MetropoliPhone: Location Made Simple

Location-based services are on the tip of everyone’s tongue these days, and iPhone apps that leverage GPS are coming from left and right.

As promising as it is, though, location is still a bit complicated. Even if the technology is there, the culture still needs to catch up. iPhone owners are no longer the early adopters, but their friends and family. America is learning that you don’t need to be a magician to use an iPhone, in fact, it’s like a smartphone for dummies.

iPhone “mapps” (mapping apps) that will have the most success early on are the simple ones. That is why we like MetropoliPhone, a new mobile (and iPhone optimized) municipal transportation maps service.

The idea is actually not dynamic or web2.0ish at all. In fact, it’s not even location aware. It simply links to a large number of the network maps from the different metro authority websites worldwide.

Carlos Gomez, the “media architect” behind the project, describes it as handy city maps conveniently collected under one resource in your phone, and nothing else. “For instance,” he says, “if you need to see the subway map quickly in NY to see where you can transfer lines, it beats opening up those big paper maps or standing in front of people in the subway car (which is why i first started loading maps to my phone way back). It’s also great when you land on a foreign city for travel to have these maps readily available.”

There are currently maps for 62 cities, from Aarhus to Zurich. While some just have subways, New York’s also include PATH trains, buses for all 5 boroughs, LIRR, Metro North, WaterTaxi and NY Waterway ferry service as well as bike path maps.

MetropoliPhone