[RubberChicken76]

Unless I'm reading that wrong, a bus is coming every 10 minutes or less, why do you need an app for that?

As a Canadian, I can completely understand the appeal of such an app in the middle of a January snowstorm. :-)

[belfastdispatcher]

Speaking of streamlined. Please do an app vs web comparison for the following.

Sure, let's try it in a noisy enviroment with an irish accent and see how many takes it needs.


EDIT- BlackBerry Travel does all that automatically for you, no input at all needed.

[belfastdispatcher]

As a Canadian, I can completely understand the appeal of such an app in the middle of a January snowstorm. :-)

The web gives you the exact information, in many cases quicker if you use the same routes all the time.

The app is good if you travel to new places every day but if you just comute a couple of bookmarks will get the job done faster.

[Hawkeberry]

It's a *hub* of information for all different transportation methods within DC.

Who needs a "hub" when you can have SMS / email / FB / LinkedIn icons on home screen.. Hey wait..

Agree with belfastdispatcher that if one has the same route everyday, bookmarks can do the job. But even then, will prefer the app for UX and to be safe.

[pkcable]

Can we agree to disagree and move on in the spirit of the holiday season?

[notfanboy]

The web gives you the exact information, in many cases quicker if you use the same routes all the time.

The app is good if you travel to new places every day but if you just comute a couple of bookmarks will get the job done faster.

Bookmarking and pulling up a web page, how quaint!

With Google Now, you just swipe to see the card for driving/public transit. . It knows to display time to work if you're at home taking account of traffic. It the card for home if you're at work or somewhere else. If you searched for a restaurant using google, it will give you a card for that. No more copy and pasting of the address from the browser to the maps application. Tap on the card and you're navigating using built-in maps.

[MADBRADNYC]

http://mashable.com/2012/12/24/instagram-lawsuit/

[belfastdispatcher]

Bookmarking and pulling up a web page, how quaint!

With Google Now, you just swipe to see the card for driving/public transit. . It knows to display time to work if you're at home taking account of traffic. It the card for home if you're at work or somewhere else. If you searched for a restaurant using google, it will give you a card for that. No more copy and pasting of the address from the browser to the maps application. Tap on the card and you're navigating using built-in maps.

You can achieve the same thing with Poynt and BB Maps and search for the restaurant from home screen with universal search, or even speak it if you're so inclined, Android does probably do it better but I would never touch it regardless, I just don't trust Google(personal choice)

[BigBadWulf]

Nice to see ya'll trying to help each other, but.....

Is this not a thread about Instagram?

Please, let's drag this back on topic.

[neteng1000]

Unless I'm reading that wrong, a bus is coming every 10 minutes or less, why do you need an app for that?

No kidding. Just to say there is an app for that. How did we ever manage to get around prior to this?

[belfastdispatcher]

The problem is that browser access is inherently more data-intensive. At best it is slower, and in many cases it is simply too small to read, or fails particularly on earlier generation BB browsers

As long as you stick to the mobile sites it will not use too much data or it will not be too small to read. In this particular DC Circulator case the mobile site looks pretty good to me.

Ironicaly the earlier generation BBs had more big name apps, like Audible for example or Kindle.

Edit- Apps can be faster to navigate but if you're looking specific information, BB UK Facebook page for example, I can bookmark it in the browser instead of going Facebook/Friends/Pages/BB UK in the app.

So depending on usage, an app is not always faster, it can be a lot slower.

[Branta]

Actually, it will be quite useless in my country where everything is at least 20-25 minutes late.
Only Qbnkelt can answer how accurate those predictions are.

Probably reasonably close, they appear to be using realtime GPS tracking, it appears to suggest 0.5-3 mins tolerance. I suspect the majority of slippage will be due to unpredictable waiting at a red light.

[Branta]

How is it a hassle? You put the bookmark directly on your home screen if it's that important and you go straight to the information you need. Easy.

