Like most of the apps we’ve listed that are non-Canadian, you can install the app, but the service it connects to is a different story.  But to not even let us install via the store is kind of a douche move I think.  At least let us download it, but put a big warning – this will be a ghost town app for you.  We’ll get the picture.  But, I travel to the states a lot, so it’d be nice to see what works there.  True, I won’t have a data connection, but my point stands.

Just because the app will have no content where I am ‘currently’, doesn’t mean that the device will always be there.  Just the content will change.

So, what is field trip?  From what I can tell (as you can see, there’s nothing near me, except in Minnesota) it’s kind of like a pre-emptive Wikipedia/Zagat meets Google Now.  As you enter somewhere that is ‘field trip worthy’ it will pop up a card so you can learn about what’s near you.

Kinda neat.  Like a layer for maps that’ll alert you.

You can get directions, reviews, share it with others and other neat social stuff.

I actually ate there, it’s pretty good.

It’s not a super awesome service that I really feel like I’m being left out of, just I’m more annoyed by the process of being eliminated than the ‘elimination itself’.

Anyways, to that end I want to remind you that we have a folder of files of APKs for you to side load yourself.

[UPDATE]Apparently in some corners of Toronto and Montreal where it’s pulling up some Wikipedia and Zagat references.  Cool![/UPDATE]

And, I have had to change the format of it as apparently, unbeknownst to me, and other users, Minus changed their system.  It’s going to be ‘photos only’ kind of storage.  I recently removed SugarSync and CX from my list so I could concentrate my clouds.  Minus would be gone now too, except they house almost all the ‘sample photos’ I use for phone reviews.

So, here’s the files via Box.