Navigate Inside Airports and Malls with Your iPhone

As the world's worst navigator, I rely heavily on GPS not just while on business trips, but even to navigate around the metro area where I live and work. GPS fails me completely, though, when I enter a building. Now I've got GPS-like real-time navigation inside large commercial buildings, too.

Point Inside is a free interactive mapping app [iTunes link] that lets you see detailed floor plans of major airports and shopping malls across the country. Here in the greater Seattle area, for example, I can see SeaTac airport, along with every mall from Everett to Factoria.

That's not all. When the program can, it shows your position on the map -- giving you a GPS-like "you are here" beacon within the building. It's great for figuring out which direction to walk to get to your ticket counter at the airport or to find a particular store at the mall. The maps are also detailed with links to more information -- tap a ticket counter to get the phone number for the airline, for example.

The maps could definitely benefit from more resolution (no Retina support yet) and though Point Inside can already claim almost 100 airports and 700 malls, there's clearly more room to grow. But as a travel tool, Point Inside will definitely stay on my iPhone. [via AppScout]