![]() "In the age of the smartphone, it should be much easier to get around," says Hodge. The trade-off is that if there's no Embark app for your town, they can't help you (although Hodge hints that many more cities are on the way).Įmbark's philosophy is to cloak the complexity of transit routing and the elaborate back-end scheduling tech with a simple interface that puts the busy commuter in control. This emphasis on real-world, locally gathered routing support helps Embark's apps gain in accuracy. We go to New York and say 'How fast do people walk here? What are the transfer times ?'" Google's transit routing teams aren't able to spend enough time in each city they cover to get the granular info needed, he says. "We want to understand the local nuances. ![]() When we spoke to Embark founder David Hodge last week, he emphasized that his company's approach to transit directions differed from Google's mostly data-driven tactics. Embark, the publisher of 12 local transit apps covering eight metro areas, has seen huge growth in the last week, hitting over 40 million trips so far and over 100,000 downloads since the launch of iOS 6. The developers behind many transit-related iOS apps have been happy to provide options for iOS 6 users, and CNET notes that they've seen big increases in their user base. (London's about 140 miles away from him.) ![]() Of course, that geographic app matching isn't quite perfect yet: last week our colleague Rich Gaywood asked Maps to give him transit info near his home in Wales, and it came back with Navigon (mostly thought of as a driving nav app) plus transit apps for London. Given that, it's probably a good idea to preload a transit app for a new city if you're expecting to need directions when you get there, especially if you have a slow or pricey data connection. The Maps app now automatically searches for transit-aware apps that cover your geography, and links you to the App Store to download or buy relevant tools when you ask for transit directions. Already, a few other companies are stepping in for iOS 6 users to take over that responsibility. Apple's had all kinds of unexpected issues with its brand new Maps app, but when it comes to transit directions we knew well in advance that they wouldn't be included in Maps when the new app was announced at WWDC, it was clear that third parties would be expected to pick up the slack via iOS's new Routing API. ![]()
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