More phonery

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20-11-2009, 15:35
Conrad

More phonery

Sorry about the home page delays.

This week I have been repairing some security bits in the guts of the Pub Website, whilst investigating some issues Hopwas was having I found some code that needed repairing. Also I have been fiddling with a mobile phone app. For those who want a technical breakdown of it, I have done one on my blog.

If you have an iPhone, or an Android based phone then you should download the application Layar, it is part of a new buzzword in applications called Augmented Reality. Augmented Reality is where the camera is switched on and you see the output on the screen with additional information. Using the information we already have for the Google Maps I have created a layer to be shown through the Layar application.

To be honest it is a bit of a gimmick but a fun one. We are taking into account whether the pub has its map point corrected on our site, so it makes all those corrections that people have made doubly useful. I am planning to get Dave to set some time aside and correct all of Bristol.

To the publicans we have looking at this it is worth checking that the map point is accurate for their pub.

Anyway some screen shots.

Me using Augmented Reality to find the Bunch of Grapes (I am sure you can see how useful it really is ;)), the other points are pubs on the other side of the buildings
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_K6gvSlCJxP...0/IMG_0015.PNG

A map view showing local pubs from a nearby location:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_K6gvSlCJxP...0/IMG_0016.PNG

The list of nearby pubs from the same location:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_K6gvSlCJxP...0/IMG_0017.PNG

A quick PG tip
For those correcting map points, once I have clicked on the link to correct a map point I tend to click on the Satellite view, then zoom in a bit so that I can try and spot either the pub garden or the smokers table out front, and then just plonk the point in the middle of the pub.
20-11-2009, 15:42
Farway

Quote:

Originally Posted by Conrad

A quick PG tip
For those correcting map points, once I have clicked on the link to correct a map point I tend to click on the Satellite view, then zoom in a bit so that I can try and spot either the pub garden or the smokers table out front, and then just plonk the point in the middle of the pub.

OMG, you just could not resist the PG Tips suggestion could you? :eek:
20-11-2009, 15:46
Conrad

No, it was another excellent Ed suggestion :D

I am already a self confessed Tea addict, although PG is the Fosters of the tea world.
20-11-2009, 15:50
hopwas

Iam in pure wonderment... :eek: Looks really classy and very useful tool.

What a superb apps you got there! Pity my phone doesnt support it. Arggghhh!! :moremad:

I'll stick with "old" PG.. At least I do have Google Street View on my phone anyway!
20-11-2009, 15:51
oldboots

My techy self is salivating but I'm still not getting an iPhone.

Taylors Yorkshire Tea is the Timothy Taylors Landlord of the tea world :D
20-11-2009, 16:00
Conrad

It is a fun app, and was really easy to do this on the back of the Google Maps work, certainly no excuse to buy an iPhone or Android though.

What is very nice is it is all free, the Layar writers let phone users install for free, and they let us publish the layer for free. At some point in the future I am guessing they will charge us to display the layer and that won't be so great for us.

There is the potential for us to monetise it a little though, what I haven't shown in those shots is that when you select a pub you get some options, for the moment we have got 'View Pub on Pubs Galore'. It is possible to put 'view official Pub Site' and 'Phone Pub' though. Whilst I don't think either will earn pubs appreciable traffic, I think it is a good thing to offer them and fun for them to have in their marketing - a talking point.
20-11-2009, 17:30
PaulOfHorsham

Quote:

Originally Posted by Conrad

For those correcting map points, once I have clicked on the link to correct a map point I tend to click on the Satellite view, then zoom in a bit so that I can try and spot either the pub garden or the smokers table out front, and then just plonk the point in the middle of the pub.

Blimey! Never thought of that! I'm learning all the time. For instance, yesterday, I learned that a rolling the mouse over a pub name shows the pub on the area map in the town listing (as long as you check "Show map points"). Obviously, you all found that out long ago, but I'm set in my ways :confused:.

Back to the first point, and I can already see that I ought to shift the lollipop for the pub I added yesterday! And that probably also explains the microscopic shift in the location of The Lively Lady.
20-11-2009, 18:24
Conrad

Quote:

Originally Posted by PaulOfHorsham

Blimey! Never thought of that! I'm learning all the time. For instance, yesterday, I learned that a rolling the mouse over a pub name shows the pub on the area map in the town listing (as long as you check "Show map points"). Obviously, you all found that out long ago, but I'm set in my ways :confused:.

