In Arrivo! HD & Express Blog

The official Blog of the In Arrivo Suite

First updates for Limo Manager

In a quite rapid sequence version 1.1 and 1.2 of Limo Manager were submitted and approved by Apple. Basically both versions aimed and solving some bugs and in addition a new fields has been added to the cooperative profile. The new text field allows the owner to submit more information about the cooperative to be eventually shown to users to let them better know the offered services.

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New Review of Limo Manager on AppPicker

A new review of Limo Manager will be soon published on AppPicker. Here is its introduction and link in absolute preview:

Limo Manager app review: manage your fleet
08 Sep 2014 Reviews rss subscribe
Introduction
We have a very specific business app for those who manage a fleet of limos, minicabs, and/or taxis. The Limo Manager app can be used on your iPod touch, iPad, and iPhone and makes it possible for dispatchers to view customer pick-up locations and their destinations on a map. The app is built to be smooth, modern, and easy-to-use, with most features requiring just a quick tap or two. The idea is that you can manage your fleet and fares no matter where you happen to be, which gives you a whole lot more flexibility.
[...]

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Limo manager finally approved

Limo Manager
I am pleased to announce Limo Manager, the app dedicated to taxi and minicab managers, has been approved and is now available for download for FREE. The app, available for the iPhone and iPad, is what is needed to professionals to keep their fleet under control and to provide service to the clients in most efficient way. A press release is available on the official web site at address:
http://www.limomanager.net/PRuk/


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Desultory problems on the Register backoffice

This time is the italian back office turn to present problems. Since this morning Register started occasionally returning a 503 error to web calls. I have already notified the support who had already noticed the problem. We hope for a rapid solution.
I remind the Register back office handles the taxi and sharing business. All aspects relative to the buses and metros are handled by the
Crissic back office and are thereafter not affected by the problem, but for the suspension of the high availability in the case of its own possible problems.

Sorry for the inconvenience.
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In Arrivo Express 3.9 released

The new version of In Arrivo Express has been also released with a number of improvements sidelining those of the main app.


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In Arrivo HD 7.6.3 released

After a certain delay, the new release of In Arrivo HD has been released. As announced it solves a number of unexpected behaviors. This is the change-log in brief:

The app does not crash any longer upon returning from the bus line detail table.
The map centers on the position of the browsed taxi.
The nickname is now picked from the game center player alias.
A new header has been added to the arriving buses section.

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Taxi Professional 4.2.3 released

The new minor version of Taxi Professional has also been released with a better handling of a sequence of reservations.

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Progress in the Android version of Taxi Professional

Android-icon
As announced, I am busy at porting Taxi Professional to Android to follow the overwhelming requests of taxi drivers all over the world. In particular a number of hurdles have been overcome, including the handling of the settings, localization, http requests and Json parsing, the state machine for the bookings and more. The main points to be still covered, before submitting the app, are maps and in-app billing, the latter possibly to be handled by PayPal. I plan to complete everything by the end of the month.
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New review on AppPicker for Taxi Professional

A new review has been published for Taxi Professional on the AppPicker web magazine:

Taxi Professional app review: a professional tool for drivers
18 Aug 2014 Reviews rss subscribe
Introduction
If you own your own cab and are looking for a way to professionally log and keep track of your work log, we've got an app for you. The Taxi Professional app can be used on your iPod touch, iPad, and iPhone and not acts as a professional tool but can save you money from having to pay a broker service, returning to your parking lot unnecessarily, and more. The app is able to map out the shortest most cost-effective route to your pick-up point. It’s all about making you as efficient as possible so you can be organized and profitable. [...]
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New versions of InArrivo Express and Share & Spare submitted

Both minor versions of the In Arrivo suite have received their regular update catching up what was recently done in the main app for what is of its interest. In particular both apps are now suited for iOS 8 and both of them have received the optimizations brought about to the suite in terms of speed and fixing of errors.
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New In Arrivo HD release submitted

It has been finally traced the bug of consequence that crashed quite a few installations on InArrivoHD. That was hopefully the last remain of the yearlong handling of the Atac lock on the access of its service. Its effect was crashing the app when returning from viewing a bus line detail. In addition now the map follows the browsed taxis and the navigation buttons return clearly visibile. Moreover the navigation bar for the metro screen takes the color of the metro.
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New Version of Taxi Professional submitted

A minor update to Taxi Professional has been submitted. This update resolved a problem hampering the possibility of handling several reservations in a single session.
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In Arrivo HD 7.6.2 released

As expected, the new release of InArrivo HD app was approved by Apple in a matter of hours , differently of the other apps that take about a week. This is the relative change-log:

iPad feedback form restored.
Improved reporting for the internet connection status and waiting times feed availability.
Better handling of the buses notifications and their error reports.
Handled an unsupported library that used to crash iOS 6 devices.
More bug fixes according to the crash reporting.


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New version of In Arrivo HD submitted

A new version of the In ArrivoHD app has been submitted. The new versions fixes a blocking issue emerged on iOS 6 following a report by a german user, restores the feedback form on iPad and improves the error reporting for the bus notifications and connections status, and fixes some more errors from the crash reports. Moreover it should improve the location sharing for the benefit of taxis and fellow path sharers even in background, albeit with an energy saving technology.
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Taxi Professional 4.2.2 delivered

The new 4.2.2 version of Taxi Professional has been released by Apple and it is not available for the free update by the authorized users. The new version is focused on the improval of the taxi positioning now also available in background and the system used depends on the plugging of the device. This is the change-log in brief:

Improved messaging and error reporting.
Once unplugged the low energy localization is used in background, while plugging the iPhone enables the more powerful GPS background localization.

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Regular waiting times feed malfunctioning

The feeding service by Roma Servizi per la Mobilità have been found malfunctioning today. Requests by us as well as from other affected developer got no feedback and so we decided to restore the old scraping system to restore part of the functionalities. As of now the waiting times are back functioning; should the problem not be solved by tomorrow, also the directions shall be backtracked. As for the metros there is unfortunately no solution as the only access was through the Apis. The support has recently emerged promising a rapid solution of the problem, and in fact the day after everything returned in order.
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In Arrivo HD 7.6.1 released

The new 7.6.1 release of In Arrivo HD has been approved by Apple and is now ready for the free update by its users. As announced, the new version is a minor one and fixes a number of bugs or irregular behaviors. In particular this is the relative small change-log:

Bug fixes.
Restore of the from the Apple© map route calculation.



