Free apps for iPod Touch - Metlink

The thought of being able to quickly obtain public transport information on the iPod Touch came up in conversation in our family. I decided to investigate.

I quickly located and installed the Metlink app. Because I'd used the Metlink web site I suspected there would be an app and it was easy to find by searching for Metlink.

My first impression of the MetLink app (which is free) is it was terrible. I couldn't work out what to do. I used it for a few minutes and felt it was useless to get anything I wanted. Later that night I decided to give it another go.

I pressed the Next 5 icon at the bottom which gave me a screen. I searched for Templestowe which gave me a list with streets, so this time I was making progress.

I live in Templestowe so the bus stop I was interested in was Williamsons Road in Templestowe. I went to bus stop list for the W section and there was no Williamsons Road at all. I decided to scroll to the top and do a search. There at the top in section 2, was 252 Williamsons Rd - After - Templestowe. Route 902/293/364. Who would have guessed that! Now at least I could start doing something.

I checked and the only direction was towards Doncaster. I wanted to check out the times heading for Eltham. It took me a bit of time, but the bus in the opposite direction was under Foote St/Williamsons Rd - Templestowe. Route 902/293.

At this stage I thought perhaps I should have searched for the street in the first place. I typed in the street and nothing appeared. Oops, I'd typed in Williamsoms Road. My bad as they say. I fixed the m to an n so it was correct and searched again. Nothing again. I thought don't tell me I have to enter "Rd" and not "Road". Yep. I had a list of streets again. I can't believe they'd do that. It makes sense that both "rd" and road" should work. I later tried just Williamsons without Rd and nothing appeared. Metlink certainly need to work on their search routines.

I also can't believe once you've found the road there isn't a way to just flip and to get the buses going in the opposite direction.

I decided to add this stop to my favourites. I thought that should be easy. Click on a button. Nope. I had to go through favourites which presented an enormous number of streets to scroll through. I just gave up at that point.

I think Metlink have taken something that should be much simpler to implement and made it far more difficult than it should be. I can't help feeling the normal web site is much better than their app and a printed timetable much friendlier, although a printed version will date when you least expect it and that will cause grief.

One other thing I noticed was a sync button to get updates. The updates totalled around 35MB. Whilst this review is for the iPod Touch which only uses wireless, if you use the iPhone with data and only had a small plan, I can see how apps will really chew up the data. At least Metlink let you know how much data is involved.

Overall this app doesn't impress me as it could be so much better. I'd say it is very unfriendly. At this stage I can make it work using the Next 5 icon and will in time add the entries required to the favourites.

Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.justlocal.com.au/

Tags: ipod touch apps, apps for ipod touch, best apps for ipod touch