On Friday, the Barclays London Cycle Hire scheme was launched, with many of the sites and bicycles now available for those who have pre-registered their details, and have been supplied a personal key for accessing the bikes.  Over time, the ability to walk up and purchase hire with a credit card will be added, but right now, users need to be registered with a hardware key.

I think this is a brilliant scheme; if you take the £45 annual access option (plus £3 for the hardware key), then for less than £50 you can hire a bike for up to 30 minutes for free, and that sounds a more interesting option than the overcrowded and hot (although air conditioning is slowly coming over the next few decades) tube lines in central London.  In fact, if you put the bike back and wait at least 5 minutes (go get yourself a coffee, and drink it), then you can hire another bike for another 30 minutes for free.

To support the scheme, a number of clever individuals / companies have developed mobile apps for the London Cycle Hire scheme.  I have to stress none of these apps are directly sponsored or supported by Transport for London, although much of the functionality of these apps comes from published APIs, although some isn’t…

These mobile apps don’t just show you the places where the bikes can be hired from; they are often taking data from the Cycle Hire website and also including how many bikes are available (and equally how many empty slots there are for returning your bike).  In fact, this area is one where I’m glad to say they have thought about the problem of a full cycle rack and come up with a solution; if you arrive at your destination bike rack and it’s full, you can select on the touchscreen terminal an option to see where there are available slots nearby, and if needed, you will also get an additional 15 minutes of free extra hire time to get the bike to that location.

Firstly, there’s an iPhone app from London Cycle App, which includes the information on the numbers of bikes / slots available, and I also note it uses the OpenStreetMap data for the mapping, which is a nice touch too (screenshot above). In fact, they have also included the ability to plan a cycle route through London too, which is a nice extra feature.  The app is available to download here.

Cycle Hire App is another option, which also uses OpenStreetMap maps, and like the London Cycle App, has these maps available when offline (or for use on an iPod Touch).  One nice feature is the ability to request a search for bikes available near London attractions, as well as tube and train stations, and general locations (postcode based).

Another alternative is Bixou (for the iPhone), which although originally developed for the BIXI bicycle hire scheme in Montreal, now has support for the London scheme too (in fact it also supports the Melbourne and Minneapolis schemes too).

For Android, there’s a widget, which has been produced by Little Fluffy Toys.  When first touched, the widget will display the details of the 3 nearest hire locations, with their status (Ok, not enough bikes, not enough spare slots, closed), and when touched again, provides a detailed view of the information.  This app is interesting though; instead of as well as taking the bike / slots details from the TfL website, it uses crowdsourcing to collect the information; as a nice touch, if you open the details screen within 50 metres of a hire location, you are asked to provide an updated status for all other users.

Update: Thanks to Kevin for pointing out Bixou as an alternative option.

If you live in London (or just visit on a regular basis), you’ll know all about Oyster, and more importantly for those occasional visitors, the ability to save money on those underground / bus journeys.  However, what’s not always so easy to know is where’s the nearest TopUp location for the Oyster scheme.  Well, if you are an Android user, then the new OysterCatcher app from LongTap may well help you out.

OysterCatcher will display the nearest shops to you at the tap of a button. Using the phone’s GPS it will work out your location and using Google Maps it will clearly display where you are and where the nearest 10 top up shops are.

There’s nothing particular special about the application from one point of view (the data is available on the TfL website), but as the TfL website is not particularly mobile friendly, then offering this native application helps provide the integration between the data and useful access to that data.

If you want to try out the application (and it’s free after all), then head off to the Android Market Place and search for OysterCatcher.

Screenshot courtesy of AppBrain.

On Friday I mentioned that v3.04 of Ovi Maps was available from Nokia Beta Labs.  Since then I’ve discovered that one of the main ways that this version can claim “Improved positioning speed and accuracy” is that within the application Ovi Maps now includes support for WiFi positioning.  Now, many of us are used to seeing this feature within Google Maps, which uses both Cell ID and WiFi positioning as well as having GPS support.

This now makes 3 different solutions available for Symbian; Google and their Cell ID and WiFi positioning within Google Maps (Google positioning is also used within the latest Alpha version of Gravity, the Social Networking client for Symbian via the fairly new public API), Skyhook Wireless and their Maps Booster solution (which we covered here, and adds support for Cell ID and WiFi positioning into the OS, making it available to all apps), and now Nokia are supporting WiFi positioning within Ovi Maps (in a similar way that Google support it within their Maps application).

This is a nice feature to see, although personally I would have preferred Nokia to either work with Skyhook Wireless, or to integrate the solution into the OS in the same way that Maps Booster does, as just providing it within their own application seems a little selfish, however, it’s a good start.  After all, on the iPhone there is a single positioning system used by all applications, although I do note that Android is expanding; whereas the base OS uses Google’s system, GoWalla (a social location app similar to FourSquare) now uses the Skyhook Wireless Cell ID and WiFi positioning information.

