Social Media & The Mouse: Part 2 – iPhone Apps
A brief series on the creativity and innovation consumers are taking advantage of when vacationing at a resort such as Walt Disney World. Based on my own experiences in researching, testing and using the online culture of user-and-small-biz generated message boards and iPhone applications.
iPhone, iPod Touch & Disney
My apologies that this is iPhone-centric. However most of these applications are also available and work great with the iPod Touch (the main exception being those who use GPS). There may be equivalents for Droid and the other handhelds.
“There’s An App for That”
Not unlike searching your nearest bookstore for third-party guides to your potential or chosen vacation spot, browsing the available applications conjures up conflicting first-glances measuring usefulness, design and quality. In fact you may find the same guidebooks have application equivalents. In fact, there are so many, it’s a bit overwhelming. And I should point out early that Disney doesn’t have their own Disney Parks app, even though one might assume they could wave their hand and a high-quality one could appear (free iPhone games based on every recent Disney movie, from Princess and the Frog to Bolt, appear before each theatrical release). There is a Disney.com application that recently debuted, but it doesn’t begin to touch the functionality of the slew of third-party applications available.
There’s a ton of apps. It’s actually hard to corral them all in a single effective search of the iTunes App Store. They bear strangely nondescript names with references to “WDW” and occasionally “Disney” floating in but careful not to take center stage. Some names are clever takes for fans (“eTicket”) while others have a nomenclature that’s just horrible and devoid of explanation (“T Wiz”). It takes several searches to find them all, which can’t help the average person who might never even see some of the most useful ones.
In order to give a comprehensive view of the variety of applications (and their usefulness) I tried to approach this much like I used to approach software reviews back in my previous life as an Apple/Mac industry online journalist. You should know that I mostly avoided the “travel guide” applications except in a few cases that I will explain. This was about functionality and practical use for the most part, and really about what the average person might encounter. After all, I’m trying to explain a context of culture, not actually systematically review every app available.
The prices varied. I can’t emphasize this point enough: They varied and I don’t know why. There was very little rhyme or reason why one app was $3.99 and another $1.99. In the reviews I could see people complain or laud an app for its price point and on more than one occasion I saw the reviews complain about a higher price point than the app was actually selling at, meaning the developers listened. A few of them were completely free, which was helpful and I would have gladly accepted small adds in exchange for their functionality. I don’t recommend you buy a ton of similar apps like I did – do your homework first and you won’t be stuck with pricey duplication of services. That said, some duplicated pieces of other’s services but held enough functionality on their own. I’m not putting prices on the ones below because they seem to change frequently.
So I started grabbing a few apps about a month or two out, when we made our initial reservation. This follows the normal excitement cycle as you plan every vacation, but it also gave me an indication of how often these apps are updated, tweaked and improved in the weeks that followed. The good news is, they are improved quite often. I began collecting them on their own app screen on my iPhone, corralled for easy access. The two month lead time also gave me time to try the other search strings to uncover even more apps (I actually found one of the most useful apps, “Mouse Memo”, right before we left – its name causing it to be buried in my searches).
Finally, I designated two wild-card applications that I wanted to try out: Freeverse’s “Postman” (which seems designed for vacationers) and the new Microsoft Bing application, to use it for my searches while on the trip.
The Apps
The following list is what I installed and used. Notes include details and usefulness prior to the trip, use during and any interesting points about them and why I selected them*.
App Name: eTicket WDW
Developer: Vista Film & Media
Link for more info and/or app
Notes: This app is billed as essentially the end-all-be-all of the apps, combining several feature concepts into one package. Early work with it signaled it did a great job on some (the map/GPS, seeing into the messageboards Disboards) and others are very plain executions (My Itenerary, Calculator). I like that the Park Hours function is built-in, since there were some ridiculously priced apps that only showed you park times for your current day.
Grade: C
Review: I want to give this thing a higher score but there are just too many things that don’t work well. The map really was helpful and in fact had more comprehensive information on it than the other map app I tended to lean-to. But, and this is a big “but” – it was slow. Incredibly slow. So slow it was rarely worth pulling it up. I used almost none of the other features because I either didn’t need them, they weren’t well executed or more often than not, it was just too slow an app to bother. Where were the features that would really set this apart like show schedules, etc? This app tries to do everything and trips on its way, unfortunately, because it’s a noble attempt.
