TransLink’s iPhone app is now in the Apple App Store!
Yikes, try saying that headline three times fast. But it’s all true: TransLink’s iPhone app is now available in the Apple App Store!
So if you have an iPhone, this means you can download the TransLink app directly through Apple’s built-in application store. Just search for “TransLink” in the App Store and you’ll find it.
As well, the TransLink app, which is developed by Handi Mobility, now includes location-awareness to find nearby bus stops. Tap on the Bus icon and you’ll see!
What’s TransLink’s iPhone app? Here’s the description from the app store:
Ever wondered when the next bus in Vancouver, Canada is coming? Guess no more! Check out the TransLink application to access complete schedules for buses, SkyTrain, West Coast Express, and SeaBus. You’ll also see service alerts, star your favourite stops and access the GVRD transit maps.
Version 1.1 of the app will be out in late November—I’ll have all the details here when it drops. And if you’d like some further reading on the app so far, here’s the interview I did with Igor Faletski from Handi Mobility about the app, way back in October. Enjoy!
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Other Links to this Post
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Technology news - Techvibes Blog — November 14, 2008 @ 1:14 am
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The Buzzer blog » iBusVan: an iPhone transit app — January 6, 2010 @ 9:01 am
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By Adrien, November 13, 2008 @ 7:28 pm
This looks great! Too bad you can’t access it even if you don’t have an internet connection, for those who do not have a data plan.
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By Dave, November 20, 2008 @ 11:43 pm
I am a little bit confused by the decision to release this ONLY for the iPhone. The iPhone has less than 10% of Canadian market share of smartphones– Symbian (Nokia) and RIM/Blackberry are (for now) far and away the more popular platforms (although RIM/BlackBerry and iPhone are neck-and-neck in the US).
Plus, since both RIM & Symbian support Java, it is quite easy to port an application between the two; writing one Java app would give these location-aware features and better interface to over 70% of Canadian smartphone users.
And yes, I know m.translink.ca can be viewed from any smartphone, but the interface is terrible on anything but the iPhone.
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By xl, November 21, 2008 @ 6:34 am
Yes, I too was shocked to hear Translink plans to develop first for a small niche market (iPhone). Java may be available for RIM products, but it’s unstable with memory leaks.
I suggested doing the site with basic HTML makes it open standard for more products and minimizes data bandwidth charges, as well as higher performance.
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By Igor Faletski, November 21, 2008 @ 9:23 am
Thanks for your feedback guys!
While a lot of phones support Java, only a little fraction of them have data services enabled. On the contrary, 98% of iPhone users actively access the Internet. Moreover, the demographics of RIM and Symbian users in Vancouver do not match the transit rider population in a way that the iPhone does.
We carefully measure the stats of the universal mobile portal at http://m.translink.ca and iPhone users are the absolute majority there, with RIM being in a very distant second place. It’s a priority for us to provide service to everyone, but at the same time we work hard to improve the quality for those who use it the most.
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By xl, November 21, 2008 @ 10:46 pm
When I first looked at http://m.translink.ca/ interface, I was very excited. But quickly found the “scrolling” too slow and clumsy on my Blackberry trackball to look up bus stops for a route. Waiting for all the bus stops to appear for a route was also painful. The search box was basically useless when I tried to enter cross streets. I basically abandoned http://m.translink.ca/ and went back to main site using OperaMini (I hate Java). I’m not surprised Blackberry users are boycotting the http://m.translink.ca/ site.
This morning while waiting for an appointment, I decided to spend some extra time looking at http://m.translink.ca/. When I started to put in the 5 digit bus stop code in the search box, it was pulling information faster than SMS. Also when I started to bookmark the bus stops on my Blackberry browser, the information was available to me faster still.
I now have a new found appreciation for http://m.translink.ca/ with my Blackberry.
Perhaps the “Bus schedules by Search” should be changed to something like “Bus schedules or Bus Stops by Search”. As http://m.translink.ca/ is a barebones site for speed on the homepage. A help screen to show people how to use the site efficiently would be useful.
I’m going to look forward to the ability to enter cross streets and use trip planning on http://m.translink.ca/. I realize the near-term plans is to use GPS information on mobile devices. But GPS can take a long time to sync if we are inside buildings or around tall buildings in the downtown core.
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By Igor Faletski, November 24, 2008 @ 10:20 am
Thanks for the feedback. You should try the Google Maps app for BlackBerry as well, as it should have transit route planning for Vancouver!
http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2008/06/get-bus-and-train-directions-on-go-with.html
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By Ian Fisher, November 24, 2008 @ 3:51 pm
Also of note, the iPhone 2.2 software update adds public transit and walking directions to the built-in Maps application It’s quite a slick implementation and even allows selection of future dates & times for “depart at” and “arrive by” queries.
So the TransLink iPhone app is great for finding the next bus at a stop, while Maps can plan itineraries.
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By David Jenkins, January 12, 2010 @ 8:18 am
Hopefully they will add the live feed of next bus stops reached by the bus to the app.
The iPhone apps are fast and don’t show any sluggish tendencies, that’s what makes or breaks the usability of a device, nobody likes to wait, even for half a second, because after time it adds up. So good on all the fast iPhone apps!!
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By Denis Laplante, June 9, 2011 @ 9:39 pm
Translink Application stopped working for me 2 weeks ago: it now redirects me to Trip Planner web page, which is nearly unusable on small iphone screen.
I recently bought iPhone App \TransitTimes Vancouver\ which does an excellent job. Features I like include off-line use; maps; and \favourite\ lists of stops, routes and trips. A \trip\ is a sequence of buses/trains, and when you display one previously memorized, the next several times are displayed (start, duration, arrival).
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By Dahlya, June 24, 2011 @ 10:48 am
The Translink app hasn’t been working for me for over a month. It redirects me to the website, which like the person before me said, is nearly impossible to use on a small screen.
Please fix this!
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By Mark Sweeney, August 18, 2011 @ 10:42 am
App is horrible. All it does is open their website which is not optimized for mobile browsers, and poorly designed and laid out for small screens.
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