Just a quick reply to say us iPhone users need not feel left out - NightSky does a very similar thing. I remember feeling much the same as you when I first came across it - not something I'd whip out every night, but when I did I always had fun.

It is a freemium app though, unlike Google's free offering...

As to my own suggestion for the coolest app on my phone - I'll have to give that a bit of thought...though I'm leaning towards Geocaching. Think real-life 'treasure' hunting. Folk hide small packages, and register them with the app. Some have little gifts and items in them (and the etiquette is that you take something and leave something if you find it and want to) - but some are so small there's only room for a note. But they are everywhere. You can look on the app to see any that are near to your location - or somewhere you may be travelling to.

Not used it in ages, but we went though a phase of wherever we went we looked for a 'cahce. I even found some when working in Kuala Lumpur!

It's an app that gets you outdoors and in the fresh air - you often end up going places you wouldn't normally (and even find spots close to home you maybe didn't know about), and there's a really strong community feel - it's like you're part of a secret club. You have to be careful if there are 'muggles' about so they don't start to wonder why you're stomping round a tree looking for something and then go on ot disturb the 'cache themselves.

There's loads of different type of cache. And there's a really cool thing called trackables. They're like a dog-tag with a unique number that you can attach to things. You can register with the site/app, then watch it travel round the world as folk move it from cache to cache. Here's one we set off in 2006. Gonzo the gorilla.

He is still going strong - last updated yesterday, having travelled 33,788 miles from where we released him in the UK!!!

https://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=671919

So yeah - it's pretty cool.

Must get back into it....