As you probably didn’t know, my new wife (Skirt On The Sideline) and I recently traveled to New York City for our honeymoon. In preparation for our trip we made flight and hotel arrangements, and booked tickets for one broadway show. Our plan was to basically play it by ear while in the city and wander around to see what we could get into. The first day we arrived, I came up with the idea of trying to use only our Android powered smartphones as research and navagation while in NYC. A number of free applicaitons were used by both my wife and I to take us all around the city while we were there.
Google Maps with Navigation.
The first, and quite possiblally the most important application we used was Google Maps with Navagation. As part of the Android operating system, Google Maps was able to pin point our location regardless what part of the city we were located in. The best feature of the application was its abllitiy to use the turn by turn directions to instruct us how to get from place to place. The program lets you select your mode of transportation, either by foot, by car, by public transportation, or by bike. The public transportation option included NYC buses and subway trains with any necessary walking (to or from stations) and any necessary train transfers. Also, as you search for businesses, Google Maps will integrate reviews and feedback.
Basically we were able to use the GPS to locate our starting point, search google for our desired destination, and Google Maps would locate the cloesest train and tell use step by step how to get there. Each search was complete with three different options of travel, and aprox travel time. The only negative that I saw with this application was that it required data to update the maps. So once we were actually underground on the subway platfom, we were not able to update the map or route. However, we found a solution to that problem.
NYC Mate
NYC Mate was discovered in the Android market by my wife. It is an electronic copy of the NYC subway map complete with train schedules and maps of the vacinity around each station. The best part about this application is that all the map data is stored locally on your SD card. So if you are in a train, or on a platform, you are still able to view the map and check the schedules. The only downside was the fact that it does not utilize any GPS data, nor will it map out your route for you. But if used in conjunction with Google Maps the two applications compliment eachother very well. The best part about having NYC Mate was that we did not appear as obvious tourists when we wanted to check the rail map, it is much more descrete than a large fold out paper map.
Yelp
My wife and I only made one dinner reservation for the 5 days we were in NYC. Seeing as I have never been to the city and she had only been once before, we were somewhat lost when it came to eating meals. The easest way out would have been looking for fast food or other chain restaurants that we reconized from home. However, while in NYC we wanted to enjoy the many different food options that the city had to offer. Yelp was very helpful when trying to select a place to eat. Yelp, which is free in the Android market, is GPS enabled and alows you to locate resturants (and other service type businesses) near you and sort them by price and by user review. Yelp also integrates well with Google Maps, which made it very simple to search for a resturant and then map the route to get there. One feature that I also expermineted with was called “Monicle”. Monicle uses the phone’s camera and GPS data to let you visably search for locations in the area by holding your phone in the direction you want to travel. We used this feature to locate a Mexican resturant (which was closed for a private party) near Grand Central Station while standing on the street corner, and also a Chineese resturant (where we ultimately had lunch). Monicle is fun, but not quite as accurate as maping the location out with Google Maps. Your mileage may vary.
Urban Spoon
In addition to Yelp, we also used Urban Spoon to find ideas for meals in the various parts of town. Urban Spoon allows you to pick the location, style, and budget for your meal and with a quick shake of the phone it suggests a location. The listings weren’t as extensive as those provided by Yelp, but we were able to get some great suggestions for food using this application. Urban Spoon is also free in the Android Market.
