TMCnet News
iPhone app offers the lowdown on downtown Long BeachLONG BEACH, Jun 01, 2010 (Press-Telegram - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Need to report vandalism, search for parking or find out what's going on this week downtown? Now there's an iPhone app for all of that. The Downtown Long Beach Associates has created a free application for the popular Apple smartphone that will help visitors navigate downtown. The organization, which represents nearly 1,800 business and commercial property owners downtown, developed the app about three months ago with Meta Flavor, a downtown firm that creates apps, said Steve Sheldon, marketing and special events manager for the DLBA. The app -- currently in its initial phase -- is available only on the iPhone, but the DLBA is working on making the app available on the BlackBerry and Droid smartphones. "It's really to help conventioneers and residents ... have downtown right at their fingertips," Sheldon said. The app includes maps to parking meters and pedicabs and rail, bus and bicycle routes, an alphabetical list of restaurants that provide an address, map, directions and phone number, a week's worth of events and a parking map that details the rates, hours of operation, directions and a phone number. It also allows users to report graffiti, broken windows and other types of vandalism or notify the Downtown Clean Team of trash and spills and attach an iPhone photo of the offenses. "It's amazing what technology can do," Sheldon said. The app's later phases will include features that generate a restaurant listing based on a user's habits, eatery searches by menu items and screen alerts about important downtown information such as street closures and public safety items. [email protected], 562-499-1303 To see more of the Press-Telegram, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.press-telegram.com. Copyright (c) 2010, Press-Telegram, Long Beach, Calif. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |