AMES, Iowa - iPhone owners no longer have to worry about carrying around CyRide maps or memorizing bus schedules, thanks to Jonathan Salvador, an Iowa State senior majoring in software engineering. Salvador recently released the CyRide application, which allows iPhone users to check bus schedules and access the transit system's Twitter feed in seconds.
Salvador began work on the application during a project for an electrical and computer engineering senior design class (EE/CprE/SE 491/492). The goal of the assignment was to create an app for engineering students that allowed access to various online campus resources.
"One of my responsibilities on the project was to allow
students to
view the CyRide bus schedule. I made a prototype and found that
it was useful," said Salvador. "I started feeling
impatient having to wait until the end of the semester to
release it with the engineering app, so I decided to release it
myself as a standalone app."
With more than 150,000 active applications available on the iTunes store, it can be hard for developers to stand out, but Salvador believes there is still plenty of potential.
"The market for apps that perform trivial tasks is certainly saturated, but there's still a lot of app space to cover. The best advice I could offer for developers would be to walk around with your mobile device and pay attention to any second you have the thought, 'Would this be easier or faster on my iPhone?'" said Salvador.
The engineering application that started the CyRide app will be available on the iTunes store by summer.
The CyRide app can be downloaded at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cyride/id355285386?mt=8, and is compatible with the iPhone, iPod touch and the soon-to-be-released iPad.
