Comments on: Vindigo No Longer Free

OK, I have never tried it, however, it doesn't exactly sound like something I would go buy a subscription for. How many such companies, over the last two years, have successfully made the transition from free content to the subscription model. Anyone?

I've been using vindigo since the first release for Mac (nearly 2 years ago), and I've never been 100% happy with it. This is primarily because they only included about 60% of the geographic area of the city in which I live, and I physically reside in one of the areas they left out. So, for everything within about 3 miles of my house it's useless, but when I actually go someplace it covers, it's been invaluable.
It's going to be really tough to decide whether to pay or give it up. Looks like I've got a month to do so.
Oh, and $25 a year is really reasonable (in fact, it's $19.95 until the end of March). It's not like they're charging $25 a month. Or even $10 a month. This boils down to about $2 a month, which is pretty cheap as far as subscription services go.

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PIC Moderator: Software forum
"Well, if it isn't the leader of the wiener patrol, boning up on his nerd lessons"

i hope avantgo doesnt start charging...that would suck

I hate to think this is a bait and switch only having used the service for a month now, but in that month I have gotten used to having the information whenever I need it. I am willing to pay the fee just for the convenience of having the moving listings alone. I just hope they last long enough to get a years worth of updates from them. I think Avantgo has enough ad's to keep them free but I haven't seen their balance sheet...

I use Vindigo Chicago and think its a great tool for getting around town on the weekends (also a great conversion piece for meeting girls at bars). I would pay $5-$10 a year no problem but $25.00? C'mon I don't see anyone who uses Vindigo that much to warrent a $25.00 fee.

I think they need to re-examine their fees and bring it down a tad.

Hey everyone,
As an avid Vindigo user (I live in New York where it's essential and have used it in Boston, D.C. and L.A.), I am definately going to pay the $25 for the service. The amazing thing is just how much they have added to this already great service - Museum information, Shecky reviews (the best nightlife guide there is), and Metacritic reviews (I used to have the Avantgo channel for this). The only problem/missing feature is VFS awareness as this is a definate memory hog. From the website:

"Vindigo memory requirements differ by city and by the number of channels you have subscribed to within a city. In order to subscribe to all available channels within a city, we recommend that you have between 600K – 1000K available.If you are downloading multiple cities, you can lower the minimum memory requirement by 100K per city for each additional city beyond the first. Memory cards, storage cards, flash memory, and memory sticks are not supported."

Otherwise, an outstanding product if you live in one of their 23 cities. Here's the list since I didn't see it posted elsewhere.
Atlanta
Austin
Boston
Brooklyn
Chicago
Dallas
Denver
Fort Worth
Houston
Las Vegas
London
Los Angeles
Greater LA (Burbank,
Glendale and Pasadena)
Miami
New York
Orlando
Philadelphia
Portland, OR
San Diego
San Francisco
San Jose
Seattle
Twin Cities
Washington, DC

Later.
E

I think it's funny that they're going to charge $25/year for this, and STILL include advertisements. sounds like a rip-off.

And oooh it includes Shecky's NYC guide, which apparently is for gays/lesbians, since those are the only kinds of bars the pqa version returns. or maybe every bar in nyc is gay. not that there's anything wrong with that.

The only thing that would make this funnier would be if vindigo went public before crapping out.

while I've used Vindigo quite happily for the last 1.5 years, the new pricing and memory requirements are too steep.

A relatively short while ago Vindigo only occupied 730+ K of memory whereas now, with the jump in the complexity of content, the memory requirement has jumped to around 1200k.

Also, in response to a couple of posts below regarding Vindigo's moving from a free service to a subscription service, I agree with the poster who suggests that Vindigo charge for its software, not its content. Afterall, Vindigo merely acts as a content aggragator and creates no real content of its own. The service gathers information from other sources (Time Out New York for example) and organizes it for its users. Zagat's realized this and bailed out on Vindigo at the end of last year.

Had Vindigo begun as a paid subscription service, I doubt we would all be having this conversation. It is incredibly difficult for sites/services to move from free to paid subscriptions without experiencing user abandonment. I doubt that the Pocket PC users (who've paid from the onset) are upset about having to pay.

Given that Vindigo has changed its content providers recently, it seems that the most responsible thing it can do for its users is to continue to focus on software without overbuilding it resulting in bloat.

The dramatic increase in size may result in Vindigo user dissatisfaction faster than the new pricing model. Vindigo needs to address memory card usage straight away.

While the pricing represents a steep jump, $2.08 per month is pretty cheap, while sacrificing memory is not.

Anyone know if the first version will continue to work. I guess this is a dumb question, but stranger things have happened. any info would be appreciated.

\\ AC

vindigo will fade...

Well, that takes the decision out of my hands. No OS X, no $$$.

I assume all current long standing users are getting this Vindigo newsletter... in it is a code for a $19.95 year subscription for the first year.

maybe this makes the costs a bit more platable.

At least I'm okay with $20 a year.

The code given in my newsletter is 8FXAE

For people who don't want to pay the yearly fee, a good alternate is Jungleport.com, which has a nice interface geared to color screen users. It is similar to Vindigo in giving information on certain cities along with maps. Its also still free :)

People:

Just get over it. The days of the free Internet are over. You're going to have to pay for useful content. Make no bones about it.

So, I say again: get over it. The party is over. The idiots blew trillions of dollar and all we have to show are an online Walmart (Amazon), news by the bucketfull (Yahoo!), and scores of vanity sites spouting everything from the joy of brillo pads to SPAM recipes.

Heck, with the $2 trillion (yes, that figure is correct) blown in just the Telecom sector we could have sent people to Mars, established a moon base, and have money leftover to cure diseases plaguing mankind. Instead, all we have to show is Internet email on a tiny phone screen and a phone browser that takes a zillion minutes to find anything useful.

It was a weird strange trip for sure. Yes, I made a bucketload of money but it was weird and it was stupid at the same time. We could have used the trillions for stuff that could have benefited mankind. Well, we do have plenty of dark fiber until hell freezes over.

I'd be my own personal hypocrite to complain about $25 a year. Hell, I might spend $25 bucks on old comic trade editions in a month-and they don't update automatically! Considering the duggets I've sunk into palming and all the accessories, and my lack of hesitation in doing so, I don't think the cost is much at all.

...In accordance with the prophecy...

Quik_Fix
quikfix@hotmail.com

How come Vindigo v2.0 for the Palm OS is so remarkably bereft of color?

The PocketPC version is nice and colorful but the Palm version is almost total grayscale. In fact the only color is in the maps (which apparently appear as grayscale on non-color Palms). Why couldn't they add color or add an option to sync using a version specifically for color devices or have a version that utilizes color on color Palms and grayscale on non-color Palms.

I went to the website to see if I was missing something (the version that downloaded automatically to my m515 is grayscale) but there does not appear to be a version for Palms that makes any extensive use of color.

Just curious... of the features that Vindigo has to offer, like movie listings, maps, restaurant guides... what do you use the most?

I just started to use Vindigo the week before version 2.0 came out and I like the idea of having movie listings handy.

Cheers

If you're in the UK you can get movie info on the myBBC Avantgo channel. It gives full listings & times for anywhere in the UK not just London. It needs some set up on the myBBC website but once thats done its simple.

Nic