Have iPhone, will travel

I’ve been doing a fair amount of traveling recently, and while the iPhone is great at letting me find my way about unfamiliar city streets, the Maps program is primarily designed for traveling in personal wheeled conveyances around the streets, and not so much for walking or—and this is key—public transportation. So here’s a couple of additional tips for taking advantage of the iPhone’s capabilities in order to get around town.

If your trying to navigate the Big Apple, the subway system is indispensable. Unfortunately, to an out-of-towner like myself it also happens to be often incomprehensible. Designer Khoi Vinh has come up with a solution: turn the MTA system’s map into a series of images which you can then sync with your iPhone. Then you can easily flip through the map to avoid ending up in Staten Island when you wanted Queens. And, as you’d expect from a designer of Vinh’s caliber, the maps are easy to use, laid out as overlapping tiles that makes it easy to switch back and forth without losing your place.

Outside of the Big Apple, you have to rely largely on the kindness of municipal transit authorities’ websites, unless you happen to be visiting a city that’s supported by Google’s beta Transit site. Just type in your location and destination, and it’ll give you the easiest route to get there via public transportation. While the map doesn’t display on the iPhone, it’ll still give you the text directions, which are plenty handy. And best of all, the site is pretty low complexity, meaning it loads quickly, even on EDGE.

Got other travel tips for the iPhone? Post a comment below.

Category: Software, Tips & Troubleshooting

Posted by Dan Moren on Aug 30 2007, 1:09 PM ET

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