The problem is that browser access is inherently more data-intensive. At best it is slower, and in many cases it is simply too small to read, or fails particularly on earlier generation BB browsers

[aragone79]

Well personally I use what gives me the better experience. And the apps on Android and on iOS give me a better experience than using a browser that can't even begin to do the job.
If there is an app for that which does a better job, I will use it. Why would I not....
As far as Instagram, I love it. It is a lot more than just filters. And it's very good that it will be on BB10. Anyone who doesn't want to use it doesn't have to use it.

Agree with u. It is nice to have instagram installed at our BB10. Though I seldom to use it at my iPhone 4 or my GalNex. It's up to you to or not use it.

[BigBadWulf]

I hope for RIM's sake they get everyone's "must have" apps on board.

[qbnkelt]

Well personally I use what gives me the better experience. And the apps on Android and on iOS give me a better experience than using a browser that can't even begin to do the job.
If there is an app for that which does a better job, I will use it. Why would I not....
As far as Instagram, I love it. It is a lot more than just filters. And it's very good that it will be on BB10. Anyone who doesn't want to use it doesn't have to use it.

[DisturbedRocks31]

...

Well, I live in Toronto and I have an app that does the exact same and I use a BlackBerry Bold 9900. Where's My Bus is the name.

Also, I never really understood the point of Instagram! First you take a picture, then you process it through Instagram and that makes it look even more blurry than my Pearl 8130 pictures. And then people brag about how how their phones have +8.0MP cameras that take great pictures!

If people really love the blurry, grainy pictures, why not just a crappy phone!?

[qbnkelt]

Well, I live in Toronto and I have an app that does the exact same and I use a BlackBerry Bold 9900. Where's My Bus is the name.

Also, I never really understood the point of Instagram! First you take a picture, then you process it through Instagram and that makes it look even more blurry than my Pearl 8130 pictures. And then people brag about how how their phones have +8.0MP cameras that take great pictures!

If people really love the blurry, grainy pictures, why not just a crappy phone!?

I'm glad you have an app that you can use instead of the browser.
If there were a DC Circulator app for the 9900, I would use it, which was my point to begin with.
If you don't get Instagram, you don't have to get Instagram.

Sent from my SEXY HOT RED SGIII using Tapatalk 2

[qbnkelt]

No kidding. Just to say there is an app for that. How did we ever manage to get around prior to this?

We used print schedules, and we called for updates from our dumbphones to recorded messages or "customer service" which was atrocious. And before that, we used landlines and phone booths. And before that, we used telegrams. And before that, we used the pony express. And before that, we used carrier pigeons.

We could always go back to primitive forms of communication. Personally, I like to look forward, not backwards. Apps on smartphones are the next step forward, and I prefer to use them than to go to cumbersome workaround, on inefficient browsers for the task, and bookmarking every stop I might need when I visit offices all over DC. Particularly when I know that a streamlined option is available.

But that's just me. I prefer moving forward.

[Joy1980]

Look, just have the apps that people think are the must haves to shut up the media and negative nancies. I know I want BB 10 but other people need to have all of their excuses taken away before they can even try it. Just take their excuses away.

[qbnkelt]

Look, just have the apps that people think are the must haves to shut up the media and negative nancies. I know I want BB 10 but other people need to have all of their excuses taken away before they can even try it. Just take their excuses away.