Apparently Nokia have been working on this for some while, to the extent that for the last 6 months Nokia employees across the world have been collecting WiFi location data for Nokia, allowing them to start with a fairly comprehensive database, as opposed to starting with no data at all.  I’m still waiting to understand from Nokia how exactly the WiFi location system will work in the long term; for example, if you have GPS enabled within Google Maps, then you will help Google self-learn new Cell IDs and new WiFi access points by providing the data to Google.  This self-learning also helps when an access point moves due to the consumer moving house (something I experienced when I purchased a WiFi access point from a friend, where Google constantly placed me in the old location of the access point until sufficient GPS-based survey data lead Google’s self-learning system to move the location to my house).

In comparison, Maps Booster from Skyhook Wireless relies upon their own data collection, although there is a website where you can notify them of errors in the database, which (again, based on personal experience) only takes a few days to update with the new information.  Having said that, I don’t know whether the iPhone location positioning (that is provided by Skyhook Wireless) has any element of self-learning.

As I said, at this stage, I’m not sure what method Nokia are using for learning of changes, although I hope to be able to report on that soon.

On the other hand, I have been using Maps Booster on a couple of Symbian phones since writing about it, and I am finding it very useful.  It has had the odd little blip, where it has put me in the US a couple of times, but then over the same period of tested it, Google Maps has placed me hundreds of miles away from phone too.  It seems to me that Maps Booster has some element of caching of data, as when I am at home and in range of a number of WiFi access points, my location appears pretty instantly in Ovi Maps, whereas at work, where it relies upon cell ID only, it seems to take a little longer to place me.  Although this still relies upon having an internet connection, using it with Ovi Maps (with the maps already downloaded via the Nokia Map Updater) it uses a lot less data than Google Maps for a similar journey, which is good news.  For longer journeys, I would still recommend using the GPS to keep the location information accurate, but for short journeys, especially walking (and especially when in between tall buildings, such as London), then Maps Booster is proving to me to be as useful as Google Maps’ equivalent.

Of course, ironically just after I wrote about wondering whether I could live without Google Maps and use Ovi Maps instead, Google released Google Buzz, which shows Google is still innovating within their client, and which has probably lead to me using both clients; I would love to switch away from Google Maps, but until Nokia integrate more sharing options into their client, or applications take advantage of the Ovi Maps SDK, I’m pretty tied into Google Latitude (more than I realised when I thought I could move away from Google Maps).

Finally, over the weekend I asked Nokia to comment on the situation regarding coverage on elder phones, and received the comment “It’s coming”.  Now I can’t guarantee that was aimed at FP1 (as opposed to supporting more FP2 phones which is still formally missing), but I think we’ll see an announcement from Nokia on this issues soon, but not immediately (I would suggest another few months before we see anything definitive).

Now, this is a nice bit of integration; get an Orange branded Barclaycard credit card, and not just will you get support for contactless payments, but you’ll also get a range of additional Orange specific features…

• You are able to keep track of finances via text messages and spending controls
• You benefit from contactless payments
• You gain Orange reward points which can be redeemed for other things

Taking each of those points in turn, the functionality on offer looks very interesting (although I’m no financial expert, and a typical  APR of 18.9% might not be the best value out there; oh, and it’s an APR of 29.9% on cash advances)…

Some of the spending controls come from Barclaycard (actually, the reward scheme may come from them too), although whether the full range of text options are available from Barclaycard, I’m not sure.  Either way, the Orange card offers the following:

Automated SMS alerts to keep a tab on spending:

• Weekly – the balance, limit and credit remaining
• Monthly – the payment due and payment received

Customer-activated SMS alerts:

• Customers can set alerts and blocks on card spend online, abroad or for high value transactions,
• Customers can set a weekly or monthly budget and set alerts when the budget is reached or chose to automatically decline transactions if they exceed the budget

It’s nice to see the ability to be notified of certain transaction types.

Contactless payments is quite a new thing, but starting to take off in London (there are already over 7000 places which will accept contactless payments in London, and another 3000 nationwide).  Given the £10 limit on these payments, many of the places that accept them are food chains, such as EAT, Yo Sushi!, Prêt a Manger and Krispy Kreme doughnuts.  Should your transaction end up over £10, you can simply use chip’n'pin with the same card.

If you want to know where you can use such a card, then Visa have a map here which can show you, however, you can only search on a company, type of business, or an exact postcode of someone who takes the contactless payment; you can’t enter a postcode and see all people in your local area who accept the card, which seems a little strange.

Finally, the reward scheme seems to offer payout in terms of high street vouchers, discounts on Orange products and purchases in their shop, tickets for events, or the ability to donate to charity.

Also, as a member of the Orange family of services, there is access to your account online.

I like the integration with text alerts, and it shows Orange is added something over and above simply taking a similar card direct from Barclaycard, but as with all financial matters, I’m not qualified to give advice on whether it’s suitable for you…

A while back, we covered 3UK’s plans to update their network in London, which would result in small interruptions to their service as they replace equipment necessary to allow them to proceed with their major infrastructure merger with T-Mobile next year (allowing both networks to share the same infrastructure for the benefit of all customers).  Well, 3UK have just announced some wider plans in the South (in a variety of locations from Torquay to Ipswich, and from Milton Keynes to Folkestone).  If you want more information on the areas affected, when they will be affected, and the ability to sign up to receive text alerts (to 3UK or non-3UK mobile numbers) then head here for more information.

