Things to do with, on and from your mobile phone in Dublin
Seen at Overheard in Dublin
On the 41a heading for town, two guys got on in their 'nice' shell tracksuits and caps at 45 degree angles.
One of the guys spies a poster on the bus for "bustext" to which he loudly proclaims...
"BUS-TAXT? look at that, the gov-dern-ment trying to rip us off again!"
posted by Grant at 1:22 p.m.
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TrafficCam is a Python app that lets you check traffic cams from your Series 60 phone. I've created a data file for the Dublin cams here. I've also created a version of the app with Dublin in the dropdown. Download it here (Note: I made a small change to the app that shows the name of the selected location instead of just "Traffic Image").
posted by Grant at 7:23 p.m.
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According to this article at ENN:
The National Roads Authority (NRA) has initiated a pilot scheme to provide travel time estimates to motorists using the N7 in order to help them plan their journeys better... At present the NRA is covering the costs of the text messaging service...
You can subscribe to the service here.
According to the site:
Unusual travel time alerts will be sent when the current travel time in the user's region of interest has exceeded the historic travel time by more than 2 times (N7 Northbound only).
Severe event alerts will be sent when a major traffic incident has occurred within the user's region of interest (N7 and M50).
posted by Grant at 7:11 p.m.
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Reading ENN, I was reminded of the Taxman's service for requesting PAYE forms by SMS. In this article, Saadian's Peter Corkery says:
For tax affairs, texting a message is obviously more confidential than making a voice call. Very few people would call the Revenue on their mobiles while commuting, but many people will quite happily text in a request...
As I said yesterday, the discreet nature of SMS makes it well suited to this kind of application. I would certainly prefer to send an SMS than make a call in my open plan office.
Oh, and congratulations to Saadian on being shortlisted for one of the ICT Excellence awards for implementing the service.
posted by Grant at 12:00 p.m.
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The ISPCC has launched a new text service called “Childline Text 50101” which:
aims to offer an additional support system for children and young people contacting Childline. The text service will be integrated within the existing Childline telephone service and will provide an automated, immediate response to a child who texts.
This seems like a good use of SMS technology, and it allows young people to communicate in a medium that they're comfortable with. I believe that one of the reasons for the phenomenal success of SMS is due to its discreet nature, which makes it ideally suited to this kind of application.
posted by Grant at 7:41 a.m.
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