TimeInternet launches a cool Metro City App that gives instant updates about most happening places in area. Based on gps search the app is capable of giving out appropriate listing about events, movies, restaurants, pubs, etc. In no time you can find out the most happening places in the city. Right now it targets almost all major metropolitan cities like Ahmadabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi/NCR, Goa, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune. TimesCity is a great app for those who loves to enjoy night life and travels a lot. So if you are in your favorite destination and have very less information about places around, just remove your Smartphone and tap on TimesCity. Tap on GPS icon and select Current Position. Via GPS the app searches your location and pops out movie, events and restaurant info. It features flexible search criteria. Which is not complete but enough to get what you want. It is better if go categories wise search. Like for movies go to the movie section. A kind another listing application but the presentation here is more interactive. Info is displayed in simple layout along with contact info and user reviews. The app is new and lacks authentic user based reviews. TimesCity is not loaded with useless advertisement and offers. It deliver straightforward search, accessible to anyone.
Right now we are not sure how TimesCity offers listing of different events and hotels listing. It can be sponsored on based on its own database. So the information is less transparent. But it is helpful. TimesCity App removes the usage of two different applications. One for Food Search and Second for Movies. It combines both of them at one place. For an app it is not easy to cover everything going in the city. But still I am satisfied with the results. I am not happy with the GPS based search. When I tap on Current Location it shows me nothing, while if I select my city from the list it goes well. To some extent TimeInternet needs to improve the GPS search here. We will go in more detail about the interface and how it can be really helpful for travelers.
Interface:
TimesCity does not reflect a complicated interface. A few set of menus and categories lies on the main screen. Like you can see in the above image there are three prime categories Restaurants, Bars and Clubs and Events. Movies are separately available at the end with Explore Movies button. This appears when you choose your location. So it shows you the nearest movie shows under the diameter of 500m. It is right to say here that the apps works perfectly in terms of gps search. I had tested the application on Galaxy Note 2 where it gave me accurate information. So ample of time it depends on your device gps. Or else you will get places really far from current place. That can be limitation of gps network in our cities. We are hardly having any accurate gps service like TOMTOM. Everything here relies on the telecom tower and Google maps. We will now check all the section one by one and see how helpful TimesCity can be.
Restaurants:
The first section gives you bit information on finding out your favorite cuisine to your nearest location. The search as I said above is based on gps, you can also type the name of hotel in the search box to access reviews and menu. In the below images you can see the Restaurant section here. The top listing is shown in the basis of nearest location which is not really accurate. When you tap on any restaurant the next screen gives you information about contact details, Critics rating and Users rating separately. This gives you two separate views about the hotel. First rated by Critics who are expert in this field and tells you whether the place is fine or not and the second is User rating which is based on our preferences and what we like. It is place very nicely on the top and rated in terms of 5 Star. A combine rating of 3 out of 5 is not bad at all. You can see a gray bar on the top that replaces the search menu with more categories. You can read a user’s view inside the Review Section or checkout Menu and Photos of the restaurant.
In the info page you can add the contact details or simply call the hotel directly. There is ample of information available on the same. While the user review adds more transparency on the search results. I found this really impressive. Before visiting the place you can go to Menu and Photos Section. So you can check out the food type and its prices. You can see in the above image the Landmark and Cost for 2 sections. And just below that you can see FACILITIES. Which is another important section to checkout. You can find out what all extra facilities available at the place of visit. Like parking space, buffet, hard drinks, ac, etc. This really saves a lot time. You get the right location through landmark info and you can get a glimpse of cost at the same place, which allows you to adjust your budget before visiting. There is a map button provided near the address. So if you need driver instruction you just need to tap on that and the application takes to you Google Maps. This must be installed in your Smartphone. It gives you the exact location on the map. This simply shows that TimesCity App is not having its own MAP support. It relies on Google Maps and so the information provides also depends on the quality and accuracy of Google Maps. That can be the limitation of this application and if you remove the map feature, the app just becomes something like YP.
Bars & Clubs:
This section is dedicated for those who are crazy about nightlife. Bars & Pubs are place for fun and party. Through TimesCity you can instantly checkout the nearest happening location and bang with your friends. TimesCity has a great list of nice places to hangout with your friends instantly. Similar to the Restaurant section this section separately tells you about the pubs in your area. In the below images you can get a glimpse of Bars & Pubs section. With versatile look everything is clearly listed sorted via nearest distance. You can instantly checkout which one is better place. Similar to Restaurant this section also gives you information the landmark, map, cost, facilities, etc. Compare to restaurants, pubs are different. A more chill out place with friends.
Events:
Now this is something a bit different. I had seen ample of travel applications that offers you info on nearest hotel or theaters, but events are not targeted well. Leaving TimesCity aside, I think only BookMyShow is the only one that gives you more than just movie listing. Events are different activities around the city which you would to participate. This also includes theater. TimesCity App lists all the current events nicely with contact information. You cannot get many ratings over here. This section has limited details only. The listing just gives you glimpse of Event objective, location and photos if shared. If you are willing to do more than outing, then you can check out the section.
Movies:
Right now the most popular app for Movies is BookMyShow. It has the information on almost any movie and event going around the city with online booking option. The application is more like a listing app where you can get list of movies running in your area. But if you need more information like review, rating or just want to watch the movie trailer then you can go on TimesCity App. It does not offers you direct booking options, but you can find many things about the movie here. Like you can see a glimpse on the image below. The movie section is very simple here. It gives you short information on movie info and below that a long list of theaters which are running the shows. You can tap on the same, and checkout more shows in the same theater. The app just offers you instantly check the shows running in your nearest threat. The review section is a bit helpful. Whoever watches the moves simply post their views on it and on that basis you can decide whether you must go for it or not. While the last section the Trailers part is nothing but just the YouTube link. You can install YouTube app in your phone and view movies trailer instantly at one place, instead of manually searching it on the web. The movie section is really great here. Due to lack of online booking option the app gets limited in features.
The only thing that it lacks is theater rating. Like we can choose Restaurant and Pubs here on the basis of Critics and User Rating. But in Movies section you can get rating associated with movies only. Theaters are not counted, which can help us to make more decent choice while going out with family.
Search Filter:
I thought it would be better to show you the search filter separately. Search Filter is located in every section that allows you to find information more accurately. TimesCity app has the same kind of search filter for all sections. Which is a kind of drawback. Like for Restaurants, Events and Pubs you can simply try to find on the basis of Distance, Cost for 2 and Critic Rating. The search result deliver later on is simply great. While for Movies I was expecting better options. The Movies Search Filter does not give you results on the basis of Ticket Cost. It also misses the rating for Theaters. There must be more option added in the search filter that would allow users to get the exact info they are looking for. Due to which to some extent the apps search results are less reliable.
Conclusion :
TimesCity is a dedicated application to give you correct info and have fun without wasting much time. The application is free and available on iOS, Android and Blackberry platform. With simple interface it is very easy to operate. The most important information it offers is Critics and User rating. That allows us to make a more comprehensive choice while visiting some place. Along with instant menu and glimpse of photos are added. But more work needed to be done in this area. The app offers appropriate movie listing also, but lack direct booking option. All in all the application is an ideal choice for those who do not like to lost in the city. Adding more to the benefits, the Search Filters work really well. GPS location tracking is more accurate compare to other applications. TimesCity App can act as a Swiss knife in your phone in terms of travel details. It still needs a lot more improvements.
Pros
- Simple Intuitive Interface
- GPS Based Location Tracking
- Critics and User Reviews
Cons
- No Online Booking
