Free Dublin Bus iPhone app

destraynor

Hey all,

I'm just posting here to say I found a great free Dublin Bus App that works, has live data on bus stops, and is pretty stylish too. There's no ads, or anything like that, and it doesn't even upload your Addressbook to the cloud

It's iPhone only at the moment, but honestly it's one of the first app of this sort that I've used and enjoyed.

If you're at all interested, you can find it here: http://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/my-dublin-bus/id499001954?mt=8&ls=1

Losty Dublin

destraynor wrote: »

Hey all,

I'm just posting here to say I found a great free Dublin Bus App that works, has live data on bus stops, and is pretty stylish too. There's no ads, or anything like that, and it doesn't even upload your Addressbook to the cloud

It's iPhone only at the moment, but honestly it's one of the first app of this sort that I've used and enjoyed.

If you're at all interested, you can find it here: http://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/my-dublin-bus/id499001954?mt=8&ls=1

Almost as good as the Dublin Bus App that's out since last Autumn, does all of that and had a load more features

bk

While a new free app is always welcome, IMO this is the weakest of the available Dublin Bus Apps.

It is ok and probably good, if you only ever use the same one or two stops everyday, but I think it fails if you use a lot more stops.

Personally my wish is if the official Dublin Bus App was updated with the best bits of the Bus Time app and the Dublin Buster app and with a few extra fixes.

BrianD

Do BD and other state bodies have rules over how their data is being used?

If somebody develops an app around their content and the app is commercialised surely DB should be getting a cut?

bk

BrianD wrote: »

If somebody develops an app around their content and the app is commercialised surely DB should be getting a cut?

I disagree, the tax payer has already paid for the service and data.

It should therefore be made openly available for all to use on non discriminatory basis.

If someone creates a great app using the data and then charges for it, then fair enough.

Nothing stopping someone else coming along and creating a similar app and giving it away for free.

Public bodies shouldn't get involved in licensing and all that rubbish. It typically just increases the barrier of entry and frightens away smaller developers (often just students, hobbyists, etc.) who might otherwise come up with some cool idea that the big boys never thought of.

They should instead focus on what they are supposed to do, get people from A to B. Let the developers come up with the great apps.

destraynor

This honestly does a much better job for me of "When's the next bus to work" and "When's the next bus home" than any of the others. I had figured that'd be a typical use case, but in fairness, I only get the bus on Fridays so maybe my usage is very atypical.

Totally agree re: open up the data and let everyone scrap it out. Ultimately Dublin Bus, Irish Rail, Luas, DAA, whoever etc aren't going to produce an app as high quality as 3rd party developers, the biggest win is to just open the data up and let the best apps win.

coylemj

Just installed it now and it's a very good app, I expecially like the ability to give each stored favourite stop a nickname but the cartoon showing the next few buses omits one very important piece of data - the destination.

An example: some No. 3s travelling from Larkhill to the southside terminate at St. John's church on Park Ave. while some continue as far as UCD, I need to know which and this app doesn't show that.

Edit: just discovered that if you rotate the device into landscape mode you get a list of upcoming buses which includes the destinations.

There's also the issue that if you store a lot of stops, you have to scroll all the way through the list to find the later stops, a list of stops would speed things up considerably.

Nolimits

destraynor wrote: »

Hey all,

I'm just posting here to say I found a great free Dublin Bus App that works, has live data on bus stops, and is pretty stylish too. There's no ads, or anything like that, and it doesn't even upload your Addressbook to the cloud

It's iPhone only at the moment, but honestly it's one of the first app of this sort that I've used and enjoyed.

If you're at all interested, you can find it here: http://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/my-dublin-bus/id499001954?mt=8&ls=1

As has been already pointed out the app has been out for a while, it's not iphone only though here is the android version https://market.android.com/details?id=com.wearei3.dublinbus&feature=search_result
Here is the one I use https://market.android.com/details?id=com.nextbus.dublin.pro&feature=search_result that was out before the official one, and I was quite happy to pay for it, that app comes in useful for me on a daily basis, with the paid version you can also create bookmarks oin your home screen to specific stops. Like IOS you can also then place these on top of each other to make folders with specific stops

snappieT

There are plans to open the data, but that hasn't happened yet.

Any of these apps (and mine, DublinBusLive.com) are either scraping DublinBus.ie or are re-using the APIs the Dublin Bus app itself uses, having sniffed the traffic.