Author: James Melvin

Welcome to TrampleZone Blog!

Thanks for stopping by and visiting the TrampleZone Blog. Here you can learn more about our available applications and new projects under development.  You can tell us about your experience using our apps, suggest new features, and report any problems you have discovered. We invite you to participate and engage directly with our company staff.  Here is more info about the HotSpots app.

HotSpots is a brand new app to find and rate your favorite nearby venues in several categories.  You can filter on price, product, service, cleanliness, ambiance, entertainment, crowds, and more.   Be smart and spend your time wisely with the highest rated places.  Join us to make it possible for the world to Track the Herd and Save all of Humanity!

HotSpots is a product of TrampleZone LLC.  We are a relatively new software startup in the Boston area, focused on mobile and desktop applications for savvy consumers. Growing from ground zero, we are actively looking for marketing and engineering innovators with fresh new ideas to join the team and help save the world, one app at a time.

Jim Melvin, CEO TrampleZone LLC

The HotSpots Map

The HotSpots Map is powered by Google Maps with some extra special sauce.  When the app is loaded, the user’s position is determined based upon their GPS location or triangulated based on their wifi location.  Once we know the user location, we can begin to populate the map.

HotSpots asks Google Maps for places (or ‘establishments’) near the user’s location.  However, we don’t ask for all places, but rather only the places of interest.  Users can select their desired place types using HotSpots’ Place Types view.  There are dozens of types to choose from.  Only the place types that match the user’s preference will be shown.  The default place types are Restaurants, Bars & Night Clubs, and Casinos.  Using different place types, users can see exactly the places of interest.  The maximum number of places shown can also be set by the user.

HotSpots can also show places that do not appear on the usual Google Map.  For example, a university gym and your favorite tennis courts may not show up on the Google Map.  Using HotSpots, users can create their own HotSpots of interest to appear on the application map and assign matching place types.  Other users can submit scores and comments on these new locations as usual.  User defined locations will be more fully described in another, more dedicated post.  Using this special sauce, HotSpots can display a wide variety of places and place types on the map, even those that do not normally appear on the Google Map.