MTA App Quest Hackathon Recap

Wow, what an amazing hackathon! There were great apps built this weekend; I am very impressed with what was built. These developers only had 24 hours to build their apps and have something ready to show off. Congratulations to the first, second, and third place prize winners; SubCulture.Fm, MTA Sheriff, and ACCESSWAY. These apps will truly impact the New York City's mass transit in a bright way. Check out below for a quick summary of what's cooking in the app division of NYC public transit.

SubCulture.Fm is an iOS app that allows you to interact with subway musicians. The app mostly works through QR codes. Each artist would have a QR code that the user would scan. This would give the user information about the artist; such as social media, albums and songs, etc. You can share information about the musician using Facebook or Twitter. The app also allows you to track nearby musicians, and even where your favorite musician will be playing. SubCulture.Fm won first place at the hackathon.

MTA Sheriff is a quick and easy gamified way to report issues within the MTA's system. As you report more issues, your character upgrades until you become the "MTA Sheriff".

ACCESSWAY is an iOS way-finding app to help visually-impaired or wheelchair-assisted New Yorkers find their way in the NYC Subway. It allows you to track elevator and exit status. The app currently looks pretty good, but should try and implement real time status updates.

Fiber in Vermont?

The idea of having rural Vermont be laid with fiber internet lines before large metropolises seems crazy, but not to Vermont Telephone Company. The company is currently offering fiber-to-the-home to only a few counties, but has aspirations to expand. VTel currently offers fiber connections for $35 per month, which slashes Google Fiber's cheapest plan in half. I wonder whether this pricing is sustainable, even though the general price of fiber is lowering. This exemplifies that fiber is starting to be rolled out all over the US, even in the most remote places.

The Aereo Battle Intensifies

News Corporation is getting serious in its struggle to get Aereo offline; it's considering taking the signal from Fox off the air. All of the major broadcasters are peeved at Aereo. The small startup has found a small legal way to broadcast television live from over-the-air signals. This loophole in the copyright law permits Aereo to stream. However, the TV conglomerates are annoyed that Aereo, and anyone really could have, actually noticed this loophole, and took advantage of it. Fox is threatening to cut its over the air signal if Aereo doesn't shut down. And trust me, Aereo is not shutting down because big News Corp. is scared of a little startup. It's quite surprising that News Corp. is actually even putting that possibility on the table. You would think that News Corporation, one of the biggest media giants in the US, would not be threatening to shut down one of its services. Many people take advantage of over-the-air signals. Aereo just got lucky and found a good business model. News Corp. should really only be mad at itself, not at Aereo. I'm going to keep following the story, as I'm interested to see how it plays out.

Vdio and Rdio: The iTunes of the Internet?

Everyone knows and loves iTunes. But, there is one company that is aiming to change that. Titled Rdio, an alternate spelling of radio; the company now has an online music and video service. The music service, Rdio, is an unlimited music plan and charges by what devices you use. This price model has definitely earned its share of media attention. The new video service, just launched today, Vdio, is definitely now a competitor to iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, and similar services. Vdio has the same price model as all other services: charge users by per episode. But what Vdio different, is the fact that it is web and mobile based. Consumers can watch their TV episodes and movies via their web browsers, not just using an app (i.e. iTunes) on their computers. Also, Vdio has launched an app for iPad, but I think I can make a safe assumption that they are doing quickly to get apps rolled out for iPhone, Android, and maybe even Blackberry and Windows Phone. An additional feature is that you can use your Rdio login for Vdio too. No more managing different media passwords. I think that Vdio was a wise decision. The idea of a closed system for both your music and TV episodes/movies seems intriguing. I do think that Vdio will eat up some market share, but it will be real adjustment for customers. If you are a Rdio unlimited subscriber, you can get a $25 credit. Just check your email, and you should have gotten an invitation from Rdio. All the rest of you will have to wait before you can get a peek at Vdio. They are signing people up for the public release, just take a visit over to their website, Vdio.com and click on "Get Notified". As Vdio says, "Enjoy the show!"