With the upcoming release of the iPhone in Switzerland and the opening of Apple's AppStore, I was for sure pretty excited to get my hands on the iPhone SDK. A few weeks ago, I was granted access to the iPhone SDK Beta - which meant a lot more helpful resources and a first try of the new iPhone OS.. It felt pretty easy to handle right at the first touch - those `Framework Evangelists' did a pretty decent job. I did really miss a couple of things which were available in the unofficial `SDK' but now the tools of the trade were finally at hands.

Getting into it meant a lot more reading than actual writing, which is not usually the way I learn(ed) programming. At last when I was able to catch some time to get started with the iPhone SDK, and after those few hours needed to find my way around, things got up to speed. Once you know how and where to look up for help, those things do becomes like your mothers tongue ;)
I'll blog about my experiences with the iPhone SDK later on and I might be able to put a few tips and tricks online.

Now to the real news..

I'm `proud' to present one of the first swiss-made native iPhone applications, called `GottaGo' (well, I'm not aware of any others).

Imagine: how many times were you out in the city and didn't have a clue where your closest, fastest traffic links were.. this happened to me like every other day or so.. enter GottaGo, telling me how to get home, to the office (or just about anywhere) from where I am, using the nearest and best public transport option.
So GottaGo is a little location-based application to help Switzerlands public-transport fans (everybody here is, right?) find their way around the country. GottaGo locates you, locates the next stations around you, tells you for every station the next Bus/Train/Tram connection and when you'll be back home. It's also able to look up just a single link like you'd probably do on sbb.ch. I'm sure you get the idea about the little lifesaver. If not, it will probably be way clearer if you take a look at the screenshots or the video:



And the highlight: the video of GottaGo in action (960x540, H.264).

GottaGo is built on the official SDK and no secret backdoors were used, so this is going to be released through AppStore soon. We hope to release the app for free. We'll see, when AppStore launches, what the conditions actually really will be. I hope you like the app and consider using it in the future. If applicable, please do consider switching from your car to public transportation. And yes, sure there will be a lot more things to come for the iPhone from Liip/me - so, stay tuned for more :)

Adam Lindsay @ 09.06.2008 17:53 CEST
Great job, and an *excellently* timed blog post.

Good luck with it, guys!

keepthebyte @ 09.06.2008 18:08 CEST
+1

very nice - that's what I was waiting for..

Alain @ 09.06.2008 22:51 CEST
Can't wait :)

Patrice @ 10.06.2008 14:57 CEST
Now I just need my iPhone finally... Great job Marc, looks fantastic!

kev @ 11.06.2008 20:28 CEST
nice one. No installer.xml for now? Bless, k

marc @ 11.06.2008 20:41 CEST
kev: gottago will be an official app, releasing it through installer.app would violate the license agreement.. just stay tuned until july 11th

Michel @ 24.06.2008 21:57 CEST
Hi marc, great work! btw: where does the app get the data from? As far as I know the SBB dont provide an API?

Dave Brown @ 30.06.2008 16:32 CEST
This is what I've been waiting for! For completeness is there a way to link to phone numbers for taxis? Another thing which would be brilliant would be "favorites" for the most common journeys.

marc @ 07.07.2008 11:34 CEST
Michel: As long as there is a form, there is an API ;) - just a rather confusing one

Dave: The taxi phone numbers is a nice idea, I'll take a look at it.
And favorites are already there, more or less..

adrian @ 14.07.2008 13:36 CEST
hi there
nice, nice, nice! it's exactly what I will need, as soon as I get my iPhone in a few weeks (hopefully).
when will this app be released (via the app store)? and do you already know if it will be free or not?

marc @ 17.07.2008 01:35 CEST
hi adrian,

may I forward you to: http://codesofa.com/blog/archive/2008/07/17/gottago-why-it-s-not-out-there-yet.html

short version:
- iPhone SDK has no NSXMLDocument support, but I'm working on it.. a matter of days.
- It will be free of charge, thanks to liip

adrian @ 06.08.2008 14:47 CEST
hi marc

thank you for your info back in july. i now have my iPhone (i got it yesterday) and today i ... yes, you're right: i finally installed gottago on it!
The first test wasn't that great (it didn't find the closest bus stop) but i will go on of course.

thanx for your work and thanx to liip as well!

marc @ 06.08.2008 17:29 CEST
hi Adrian, thanks for leaving a note :) If you want, you may report a bug on https://jira.liip.ch/browse/GGO or you may drop me a line on my e-mail address.. If you have a problem with the locator, however, you'll have to wait until apple releases an update, since it returns strange results from time to time..

habi @ 06.08.2008 21:02 CEST
just found out about gottago today, after reading it on fscklog.com and must say that i'm really impressed with it. great app and a big timesaver when on the run. good work!

beatus @ 07.08.2008 08:05 CEST
Im App-Store entdeckt und ausprobiert: Ausgezeichnetes Tool! Vorschlag zur Erweiterung: Bitte nebst den aktuellen Zeiten auch die Möglichkeit zur Zeitangabe für spätere Fahrten integrieren. Noch eine Frage: Warum muss das ganze in Englisch sein??? Als Schweizer Unternehmen ist eine Landessprache (vorzugsweise deutsch) sicher eher angebracht... Ich freue mich auf die nächste Version

Richard R. Liu @ 08.08.2008 10:07 CEST
Ich versuche, GottaGo auf dem iPhone direkt zu installieren (App Store), erhalte leider beim Tippen auf Install die Meldung, ich darf mit meinem Konto nur im Schweizer Store einkaufen.

Wie komme ich in den Genuss dieser App?

Milton @ 14.08.2008 15:08 CEST
Hello,
congratulations for your application. It is really simple but very useful! So, just great, basically it is the first useful location based service!
And thanks for giving it for free!

I have just one question/comments: sometimes when I put some addresses in Ticino, the system works differently than the sbb.ch website. For instance it doesn't find the street or it takes a lot longer.
Something wrong I do?

Thanks a lot and have a nice day

Milton

Richard Liu @ 20.08.2008 08:29 CEST
Where do I report bugs? When I begin at "Current Location" then tap on a location, the location in the window title displays as "-1" and only the whole trip is displayed, not the individual legs.

Hannes Gassert @ 20.08.2008 09:45 CEST
@Richard: please use https://jira.liip.ch/browse/GGO for bug reports - thanks a lot.

Ms Gadget Lover @ 12.06.2009 17:34 CEST
Great job. Love the blog!