Want to Use New York City’s Coolest App? Get a Google Phone.
Apple has some 140,000 apps for its iPhone users. People who use phones with Google’s (GOOG) Android operating system have much less choice.
But here’s a consolation prize: Android users do get to use the coolest app in New York City. At least, according to the NYC Big App competition, which awarded its Grand Prize last night to Wayfinder NYC, an Android-only app.
Wayfinder, created by Victor Sima and Steven Lao, uses jaw-dropping space-age “augmented reality” technology–which layers map info, tied to GPS data, over the camera view of a user’s phone–to help people find the nearest subway station.
I’ve seen a couple variants of these, at least in demo form, and they’re some of the coolest things I’ve seen that aren’t in “Minority Report” or some other movie.
This one looks pretty cool, too. There’s no sound in this demo, so don’t be alarmed:
I don’t know what’s nuttier about the technology that makes an app like this plausible–the fact that we can integrate this stuff into a consumer device or the fact that we don’t run around shouting about how amazing this stuff is because we already take it for granted.
Anyway, here’s hoping that New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority doesn’t put the hammer down on this one. The MTA has been frustratingly slow to adapt to new technology but alarmingly quick to charge innovators with half-baked claims of copyright violation.
And it would be nice if the WayFinder team ports this thing to Apple’s (AAPL) platform so that New York City’s hordes of iPhone users can get their hands on it.
Comments
Nice. Looks similar to the Paris Metro iPhone app (which also provides push alerts when a line is disrupted):
http://www.metroparisiphone.com/index_en.html
Of course, if WayFinder ports to iPhone OS, wonder how the NYC AT&T network will handle the additional traffic!
Posted by David Nelms at February 5th, 2010 at 12:12 pmHmm the app was clearly copies from Layer. Check it out. Offers way more than just the subway stations but just about everything of interest. (in holland anyway)
Posted by quadrofolio at February 5th, 2010 at 2:15 pmLooks like the iPhone has had this for 8 months:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps49T0iJwVg
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/...
Posted by facebook-698481179 at February 5th, 2010 at 7:25 pmlooks like you don't know the iPhone app market very well Peter. I thought “journalists” were supposed to do research before writing “articles”… there are several AR apps on iPhone that do this and more.
Posted by samharrison at February 5th, 2010 at 9:56 pmSam, when you're reading my “articles”, you need to look carefully, because sometimes I leave hidden messages in them that are only visible to those who know my secret code.
For instance — when I write the following: “I’ve seen a couple variants of these, at least in demo form, and they’re some of the coolest things I’ve seen that aren’t in “Minority Report” or some other movie.”
That *really* means that “I’ve seen a couple variants of these, at least in demo form, and they’re some of the coolest things I’ve seen that aren’t in “Minority Report” or some other movie.”
Got it? Shhh! Don't tell anyone.
Posted by PKafka at February 5th, 2010 at 11:02 pmSo why write such a misleading title? If the function that makes this so cool exists on other phones, then why are you pushing a google phone?
Posted by johnmeister at February 5th, 2010 at 11:55 pmFor any city except New York (yes version 3.5.2 is supposed to have a “server problem” in NYC!) Around Me does the same, and for restaurants, bars, hotels etc.
SInce there is no “subway” category, you just have to search for subway, and turn your iPhone horizontal.
And it's free too.
Her it is :
Posted by jerome71 at February 6th, 2010 at 11:22 amhttp://itunes.apple.com/us/app/aroundme/id29005...