On Products, Editions and Timeframes

Hi all,

In building the Native version of iTransit we dramatically increased the scope of information that we want to make available. Primary amongst that is disruptions, delays and cancellations.

Why? Well for the majority of our regular users, you only ever load up iTransit when you deviate from your routine. Using me personally as an example, I’m pretty sure I have my morning and afternoon timetables memorised, so I only really need to know when things aren’t what I’m expecting.

To a degree, iTransit does this now – you can check the cancellations for your train, but more often than not it’s not reported, or delayed but not cancelled. If you’re a regular user you’ve probably subscribed to the Connex SMS feed too.

So in expanding our focus and researching the kind of information that people are looking for, we’ve decided to make sure that things like service changes, cancellations and even delays are base pieces of information that are vital to supporting any times we display. We’re doing so, but getting that sort of information into iTransit in a simple way has so far not been an easy task (and it needs to be simple – if it takes 15 minutes to generate changes I’ll get sick of updating it really fast) but we are making progress.

Blah blah blah, how does this affect me?

It dictates a few changes to what we’re delivering, but because things are developed in parallel it shouldn’t affect things too much, just means that you will see a few new things sooner than you might otherwise had.

New version of the Web Application

You will probably see this first as it’s used as the testing/verification platform for all new datas. If you’re nice to me I might even post some screenshots of the redesign.

A Dashboard Widget

Your favourite transit data in a widget! We’ll probably support other widget/gadget platforms eventually, but we work/live in our Macs so initial support goes there. This is mainly so that I can just hit F12 as I walk past my iMac on the way out and not have to squint at my iPhone screen because I’ve forgotten to turn the brightness back up and haven’t had my coffee yet

Native iPhone Application

We know you want it! We want it too. There’s no timeframe for delivering this at the moment; near enough just isn’t good enough as far as we’re concerned, so we’re not going to release something until we’re happy with it, and with the additions of the delays and disruptions as core information it’s more important than ever that we get the information display right.

There will still be two versions of the Native Application. The basic free version, and a paid version with a bunch more bells and whistles. Both will be fully usable with no gimping/trials/missing data. The paid version will be targeted at more regular users with more things you’ll want to use regularly.

There’s no clear separation between the two editions yet. We haven’t drawn a line in the sand as to which features go into which, so we’re happy to accept your suggestions with open ears.

That would probably suffice as too much for you to read for today

-bok