App Name: Mouse Memo
Seller: C.Y. borg’s Neutral Net, LLC
Copyright: TavWare
Link for more info and/or app
Notes: From a pre-trip perspective, this app was the most convenient and helpful. It clearly was designed well from a functionality standpoint and is a great way to organize all the reservation numbers and plans. It’d be nice to see all activities and reservations on one calendar, but it’s still a very simple but functional app.
Grade: C-
Review: The good news is this app did most of what it advertised. The bad news is, that’s all it did. Since most of our timed events were meals, it was far easier to use the dining app that had more information embedded. I’m not sure why this app couldn’t show us our events and dining schedule on one page. And if this app wanted to be a true memo app in practice, it would have a quick-and-easy way to input collected FastPass times, collected PhotoPass codes, and more. Heck, give me a true countdown of my Disney Dining plan or at least a place to keep track of it. Ultimately what I thought would be so handy pre-trip ended up just being redundant and not really helpful in practice.
App Name: Walt Disney World Maps Box Set
Seller: Aaron White
Copyright: UPinPoint LLC
Link for more info and/or app
Notes: I’ve actually used UPinPoint’s map apps before and were very happy – they used to (and still do?) have them available on a per-park app basis but it’s far smarter to get this Box Set and have them all (including the extras such as Downtown Disney, the water parks and even the airport). They have very clean and well-designed map art (the best of any of the map-apps) and use an integrated GPS function.
Grade: A-
Review: If I could give an award to the app we pulled up and used the most, this would be it. It was lightening fast compared to other apps, slick in design and full of info. The GPS worked well and it did as advertised. It even had a map of the Orlando Airport (MCO) which was very helpful (I can’t believe we actually needed it, but we did use that airport map). Does this app still need work? In a word, yes. There aren’t any stores on any of the maps which was really, really inconvenient when someone said something “was behind the Christmas shop in Liberty Square” – well we had no way of figuring out where that was and had to resort to the other, slower map app. Also, it needs to have parade routes, the basic ones that are on the standard park maps handed out by Disney (that would be easy to add, right?). With stores and parade routes, these maps would easily be something I’d pay a lot of money for and could completely avoid taking a paper map. Without them, it’s a very, very useful and well-executed app that almost does what I need.
App Name: Disney World Dining
Developer: VersaEdge Software, LLC
Link for more info and/or app
Notes: This dining app does exactly what it says – and not a thing more. It’s nice, but on first glance the info isn’t any different than what’s nestled in the map apps. (Why won’t one of these pull in Yelp or Urban Spoon- or even Google Reviews – data is beyond me…)
Grade: A
Review: Great descriptions, held my reservation info and had menus of every spot in the parks. This app does what it does flawlessly. It would be nice for it to pull in more data as I mention above, but you know it really doesn’t need to. A must-have with the map app.
App Name: OLP WDW Transportation Wizard for Walt Disney World
Developer: Laughing Place Communications
Link for more info and/or app
Notes: If I could give out an award for most hideous application image and convoluted name, this one would win instantly. Now what’s so hilarious is that despite all appearances, this app does something incredibly unique and helpful: helps you plot the best routes between things (parks, hotels) at Disney based on all the available transportation methods (bus, monorail, boats, walking). I’m interested to see if it’s as helpful when we get there.
Grade: A+
Review: I want to give this app a lower score for looking so ugly, but frankly it’s truly a swan at heart. It does what it means to and doesn’t sugar-coat the travel times, which I appreciated. I consulted this app at least once a day and we took its advice – frequently changing our plans because of their interesting suggestions (ensuring that we took a few cool monorail trips rather than just being resigned to buses, and rightly reminding me that you can’t get to the parks from Downtown Disney buses). It would be very cool if this app also added a few tips about what to see, for example: that the monorail from the Transportation & Ticket Center to Epcot does the interesting trip through the park. But the only thing I would really add is a designer.