But it's not really about pleasing the negative nancies and to shut up the media, is it? It's about having devices that can compete against other flagship devices in order to gain back the 1 million that left last quarter, and to climb up from the single digit marketshare.
Consumers have decided what they want, and they want apps. Personally, I could not care less about Netfli or Angry Birds and Words with Friends and have only used Skype on my non BB phones once, regardless of how long I've had them. But I do enjoy Instagram and I do use WhatsApp. And my DC Transit app is extremely useful, and I'm the ultimate person who can attest to how it works for me and why I prefer it. Most people don't carry multiple personal devices on multiple platforms, they carry either one if they do their work out of their personal device or they use two, a personal device and a work issued device. Therefore most people won't carry a non BB device in order to gain access to the apps that they want and the platform lacks.
Because I like testing things for myself I've started using my SGIII as my primary device to see how I manage. And I manage just fine. Excepting for BBM and banking apps, I have lost nothing in changing from the 9900 as my primary device to my SGIII as my primary device. What I have gained is the convenience of apps that I had never used on my BB because they weren't there. Whether it's ordering a pizza on my phone or being able to plan my commute out of my device or editing and sharing pics with people on my Instagram contact list or groups, I am finding that all the noise about apps is due to convenience, ease of use, enhanced experience, and *choice.*
And if RIM is to stay alive, it needs to move away from the "why do I need an app when I can do things on my browser" mentality and apply it to the consumer market. Because the consumer market has left that line of thinking at least since 2009, when RIM was still claiming that Apple didn't know anything about the phone market.
History would tell RIM otherwise. While RIM is not responsible for which developers support BB10, it is undeniable that in order to survive it needs to, at the very least, match what other manufacturers offer. And according to what was widely reported, this "new RIM" will release a new OS that is meant to "leapfrog the competition."
Luckily, it will bring Instagram. Hopefully it will bring the other big apps that people want. Because at this point in time, primitive browser workarounds vs available apps will not gain it the 1 million back nor will it get it into the double digits in market share.
Whether what I'm saying is regarded as being a negative nancy is immaterial to me. I see RIM in a precarious position and I *need* it to come out of it because it is the means by which I communicate with loved ones across the pond. And I've got one loved one who will use nothing else because nothing else meets his needs. So....I am speaking out of urgency, not negativism.
Maintaining the status quo in terms of app availability and arguing for cumbersome browser work arounds is most decidedly not leapfrogging the competition. However unfair it may be to RIM considering that it cannot force dev support, it is a simple fact that consumers want apps. And those consumers will pay for the devices that give then what they want. And if they don't buy BBs because of lack of apps, BB won't survive in N.A.

[qbnkelt]

The status quo mentality regarding Instagram, and the other apps consumers want, will not help reverse this.

Sent from my SEXY HOT RED SGIII using Tapatalk 2

[belfastdispatcher]

At what point do we stop pointing our the obvious so many times over and over again? Yes, RIM needs all that, but that doesn't mean most of the existing BBOS users need it, after all, if they really did they would be on other platforms already (and many did go to other platforms). And just like your loved one across the pond, most of us use a BB for other well defined other reasons regardless of what apps are available or not.

RIM has two types of customers, the ones that love BB the way it is and wouldn't use anything else(like your loved one) and the ones that want everything on their phone. All the apps in the world will not make a difference for the first type of customer.

So yes, RIM needs Instagram but I, and many like me don't.

[CurveDock]

This will be great news for BB10! If the guys at Blackberry can make the Camera as good as the iPhone, it will sure be a great device for Instagram users! I'm really looking forward to it!

Sent from my BlackBerry 9320 using Tapatalk

[Roo Zilla]

At what point do we stop pointing our the obvious so many times over and over again? Yes, RIM needs all that, but that doesn't mean most of the existing BBOS users need it, after all, if they really did they would be on other platforms already (and many did go to other platforms). And just like your loved one across the pond, most of us use a BB for other well defined other reasons regardless of what apps are available or not.

RIM has two types of customers, the ones that love BB the way it is and wouldn't use anything else(like your loved one) and the ones that want everything on their phone. All the apps in the world will not make a difference for the first type of customer.

So yes, RIM needs Instagram but I, and many like me don't.

I agree. Current Blackberry customers don't care about/for apps. They've basically decided, "this is the way is is, I like it, I'm staying with it."

The problem is..... there's not enough of those customers to allow RIM to make money, let alone grow.

Addendum: When I was a kid, I had a friend, whose father bought into Betamax early on, and amassed a huge collection of Betamax movies. When he heard Sony had stopped making Betamax players, he went to an electronics store and literally bought them out, he bought like 50 of them and stashed them in a closet. When I last spoke to my friend, his father still had a couple dozen in his closet, unopened. I'm not sure how long RIM is going to continue making BBOS phones, but there's a good chance it will be sooner rather than later. Once BB10 is available, who's going to buy obsolete hardware? Even emerging markets can read the writing on the wall. I suggest the true diehards get ready to stash some Blackberries in their closets for the time to come.