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New 4.2.2 version of Taxi Professional Submitted

Waiting for the porting of the app to the Android world due to an overwhelming request by taxi drivers apparently favoring that platform over the iOS one, a new release of the iPhone one has been submitted with a better handling of error messages now also accommodating the format better handled by Android, and finally an apparently working background localization. Moreover now the app reacts differently while in background according to the fact the device is plugged or unplugged. In the latter case, in order to save battery life, the coarser form of localization is used; conversely while plugged the more precise GPS one is used. Taxi Drivers wanting to give users their precise location are therefore suggested to keep the device plugged through the apposite cable to the cigar plug while on the car.
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In Arrivo HD 7.6.1 submitted

A new minor version of In Arrivo HD has been submitted to Apple with a number of new bug fixes and the restore of the functionality allowing to find a route directly from the Apple maps.
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Limo manager app submitted

Limo76x76
The latest app in the In Arrivo Suite, namely Limo Manager, has been completed and submitted to Apple. The new app allows to open the taxi business to Minibuses and cooperatives managing them, all according to the law. A description and press release are available on the official website. We will inform you as soon as it is be approved and released.
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In Arrivo HD 7.6 delivered

With a quite unexpected efficiency, Apple approved the new release of the in Arrivo HD app in a matter of days. As anticipated, the new release touches various parts of the experience. This is therefore the relative change-log:

The taxi icons now show the code of the driver, if present.
The taxi booking window on the iPad version is now sized on the effective number of bookings.
A new icon highlights the lack of internet connection.
Some more blocking bugs fixed.
Japanese localization.
Forward support for iOS 8.


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In Arrivo HD 7.6 submitted

Soon after recovering the development machine from assistance due to a critical failure, time was ripe for submitting a new version of the main In Arrivo HD app including some features specifically addressed to the soon to be released Limo Manager app, but also benefitting the regular users of the suite. In particular now the taxi icons display the identifier of the driver for ease of reference, the iPad booking panel is correctly sized on the number of contemporary reservations and a number of bugs has been fixed. Moreover the new release is ready for iOS 8 and adds its eights localization by opening the suite to the Japanese users.
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Version 7.5.3 of In Arrivo HD released

After a sequence of releases providing new exciting features now a new one essentially fixing the holes. A number of crashes has been in fact resolved and the crash report has in fact dramatically decreased the number of entries.
As always, if you appreciate the app, you are welcome to review and rate it on the iTunes store.


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New review on iPhoneAppReview

A new review about the In Arrivo HD app has been published on the iPhoneAppReview portal:
The I
n Arrivo! HD iPhone app is designed for those who want to keep track of the bus and taxi schedule in the Rome and Milan. The app is developed by the famous company, Fabrizio Bartolomucci which is known for the world class app all across the world. The app is [...]

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New version 2.1 of Share & Spare released

Share & Spare version 2.1 completes the introduction of the Game support in the suite and in addition introduces a number of enhancement already part of the other apps since a little time. This is the change-log:

Game Center support for checking one's usage of the app with that of other users.
The favorite taxis are now hidden when moved offscreen.
Better favorites moving.
The center button now consistently center the map to the user position with a local span.
Some residual bug fixes.
New icon for the public portals map annotations.
The teleport information of the portals from other users now regularly scroll.
Booking are now retrieved from the back office instead than from the coal memory thus allowing to handle more than one booking at a time.

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New In Arrivo HD 7.5.2 and Express 3.7 released

The new versions of in Arrivo HD and in Arrivo Express fixing the recently emerged bug in the loading of waiting times and a crash regarding the incorrectly matching name of a control have been released by Apple and are now available for the compulsory update by their users.


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Limo Manager web site online

LimoWeb
The new web site for Limo Manager is available at address:
http://www.limomanager.net

with the beta image for it, the future iTunes description and PR.
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Abrupt update of the main apps of the suite

An error had creeped in the In Arrivo code while eliminating the prefetch functionalities from the time of the Atac blocks. This error prevents the very showing of the waiting times as some users have already noticed. A new update has been promptly submitted with the fix. This was also the chance to complete the porting of the bookings to the back office already announced.
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Booking procedure revamped

In order to accomodate the oncoming Limo Manager reservation procedure, even the client apps have been provided with a multiple taxi reservations. The purpose is to handle cases when someone wants to book taxi for herself and her son or other dear one while also checking when the taxi has got to its destination for her peace of mind. The first app to show this new feature will be Share & Spare, with time the other apps will follow suite.
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In Arrivo HD and Express updated

Double announcement today. Both the minor update of In Arrivo HD with residual bug fix regarding the removal of the previous prefetch option and the introduction of new icons for the taxis, and of In Arrivo Express with the adoption of the Game Kit and all the recent improvements already introduced into the main app have been approved and are now ready for the update.



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Beta version of Limo Manager ready

The beta version of the new Limo Manager app dedicated to the managers of fleets of cars for the public transport is ready, albeit still short of its graphic elements and will be soon tested by TaxiRoma to check if it already suites its needs. Once the test is successfully completed and the graphic elements thanks to Roberto Ramundo ready, the app shall be submitted to the benefit of all interested parties.
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How the competion of taxi apps helps the city life

An article by the NYTimes illustrating how the Taxi apps, however in competition, contribute to the welfare of citizens:
Over the next few years, if Uber and other such services do reduce the need for private vehicle ownership, they could help lower the cost of living in urban areas, reduce the environmental toll exacted by privately owned automobiles (like the emissions we spew while cruising for parking), and reallocate space now being wasted on parking lots to more valuable uses, like housing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/12/technology/personaltech/with-ubers-cars-maybe-we-dont-need-our-own.html
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New version of Taxi professional with the cooperative support submitted

The new version of Taxi Professional with the beforehand support for the managed use both for Taxis and Rental cars has been submitted so to allow the testing of the next to be released management app. In addition to that a thorough error reporting has been inserted in the login phase to eschew locking situations.
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In Arrivo HD 7.5 released

We are pleased to announce that version 7.5 of In Arrivo HD has been approved by Apple and is now ready for the free update by all its users. As announced the new release introduces the Game Center LeaderBoards and Achievements to increase the awareness for the environment by comparing one’s result with those of friends and other users of the app.
In addition the favorites now provide a better experience and a number of residual bugs have been fixed.



