Google brings NYC subway alerts to Maps, makes public transit a little more bearable

Google brings NYC subway alerts to maps, makes public transit a little more bearable

Google has offered up New York City subway information via Maps for some time now, but as anyone who’s navigated the 100-plus-year-old transit system will happily tell / complain to you, such information is only so useful without info on the requisite service changes — a lot of work goes into maintaining something that old. Google’s upping its game by bringing services changes to Maps for Android and its web-based counterpart. Clicking on one of the 468 stations in Maps will bring up relevant maintenance information, as well as step-by-step instructions for navigating around it. Until Boingo rolls out WiFi to more stations, however, you might want to check your status before going underground.

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Google brings NYC subway alerts to Maps, makes public transit a little more bearable originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Jul 2012 10:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New York MTA announces smartphone-based ticketing trials aboard Metro-North Railroad

New York MTA announces smartphonebased ticketing trials aboard MetroNorth Railroad

Like big sodas, paper ticket stubs may soon become a thing of the past in New York. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has announced that, come next month, its employees will begin trials of a smartphone-based ticketing system aboard the Metro-North Railroad. While the grand experiment is currently closed to the public, it’s said that railroad workers will use their Android, BlackBerry and iPhone handsets to purchase rail tickets, which may then be validated directly from their smartphone. During the trial, the new system will be compared to the current purchasing scheme that combines both ticket machines and on-board purchases. Should everything prove successful, the MTA will expand the Metro-North’s new system to all-comers. Transit-minded folks will find the full PR after the break.

[Image credit: Masabi (Flickr)]

Continue reading New York MTA announces smartphone-based ticketing trials aboard Metro-North Railroad

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New York MTA announces smartphone-based ticketing trials aboard Metro-North Railroad originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Jul 2012 04:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple nabs patent for NFC-based travel check-in, doesn’t quell NFC iPhone rumors just yet

Apple nabs patent for NFCbased travel checkin, doesn't quell iPhone rumors one iota

Apple has been chasing NFC patents for years, but it’s just now been granted a US patent for its own approach to a transportation check-in — one of the most common uses of the technology in the real world. The filing describes a theoretical iTravel app that would store reservation and ticket information for just about any vehicle and stop along the way: planes, trains and (rented) automobiles would just have the traveler tap an NFC-equipped device to hop onboard, and the hotel at the end of the line would also take credentials through a gentle bump. Besides the obvious paper-saving measures, iTravel could help skip key parts of the airport security line by providing passport information, a fingerprint or anything else screeners might want to see while we’d otherwise be juggling our suitcases.

It all sounds ideal, but before you start booking that trip to the South Pacific with ambitions of testing an NFC-equipped 2012 iPhone, remember this: the patent was originally filed in 2008. We clearly haven’t seen iTravel manifest itself as-is, and recent murmurs from the Wall Street Journal have suggested that Apple isn’t enthusiastic about the whole NFC-in-commerce idea even today. Still, with Passbook waiting in the wings, the patent can’t help but fuel speculation that Apple is getting more serious about an iPhone with near-field wireless in the future.

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Apple nabs patent for NFC-based travel check-in, doesn’t quell NFC iPhone rumors just yet originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 11:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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OLED Lego train station emerges from Adafruit and Arduino gear, minifigs to get home on time

OLED Lego train station emerges from Adafruit and Arduino gear, minifigs to get home on time

Who knew Lego characters had to be somewhere in a hurry? Adafruit did, as it just whipped up a minifig-sized train schedule. The invention mates one of Adafruit’s own 1-inch OLED boards with an Arduino Uno controlling the schedule behind the scenes. It looks to be a straightforward project for the DIY types, although the display is currently all show: the schedule doesn’t (yet) pair up with the train tracks to automatically let your minifigs know if their trip to the pirate spaceship castle has been delayed by ghosts. You can check the source link for the full instructions. Duplo builders, alas, are kept out of the loop.

OLED Lego train station emerges from Adafruit and Arduino gear, minifigs to get home on time originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jun 2012 00:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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