








Apps that make life better – by Mohan Noone
The Lord of the Shipments: One App to Track Them All!
Note: The app works by directing the queries to the tracking sites of the respective couriers.
You can also set reminders for the day reservation starts.
The update is available on Google Play, App Store & Windows Phone Store
All iOS apps featured here have been updated for iPhone 6 and 6 Plus – with resizable launch screens, auto layout and landscape orientation support. All of these make the apps essentially independent of the device screen size, and hence all of them now run without scaling on the iPad as well!
Of course whether that is required is another matter, an app such as Divert Calls would meaningless to have on on iPad, so would Ticket Wallet, more or less, since the tickets must be copied from SMS messages – but still, if installed, they do run happily on the large screens.
The apps that already supported iPad (Train Alarm, IV Thrombolysis) will continue to do so but designing the layouts for iPhone 6 & 6 Plus has lead to several further tweaks which improve the overall interface even on smaller iPhones (I suppose that’s what we’ll be calling iPhone 4 & 5 hence forth!).
However, the app that benefitted the most is: Train Status – it now a Universal app, that can be installed, and runs without scaling on all screens, from iPhone 4 to iPad – and thus being available now for two whole new families of devices.
With iOS 8 round the corner, and Apple gently nudging to update apps with shiny new versions in time for the big release on 17th, the past week has been busy, and the rewards, well, shall soon be ‘available on the App Store’.
Managing the different screen sizes with larger iPhones turned out to be quite easy, the only thing extra that was really required was a new 3x res app icon for the high pixel density of the 6 Plus screen. A few other issues regarding access to system services like notifications, location services and background tasks were sorted out.
The interesting part was trying to implement some of the new features in the latest iOS. As mentioned in the last WWDC, iOS 8 is a big release for developers and opens up a lot of the system to developers.
So look out for these exiting new features in the next release!
Location based alarms for Indian Train Stations – now available for iPhone & iPad!
Just like the Android & WP8 versions, this app comes with a list of Indian Railway Stations, with their locations, to set the alarms. Over 2500 stations are currently listed, more stations are being continuously added, and you can also add stations on your own after downloading the app!
Be informed when your train is about to reach a station, using the location services on your iPhone or iPad! No internet connection is required for the alarms to work.
The alarms may be set with a triggering radius of 10km or 25km, and will be triggered within an error margin of 1/2 – 2km depending on the accuracy of the location fix.
The app uses low battery consuming location detection provided by the latest iOS core location technologies.
Ticket Wallet for iPhone. is now available. The app offers easy and convenient storage for Indian Railways SMS e-tickets – with built-in PNR status quierying, quick link to train enquiry and sharing options. Also has the berth & Seat calc.
Note: The app is compatible currently only with the SMS sent after booking at the IRCTC website.
Just copy the railway ticket SMS and open the app, it will offer to save it. No more searching around for the ticket SMSes – all the SMSes are saved in one place.
There are options to check PNR status, open the train enqiury site to get live status and schedules and also to share the ticket via the standard messaging options available on the handset, including Air Drop, if available.
PNR status caching is available, which enables quick rechecking of the status and berth / seat nos without going online.
And finally, there is the unique Berth and Seat calc, to look up the confirmed seat and birth positions. No longer wonder whether its a middle berth or an aisle seat!
Noted in a review for the app: “am looking fwd to pasting the entire SMS for finding PNR status”. Well dear user, your wish has already been granted!
If you copy an entire SMS, go to the app (in Android) and hit paste, the PNR contained in the SMS alone will be pasted automatically, and the status enquiry will proceed.
In iOS, if you copy an entire SMS with PNR, and open the app, the PNR will be already pasted there, just hit Check to proceed!
In the latest update, Indian Train Status v4.6 for Android, and v2.8 for iPhone, the option to save Time Tables for offline viewing has been added. The icon has also been updated.
While traveling in a train, it is far more accurate to compare the saved time table, with the GPS location on the map to get the train status rather than depend on live status from trainenquiry.com, which is often inaccurate. So accurate it could be called “Ninja” train status!