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MySql problems overcome

The most frequent users of the In Arrivo apps might have noticed a somewhat recurrent problem in the loading of the back office information like the stops and their composition. The problem was due to an instability of the mysql DB service the Crissic provider has declared to be eased. At any rate we have established two counter-measure. Any second minute an agent check whether the server is down and in that case clears the situation and restarts it, should this action fail and in any case until the server is online again, control is transferred to a backup mysql server in Italy, whose possible downtime should be totally disassociated from the one of the main one in the US.
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In Arrivo HD 7.5 with GC support submitted

The new 7.5 version of In Arrivo HD with the Game Center support has been submitted. As already said this features allows to compare one’s own help to the welfare of the city and the world in general with that of other users and friends. Moreover a number of awards has been introduced for specific endeavors. In addition to that the new release also fixes some remaining bugs - hoping to not have introduced someone more Happy - and smooths the behavior of the favorites that now correctly follow the position of the finger and move up-screen with the hanger without extraneous graphical artifacts.
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Taxi Professional 4.1 delivered

The minor update 4.1 of Taxi Professional has been approved by Apple and is now ready for download by the authorized drivers.
The updates regard the possibility of centering the map while not driving and the return to the login page in case of problems instead of been stuck in the splash screen.


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At work on the Game Center introduction in the suite

I am back to inform that the suite is in the process of introducing Game Center features to enhance the collaboration of its users to the benefit of the environment. This activity should also comprise the establishment of a voice chat communication between users and with taxi drivers, if possible and not attainable by some new methods in the oncoming iOS 8.
In brief those are the leaderboard introduced:
  • Most faithful users
  • Taxi bookers
  • Best Sharers
  • Bus pickers
And the collective leaderboard for the three latest ones aiming at establishing the most committed users to the environment:
  • Best environment savers

Moreover a number of Achievements have been introduced to mark specific feats and this are the following:

Big social walk
A walk with four people.
Full car sharing
A car ride with four people.
Taxi sharing
A shared car ride with two other people.
Globetrotter
A user having used the app in 20 different locations.

Specifically now I am waiting for the specific graphic pieces to arrive and to localize the new features and some additional test in order to release the new version.
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New version 4.1 of Taxi professional submitted

Following the hint of a taxi driver from the north of Italy lamenting a freeze of the app possibly following to a location error, I updated the app to return it to the login page instead of remaining in the splash screen in these events. Moreover the status image on the bottom left has been turned into a button that, upon being clicked, returns the map to the taxi position and lastly the new more efficient drawing methods from the other app in the suite have been also introduced into Taxi Professional.
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Share & Spare 2.0 released

And also the free version of the suite Share & Spare has received the upgrades already inserted in the major versions. This is the quite extensive change-log, that should be quite familiar to the users of the other apps:

Total revamping of the iPad experience.
Improved localizations for the notifications.
Upon clicking the accessory button of the teleport table is now possible to center the map on the relative location, while touching the cell allows to name and describe it.
The current or teleport location is reported on the screen for ease of reference.
The in app teleport portals may now be shared with other users (iOS7.0+ only).
Even users without the Teleport add-on may see and use portals from other users (iOS7.0+ only).
The taxi annotation reflects again the status of its availability.
Upon sharing a path or completing a taxi ride is possible to share the event on Facebook and Twitter. In the latter case it is also possible to save the taxi among the favorites and/or rate the app.
personal portal locations may now be moved by dragging the relative annotations.
The actual location of the user is reported even while the app is in background.
New teasing notifications when reaching or leaving a location.
The portal locations may be moved by dragging their annotations to other places.
Favorites are now stored between sessions.
The owner of a sharing path may start it at any moment by triggering notifications to all partners and having the starting annotation pulse.
The location of the user is uploaded even while the app is in background to offer location based notifications and services.
Bug fixes.

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In Arrivo Express 3.5 delivered

I have the pleasure to inform the express users of the suite that the intermediate app has received an update. In Arrivo Express in fact now incorporates the features progressively introduced in the main app. This specifically regards bug fixes, a new style, a new iPad Interface and a totally revamped Teleport experience now also enabling users without that add on to benefit of it, and social sharing opportunities for specific events.


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Uber Pop and the In Arrivo Shared paths: has Freud something to say about it?

Recently Uber proposed what it calls another disruptive service: Uber Pop. Basically the service allows normal drivers to carry other passengers for a fee, a big part of which ends up in the deep pocket of Uber itself, as customary. Basically the same thing the In Arrivo suite is offering in all its three embodiments since more than one year by means of the shared paths technology. The difference being that the app does not charge the driver in any way for carrying other people and is not interested whether that is done for free or for a fee, and also that it offers this service also to walkers and taxi passengers that in this way may find fellow people for a run or walk in the park, or share the price of a taxi ride to a certain common destination to save money. What Uber has not even thought of or sparsely presented.

This make even more troublesome to understand why Uber is considered disruptive. The only suggestion is that it is mood to make it so. Sometimes the feminine part of people dominates and the
Denim type, occupying spaces and not needing to ask for that, projects its own charm. What makes even more so the fact that it comes with the big money of Google and other investors.