Back to the first point, and I can already see that I ought to shift the lollipop for the pub I added yesterday! And that probably also explains the microscopic shift in the location of The Lively Lady.

To be fair I doubt many users of the site know about the Show map points feature. This site needs instructions. As a developer the target is to make it so obvious that people just know how things work, I fail frequently in that target. Hopefully it makes it fun when people find it though :). Soup was surprised to discover you could drag the maps around on the pub pages, which is another thing I need to make more obvious at some point.

That Lively Lady correction was a little pedantic I must admit, we do accept them if it makes it more accurate, and I can try and justify it with a wacky iPhone App now.

Edit: Just realised that all of this rather implies that Ed's idea of a PG tip was actually a very good one, 3 potential tips already on this page that could just be randomly show on the front page. Could do with some on using the Forum as well
20-11-2009, 19:23
hopwas

Iam starting to regret for not buying iphone instead of my current mobile..:(
20-11-2009, 20:04
Eddie86

I'll tell you what, we'll drop the free RAIAB for every review if you just send me one for every tip that gets sent through :D

Sadly my trendy phone is Windows Mobile based, and so this is, to be blunt and only slightly polite, completely pointless for me :D

Still interested in those additional features if your interested in a test dummy?
20-11-2009, 20:07
Soup Dragon

Now i know why i am a historian - what is all this?:muppet:
20-11-2009, 21:02
Conrad

Quote:

Originally Posted by hopwas

Iam starting to regret for not buying iphone instead of my current mobile..:(

I think they are ridiculously expensive posing devices. That being said it is probably the lovliest piece of tech I have played with and is providing me with no end of amusement playing with all the apps. I am still firmly of the opinion that all iPhone users are w**kers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eddie86

Sadly my trendy phone is Windows Mobile based, and so this is, to be blunt and only slightly polite, completely pointless for me :D

Still interested in those additional features if your interested in a test dummy?

Ahhhh, but it is not for you Ed, it is for your potential customers!;) More realistically it is just a gimmick like much of the web at the moment (how are you getting on with Google Wave?) In this case though it is a quite fun one, watching all the pubs be displayed on the screen and all the information changing as you move around is surprisingly good if useless fun. All that being said, if phones get much more powerful, this could become a way of using our web site whilst visiting the pubs, at which point this suddenly becomes a bit more of something to worry about. We are as ever monitoring the usage of the app, we can see what areas people are requesting information for, and it should be intriguing. And we would love to use you as a test case when we start thinking about enhancing all this, assuming you are up for it at that point.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soup Dragon

Now i know why i am a historian - what is all this?

THE FUTURE ;)

Ok, the images in my first post are all screen grabs from my iPhone.

The first is taken with me facing The Bunch of Grapes pub using the application in 'Augmented Reality' mode. So you can see the pub in the middle as I could see it, the blurry radar disc at the top shows the nearest 50 pubs to my position, as I am in central Bristol it was getting a little overloaded and they are all near the center. The blobs towards the bottom of the image are indicators of pubs somewhere ahead of me, and the highlighted blob is the Bunch of Grapes pub for which we are showing additional information at the bottom. Frankily this is just the thing being a bit posey and showing off what it can do, and is pretty much no bl**dy use whatsoever as far as I can see.

Second image is taken from the map screen and is like our Google maps, except it is taken from the phone automatically working out where I am standing then getting a list of the pubs from Pubs Galore, you can touch any of the pubs and get more information.

Third Image is a list of pubs in order of distance from me that is scrollable, again all information from Pubs Galore. From any of the points in this you can visit the Pubs Galore page for the pub all using the phone. In future we could make it so that you could then phone the pubs, which could be useful if you are in a town and trying to find the nearest inn/hotel with rooms.

