iTrans: native SEPTA regional rail iOS app has ‘three killer features’ that sets it apart

iTrans SEPTA is the localized regional rail-specific version of a popular native mass transit app with, as Brooklyn web developer Adam Ernst describes it, “three killer features: offline access, live departure info, and push alerts.”

• Offline access: “Since schedules are stored right on your device, you can pull up the times within a couple seconds at most, no matter how spotty your cell connection,” he said.
• Live departure info: This “is incredibly useful for checking your train while you walk to the station. Right on the timetable view, iTrans shows you if each train is on time or late and how late it is,” he said.
• Push alerts: “You can just set an alert for your train line and get instant push alerts whenever there’s a disruption announced by SEPTA. You can even set alerts for individual trains: so if you usually take the 5:45 train from Market East, tap a switch and we’ll send you a push alert whenever it’s delayed on the days you choose,” he said.

The app costs $3.99 in the app store. Live departure info and push alerts are an additional 99 cents per month, said Ernst, since they “require server-side resources that I have to maintain.”

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SEPTAlking: voice command SEPTA schedule tool launches [VIDEO DEMO]

A tool that allows users to call in for voice activated SEPTA schedule updates has launched.

Called SEPTAlking and built by Voxeo Labs developer Mark Headd, the tool is particularly suited for those who drive from homes or work to a SEPTA train station and need to confirm train arrivals, departures and delays.

The tool also has text and IM functionality. To give it a try, users can call or text (215) 987-5418 and be prompted for details. The project uses Tropo, a service from Headd’s West Coast-based Voxeo. Currently, it is focused on the regional rail.

Visit the SEPTAlking.com website here.

Headd began developing the project at the Apps for SEPTA hackathon that he helped organize and Technically Philly co-sponsored. He also demoed SEPTAlking to a roomful of amused SEPTA executives at a recent event.

Headd says he plans to continue to develop the project and seeks feedback on improvements or bugs.

Ridaroo: ride-sharing web app launches free for Philly college students

Ride-sharing web application Ridaroo launched its college service last month, opening up the tool to some 300,000 students in the region with .edu emails from partnering universities, said co-founder Aksel Gungor.

The company, launched in September 2010, licenses its web app to corporations, universities and other large institutions to allow their commuting populations to more easily establish carpools. Users list daily commutes or special trips, which prompts the web app to suggest other users in the same organization making similar routes.

It’s in talks with several large institutions, said Gungor, 24, and once those are announced as final, they’ll open up a round of funding. Thus far, the company has been funded by a summer 2010 friends and family round.

The company has deep Drexel ties.

Gungor, who also serves as the company’s COO, is a Drexel University finance graduate and founded the company in spring 2010 with Andy Guy, 30, the CEO, a Penn State CS alumnus and Drexel MBA graduate. The pair has two developers on staff, who are still students at Drexel. The team will be incubated at the Baiada Center for Entrepreneurship.

NEXT Septa: developer Reed Lauber launches subway, bus and trolley schedule app

Transit applications and the data that supports them have a way of inspiring those closest to their use.

Days before the first Apps for SEPTA hackathon, the latest in a tradition of mass transit tools for Philadelphians, is bubbling to the surface: NEXT-Septa.

[Full Disclosure: Technically Philly is sponsoring the hackathon.]

“The goal is to provide a simple, fast and pleasing way to get the next few arrival times for SEPTA bus, subway and trolley routes,” said Reed Lauber, who called it a learning project. “It is specifically not intended to be a comprehensive SEPTA app. It aims to do this one job and do it well.”

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Apps for SEPTA: a hackathon to play with local mass transit data

Apps for SEPTA, scheduled for the weekend of Oct. 8 and 9, is a hackathon “focused on building web, mobile or social applications” around the regional transit authority.

For $10, developers will play with local data and APIs from SEPTA, be well fed both days and get all the usual camaraderie of a weekend of coding around other smart, civic-minded hackers, says co-organizer and Voxeo Labs open gov nut Mark Headd. Representatives from SEPTA will be in attendance.

The hackathon will take place at the Devnuts Northern Liberties coworking space, which we recently updated you on. This is meant to be the first in a series of related hackathons. [Full Disclosure: Technically Philly is a sponsor of this event.]

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TransitView: SEPTA unveils real-time bus and trolley app, also SMS and smartphone schedules

Now you can know just when your bus is arriving.

SEPTA will unveil Thursday its long-awaited real-time bus and trolley application, along with SMS and smartphone schedules, transit agency officials announced.

Dubbed TransitView and designed to be accessible by most smartphones, the web app relies on GPS-enabled SEPTA buses and trolleys to track precise positioning on a Google Map, as depicted above, SEPTA Director of Emerging and Specialty Technology Michael Zaleski told Technically Philly.

In addition to TransitView, SEPTA will also announce its ‘Schedules to Go,’ which can be accessed by text message or a web-enabled smartphone. Currently these are static schedules and not real-time, though there are internal plans for real-time eventually, Zaleski said.

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SEPTA subway iPhone app launches

Patrick Cassidy, the developer behind phillysubway, has a theory about mass transit iPhone applications.

“Transit systems have quirks and you need to be user of the system to write an app for it,” he says.

A SEPTA rider and the lone employee at Caffeine Fish, Cassidy followed up regional rail scheduling application Trainboard with phillysubway, an iPhone app that provides up-to-the-minute subway schedules. Users can hold their iPhone normally for the North/South Broad Street Line, or turn their phone sideways for the (mostly) East/West Market Frankford Line.

A functionality that, Cassidy says, had him fearful that Apple would reject the application form its App Store.

[Disclosure: Caffeine Fish is a Technically Philly advertiser. This post is not part of any advertising package.]

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Trainboard takes on iSEPTA with regional rail iPhone app

There’s a new SEPTA app in town.

We must confess, ever since iSEPTA, we have been hard pressed to find a Philadelphia transit iPhone application that we would actually, you know, use on a daily basis. As of now, the Apple App store is mostly filled with nationally-focused apps that offer a Philadelphia version, such as iTransitBuddy.

Trainboard (iTunes link), however, is locally produced by Patrick Casady, as Caffeine Fish, out of his apartment near Girard College. Casady maintains the company part-time as a side project.

“New York has really good transit apps, but I looked at Philly’s selection and it sucked,” says the Drexel grad.

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Azavea submits BusMinder for Massachusetts Department of Transportation contest

BusMinder, a bid from Azavea for a contest from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

The story of a government looking for technology to do what it does better is becoming increasingly average.

And Callowhill-based GIS software firm Azavea, which recently changed its name from Avencia, has made it something of a habit of getting involved whether those discussions are happening in Philadelphia or not.

More than a month after chasing New York City’s BigApps contest, an Azavea developer has his eyes set on winning a challenge from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

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Clear 4G WiMAX mobile broadband network launches; AT&T completes subway network

A map illustrating Clear's WiMAX network coverage in Philadelphia.

Philadelphia mobile users have options and plenty of them.

Last week, Philadelphia saw the launch of fourth generation WiMAX mobile broadband network Clear and the completion of AT&T‘s cellular network on two SEPTA subway lines.

Clearwire’s wireless 4G network launched quietly on Oct. 1, promising download speeds of up to 4Mbps and uploads of up to 500Kbps throughout the Philadelphia region.

The network’s in-home and mobile packages are priced competitively and could raise alarm for other networks in the area.

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