I wonder if appreciators of this platform understand the deep Freudian push at the basis of their interest!
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In Arrivo Express 3.5 submitted

In Arrivo Express is catching on with respect to the main app of the suite and introducing its part of novelties here reported front he change-log:

Restyling of the app.
Total revamping of the iPad experience.
Improved localizations for the notifications.
Upon clicking the accessory button of the teleport table is now possible to center the map on the relative location, while touching the cell allows to name and describe it.
The current or teleport location is reported on the screen for ease of reference.
The in app teleport portals may now be shared with other users (iOS7.0+ only).
Even users without the Teleport add-on may see and use portals from other users (iOS7.0+ only).
The taxi annotation reflects again the status of its availability.
Upon sharing a path or completing a taxi ride is possible to share the event on Facebook and Twitter. In the latter case it is also possible to save the taxi among the favorites and/or rate the app.
personal portal locations may now be moved by dragging the relative annotations.
The actual location of the user is reported even while the app is in background.
New teasing notifications when reaching a location or leaving cities with extended services for the app.
The transition to the control center is now occurring with a rightward movement.
The portal locations may be moved by dragging their annotations to other places.
Favorites are now stored between sessions.
The owner of a sharing path may start it at any moment by triggering notifications to all partners and having the starting annotation pulse.
The location of the user is uploaded even while the app is in background to offer location based notifications and services.
Users outside of Italy may freely teleport to central Rome to pre-arrange things in advance either from the landed point or crossing other available portals, in addition to purchasing the teleport add-on and manage one's own portals at will.
Bug fixes.


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New 7.4.2 version of In Arrivo HD released

The new 7.4.2 version of In Arrivo HD has been approved and release nearly as quickly as the previous one. So you may use the app finally quite free of bugs and crashes and rich with new features.

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New 7.4.2 In Arrivo HD release

Just a few hours after the unexpectedly quick approval of version 7.4.1 I am force to submit the immediately following ones due to a string component found no longer working with the new system. Taking advance of this, the free international teleport reaches the beautiful area of Ripetta and the Atac icon returns to offer the tempestive status of service of the bus system.
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New 7.4.1 version of In Arrivo HD approved

The new version of in Arrivo HD has been unexpectedly approved in the space of a few hours. This is the relative change-log:

The portal locations may be moved by dragging their annotations to other places.
Favorites are now stored between sessions.
The owner of a sharing path may start it at any moment by triggering notifications to all partners and having the starting annotation pulse.
The location of the user is uploaded even while the app is in background to offer location based notifications and services.
Users outside of Italy may freely teleport to central Rome to pre-arrange things in advance either from the landed point or crossing other available portals, in addition to purchasing the teleport add-on and manage one's own portals at will.
Bug fixes.

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New 7.4.1 release submitted

After some weeks’ work, I am happy to inform the users and appreciators of the In Arrivo suite that the new version of In Arrivo HD has been submitted to Apple for approval. The new version fixes a number of bugs highlighted by the recent 7.4 version and add a number of interesting new features. In particular now it is no longer needed to delete a portal and recreate it if located in a wrong position but it is possible to drag its annotation to do that. Also on the issue of the teleport, a new free feature has been added for the benefit of users outside of Italy that may no teleport to central Rome by means of a convenient button so to arrange things before the travel.
Moreover the creators of shared paths may now indicate the starting of them so automatically notifying other users and having the start annotation pulse for information.
Other improvements regard the stops and taxi favorites that are now correctly stored among sessions in the permanent memory, and the location of the user that is now upload even while the app is in background without being greedy in the battery usage in the process.
A last minute improvement also regards the display of the dashboard that now slides rightward differently of the other views.

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New release and oncoming video

Version 7.4 must have taken the cover from a lot of blunders in the app as I could see from nearly 1000 crashes of various kinds. Therafter I quickly assembled a new release attempting to fix most of them. In addition to that the new version shall also offer a collection of new features. In particular now portals may be moved by dragging their allocation and favorites are stored between sessions and some of the features presented in the past version have been improved.
In the meantime
iPhoneAppReviews is producing a video presenting the app all by means of a teleport portal in the center of Rome, while also testing it before the release.
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New search engine for the web site and blog

search
In order to ease the retrieval and access to the ever increasing and rich contents of the web site and blog, a new search engine has been installed with the collaboration of Nimble Software in which you may enter any text to retrieve the pages mentioning it.
Due to Aruba’s inexplicable prohibition of accessing external DB servers, some of the features of the engine, including the possibility of hosting the search field in the menu are currently not available. Consequently the search engine is accessible in its own page and on the In Arrivo HD home page in the form of a standard search field.
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New In Arrivo HD 7.4 release

I have the pleasure to informe the users of In Arrivo HD app that the new quite important 7.4 release has been approved by Apple and is now ready for the free update by its users. Here follows the quite extensive change-log:

Restyling of the app.
Total revamping of the iPad experience.
Improved localizations for the notifications.
Upon clicking the accessory button of the teleport table is now possible to center the map on the relative location, while touching the cell allows to name and describe it.
The current or teleport location is reported on the screen for ease of reference.
The in app teleport portals may now be shared with other users (iOS7.0+ only).
Even users without the Teleport add-on may see and use portals from other users (iOS7.0+ only).
The taxi annotation reflects again the status of its availability.
Upon sharing a path or completing a taxi ride is possible to share the event on Facebook and Twitter. In the latter case it is also possible to save the taxi among the favorites and/or rate the app.
Faster delivery of directions.
New teasing notifications when reaching or leaving Rome (iOS7.0+ only).
The waiting times table is immediately loaded also upon opening it from the near stops table.
A randomly occurring crash has been fixed.
It is now possible to choose the preferred access of the bus information through the remote common cache instead of directly from the third party backoffice in the preferences, so to streamline some desultory information especially in Rome and somewhat accelerate the access (beta).
The settings now also include the possibility of tuning the refresh rate of the stops respect to the fluidity of the app. The lower the value the more responsive the screen but staler the waiting times.
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A look at the settings

settingsInArrivo
The In Arrivo HD setting page is getting quite powerful and thereafter complex. So I think it is good idea on the occasion of the adding of two quite important new settings to have a look and comment it. As said two of the settings will only surface with the oncoming 7.4 release.
  • Version: this item simply reports the installed version of the app on the device.
  • Nickname: this field allows to optionally enter the nickname used in the social paths to present one self to the other users.