App Name: Weather Plus for Disney Parks- wdWeather+
Developer: Christopher Zenzel
Link for more info (iTunes)
Notes: Another it-does-what-it-advertises, but it does it well, putting everything from multi-day forecast to personal weather reports and weather cams into one app (and it covers Walt Disney World and Disneyland).
Grade: B
Review: This app does what it should with a cool set of additions, but sometimes the multi-day wasn’t thorough or even all that multi– only stretching ahead one or two days. It’d be nice if it offered at least a 5-day look all the time.
App Name: “Walt Disney World Guide” Notescast
Developer: TimeStream Software, LLC
Link for more info and/or app
App Name: “Walt Disney World Secrets Gold!” Notescast
Developer: TimeStream Software, LLC
Link for more info and/or app
Notes: These sister apps win for the apps I spent the most time on BEFORE going to the parks. It works just like a guidebook of the normal and super-detail-imagineering-geek variety, but can help you make some important decisions. In fact as soon as we knew the dates of our trip and the initial resort reservation was made, these apps helped me figure out some important dining reservation and planning decisions.
Grade: A+
Review: When combined, these two apps make up more info than your average guidebook. Not to mention they are more interestingly written and helpful (and organized) better than most guidebooks, making this more portable alternative very attractive. These are must-have apps that will continue to serve me well beyond our trip. These apps also get an A for at least one reason: one tip we decided to take advantage of was booking a late dinner at the Contemporary Resort’s California Grill so we can watch the fireworks from Magic Kingdom – these apps planted the idea and revealed that the Grill actually pipes in the same music playing in the park for the fireworks. That nugget alone made the purchases worth it – we had one of the most amazing meals and views we’ve ever had on any trip to the park.
App Name: Lines At Disney – Magic Kingdom – Florida
Seller: James Burggraf
Copyright: Impulse Applications
Link for more info (iTunes)
App Name: Disney Attraction Wait Times (WDW Wait)
Seller: Louis Obssuth
Copyrights: NKR Innovations
Link for more info (iTunes)
App Name: Disney World Wait Times Free
Developer: VersaEdge Software, LLC
Link for more info and/or app
The Wait Times Apps
Notes:
Not the most elegant apps, the wait-times apps are all doomed to be unhelpful. At least ”Disney World Wait Times Free” is free (with ads at the bottom) or $.99 with the smartest, most helpful user interface of all the line-watching applications.
Grade: D
Review: Remember that my trip was during Disney’s busiest week of the year and even then the content wasn’t all that helpful or consistent from any of these apps. Wait times apps were wildly inconsistent — some didn’t even update or seem to believe me when I put Test Track was “closed” (I was, in fact, stuck on the ride and knew for a fact it was closed). What we really need is a real wait time app that’s plugged into Disney’s system- anything else is doomed to be flawed due to lack of frequent, helpful, aggragated data. This isn’t a service a third party can pull off elegantly no matter the nice user interface.
App Name: Walt Disney World Tour Plans – The Complete Touring Guide
Developer: CXI Gaming
Link for more info (iTunes)
Notes: Essentially a guidebook, it takes the initiative to suggest different tour plans, for every park, based on whether you are in a group of adults, adults with kids (separate plans for 4 and under and 5-10) and for senior adults. While plain in presentation, it’s pretty thorough, like having a personal trainer for milking a day at a park. I got a few practical ideas by scrolling through the plans.
Grade: B
Review: A nice, helpful app if you need it. But if you’re a build-your-own-day guy like me, I felt hemmed-in by their park speed through style. That said, I can see how this would be very, very helpful for some people.
App Name: “Disney at Work” Magic Kingdom
Seller: TimeStream Software, LLC
Copyrights: Performance Journeys
Link for more info (iTunes)
Notes: This app is an anomaly and isn’t tied to visiting the parks per se. But I am fascinated by the Disney corporate culture and management (especially the attention to detail) and what this app does is break down the parks and how they are examples of certain ideals, practices and plans. I picked up the app as much for an evening read while we’re there, after the young ‘un goes to bed.
Grade: A
Review: Providing you realize this isn’t really about helping tourists, this is a great app. It’s mostly just a book, but it was very interesting and helpful to give glimpses into the corporate culture. It made me notice several details I wouldn’t have otherwise paid much attention to, such as the amount of people power (in terms of actual employees or billable hours) applied to a specific solution or quality-ensuring moment. Interesting stuff, but only for those curious about such things.
