- This topic has 12 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 13 years ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Yesterday I got introduced to the new Taxi-Book iPhone app for people that are visiting or living in Chengdu.
It’s this really amazing app with hundreds of locations inside. I’m not going to write a detailed review about it, just wanted to share this with you.
The app is capable of getting you everywhere you want to be. It can show the taxi driver the Chinese address, say it out loud, or even show you the route and distance of your current location to where you want to get on a map.
Also a lot of extra’s such as basic Chinese vocabulary, dialogues and favorites.
Definately worth checking out!
Some screenshots from the iTunes website:
Looks cool. Much more useful than the physical taxi book. I wouldn’t pay $4.99 for it though, imo that’s a bit high. Good for people who don’t speak Chinese or know their way around the city, though.
I think $5 is a very reasonable price for this kind of app. It will save newcomers so much trouble if you think of the language barrier. It’s only like 2 or 3 beers anyway. If you don’t speak Chinese, only recently got to Chengdu, and have an iPhone; I think it’s a must have app to easily find out where things are and avoid communication problems with taxi drivers.
Of course if you have been living here for a long time and don’t really need it, it would be useless to spend the money.
$5 is quite a lot for such a simple application. It quickly becomes obsolete once you get to know Chengdu, or leave. I hope it’s kept up to date too. The European chamber was a bad example to use for your screenshots as it has just moved, or is currently in the process of moving, to Tianfu square.
This app is pretty cumbersome. I checked it out for curiosities sake, and it irritated me inside of 60 seconds. If I’m paying $4.99 for a Chengdu specific app, i don’t want to have to go to google myself to try and find input information for what isn’t there already. This thing doesn’t even have subway stations!
My advice: google what you’re looking for and load it into maps on iPhone/iTouch/iPad and show that to the taxi driver. Once a page has loaded in maps to the resolution/zoom you want, it stays in cache anyway, so you can have the whole of Chengdu stored at any given time.
I want my $4.99 back!!
the map’s Update rate, determine the suitability of software.
Chengdu has many streets, restricted driving directions , and there are many places being urban renewal, or laying of new roads.
Maybe you have Chinese address, give to driver, they will glad tell you how to read it, Chinese & Sichuan dialect.
more reliable, fast arrived where you want to be.
I tried this app also. It is awful.
To anyone considering this: DO NOT BUY IT. Use Maps instead. It’s free and 100x better.
I don’t really get the negativity around the app. It does exactly what it says it does… Nothing more nothing less. You knew what you were paying for before you bought it, didn’t you? Or if not, what were you expecting?
Anyway I still think it’s a great app for the first couple of weeks living in Chengdu. I’ve used it numerous times to get me through the city doing all sorts of stuff…
Obviously if you’re already familiar with the city, you shouldn’t bother paying money for it.
There’s definitely a market for an app like this. It’s nice to have all the addresses organized by category, but I think the root of the criticism is the $5 price. $5 is a lot when most people expect to pay $0.99 or $1.99 for the vast majority of iPhone apps. This app is also pretty simple and could be made in a weekend by a skilled programmer with a list of Chengdu locations.
I’ve been working on a geo-locations directory of locations in Chengdu like this for a while now. In practice it works similar to your app, although it requires an internet connection and doesn’t speak locations aloud. It’s web-based, works through the browser, and is free.
In the meantime though, the Chengdu Taxi Book on iPhone is the best thing available for someone who needs a categorized list of locations in Chengdu like this. Good luck with sales.
Uhh thanks but its not my app 🙂 I’m just a user.
GL with the geo-locations thing. Doesn’t matter it won’t speak, Chinese characters will do just fine. The taxi book app uses a computer voice which sucks, never used it.
My mistake Vincent, I had an exchange with the developer (or marketer?) of this app on LinkedIn and got confused. 🙂
I think Taxi Book iPhone app is very useful and well done.
I want to tell you a little story about how I got introduced to Taxi Book iPhone app. I am just arrived in Chengdu; the first day I went to a Carrefour near my apartment to buy some stuffs for the kitchen but unfortunately there were no the things that I was looking for.
So the first foreigner that I run into i asked him “do you know if there is Ikea in Chengdu?”. He replayed me “I don’t know but I can check on my iPhone”. And in a few seconds he told me the address of Ikea in Chengdu and all the information to go there.
He said to me he was using a new application for iPhone call Taxi-Book that help you get around the city.
The same day I bought it on the iTunes website and I have used it a lot. It inform you also about the GPS coordinates and if you want you can also add other locations that you have discovered. I find very useful the fact that all the addresses are organized by category.
- The forum ‘General Discussion’ is closed to new topics and replies.