Caches

  • Clear Cache: as in the name this option allows to clear the cache for the stops and lines. You may want to trigger it when you move away from a busy location and you want to recover some space in memory or to refresh the contents of stops.
  • Use remote cache: this new option allows to activate the remote cache for the waiting times. This beta option allows to use the times both loaded by oneself and by other users to preemptively load waiting times at the same time projecting them along the line so allowing a more consistent view than that currently offered by the original source. The drawback is that it might sometime offer new buses with a certain delay in addition to unforeseen bugs.
  • Responsivity

  • This new important slider allows to tune the whole behavior of the app. Since the latest version, in order to make the use of the app smoother, new waiting times were stopped when the processor was too busy as going over that would lead to a not so responsive application. This slider allows to choose whether to favor a more fluent experience or more up to date information. Putting the slider to the extreme left in practice just allows to load the timetable after having clicked the annotation and of course does not allow buses to circulate.

Configuration


The configuration section on its part allow to configure most specific features; in particular:
Restart tutorial: selecting this option the app restarts the tutorial introducing the most important feature of the app, should a new user use the app, or some point be forgotten.
Favorites Enabled: this section allows to choose whether moving the stops and taxi annotation creates a duplicate to be stores in the top favorite section. Putting the selector to No disables the feature.
Reset Taximeter: this section allows to discard the actual taximeter information loaded from the nearest taxi in the case the extimations provided by the app diverges substantially from the prices applied by the taxi drivers.
Disability: finally this option allows to inform taxi drivers they will have to do with a passenger with disabilities. In any case this same selection is offered while performing the reservation and the latest selection is reported in the settings.

Comments

In Arrivo HD 7.4 submitted

IMG_0135
After a month of work the quite revolutionary new version 7.4 of In Arrivo HD has been completed and submitted to Apple. Here is the quite impressive change-log:

Restyling of the app.
Total revamping of the iPad experience.
Improved localizations for the notifications.
Upon clicking the accessory button of the teleport table is now possible to center the map on the relative location, while touching the cell allows to name and describe it.
The current or teleport location is reported on the screen for ease of reference.
The in app teleport portals may now be shared with other users (iOS7.0+ only).
Even users without the Teleport add-on may see and use portals from other users (iOS7.0+ only).
The taxi annotation reflects again the status of its availability.
Upon sharing a path or completing a taxi ride is possible to share the event on Facebook and Twitter. In the latter case it is also possible to save the taxi among the favorites and/or rate the app.
Faster delivery of directions.
New teasing notifications when reaching or leaving Rome (iOS7.0+ only).
The waiting times table is immediately loaded also upon opening it from the near stops table.
A randomly occurring crash has been fixed.
It is now possible to choose the preferred access of the bus information through the remote common cache instead of directly from the third party back-office in the preferences, so to streamline some desultory information especially in Rome and somewhat accelerate the access (beta).
The settings now also include the possibility of tuning the refresh rate of the stops respect to the fluidity of the app. The lower the value the more responsive the screen but staler the waiting times.
Comments

New version of Taxi professional approved

I have the pleasure to inform the taxi guests of this blog that new major version 4 of Taxi Professional has been approved and is now ready for the free update for all its users. Here is the change log:

  • New Apple turn-by-turn library adopted instead of the old third party one for a better reliability and efficiency in the drawing of paths.
  • Now the booking notifications include the address of the user requesting the service and, if the user decides so, also the destination so to the able to be informed without taking your hands out of the wheel.
  • If present, the foreseen destination is entered as the default.
  • 64 bits support.
  • Full iOS 7.2 support including the return of the disabled icon in the alerts.
  • The controller lever slides bottom way while driving for establishing an added security level.
  • The annotation of the booking user now correctly follows the actual position of the user even after the booking phase.
  • A label reports the current speed of the vehicle.
  • The position of the taxi is now updated even while the app is in background.

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Updates on the oncoming new release of In Arrivo HD

Some updates on the oncoming release of In Arrivo HD to be possibly submitted during the course of the week.
First of all, the focus of the new release is the improvement of the teleport add-on and of the iPad version.
For the former aspect, the architecture has been totally restructured by moving the storing of the portals from the internal memory to the back office. This allows to handle more data on one side - in fact portals can also have a name and description in addition to the address -, but on the other side it allows to give the feature a social aspect. In fact now portals from other users are also shown, if published, and even users not possessing the teleport add-on my trek through other users’ portals, that, in a way, may turn to way-points.
The iPad exploit is a consequence of a long standing bug on the part of Apple regarding the navigation in the master controller using Auto Layout. Tired of waiting, after a year of receiving no solution from Apple, I decided to get rid of the master controller and present all new views as pop-ups. In a sense that better captures the spirit of the navigation by exploding the annotations being clicked. Perhaps the only disturbing aspect is the tab controller hosting the near stations and the add-ons. I will see in the next version if I may keep at least it in the master controller. For the time being it also appears as a pop-up.
The focus on the add-ons and the iPad does not exclude other important improvements, though. The remote cache is in fact now available as an option in beta to be selected in the settings. That should streamline some funny behaviors of the original waiting times often jumping stops and in general not presenting an integrated experience. The remote cache, by projecting the waiting times forward and backward should at least assure that the next stop has one stop more of waiting and so on. Testing, though, is a nearly impossible endeavor, so use it with caution and possibly report me if you find it working better or worse than the original source.
Moreover directions are now faster in their calculation, thanks to the geo-referencing in advance of the local address, also shown on the bottom. Should a portal be active, the address of the portal is shown underlined. In order to return home it is enough to click it.
Also the new version uses a feature introduced in iOS 7 to handle communication even while in background. This will allow to keep one’s position on the right location even at all times, sort of what happens with the Apple’s “Find my friends” app.
A new feature has also been added to welcome and say farewell to users when they arrive and leave Rome. You will discover it by yourself. Even the other notifications are being improved by means of the silent new features allowing to translate them on the iPhone so allowing to include more characters, even in non-latin alphabets.
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Taxi professional submitted once more

content-iconsThe new version of Taxi Professional has been submitted to Apple hopefully for the definitive time. In fact the reviewers became very picky with the naming of the in App features, forcing me to change the subscription packet to adopt the relatively new non renewable subscriptions. Luckily the process results much more seamless than I feared and even the MkStore from Mugunth Kumar held water quite well and so the new release might be on the final track. Taking advantage of the new chance, I also introduced a new service provided by iOS 7 allowing the taxi to be localized even while the app is in background.
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Now Online available the recharge for one's on Metrub card

