Review: Tube Map

In theory, TubeMap should be the perfect application for a mobile device. It's targeted at a specific audience (people who use the London Underground); it has multiple use cases (from the tourist visiting for the first time to the hardcore commuters); and it's easy to see what's going on.

On the other hand, it's a java application that throws out the S60 user interface style, it's got some rather intrusive advertising; and it's far from a graceful shut-down.

Actually that change away from the S60 interface isn't necessarily a bad one (it is the nature of the beast with generic java apps added to the Ovi store though), as much of the screen is left for the licensed tube map itself, with a small tap at the bottom of the screen bringing up the menu bar. It's little more than a scrollable ribbon of icons, but it works well here. Move it around to get the function you need, tap again to pop up the full dialog, and hide it with a tap on the map. All very intuitive.

Looking for a station is a simple matter of choosing the find option from the icon strip. Start typing in the name of a station and the options will be listed underneath for you to tap and have a handy blinking icon displayed on the station.

What's not intuitive is tapping on a station on the map – nothing happens. You don't get the option to add this to the route finder dialog, you don't get information on the station. There's no feedback whatsoever. The routefinder itself is okay if you're looking at a route change with one or two line changes, but anything after that and it starts making some mightily weird choices.

Okay Amersham to City Airport is essentially top left to bottom right on the map, but handing me a route with 5 line changes is absolutely crazy – that can be done far easier (and I suspect slightly quicker) with just two changes (at Kings Cross and a slight back track to Monument). But for bouncing around central London, the newcomer to the system can trust that it does work.

The Tube regulars can be content with the live information. Relaying the level of service (normal, good, minor delays, etc) on each tube line, and allowing you to click through to see where the problems are. It could be laid out so the information doesn't have to be scrolled and need an extra click, but it does get you the information that you need. Which is probably the key long term benefit of having Tube Map on your London-based phone (even if it doesn't zoom).

The interesting stuff starts when you launch the application and are presented with an advert from the creator's traffic camera application or a demographic survey. In other words, in-app advertising. When you exit the app, you get another ad and another splash screen that you cannot cut away from - the app continues to run until you bring it to the foreground for the required time to display the advert, then it closes.

To be fair, developers need to find a way to get paid if people aren't buying applications any more and in-app advertising is something new that will always raise eyebrows. It's just that this feels like a rather 'in your face' approach. Perhaps this is down to the newness of this method on Symbian and I'll get used to it over time.

Tube Map is a useful application, with some caveats on the functionality. It looks good, works as advertised, and I'd be interested to see how much revenue it brings in for mxData.

[editor's note. This also works very well on S60 3rd Edition phones, but had some issues on my N97, curiously. No doubt the developers will fix this last glitch. Recommended, even if Ewan's being McScrooge with his scoring!]

-- Ewan Spence, Dec 2009.

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Review Discussion

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unregistered I loved the old TfL java app an my S40 phone, everything an app should be lightweight and simple. Anyone point me towards a download source as I lost track of it after TfL stopped promoting it.

Im mobile right now so cant, but any user agent switcher should be able to help.. :)

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