TreKing - CTA/PACE Tracking App for Google - a review

Google Application of the month is TreKing, a Chicago public transportation app that you will quickly assimilated into your life. With live bus tracking times and the ability to routes and track destinations times, your hefty commute times will never be the same.

A recent move of mine coupled with car engine problems has made me public transportation junkie. And with all my doctors in the 'burbs, this app couldn't have come at a better time. I've been able to make all my appointments on time then get back to work with little to no disruption to my schedule. It beats driving in city traffic and dealing with parking. And best of all, I've been able to finally tame the dreaded Pace bus routes and schedules.

One thing worth noting when adding routes is its best to use the app with a computer nearby. The apps route finder doesn't have the most efficient input method; a much more convenient one would have been to use the phones address book directly, but built-in address book support has yet to be implemented. Also, Pace bus maps and schedules are all in PDF format. With the Androids lack of PDF support, TreKing users are doing themselves a disservice by not double checking their routes. So, until Google adds native PDF support to Andriod, it's best use a browser when saving routes.

The G1 as a PMP Device

For starters, the G1 is a great phone. The keyboard is useful, the on screen keyboard is decent, phone reception with T-Mobile is great as would be expected, and the ability to use Google Voice is just amazing (See previous post). But I digress, this post started when I woke up this morning wanting to see a show I had missed.

I started off by downloading latest episode of Entourage after which I thought it'd be a good idea to watch it on the train. I downloaded the necessary software and before I knew it, I had converted the video file into G1 compatible MP4 (Tutorial here).

On the train, the sound was pretty decent although not loud enough to combat the rails. Anyway, I started getting a few looks since I wasn't using any headphones so I decided to buy an adapter using the G1 browser. This is where the it really fails to impress me. It took me a little less time to buy the adapter off of Amazon than it took me to download, convert and load the episode of Entourage onto the G1. Some may say that browsing the web on your phone is a privilege and not a feature and I agree to an extent but it's the $25 price tag on this privilege that bothers me. $25 is a premium rate. There's a lot you can get for $25 a month so I expect to get decent performance out of it.

But in all fairness, I never expected much from 3G to begin with. I'm well aware that 3G didn't live out a calender year in Japan before being replaced with 4G. So, I'm not that disappointed, but I digress again! My point is that PMP device's have been mastered and I've come to expect a near flawless experience when it comes to viewing my multimedia content on devices. The G1 doesn't fail in this department.

One thing to note is that shopping on the iPhone is significantly simpler and faster. The next thing I'm going to try is make an RDC connection and just make the purchase from my home computer. It's probably not the most secure thing to do but it'll probably be smoother than using the browser. My theory is that there is a time and place for everything. The time is always right and if your not in the right place, use your device to get there.

If any reader has experience using VNC Connect, shot me an email or comment with your experience.

Using Google Voice on the G1

I've finally gotten around the Google Voice and let me tell you that *this* guy is impressed. The application for the G1 is simple and works. It does everything you'd expect. The online Google Voice interface is pretty simple as well. It didn't take me very long to navigate all of the features. I could easily imagine myself spending hours setting up personal voice mails for friends, family and co-workers. Just setting up groups seems a bit daunting although the added benefit of grouping contacts would provide personalized greetings, redirection to voicemail, and simple mass SMS. As of yet, I haven't exhausted all Google Voice has to offer and I'm sure there are a few features I'm still in the dark about but here are a few bullet points to cut your teeth on.

*Pros
Fav 5 + Google Voice = Free incoming and outgoing calls
Free unlimited texts
Single number to rule all phones
Ability to switch phones in mid-call *first attempt failed
Visual Voicemail + automatic transcription

*Cons
Three way calling
Call waiting
No number porting (slated for end of 2009)

Although I haven't fully tested three way calls, I did a few issues with one call I made. It is a bit of an outlier: I was talking to me dad as he was driving across the country. So, maybe it could have been an issue with cellular towers. So, the first two cons might not be cons at all. For now I won't strike them out; they'll be there for reference.

*Update: I've added a Call Me button on the right that'll connect you directly with my voicemail. Feel free to test it out.