App Name: Disney.com
Developer: Walt Disney
Link for more info and/or app
Notes: Disney’s official app came on the scene just recently and its incredibly slick, has a fantastic user interface and interacts with all of your other official Disney apps. Unfortunately, it as almost nothing to do with the parks. I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt by including it here in hopes that its frequently-updated content somehow surprises me for our trip. A missed opportunity in a huge way. Is Disney doing FastPass times, special schedules and park info for mobile users at all? Yes, if you’re a Verizon customer there’s an app they have built that’s $10 (ugh).
Grade: C or F
Review: I’m being harsh here, but that’s the reason for the two grades. This app gets a “C” for doing what it does elegantly (organizing your Disney apps, providing a brief glimpse into the web portal Disney.com, and a few other minor tricks) but it gets a flat-out F for blowing an opportunity for any meaningful connection to the Disney Parks. There is absolutely no connection to all my info and vacation plans that also use Disney.com. I’ll articulate below what should be, but suffice to say this app isn’t it, while it has all the potential energy in the world as a delivery system.
There are lots of other apps with menus, memos and more. This is just a sampling of what’s available.
Wild cards:
App Name: Postman
Developer: Freeverse, Inc.
Link for more info and/or app
Notes: Not an app designed just for Disney park visitors, but when I found that Freeverse had done this clever app that sends digital postcards I realized how perfect it is for folks on vacations.
Grade: B
Review: This is a cool little app – it just takes the speed out of simply emailing or texting (MMS) a photo to someone. It makes neat postcards that you could customize quickly, but the number of options also is its downfall – the default is to have a “Wish you were here” message across your photos, which you end up trashing most of the time and by the time you’re trying to undo defaults, you could have just emailed your cute photo. It has its merit, and some tricks (like the map) are really cool. We just didn’t end up using it that much at Disney and found ourselves just sending photos other ways – and if you’re at that point at a place like Disney, I’m not sure when I’d end up using this app.
App Name: Bing
Developer: Microsoft
Link for more info and/or app
Notes: Will be using this for all searches while there, just to try out the new app.
Grade: A-
Review: For the trip I used Bing for every search out of the gate to really put it through the paces. Everything from “Where is Tiana signing in Magic Kingdom” to investigating monorail colors, it pulled in some interesting and relevant content. It had a couple of shortcomings in that for products it tended to pull in too many links from eBay and in some cases it was slow as molasses to connect to pages with the in-app browser, but in most cases Bing was a fast, serviceable search app.
EXTRA CREDIT: How do these apps get dreamed up?
In one of the “lines” application’s case, it was an ex ad-agency guy; read the story here.
09
On the Road to Roo
by FeedbackThe time has come to make the long journey to this year’s Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. Here at Feedback, we’ve prepared for the “Road to ‘Roo” by downloading and testing some free iPhone apps that we think will help us (and you) get there with minimum hassle.
First things first, if you haven’t already done it, download the official Bonnaroo app! Manage your way around the festival and mark points of interest using the “Festival Map” feature. You can also plan your route and stops along the way from your current location with “Road Trip.” An excellent addition to the app is “Radio Bonnaroo.” Stream it to get you in the mood and and be sure to play around with “Roo Camera.” Take photos on your way and e-mail them to your friends to make them jealous.
Another friendly suggestion from your pals at Feedback – Use the schedule feature on the app to plan out your day so you don’t miss out on your favorite bands!
Now, on to the meat of this post.
Navigation Apps
>> Navigators
Making sure you don’t get lost is pretty important. We’d hate for you to be headed to Bonnaroo, take the wrong exit and end up in West Virginia and not Tennessee. Here are a few apps we recommend to help you get there.
Developed By: Mapquest
Link: http://bit.ly/cOlaNq
Mapquest 4 Mobile has some unique features that make it very useful for travelers. With this app, you can choose to see icons for places like hotels, food, shopping centers, and gas. Check out the name of places near you by tapping an icon on the map and, if you like, add it to your route. Mapquest also provides the voice option typical of most GPS systems as a guide, which will help you avoid a near-death experience caused by checking your phone while driving.
