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Don't like iOS6's (lack of) transit directions? You need this.

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Re: Don't like iOS6's (lack of) transit directions? You need this.

#61

Post by kelnos »

jarek wrote: post #37
vegashacker wrote: post #34

Somewhat off-topic, but does anyone in SF who rides public transportation agree that Google's Map directions in terms of time predictions don't work? Like they're almost always completely wrong. I wonder if they use scheduled bus times instead of actual ones. Anyway, I was hoping to be able to plug in something like Routesy to iOS 6 maps, and then I'd be a happy camper.

Unless specifically indicated as live times, Google uses the scheduled times. I've seen live times in Google Maps in only one area, Portland, OR. Scheduled times are coming from GTFS feeds that agencies register with Google. As far as I know, Google didn't create a unified live transit predictions/tracking API, which seems to me a rather surprising oversight.

It might be speed. I've written an app for SF using the NextBus API, and it is slow. In the time it would take to return the live times for a particular route at a particular stop, Google has already given me four possible routes (and has helpfully gotten me a glass of water, as well).

Re: Don't like iOS6's (lack of) transit directions? You need this.

#62

Post by kelnos »

tullidil wrote: post #50
vegashacker wrote: post #34

Somewhat off-topic, but does anyone in SF who rides public transportation agree that Google's Map directions in terms of time predictions don't work? Like they're almost always completely wrong. I wonder if they use scheduled bus times instead of actual ones. Anyway, I was hoping to be able to plug in something like Routesy to iOS 6 maps, and then I'd be a happy camper.

I'm pretty sure Google Maps and a plethora of other applications on the App Store simply use the MUNI schedules ( http://www.sfmta.com/cms/mroutes/schedules.htm ) for the purposes of "time prediction." Since buses in SF are basically never time due to many reasons (traffic, accidents, once I was on a bus where the trainee who was driving took the wrong exit on the way to Daly City BART and the actual Muni driver on t…

No need to scrape, even. NextBus has a public API.

Re: Don't like iOS6's (lack of) transit directions? You need this.

#63

Post by tmalloy »

frozenflame wrote: post #59
tmalloy wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's one example we saw recently in new york going from the 116th/Columbia stop to 12 St Marks Place. Google's result: http://i.imgur.com/8zpbY.png Our result: http://i.imgur.com/gpDu5.png & http://i.imgur.com/8hvrs.png Currently we don't have an app for muni, though it's something we're working towards. There are some nice apps for Muni that have real-time arrivals but lack routing. Transporter & Routsey are proba…

Not sure if Google is monitoring your posts or if their routing glitched before but doing the search just now gave me pretty much the same results on Google Maps... http://goo.gl/maps/fsfKF

Looks like they're watching. It had been like that for a couple weeks and still was up until the time I posted.

Re: Don't like iOS6's (lack of) transit directions? You need this.

#65

Post by reddit_clone »

kelnos wrote: post #60
mtgx wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never understood why people like to pre-order something before even one review on it is released, or before they get a chance to see it for themselves.

It's Apple. In the eyes of the faithful, they can't release a bad product. As much as we may make fun of "fanbois", it's incredible the amount of loyalty, trust, and goodwill Apple has managed to generate for themselves.

Are there any books or dissertations written on this phenomenon?

Certainly psychiatrists have a name for this by now? (I have never seen this level of loyalty anywhere else: Rock Stars, World Leaders or Religious heads..)

Its almost like some drug is leaking into their bodies from their iDevices which rest of us are not privy to.

Re: Don't like iOS6's (lack of) transit directions? You need this.

#66

Post by w1ntermute »

reddit_clone wrote: post #65
kelnos wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's Apple. In the eyes of the faithful, they can't release a bad product. As much as we may make fun of "fanbois", it's incredible the amount of loyalty, trust, and goodwill Apple has managed to generate for themselves.

Are there any books or dissertations written on this phenomenon? Certainly psychiatrists have a name for this by now? (I have never seen this level of loyalty anywhere else: Rock Stars, World Leaders or Religious heads..) Its almost like some drug is leaking into their bodies from their iDevices which rest of us are not privy to.

> Are there any books or dissertations written on this phenomenon?

Absolutely ― Cult of Mac, by Leander Kahney[0].

0: http://www.amazon.com/The-Cult-Paperback-Leander-Kahney/dp/1...

Re: Don't like iOS6's (lack of) transit directions? You need this.

#67

Post by RandallBrown »

davidwhodge wrote: post #28

Hey guys. David Hodge here from Embark. I just wanted to let you know that we've got you covered for transit directions in many large cities. (And more being added all the time) Look for Embark in NYC, Washington DC, Boston, London, Chicago, San Francisco. Embark will work underground and has results tailored to each city instead of the very general results you tend to get from Google Transit.

Are you going to be adding Seattle any time soon?

Re: Don't like iOS6's (lack of) transit directions? You need this.

#68

Post by joeshaw »

I just learned about Lumatic today (http://lumatic.com/) and it seems like a worthy replacement for transit directions in many places.

Here in Boston it seems to think that I am not near any transit, but it does happily use the transit near my house to route me on different trips. I like the landmark-based turn-by-turn navigation -- I hope that's something that becomes more useful as time goes on.

Re: Don't like iOS6's (lack of) transit directions? You need this.

#69

Post by malyk »

davidwhodge wrote: post #39
vegashacker wrote: post #34

Somewhat off-topic, but does anyone in SF who rides public transportation agree that Google's Map directions in terms of time predictions don't work? Like they're almost always completely wrong. I wonder if they use scheduled bus times instead of actual ones. Anyway, I was hoping to be able to plug in something like Routesy to iOS 6 maps, and then I'd be a happy camper.

We've found that Google has historically had a very hard time in San Francisco, and many other big cities for that matter. The results often seem reasonable at first, but end up being impractical in practice. We've found that getting good routing results in cities like SF requires a lot of attention to detail in each particular city. Google has very smart people, but they can't focus everywhere at once. Disclaimer, I…

It shouldn't matter if they don't run on schedule because every bus/train has a GPS on it from which you can make predictions. iCommuteSF and Routesy (and i'm sure others) use this to give me results that are accurate the vast majority of the time.

Re: Don't like iOS6's (lack of) transit directions? You need this.

#70

Post by stcredzero »

Void_ wrote: post #10
scottschulthess wrote: post #4

Is this in the app store or what?

No, it's open-source. In order to run it on your iPhone, you'll have to pay Apple $100 per year. Or find somebody who is already in Apple Developer program, ask him to add your iPhone ID.

Someone should start a "iDevBuddy" site, where people can pay a dev for use of her/his unused provisioning slots and install their own software.
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