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In the optic of a better service for the natives and visitors to the Eternal city, Metrebus has recently offered the possibility of renewing one’s card on their web portal comfortably in collaboration with Unicredit on one’s own computer, tablet or smartphone, possibly following the important open services also benefitting In Arrivo, and the several vertical initiatives set up. To do so it is enough to connect to their web page and follow the simple directives.
http://www.atac.roma.it/page.asp?p=224&i=14
The renewal is also possible at the Unicredit teller machine and of course at usual Metrebus locations.
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New share-spare.com domain

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I have the pleasure to inform the guests of the blog and of the fan pages that Share & Spare has now its own web domain also hosted by Crissic in a Virtual Domain. Now you may easily access it at address: http://www.share-spare.com.
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Blog subscription

The subscription to the Blog is now even easier by way of the form both in the blog page and in the home of the site, allowing you to daily receive in your mail box the collection of posts about Rome and your favorite app for traveling in this beautiful city.

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner


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New blog site

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We welcome you to the new blog server, now easily reachable at address: blog.inarrivo.net in addition to the feed page handled by Google at the usual address http://feeds.feedburner.com/inarrivo/feeduk and of course directly in your email box by subscribing to the feed.
The page of the blog is of course seamlessly integrated in the in Arrivo Suite web site at large.
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New version 3.3 of Taxi Professional submitted

We have the pleasure to inform the taxi drivers hosts to this blog and fan pages that the new 7.3 version of Taxi Professional has been submitted to Apple for approval. Here follows the changelog:



  • New Apple turn-by-turn library adopted instead of the old third party one for a better reliability and efficiency in the drawing of paths. 
  • Now the booking notifications include the address of the user requesting the service and, if the user decides so, also the destination so to the able to be informed without taking your hands out of the wheel.
  • If present, the foreseen destination is entered as the default. 
  • 64 bits support. 
  • Full iOS 7.2 support including the return of the disabled icon in the alerts.
  • The controller lever slides bottom why while driving for establishing an added security level.
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Server restored

I have the pleasure to inform you the back office service has been promptly restored as announced.
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Crissic supportd backoffice down

Unfortunately Crissic experiences a downtime as in the following information also unfortunately affecting the back office for the in Arrivo suite back office. We hope the service will be back soon.

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Emergency Maintenance 04/11
 
Services may be disrupted today for up to an hour to perform emergency maintenance on some of our hardware. We will be performing emergency maintenance on our OpenVZ nodes starting at 1PM Central time, and expect each server to be offline for no more than 1 hour (in most cases, less). We anticipate completion of all maintenance no later than 8PM central time. This maintenance is preventative maintenance relating to heat concerns, and again we anticipate each server to be offline for no more than 1 hour.
This emergency maintenance is purely related to heat concerns on select CPU units, and is NOT related to hard disks, raid cards, or anything that would result in data loss. KVM Services are NOT impacted by this maintenance. We thank you for your patience and understanding, and apologize for any inconvenience caused. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please do not hesitate to submit a support ticket to our help desk.
 
Crissic Solutions LLC
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The new 1.4 release of Share & Spare

The new 1.4 version of Share & Spare has been approved and release by Apple today. As anticipated this release introduces many of the new features gradually entered the main apps including the new Apple routes, the better communication with the taxi drivers and the support for the new Apple architectures. Still free, still social and useful in the whole world. No reason not to try it out now!
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Share & Spare is catching up

After some time even the minor version of the suite Share & Spare has receive its seasonal lift. Actually perhaps more than that as also the free app has eschewed the google support for the routes, with the exception of the sharing ones, and adapted to 64 bits. This is the quite conspicuous changelog:
  • Upon booking a taxi, is now possible to inform the driver beforehand about the expected destination and to share the path with other users to look for company.
  • The route to the destination of a taxi ride is now drawn on the user's map upon boarding the taxi to keep her posted on possible departures from the planned route and be thereafter able to ask the driver for clarifications.
  • The paths are now calculated by means of the new Apple turn-by-turn library instead of the past third party one for a better resilience and efficiency.
  • Full iOS 7.1 support.
  • 64 bits support.
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Transfer to Aruba successful

arubaI have the pleasure to inform the guests of this site and the users of the app that the transfer of the site to Aruba has been performed with success. SO we are all ready for a new wake of updates most probably fist affecting the app for our taxi fellow driver users of the sister app Taxi Professional.
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Abrupt problems in the hosting web server by Register

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The Register.it web server, part of the Dada group, previously hosting the In Arrivo HD web site is apparently unable to serve it as it is due. In particular due to some unacknowledged measures on their part, the pages took forever to load apparently trying to repeatedly reload the same contents. How might it be possible is open to debate, yet upon moving the content elsewhere everything returned in order.
So we decided to temporarily move the site you are currently on to the taxi professional server to immediately return the users to the expected experience part of the missione of the In Arrivo suite as well as to give some time to Register to study the case and possibly come out with a solution.
aruba
Should not any such solution come out, we are going to move the server to a competing server, most probably Aruba already hosting the Virtual Tags web site, after the due tests. As a consequence of the policies of the new provider not allowing to store contents before the reallocation of the domain, there will probably be some downtimes that we hope to reduce to the minimum.

