Galactic Compass 2: now with new augmented reality mode

I updated my Galactic Compass app for iPhone with augmented reality mode. Background: Galactic Compass is a floating green arrow that always points the way to the middle of the Milky Way, 26,000 light years away. Here’s the announcement blog post from 2024. It went kinda viral at the time. It was in the “top free apps” charts at the App Store briefly. In the Travel category. (I keep a list of press mentions over on Acts Not Facts.) Why so popular? Probably because it was early “vibe coding” – I copy-and-pasted between ChatGPT and Xcode to code it, and that was new at the time. But ALSO because knowing where the galactic centre is surprisingly grounding? I wake up every few months to an email in my inbox from someone who is having a tough time in life, or is losing a loved one, or similar, and somehow they have discovered Galactic Compass and they tell me how they sit outside at night with a cigarette and gaze at the arrow and it gives them a place of comfort and infinity. I know what…