In Paris, smartphones double as travel passes

A pilot service being trialled in Paris aims to make life easier for users of the metro and city buses, by putting travel passes on smartphones.

 

We’ve seen smartphone apps aiding journeys on public transport around the world, from basic route planning, predicting the next train and even connecting commuters with similar journeys. Now, Navigo is trialling a service in Paris that aims to make life easier for users of the metro and city buses, by putting travel passes on smartphones.
Currently commuters swipe their Navigo card — equipped with Near Field Communication technology — to pay for journeys. But now France’s public transport authority, STIF, have announced plans to integrate the Navigo card with NFC-compatible smartphones, meaning commuters will soon be able to swipe their smartphone over special readers. This not only means one less thing to remember in the morning, but passes can be renewed at a distance, saving time and frustration with long Monday morning queues. The trial is due to launch early 2012 and will run for 24 months on two Veolia Transport networks in Paris.
Anything that removes the stress from a daily commute is likely to be well-received, and an all-in-one travelcard and phone ticks the convenient, practical and time saving boxes. Time for for transport and mobile businesses worldwide to unite?
Website: www.navigo.fr

Source:Internet

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Grocery shopping via smartphone on South Korean subways

We’ve seen numerous innovations designed to make the chore of grocery shopping less painful for consumers, with Indian AaramShop’s use of Facebook being one recent example. Hoping to raise the level of convenience for time-strapped commuters in South Korea, Home plus — the Korean branch of Tesco PLC — recently launched a series of virtual stores on subway platforms, enabling customers to make purchases using their smartphones while they wait for a train.
The virtual stores, constructed from large backlit billboards, displayed images of all the items one would expect to find in a standard Home plus shop. QR codes were then placed next to the image of each product, enabling smartphone equipped commuters to automatically add the merchandise to their virtual basket by scanning the code. The total order was then delivered to the commuter’s door once they returned home from work. During the campaign Home plus online sales increased by 130%, with over 10,000 customers trying the stores. A video below explains the premise in more detail:

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