Balloons: launch a balloon from your iPhone, see who finds it

Nov 8th

Sunday

If you ever let a helium balloon float away when you were a kid and wondered where it eventually ended up, you already know what Balloons for the iPhone is all about. This cute little app lets you launch a virtual balloon with a message and a photo attached. Anyone with the app installed can pull down balloons near them — Balloons uses the iPhone’s location services — and read messages.

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I grabbed a few balloons to see what it was all about, and it was more addictive than I expected. My first balloon was an ad, launched by some marketer near my city (Boo! Hiss!), but then things started getting interesting. I caught a balloon that had drifted from London to Texas to Arizona, picking up new notes along the way. Balloons reminds me of the message-in-a-bottle feeling of the early days of the Internet — “Hey, who else is out there?”

I tested the Lite version of Balloons, which is free. There’s also a $2.99 version that adds the ability to track your balloons, in case you get really serious.

Choose a balloon, add a message and photo, then release it into the sky!

Where will it go?

Who will it meet?

How far will it travel?

Scan the sky and catch the balloons of others. Add your own message tag and release them back into the air on their journey!