Exploring a city with help from your iPhone and Google Transit

One thing that I really enjoy doing is flying to city that I’m unfamiliar with and doing some exploring. Of course flying means that I don’t have a car with me, and not having a car means that I have to rely on public transportation to get around. In the past this has involved fumbling with multiple bus route pamphlets and subway maps, trying to coordinate time schedules to get from point A to point B.

But ever since I got my iPhone and Apple integrated Google Transit into the Maps application, I haven’t even had to think anymore.

Let’s say I’m at some random point A. It doesn’t matter where I am. I don’t even have to know where I am. All I need to know is where I want to go, and I don’t even need to know the address of point B. I just search for the point of interest and let Google Maps find it for me:

From there I click the blue arrow from my desired result and then select “Directions To Here” on the following screen. “Current location” should be the default starting position on the following screen:

Now I just click “Route” and let the magic happen:

Bada boom! I don’t even have to think! Google Maps tells me where I need to be  at 7:15pm to catch the closest bus that will get me to my destination, as well as providing me with the trip cost and any transfers necessary. To see the itinerary in list view, click the page flap icon in the lower right corner:

Most cities will offer a two or three day unlimited metro pass, which is usually the best deal if you plan on doing some extreme exploring.

To see a list of global cities where Google Transit directions are available, visit the Google Transit site.

Happy exploring!

* Disclaimer – I work for Google, but I’m still allowed to think this is awesome.

Posted in Tech, travel | 1 Comment »

Lala.com + Last.fm scrobbling = pure bliss

I’ve been using lala.com for a few weeks now. It’s a great service. It lets you sync your music library with their servers so you can play your music library from anywhere with an internet connection. No reason to bring my iPod to and from work anymore. But the one caveat I had with the service was that I couldn’t keep track of my music listening trends on Last.fm like I can with iTunes or my iPod.

Until now!

Lala.com is now beta testing scrobbling your listens onto your Last.fm account! All I had to do was click on the “Tell us” link on the top left of the site and ask for the feature to be activated in my account. Within an hour, I got a reply and it was activated in my account. I’ve been scrobbling all day from lala.com. It works great so far!

Oh, and I got the tip from a lala.com reply to me on Twitter. They’ve since deleted the tweet, probably to keep the beta testing limited, or because they don’t want to be associated with me. Either way, it’s fine by me.

Update (7/12/09): It looks like the “Tell us” link no longer exists. Try asking in this form: http://www.lala.com/#contactsupport

Update (10/27/09): As Andrew pointed out in the comments below, the location to enable the feature has moved. “My Lala” > “Settings” > “Beta” link/tab at the top right.

Posted in Tech, music | 9 Comments »

The web, if sketched by me.

Based on a recommendation from Matt Cutts, I went ahead last night and created a font from my own handwriting. It’s really easy. Took me about 20 minutes.

Sow now that I have my own childish handwriting in a font, what to do with it? How about view the web as if I drafted it myself! Here are the results:

What you’re looking at

Google

Yahoo

Amazon

NY Times

Digg

My favorite website

Wasn’t that scary/fun?

Would you also like to view the web through the hand(?) of Mike Leotta, or would you like to pass off love letters as if they were written by me? Then download my font! It’s free!

Posted in Cool, Tech | 5 Comments »

My mom has a Wii…

My mom got a Nintendo Wii for her birthday. She also got a stereo with a dock for the iPod touch she’s getting in a few weeks.

This is the same mom that calls me several times a month with questions about “Foxfire”.

My dad explained to me how to play Wii Fit.

I don’t have a Wii. I’ve never even seen anyone play Wii Fit, let alone play it myself. I also don’t have an iPod touch or an iPhone.

What’s going on??? Am I losing touch???

If my parents starts Twittering then I know the universe is imploding.

Posted in Tech, wtf | 5 Comments »

An open letter to Steve Jobs…

Dear Steve Jobs,

Please release new iMacs soon. My Dell is dying a slow and painful death. I would love to spend my year end bonus on one of your sleek, sexy machines.

Also, I <3 your mock turtleneck collection.

Respectfully,
Mike Leotta

Posted in Tech | 8 Comments »