TrainLogic updated significantly to v2.3, now called RailBandit

The RailBandit transit scheduling application appears in a mock-up on a BlackBerry phone.

RailBandit may look familiar.

Since we reported on the original iteration of the mobile train scheduling software in March—called TrainLogic before it changed its name—the Princeton-based team has been hard at work updating the application. RailBandit’s staff has doubled — to two — and they’ve added a bevy of features and support for more devices.

“We’ve added enhancements to the product that has made it take off,” Barry Engle, RailBandit’s new marketing co-founder tells Technically Philly. “We really want to grow this thing.”

RailBandit now features support for U.S. transit lines in more than a dozen cities, including Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Baltimore and San Francisco. Version 2.3 of the transit software dropped in September, with support for most BlackBerry, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG devices. Windows Mobile support is there with a little customization, if you gotta have it.

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TNT: “The Carrier” gives comics the iPhone treatment

A quick read of Ben Franklin’s bio will tell you that Philadelphia is home to many American firsts. Now you can add another: the first iPhone-exclusive comic.

According to the publisher, StopWatch Media, “The Carrier” is the first comic available only on the iPhone. That is, it was not also published in print or online. [iTunes link: paid, free]

“The Carrier” is a story about a man who awakes in Thailand to find a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist and must figure out the origins of the briefcase while he regains his memory.

“If you are a fan of the Borne movies, you’ll love it,” says writer Evan Young, who lives near South Street.

The story takes full advantage of all the features available in a programmable, GPS-enabled device. The story’s 35 chapters unfold in real-time. If chapter two takes place 45 minutes after chapter one, it will be available on your phone exactly 45 minutes after you view the last panel of chapter one.

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Friday Q&A: Shawn Glisson of Boost Mobile

You already know the prepaid market is thick and crowded.

That’s particularly the case for Philadelphia, the largest market in the country that has opened the floodgates to no-contract, unlimited plans, as you can well guess by the advertisements from Metro PCS, Cricket Wireless and Boost Mobile that line SEPTA trains.

As Verizon and AT&T take hold of valued contracted customers, T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel, the parent of Boost, are fighting over lower-margin prepaid plans, so the fight is only spreading.

The competition has at times raged hotly, as even Shawn Glisson, a Boost PR spokesman can admit. But then, Glisson, who had a run with former legendary West Chester electronics and 1980s home computer innovator Commodore International, knows a thing or two about Philadelphia.

He’s now based in the Irvine, Calif. headquarters of Boost, now an arm of Sprint-Nextel, but after the jump, he handicaps the prepaid battle in Philly, tells us what’s next for the market and says something nice about Cricket.

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Friday Tech Links: Domelights has been taken down for now, reshaping Philly and More

In which we link out to the tech news from Philly and elsewhere (when it matters) that slips through the cracks and make it way fun. See others here.

It was often a place for trivial discussions of various, loosely-tethered topics from the perspective of largely anonymous vistors who often identifited themselves as Philadelphia police officers, their family members and supporters.

But Domelights, the public yet registration-required online community forum targeted for Philadelphia police, also became known for viscous, ugly and arguably racist, misogynistic and homophobic comment threads. Facing a law suit from a black officers group, the site — which is run independently of the city’s police force — was taken down.

At time of writing, the site now features only a purple background with a single, small message: “Until further notice, all Domelights.com services (i.e. forums, galleries, blogs) have been suspended. Thank you. McQ.”

McQ, of course, is an unindentifed Philadelphia police sergeant at the center of the controversy, which follows a rash of allegations of racism against general police institutions. After these allegations, the city took swift action against the relatively low traffic site, denying access to the site on city and police computers, as the Inquirer reports.

The Inquirer also reports that Rochelle Bilal, the leader of the black police group — which is called the Guardian Civic League — has taken on a security force due to threats left on a Domelights forum before it was shut down. No word yet on what action the civic league may take now that it appears their wishes — to have Domelights taken down — have been answered.

[Full Disclosure: While I never posted a comment on the site, I did occasionaly visit it for sheer voyuerism]

After the jump, regional VC investment rebouds, a video interview on reshaping Philadelphia’s future and seven other tech stories you don’t want to miss, including our best read piece of the week.

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Boost Mobile opens first Philadelphia retail store

In photo, from left to right: Jack Huston, CEO of VIP Wireless; Aaron Horne, Philadelphia Inspector of Northwest Detectives; Mike Patterson, Philadelphia Eagles; Michael McCloskey, Philadelphia Chief of Police and Edward Williams, COO of VIP Wireless

Boost Mobile opened its first exclusive retail store in Philadelphia on Friday, with all the pageantry of city police middle management and Eagles defensive tackle Mike “PhatPat” Patterson.

