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Using Location-Aware Gadgets
As many of you may already know, I’m a gadget geek and I love technology, hence the blog and the job with Wells Fargo Financial technology. One of my favorite gadgets, and one that I never leave home without, is my iPhone. I’m one of “those” that got one day 1 over well over a year ago. I use it for all kind of things in addition to making and receiving phone calls. In since this blog is about Downtown, I wanted to share a few ways that I use my iPhone around downtown as well as talk about some of the exciting things other cities around the country are creating for “location-aware” devices, primarily the iPhone.
To begin with, let me share with you one of the most innovative ideas I’ve seen a city come up with to promote their city and to provide free tools to their residents. The city I’m speaking of is Washington, DC. Their Mayor and the cities’ Chief Technology Officer (I’m not sure if the City of Des Moines even has this position?) developed an innovation contest and gave away up to $20,000 worth of cash prizes to take the cities’ data and build applications that use that data to benefit residents and tourist of the DC area. Wow! What a great way to get creative tools built. Can you image if Des Moines sponsored a contest like this? The Des Moines area is full of creative technology folks and with all the technology jobs here in our area, we would be sure to have some great innovations submitted.
So what has been submitted thus far:
DC Location-Aware Realtime Alerts – iPhone users can download this free app from the App Store to see the location and type of crimes that have been committed near them in near realtime. They can also see the nearest metro station based on their current location, including the next two inbound trains in each direction.
More applications…
DC Crime Finder – This app is pretty straight forward – start by either calling a phone number and follow the prompts, or click a URL and input your phone number. The app will then determine your location and return specific instances of various crimes based on a 1, 2 or 3 mile radius.
Park it DC – Park It DC is a web app that allows you to check a particular area of DC for parking information. It helps you discover whether the spot you’re headed to will have meters you’ll have to pay, or if they’ll be free. The app can also help you avoid a ticket for parking in a Residential Parking Permit zone.
DC Historic Tours – DC Historic Tours gives users the ability to view routes, photos, and review of historic locations in the DC area all in one place.
So until we patiently wait for more cool apps like this to be built for Des Moines, here as promised are the ones that I use around downtown.
Urban Spoon – Have you ever had trouble deciding where to eat? Maybe you’re going out with a group and you’re suffering from the age old question, “Where should we eat tonight?”. Or maybe you just want to discover a new restaurant.
Urbanspoon on the iPhone is part Magic 8 Ball, part slot machine. You shake your phone and it finds a good nearby restaurant for you. Keep shaking it until it comes back with something you want to try.
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MetroMix – Looking for a nearby place to eat or drink? You can use Metromix What’s Nearby application to find the closest restaurants, bars, clubs and more! The app automatically pinpoints where you are and allows you to either search for a specific destination or browse by category to figure out where to go next. Stumped on where you’ll get your next meal or drink? Use the Magic Shaker to decide where to go by simply shaking your iPhone!
You can quickly find:
· Name and address information
· Maps and the distance from your current location
· Phone number (with an auto-call option)
· Overall user rating
· Photos, descriptions, menus and more!
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Posted under Living Downtown | Last modified on November 12th, 2008.
Tags: Maps | Video
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Pete Jones on Thu, 13th Nov 2008 8:30 am
Larry – I know the DCA is working to expand their marketing message with Social Medai, but I don’t think they are quite this advanced yet. It would be cool if they could like up downtowndesmoines.com with functions like Metromix and other do to provide you the same information as they have tons of info on their website specific to Des Moines. I still limit my involvement with Metromix since it is a site hosted out of Chicago and not local, like the DCA site. But, it is functional, so I get it.
MulderDSM on Fri, 14th Nov 2008 8:19 am
Here are some more that were just released.
iLive.at – If you’re a resident of DC interested in learning more about your neighborhood, or if you’re looking to move to the city, this application serves up essential data pertaining to area businesses and crime reports and things of that nature. It’s well designed, intuitive, and quite detailed in the information it delivers to users.
http://www.ilive.at/Public/LocInfo.aspx
D.C. Pedestrian – Logic would have it that sources in the capital would have better grasp on the production of walking directions. Here’s one realization of that very idea.
http://www.dcpedestrian.com/
Achieve D.C. – School performance statistics and poverty levels juxtaposed against one another.
http://achievedc.mapkist.com/
DC Bikes – Your Guide to Biking in DC – Similar to D.C. Pedestrian but specific to biking. This involves numerous data points, from crime to metro stations, etc.
http://www.outsideindc.com/bikes