Developed By: Apple (using Google Maps)
Link: http://bit.ly/GF0Im
The iPhone’s preinstalled Maps app has different map views that might make finding where you’re going easier. Based on Google Maps, the app’s satellite feature enables you to see real-life views of where you’re going. If you’re a visual person who associates landmarks with directions, give it a quick once over before hitting the road. For safety’s sake, I wouldn’t use this en-route unless you have a passenger/navigator telling you the directions.
>> Traffic
Knowing traffic patterns, police alerts, and construction areas is valuable when traveling and can save you a lot of time and, if you’re lucky, money. The apps below have similar features in this regard but different aims.
Developed by: INRIX, Inc.
Link: http://bit.ly/8vqiQS
INRIX Traffic! lets you know about, well, traffic. This app made our list because it covered a lot of bases drivers would want to know about: accidents, construction, live police, and fixed camera traps. You can even report incidents you see along the way and earn karma points. As a warning, some of the apps options are a little misleading because you have to upgrade to INRIX Traffic! Pro ($9.99/year or $24.99/lifetime) to access them, but they don’t impact the overall effectiveness of the app.
Developed By: Research Unlimited Corporation
Link: http://bit.ly/FuWl
As you might have guessed, Trapster’s main focus is speed traps. From live police to cameras, it provides information on known enforcement points, toll booths, road closings, dangerous intersections, and school zones. “Known points” are permanent structures or favored police hideouts that will be of interest to drivers. Another cool thing about Trapster is its ability to use social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter, so you can alert your friends as well.
Travel Apps
>> Gas Finders
Scrambling to find a gas station when you’re running on empty can be stressful; however, there are apps for that.
Developed by: GasBuddy.com
Link: http://bit.ly/35MMgv
This simple ad-supported app is all about finding the information on the variable that most affects your wallet when you travel (especially by RV like the Feedback Mobile Lab) gas prices! Harnessing the power of GasBuddy.com, the app allows you to search for gas by cost or by proximity to your location. Because Cheap Gas! uses a system that awards user input, prices are typically updated shortly after they change at the station, leading to greater accuracy and reliability.
Developed By: JamCode
Link: http://bit.ly/aErG46
What the GasBuddy application lacks, GasBag makes up for. Instead of a fast list style, the app utilizes Microsoft’s Virtual Earth to display pins with a station logo for bigger gas resellers (i.e., Texaco, Exxon, et al). Nearby stations are identified by GPS and populated onto the map in a clear manner. Gasbag also allows you to record gas purchases and calculates your vehicle’s fuel efficiency based on how often you’re filling up. Despite this unique feature, for us, it doesn’t offset the delay in updates compared to Cheap Gas!
>> More Finders
Developed By: AAA
Link: http://bit.ly/czNH06
Unlike many of its other services, AAA’s TripTik is available to anyone. Map out your destination using its search tool and find food, gas, and hotels along the way. While such finds are common in map-based navigation apps, TripTik offers more unique options – campgrounds, service stations, and key places to visit like museums, wineries, and historical houses. The app offers details about each place and the option to call or get directions.
Developed By: Yelp
Link: http://bit.ly/4zLIfd
We assume everyone already knows about Yelp, but, just in case, we decided to add it to the list anyway. Yelp breaks down businesses near you into categories so you can find exactly what you’re looking for. You can read/write reviews, get directions, add photos, and check-in to a business. This can be very helpful to you and the masses, especially if you’re traveling great distances to get to Bonnaroo.
This is just a short list of the apps we’ll be using as we make our way to Manchester. As you can see, from navigators to gas finders and everything in between, there are all sorts of services out there to make your trip as pleasureable and hassle-free as possible. Use them well and have a safe and merry time on the “Road to ‘Roo!”
Be sure to follow our field team (@dbrowell, @ideaman, @alucas9) on Twitter for their latest updates and findings from Bonnaroo, as well as @feedbackagency for our observations from afar. Feel free to use the #RoadToRoo tag to share your travel adventures and check the Feedback blog daily for recaps and other fun things from Bonnaroo 2010!
— The Feedback Interns: Brad Carr (@bcarr) and Brittney Trimmer (@BNTrim)