Palm Introduces New Treo Traffic Application
Palm today announced Traffic for Treo Smartphones. The wireless traffic application helps users make commute decisions quickly with interactive maps and incident information located conveniently on their Palm Treo 600 or Treo 650 smartphones. Traffic for Treo Smartphones débuts in 10 of the most traffic-congested markets in the United States: Atlanta, Baltimore/DC, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle.
According to the 2005 Urban Mobility Report, traffic congestion occurs for longer portions of the day and delays more travelers than ever before in 2003, 51 urban areas experienced more than 20 hours of delay per rush-hour traveler. Informing drivers about their options can contribute to more efficient travel. Unlike most traffic information sources, Traffic for Treo Smartphones gives users both visual and textual information when they want it, on the routes that matter to them and updated as often as every five minutes.
The data for Traffic for Treo comes from Metrocommute, which develops advanced travel information systems to deliver enhanced traffic information. Metrocommute begins with sensor and incident information from local Departments of Transportation and complements it with information collected by its operations staff, and extra cameras and speed detectors at major "choke points," such as bridges and tolls. Traffic for Treo Smartphones let users do the following:
- See primary, secondary and tertiary roads for specific metro areas to make decisions on different commute options;
- Customize the application with a bookmark to quickly jump to a particular location;
- Move the map in any direction to see the geographic area that is most important to them, and zoom in on a particular area;
- Tap on a blinking traffic alert to get a dialog box with more information -- traffic speed and incident details, if available, such as accidents, construction and stalled cars;
- Quickly understand the severity of an incident with red (most severe), orange (medium) or yellow (moderate) flashing alerts; and
- Subscribe to multiple cities for access to convenient, up-to-date traffic information on business and vacation travel.
Traffic for Treo Smartphones is available immediately for download. A 14-day free trial is available, after which users will be prompted to go to the Traffic for Treo Smartphone web page to sign up for a subscription plan. Plans start at $4.99 per month for one city. Customers can choose two cities for $7.99/month, or all cities for $14.99/month.
Article Comments
(12 comments)
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. PalmInfocenter is not responsible for them in any way.
Please Login or register here to add your comments.
No one is going to pay $$$ for this!
http://www.sigalert.com/map.asp?Region=Bay+Area
Solly Cholly.
------------------------
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
------------------------
The Palm Economy = Communism™
The Great Palm Swindle: http://www.palminfocenter.com/comment_view.asp?ID=7864#108038
RE: No one is going to pay $$$ for this!
I'm willing to believe there are people who would pay $5/month to be able to have an app that makes this information faster to obtain, and thus usable at all, on their mobile device.
Haven't you heard? Millions of people pay $2.95 for a 15-second ringtone, when they could instead buy the whole song for $.99. ;-)
RE: No one is going to pay $$$ for this!
------------------------
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
------------------------
The Palm Economy = Communism™
The Great Palm Swindle: http://www.palminfocenter.com/comment_view.asp?ID=7864#108038
RE: No one is going to pay $$$ for this!
RE: No one is going to pay $$$ for this!
That website you posted is very nice, but it's no good for the Treo! One thing I've learned over the past few weeks, after my girlfriend has got a Treo - we techies spend an inordinate amount of effort getting our Palms to do the cool things they can do. It needs to be easy. If that Palm app, with a single click from the launcher could do what that website does, optimised for Treo control, on a Treo sized screen - it could be a winner. As it stands, I don't think it is.
-James.
RE: No one is going to pay $$$ for this!
------------------------
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
------------------------
The Palm Economy = Communism™
The Great Palm Swindle: http://www.palminfocenter.com/comment_view.asp?ID=7864#108038
RE: No one is going to pay $$$ for this!
>subscription fees. Just ask Vindigo.
Actually, you're not comparing apples and apples: I think Vindigo is useful for a certain set of people (like people who travel, perhaps), and real-time traffic information is useful for anyone (in one of the supported geographies) who has to deal with (or better yet, try to avoid) traffic on a daily basis.
Actually, I wonder if you even live (and drive) in an area where traffic is an issue. If not, then I totally understand your position thinking there's no value here, but please at least consider that others may not agree.
>At this stage PDA browsers should be capable of rendering
>almost everything that desktop browsers can, so there's
>no excuse for not being able to access all the features
>of the site I mentioned.
How about this: The site you mentioned is designed for a much bigger screen, and a computer with a mouse where rollover popups make sense. Not so on a small-screen handheld.
>In fact, I'll bet Opera and NetFront for Windows Mobile
>will allow JavaScript to operate...
Perhaps, but if you're trying to make that all work while driving, then you could well end up being the traffic accident I'm trying to avoid. :-/
RE: No one is going to pay $$$ for this!
Now here is Palm asking $60 bucks a year for a one-trick-pony that gives me traffic conditions. Whoopie.
I guess it's useful to SOME people, but my RAM is so valuable in the 650 that I should charge THEM to install their software. If Palm had MUCH more content in there, or even better integrated this into Vindigo 3 or something THEN I'd look at it. But for now, why bother.
I spent that $60 bucks a couple months ago on the cradle that should have been included with my $600 phone in the first place.....
Vindigo Schmindigo
Vindigo was one of my favorite apps when it first came out (as freeware). Great content (Zagat restaurant reviews, movies, directions, etc). It was quite impressive having all that on my Palm IIIx. Then they started losing some of the better content + at the same time charging for the service and increasing the ads. I went back to using Showtimes and the standalone version of Zagat. Now that wirelessly connected PDAs are here, Vindigo would need to sweeten the deal by dropping the subscription model before I ever went back.
------------------------
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
------------------------
The Palm Economy = Communism™
The Great Palm Swindle: http://www.palminfocenter.com/comment_view.asp?ID=7864#108038
Latest Comments
- I got one -Tuckermaclain
- RE: Don't we have this already? -Tuckermaclain
- RE: Palm brand will return in 2018, with devices built by TCL -richf
- RE: Palm brand will return in 2018, with devices built by TCL -dmitrygr
- Palm phone on HDblog -palmato
- Palm PVG100 -hgoldner
- RE: Like Deja Vu -PacManFoo
- Like Deja Vu -T_W
A little limiting.
Seemed a little slow on my T650 too.
Other than that - nice idea, just looks like it needs a little work.
-James.