5 Apps for NYC tourists
I was in NYC for a week and feeling a bit bored, so I took a look at a passel (anyone still use that word?) of NYC tourist traps apps, that I picked up last week for the heck of it.
NYC Subway 24-Hour KICKMap - $1.99. Rating: Horrible.
This is a generic subway map that's "24 hours" because you can tap the day/night button to switch the background from white to black. Wow! Hold your finger on a station for 3 seconds to bring up the address of the subway stop and often a disconnected phone number. Tap 'Alerts' and the app tosses you to the Manhattan Transit Authority site in Safari.
HopStop - Free. Rating: Wonderful.
Tell it where you want to go and it'll get you there via public transportation, just like the website hopstop.com, but with GPS built-in.
UpNext 3D NYC - $2.99. Rating: Meh.
Useful for finding businesses, not so useful for saving personal information. I don't want the world to know where I reside in NYC and marking it will show it to the world. Social networking eats its young -- don't trust it! Plus, how can you choose hotdogs/hamburgers near Broadway and 72nd street and not bring up Grey's Papaya first? Nice maps though.
New York City Highlights - Free Rating: Horrible.
This is supposed to be a walking tour of points of interest in NYC. Running it in Times Square played less than five minutes of generic and out-of-date drivel. At least a podcast has a pause button. Did you know that Virgin Records closed? They didn't.
SitOrSquat - Free. Rating: Are you kidding?
Help me out here, the app is, hmmmm, can I say poop? The GPS map screen can't even locate me, but searching seems to work. McDonalds is squat only. Did I need an app to tell me that? This was funded by Charmin as an afterthought. Note to Government: Don't bail out Procter and Gamble. They have more then enough cash if they paid for this.