As I say at the moment it is mostly just poser value I think, but I think things are going to evolve that way, and it is another thing to promote the PG site on.
16-12-2009, 16:54
bzylzy

We never drink any other Tea but Yorkshire and I always take their Teabags with me on holiday,comes in handy when in the Caribbean when there is no beer as such!!
16-12-2009, 17:40
Conrad

There is no way I am going to try and come up with a site whose acronym is Y.O.R.K.S.H.I.R.E.

I hope you took the tins of baked beans as well!
10-06-2011, 20:49
Strongers

I've just downloaded layar and the pubsgalore bit looks really useful.
10-06-2011, 21:45
Strongers

Did I say 'really useful'? I meant fantastic!!!
10-06-2011, 21:53
Conrad

It hasn't proved very popular so we haven't really updated it, but I was thoroughly impressed with it.

Maybe we should revisit it at some point and see if we could tie it more tightly into the site.
10-06-2011, 22:44
Strongers

Maybe this site should plug it a bit more. I see that the best guesses are greyed out - which leads me to ask if we should be locating pubs even if they are in the correct position by default?

Also, if you do decide to revisit it maybe the blurb before launching could be a little more enticing. I think that mentioning corrections in the advertisement is probably not the best way to go. I'm sure a few of the wordsmiths on here could lend a hand!
12-06-2011, 09:28
gillhalfpint

Probably nothing to do with this, bur we have new HTC Wildfire phones, and I wondered if there was a shortcut or app of any sort to get pubs galore site quickly. Took ages in St Austell yesterday trying to locate the pubs and maps by starting from google to get the site, then move on from there to find what I wanted.
12-06-2011, 11:15
Strongers

Quote:

Originally Posted by gillhalfpint

Probably nothing to do with this, bur we have new HTC Wildfire phones, and I wondered if there was a shortcut or app of any sort to get pubs galore site quickly. Took ages in St Austell yesterday trying to locate the pubs and maps by starting from google to get the site, then move on from there to find what I wanted.

This is what pubsgalore does on the layar app. All the pubs in the local area are displayed and there is a quick link to this site.
12-06-2011, 13:38
Conrad

Quote:

Originally Posted by Strongers

Maybe this site should plug it a bit more. I see that the best guesses are greyed out - which leads me to ask if we should be locating pubs even if they are in the correct position by default?

Also, if you do decide to revisit it maybe the blurb before launching could be a little more enticing. I think that mentioning corrections in the advertisement is probably not the best way to go. I'm sure a few of the wordsmiths on here could lend a hand!

I will try and remember to have a look at the blurb. I really should check out the app in general to see what new options we have. We probably could plug it on the site better, but the best place would be the maps page, which is not currently being changed to avoid any feck ups.

As to the corrections, it is definitely worth correcting correct pubs, although you may wish to wait until I set up the summary page to show if the map point is correct, it is one of those things the original version of the page did and got lost when we upgraded it, I will try and get it back in at some point this week.
24-11-2011, 13:46
Quinno

Quote:

Originally Posted by Conrad

I will try and remember to have a look at the blurb. I really should check out the app in general to see what new options we have. We probably could plug it on the site better, but the best place would be the maps page, which is not currently being changed to avoid any feck ups.

As to the corrections, it is definitely worth correcting correct pubs, although you may wish to wait until I set up the summary page to show if the map point is correct, it is one of those things the original version of the page did and got lost when we upgraded it, I will try and get it back in at some point this week.

I was playing with this last night - liked it :)

I had the same question as posed by Stringers, shall I adjust (however minutely0 all the 'best guess' pubs, even if they are pretty much spot-on already? Won't take me long to do Reading...but might take you a while to approve them all??
24-11-2011, 15:08
Galore Admin

If they are best guess we don't have to approve them. It only goes through an approval cycle if you move them dramatically or correct a correction.
24-11-2011, 20:08
Andy Ven

I take it this won't work with a crappy Blackberry ?
24-11-2011, 22:16
Galore Admin

Nope just android and iPhone so far, some rumours of Windows Mobile getting it (as in Microsoft have said they will), but not yet.
30-11-2011, 11:54
Quinno

Quote:

Originally Posted by Galore Admin

If they are best guess we don't have to approve them. It only goes through an approval cycle if you move them dramatically or correct a correction.

You might see a few of these coming through today then :)