Thanks to 3mobilebuzz for letting me know about this new information.

Last week we covered the news of the new v3.3 for Symbian and Windows Mobile, and today Google has launched v3.3 for Android as well.  However, it’s not quite got the same feature set, with some additional features, and some missing features too.

Firstly, they now have the “What’s Nearby” feature, which lists nearby businesses, and can often provide useful information on cafes and restaurants nearby.  To access this, just long press on the map and tap on the bubble, and look for “What’s nearby?” in the menu.

Secondly, they have added a range of Labs features (in essence, Beta features that you may want to use to make the program a little better); these include:

• A scale bar on the map
• Showing a terrain layer which adds a level of height and the ability to see a shaded relief map
• Search for popular categories
• Turn the blue dot into a compass to show which way you are facing when stationary
• Added Layers support to be able to see Traffic, Satellite mapping, Latitude users, and Transit lines (eg the London Underground)

There’s also a “Report errors in the map”, but that’s definitely US-only, so won’t be available in the UK.  It’s worth noting there is no mention of the star / favourites syncing that comes with the v3.3 on Symbian and Windows Mobile.  It’s not clear whether any other of the Labs features are US-only, but it’s nice to see Google still managing to innovate and provide new features into the products, even if it’s not consistent across their full platform range.

Absolute Radio (105.8FM, also available online and via DAB) have released an interesting feature which works on the iPod Nano.  It’s called iTunes tagging, and it works like this; you tune your latest generatino iPod Nano into Absolute Radio and listen to their songs.  Should one of the songs catch your attention, you can tag it, and then when you dock your iPod, you’ll be able to see who the song was by, what is was called, and you will even be able to buy and download the song from iTunes.

This is a nice level of integration between the non-connected iPod Nano and the well-connected iTunes PC, and could prove a nice feature for many people.

Absolute Radio have more information on this service, including a video on their website here.

At the start of this week, 3UK implemented traffic shaping on their mobile network.  What this does, in simplistic terms, is prioritise certain data over less welcome traffic.  Although they initially announced it would cover video streaming and P2P File Sharing data, 3UK have now relented, and it only covers P2P File Sharing data.  So, if you are using a 3G connection to download data over a peer-to-peer network (even legitimate files like new Linux OS images) then you may be receiving slower data speeds than before.

The exact details of the bandwidth limits that have been put in place are not known, but this will hopefully ensure there is more bandwidth available to share out evenly amongst all customers.

For information, the video streaming limit was planned to limit each device to be only able to download 1 video stream at a time, although this was not implemented.

Although 3UK have always promoted their internet connection as unrestricted (and, given these types of traffic are still allowed, technically it still is), it will be interesting to see if this deals with the congestion that has been seen in certain areas of the country.  Of course, whilst implementing this, they are continuing to roll out their network changes (see here for information on the London outages); 3UK have confirmed that the London outages are for elder equipment to be swapped out for newer equipment in preparation for the merging of their network with T-Mobile which should happen during 2010, and give both companies access to even greater coverage and provide users with more bandwidth across the whole country.

Last night I was privileged to be invited to a small, cosy location in London 2 floors underground to discuss with LG some of their new phones recently released, and about to be released.

John Barton, the UK Sales & Marketing Manager, spoke candidly about the LG range, and there’s a summary of the devices that were discussed after the break…

(more…)

As part of 3UK’s major plans to improve their network across the UK, 3UK have to start somewhere, and that somewhere is London.  Already hitting capacity in certain areas, it makes sense to me to start with London to roll out what should end up as a faster, better network, which is one of the two areas 3UK really still need to work on (the other being Customer Services, but that’s not unique to 3UK).  So, to achieve this, there are going to be some outages required, but 3UK are being open and upfront about this, and have even produced a webpage dedicated to these upgrades showing when and where they will happen.  If you go to www.three.co.uk/london, you will see the information for yourself (although over time this webpage may well change to reflect other areas of the country), and you can also sign up for text alerts to be alerted to these issues (which allows you to enter a 3UK mobile number, a non-3UK mobile number; nice option!, and up to 4 postcodes, to allow you to cover home and work, and a couple of other places too!).

Importantly, it looks like from next week until just before Christmas, you may find you lose 3G signal for around 6-8 hours; a mobile phone should drop to Orange’s 2G network for the period (although watch out, mobile data will be less reliable, and much slower), whereas Mobile Broadband users will not be able to connect at all during the outage.

Also from that page, you can enter your postcode (or town name) and it will tell you about any planned outages in your area; for the area around my home, for example, it tells me they performed some work last week, and have more planned for today, which might result in an outage for me; now, if they improve my home 3UK network signal, that’s no bad thing as far as I’m concerned, and well worthy of a few hours of no signal.

These upgrades are all part of 3UK’s plans to build their “Monster Network”, which I first covered briefly when I met with 3UK last month, and they plan to have all these major outages completed by the Summer of 2010 when their much improved network should be fully online.  Having seen their planned coverage map at the end of these works, we should all see a lot less areas of no 3G coverage, and improved capacity in key areas too.