What if you don't have an I Phone?

What if you don't have an I Phone?

(snark) No problem -- you can use the same apps on your iPod Touch. (/snark)

No texting (or surfing) while driving the bus, Al.

:)

Al makes a point. Most of the apps that have been written for TriMet data run on the iPhone and nothing else. Not being a programmer, I don't know for sure but I suspect this is because it's either easier to write applications for the iPhone or because the iPhone has more potential than other PDAs and smartphones (which may be the same thing).

I've only tested Blackberry apps, and like the available browsers, they tend to be slow, clunky and frustrating to use.

I agree with Al and Jeff also, I have a Windows Mobile based phone, and it's disappointing that I haven't found a trip planner (enter from/to addresses) that will work on it. If I know the routes I can do it, but figuring out what routes exist without knowing all the buses in the city isn't very easy.

Without starting a technology war here, I would say there are apps for the iPhone because there are app users for the iPhone, and there is an easy way for app developers to get their apps to those app users on the iPhone.

Never underestimate the power of synergy.

Easy to use, Easy to develop for, Easy to distribute, popular, and in the public awareness.

Yeah, there's an app for that!

Well, what happened to the idea of making the Web trip planner mobile? Someone could at least easily make a copy of the entry form without the navigational elements and other frills; the site would have to support the option of not sending that stuff with the results. And there is Portland Transport's own device-independent tools.

But the fact is that the JesusPhone is the popular device of the moment.

I read a statistic somewhere that a very signficant percentage of the Internet traffic coming from phones is coming from iPhones, i.e., iPhone users actually USE apps much more than users of other phones (including other smart phones) do.

It's because the iPhone is popular. If you care enough to spend a ton of time developing an app (that you will make no money on), then you probably also care enough to have the hippest phone on the block.

My app is for PalmOS though. You can get Palms that run my app off of ebay for $10.

So if you don't have an iPhone, just spend $10 and use my app. IMO it's better than the iphone apps in almost* every way, anyway.

(* I don't integrate transit tracker or a trip planner (yet); but most Palms don't have network access anyway).

I read a statistic somewhere that a very signficant percentage of the Internet traffic coming from phones is coming from iPhones, i.e., iPhone users actually USE apps much more than users of other phones (including other smart phones) do.

I read about that study, and a flaw in it was that Windows Mobile phones show up as IE revisions that most servers detect as IE versions, not Safari for iPhone, or whatever they ID it as.

It's also a flaw in reporting browser stats. My phone is much more secure than the IE5 that most servers identify it as. (Not all, but many think it's an IE5 browser, some pick up that it's a mobile browser though.)

Jason McHuff Says: Well, what happened to the idea of making the Web trip planner mobile? Someone could at least easily make a copy of the entry form without the navigational elements and other frills; the site would have to support the option of not sending that stuff with the results.

I wouldn't call it Beta, exactly, but there is something close to public exposure; should work with any mobile browser. Soon.

From an experience today trying to transfer from the streetcar to the 15 towards Montgomery Park, it would be really nice if there was a graphical way to show the route. I had the PDF of the route saved on my phone, and ended up walking to Burnside near PGE to find a 15 stop.

For people who use transit less-than-daily, it'd be nice if there were some maps that weren't as useless as the ones in the official TriMet PDF's that will work from a mobile browser. (ride.trimet.org for mobile, like Google Maps mobile, for example?)