The back-office for the apps is safely handled by other servers and so this will not affect the functionalities of the suite.
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Why Facebook has probably jumped the gun with the fan pages

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Facebook is incrementally trying to elicit more money from its user base. This is fine and natural for a business entity. So it started free, than it had groups, than fan pages and so on. At those times everyone was born equal, each message, either coming from one’s own friends, groups or Fan Pages appeared on one’s wall. So Facebook easily persuaded enterprises to collect users in their pages so that they could be kept up to date to what they were doing. Perhaps letting them think that upon paying Facebook to get them, they would be theirs as if they had joined a newsletter. Right? WRONG!
Step by step Facebook started to devalue this asset, first by not allowing the owner to send email to them, then to even not allowing her to know the identities  of the subscribers so that to reach them you had to pay Facebook again! That would have looked enough to normal, I would not say Arian, people, not to risk to be considered racist instead of discriminated.
Instead what 
Mr. Zuckerberg took out of his hat? Messages from the Fan pages no longer show on the subscribers’ walls!
Basically you have expensively acquired users hoping to easily reach them and instead now they turn into generic users, perhaps just a little profiled from the fact they already joined the page before, 
if ever they remind it!
All in all there is no longer any meaning in attracting users to a Fan Page, as incrementally enterprises are starting to discover. Possibly in this way exhausting one of the main revenue bases for Mr. Zuckerberg, also currently going easily shopping around. The feeling is one of Doom and Gloom, but we will see.

In the meantime I thought wise to open this blog and forget the Facebook page, but for being a repository, along with twitter, of the contents of this blog. And I hope you will also appreciated this decision.
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Exceptional discounts in the suite!

In order to welcome international users interested to Rome coming by iPhoneLife and PrWeb, the InArrivo suite is currently offered at sale conditions.In Arrivo express has its price one tag lower, while In arrivo Hd is exceptionally sold at less than 2 dollars for a limited time. Do not miss this chance to have your gateway to Rome nearly for free!
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In Arrivo HD on the iPhoneLife magazine

iphonelife_logo_smallThe in Arrivo HD space in the May-June issue of iPhoneLife dedicated to holidays and travels in the section about Rome.iPhoneLifeMay14
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The new Press Release on PRWeb

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I have the pleasure to inform that the new Press Release by Ben Lloyd has been also published and distributed by PRWeb. The publication is available upon clicking on the following link:
In Arrivo HD 7.3 Offers New Technologies to Enhance the Experience of the International Travellers to Rome
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Taxis may be vocally notified of incoming reservation

Spoken notifications can come in handy to taxi drivers while on their car to allow them to keep their hands on the wheel at all times.  No need either to actually get distracted from your driving to look at the screen and read the reservation notifications you just received. All you need to do is listen. Here is how to set it up.

Enable the VoiceOver Accessibility setting
The iOS setting that you need to enable is actually an accessibility feature called VoiceOver.  This feature can be used to read all aspects of the screen using Siri’s voice, including notifications that pop up on the screen.  The following steps will also allow you to easily turn on and off the VoiceOver setting, as it may not be a feature that you want enabled all of the time.
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  • Open the Settings App and navigate to the Accessibility setting located within the General settings.
  • Select the VoiceOver settings located at the top of the list, but do not turn it on just yet. Instead scroll down to the bottom of the VoiceOver settings and turn on Speak Notifications.
  • Navigate back to the list of all Accessibility settings and scroll down to the bottom of the list.
  • Set the Triple-click Home Button setting to turn on VoiceOver and exit out of the Settings app.
That’s it.  Now every time the Home button is triple-clicked, the device will enter into VoiceOver mode.  Once in VoiceOver mode, Siri’s voice will read aloud all of the information on the screen, including notifications. To turn off VoiceOver, simply triple-click the Home button again.
Since the latest development you will also be read the location of the reserving user and the intended destination, if provided.
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Why the only competitor of Taxi Professional may be Uber: an answer to a comment

I 'spiritually' believe more in competition than in cartels. The Taxi Professional option is to allow taxi drivers to keep different applications on their devices without paying a dime for it nor leave their credit card or other. Then they might decide which one brings about more clients and possibly dump the rest.
In fact Taxi Professional is not a dumb client-service app like Uber and the nearly total number of other taxi reservations apps. In fact the client apps in the suite:
 In Arrivo HDin Arrivo Express & Share & Spare offer much more than reserving taxis! In the last case it primarily offers the possibility of sharing walking, car and taxi trips with other users, in addition to reserving taxis; as for the other apps they are also routinely used in Rome and Milan - and progressively elsewhere when local transit companies offer the needed apis -  for checking the waiting times for the buses and nearby stops, and to know how to reach a location by public service and much more, again in addition to reserving taxis.

My opinion is in fact that 
no dumb client-server app may beat Uber, and its big pockets, also holding the Google's money. Users do not simply open their apps without being remembered of doing it, and in fact Uber routinely appears in magazines, VIPs' reports and elsewhere!

As said 
Taxi Professional is different, because users would not need to start the app just to reserve a taxi.

Il 29/03/2014 19:59, Palm Beach Taxi ha scritto:
Hello!
GETRIDE has a new approach to the APP market.Instead of having an UBER corner drivers and worldwide dispatch they are working on a new model of partnering with all drivers from all cities (where UBER is only looking at big ticket markets and taking away individual company identity by in effect creating an omnipotent UBER FLEET.)
not good for anyone. 

Just as GETRIDE has the vision to join small operators in all markets to provide great seamless service...maybe app providers in different markets can form a partnership as well.

No one can do it all. That's why partnering small companies and global regional app providers will win this horserace.
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The new Press Release by Ben Lloyd

In Arrivo HD 7.3 Offers New Technologies to Enhance the Experience of the International Travellers to Rome


Rome’s top public transport app now provides even more information to travellers in the Eternal City, faster than ever before.

To better aid tourists and travellers
[...]
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The 7.3 release of the In Arrivo HD app

I would like to inform the users of the main In Arrivo HD app that the long coveted 7.3 version of the app has been released and it’s now available for the free update by its user and for the direct purchase by new appreciators. As long said, the new version eschew the Google support for the calculation of paths, by taking advantage of the new turn-by-turn Apple library and uses the new support for providing two new interesting features:
  • The walking path to the closest stop for a searched bus
  • The taxi route that should be threaded by the taxi to reach the intended destination
Moreover it overcomes two “freezing” points:
  • The app no longer freezes while loading a high number of waiting times
  • The stops in the cache no longer stack in the center of the screen when starting the app

All of this leads to a much relaxed experience and we are happy to have attained this result.
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The 3.4.1 release of in Arrivo Express

I would like to inform the users of the In Arrivo Express app that the new 3.4.1 version has been approved and is ready for the upgrade. That is the first release taking advantage of the new turn by turn support for a faster loading of the paths and informing the taxi drivers about the expected destination.
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Being informed about bus arrivals while keeping your iPhone in the pocket

Today I would like to talk about a little gem of the In Arrivo HD app that probably did not attract the interest it deserved.
Waiting times with triggers
Basically, what is the main hinderance of the waiting times mobile web sites, mobile apps or even notes on a piece of paper?
Of course that you have to take them out of your pocket, start, or unfold it, and find your information. What makes sometimes easier to get to the stop and hope for the digital banner to be present and working, especially when carrying bags or wearing gloves

This pushed us to develop this little tool that aims at solving the problem.