The opening came a day after a deadline Boost imposed on itself to correct lingering problems with a delay in its text messaging delivery.

The delays were blamed on the company’s more than three quarters of a million new prepaid customers in the quarter, which beat analyst expectations, according to Sprint’s first quarter financial results.

Boost has led an advertising blitz on the city.

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City Council cell phone ban attacked elsewhere in state, could cost city $90M

All of that ended quickly.

Last week, we reported City Council created quite a buzz by unanimously passing legislation that would have made illegal the use of mobile devices while driving — unless using hands-free technology. That has some fuming.

PennDOT has called the bill  a violation of the state Motor Vehicle Code, saying cell-phone use legality cannot vary county to county, according to the Daily News.

On Monday, the state House approved legislation which included a provision that would withhold state funds from municipalities that were not in compliance with that vehicle code, according to a press release from the office of Rep. Dick Geist of Altoona, who introduced the provision.

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Friday Q&A: Chuck Sacco, CEO of PhindMe Mobile

It’s a helluva school project.

While completing MBA degrees at Drexel University in 2006, Chuck Sacco, Doug Bellenger and two others founded PhindMe Mobile, with vague plans on improving the mobile Web-based interaction between businesses and their customers.

Since then, two have bailed and now CEO Sacco and COO Bellenger are leading a small team crafting the future of mobile Web direct-to-consumer advertising.

Sacco, who did his undergraduate work at St. Joseph’s University, has a few technology startups in his past and has learned from them, he said.

“For me, it’s always been about having platforms where you can plug in functions and take them into new markets as the world changes,” he said.

PhindMe, has to be an example of that – one on which Sacco was willing to bet. He and Bellenger put in about $80,000 of their own capital to launch, and last June they borrowed nearly $225,000 more from friends and family, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal. They launched in October, and they say they’ll break even as early as June – helped by the national attention they’ve gotten in advertising communities.

Below see how the South Jersey native – who says he has “always considered Philadelphia as home” – describes PhindMe’s future and for whom the alumnus of St. Joe’s and Drexel cheers in Big Five basketball.

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Comcast set to launch “enhanced cordless phone”

Comcast is due for a nationwide launch of what has been called an “enhanced cordless phone,” connecting its VoIP service with e-mail, voice mail, Web access and other features, according to Cable Digital News.

Finally some news about which they want to boast; Comcast has taken a brusing lately.

The announcement comes on the heels of a company investigation into widespread reports from Comcast.net free e-mail users that their accounts were down for long portions of Saturday and they claimed messages were lost. Though less than in previous years, CEO Brian Roberts took some heat when it was announced he was the country’s 13th highest paid chief executive.

Please, $24.7 million ain’t no thang.

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Ladies and gentlemen, we have a war: Boost Mobile trucks crash Cricket party

It’s on.

Technically Philly reported Wednesday that Cricket had the world’s largest cell phone outside the the Shops at Liberty Place. Yesterday, Boost crashed the party.

Less than a half hour after Cricket’s promotional team set up its cell phone and surrounding activity for Thursday’s lunch-time crowd, a flatbed truck – depicted above – hauling a Boost Mobile advertisement and playing an endless loop of Boost boosting began circling the Market West corridor.

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World’s largest cell phone can’t compete with obnoxious callers in Center City

We’d normally forward this off to our pals at Ripley’s Believe it or Not, but the geek deep within our hearts couldn’t pass.

Cricket Wireless and Samsung Electronics are at the Shops at Liberty Place showing off the world’s largest cell phone in a promotional campaign for Cricket, after launching its economical wireless service in Philadelphia earlier this month.

Visitors of the giant, freak-cell phone can actually place calls, although we would have preferred if there was someone hiding inside, pretending to take calls, responding with insults, and staying true to the spirit of this fine city.

If the technology behind the device is proportional to its 195 square-foot mass, we’re expecting it to be just as loud and annoying as any caller on a SEPTA train.

If this isn’t enough for you, you can choose to be ridiculed by the entire YouTube community after singing the promotional Cricket theme on camera or compete in a text messaging battle. There will also be other Cricket mobile phones on display—albeit strangely tiny, pocket-sized ones.

The gargantuan phone will be in the city at 16th and Chestnut until Friday.