Basically when you open the application and find that a bus is not arriving, you may trigger an agent that notifies you when the bus is arriving, even allowing you to specify how much in advance to be notified!

To do that, you just push the bell button and follow the easy instructions. Then you may just put your iDevice in your pocket, wear again your gloves, or pick the bags, and wait for the notification. Perhaps while sipping a coffee in a bar nearby...

If you own the Time Machine extension, you my even trigger a notification for a future time. Perhaps you want to be notified when a bus arrives in the evening when leaving the office so not to be forced to wait in the street and lose time for your work, or have an excuse for quitting a boring meeting without lying.

Of course the service may be extended in several direction and I am eager to receive your suggestions and encouragements to do that. Perhaps recurring notifications? A control panel? Go on, be wild!


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Why In Arrivo will be faster

Waiting for the release by Apple of the new version, I would like to talk a bit about the technologies that allows it to be much faster than the previous versions.

New Apis


The first one, already introduced in the 7.0 version, takes advantage of the new apis provided by Agenzia Roma Servizi per la Mobilità to offer waiting time and transit routes without the need to download and scrape complex html pages as done previously both by In Arrivo and the competing apps. In order to do it a set of Python scripts have been developed according to the suggestions by the provider to offer services to the legacy PHP scripts exporting the information to the apps.

Apple turn-by-turn


The latter breakthrough was due to the introduction on the part of Apple of a new MKDirection library. This allows to find path directly from inside the app without the need of contacting the Google services by means of remote scripts. This allows a much quicker feedback and freedom for possible limitations on the part of Google.

IOS 6.1 support


Finally this result was attained by means of a twist. Basically Apple has silently introduced CALayers in its views and executes a callback to layoutSublayersOfLayer on specific views like the stops. Strangely this call happens even when executing the code on a iOS 6.1 device while the function in the MKAnnotationView is missing with the result the app crashes. The solution was to conditionally provide that in the case of iOS 6.1 does nothing but at least does not crash the app.
Unfortunately the previous technology is not available for iOS 6.1 and no backward compatibility is foreseen. Consequently paths no longer appear on older devices without anyway impairing in any way the correct working of the app.

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La Grande Bellezza

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Most worldwide movie enthusiasts, and possibly some less so, should have seen the Oscar winning Sorrentino's movie by now. Possibly each one providing one’s own interpretation.
Most of them most probably stemming from one’s own experience.
Someone saw it as a depiction of the decadence of Italy, quite paradoxically that though.
Other people saw it like a sign of the magnificence of Rome, paradoxically too, given that was not the first recent movie to retract Rome in the twilight: just a few years ago Woody Allen's To Rome with Love pursued that purpose proper.
Then again someone might have interpreted it as a critique of spiritual practice and at the same time of the not-so spiritual practice.
Yet we have that hyperbolic title hinting to something that is not part of the movie; all filmed beauties may not be surely classified as a Great Beauty, each entity apparently missing something to be perfect. So the rich misses a diary, the priest the center of the stage, the star people their youth and finally even the wise nun misses the reason why Jep Gambardella did not write one more book.
The public is engulfed in this sense of lack, possibly lacking something from each character: what was that book about? What was written in the diary Jep was looking for? What sort of powers the priest had? What impressed so much the nun about Jep? Why Ramona dies so quietly? And so on.
Yet he is also in some way reassured by the awareness that if he even knew these things nothing would change about its situation. All ways out seem in fact barren, you cannot move, nor you can stand.
But again even this view is wrong as anyone going through Rome in spring may discover, possibly drinking a coffee or eating a delicious ice cream.
So what may we finally get?
Possibly the fact that each beauty is big if we do not want to make it bigger!
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New 7.3 update

I have the pleasure of informing the users and appreciators of the in Arrivo HD app that the new 7.3 version has been submitted to Apple for approval with a particularly wide number of improvements: this is the official change log:


  • The app is more responsive even in areas with many stops on older devices.
  • The metro stations with more lines correctly show the different timetables by swiping.
  • Upon booking a taxi, is now possible to inform the driver beforehand about the expected destination and to share the path with other users to look for company.
  • The route to the destination of a taxi ride is now drawn on the user's map upon boarding the taxi to keep her posted on possible departures from the planned route and be thereafter able to ask the driver for clarifications.
  • The app does not crash any longer by rating it from the waiting times table.
  • The paths are now calculated by means of the new Apple turn-by-turn library instead of the google ones for a better resilience and efficiency.
  • By selecting a stop from the nearest stops table, the path to reach it is shown on the map.
  • Fixed a bug that locked the app when starting it from afresh with a busy cache.
  • The app does not crash any longer on system 6.1.
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Path calculation performed from inside the app

The new important 7.3 version of In Arrivo HD shall calculate route directly from inside the app thanks to the new Apple library so eschewing the need to resort to their party entities for the benefit of resilience and efficiency. This together with a host of improvements and new feature packet in a soon to be released version.
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Google got nasty with developers

We have to report Google got apparently nasty with users taking advantage of their geocoding services. Consequently most path drawings in the apps got affected. We are moving the support to Bing and, where possible, get the information from the new bus information back office to try and ease the problem.
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Oncoming advertisment on the summer issue of iPhone Life

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I have the pleasure to incept the international version of the in Arrivo HD blog with an announcement about the oncoming presentation of a spot on the summer issue of the iPhone life magazine here displayed as a preview
inarrivo-1-4th_03
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