Hi!<p>I'm busy building an iPhone app, which is optimised for commuters and I was wondering what sort of things people like to fill their commuting time with? If you use public transport - are there any apps that you find particularly useful or enjoyable? If you drive, do you usually switch on the radio or stream music from your mobile?<p>Just a curious bee, me.<p>Thx :)
I commute by public transport, and I mostly read books on a Kindle. If I was to use my phone, I'll probably solve sudoku or something. Or maybe read RSSes.
I drive to work. It's only about 20-25 minutes, depending on traffic. Traffic where I live isn't bad though, so it doesn't fluctuate too much.<p>Typically I either listen to the radio (only in the mornings, I'm sick of radio music so I really only listen to morning shows), or find something to listen to on my Audible for iPhone app (Currently listening to World War Z, which has taken me almost a week of commutes to get half way through).
Depends on my mood but when I commute its usually at least an hour so I typically read on my kindle, RSS on iPhone or if I am in the middle of an interesting project (or working towards a deadline) I will sometimes try to work. I typically find the time quite productive in this situation, as I use it to do the annoying stuff that I can time box to the commute time.
I also take public transit to work everyday. I spend my time streaming music and reading. One thing I will say, if you are developing a commute app make sure that when you turn it on it doesn't keep other apps ie Pandora, from continuing to play music.<p>Nothing makes me delete an app faster than when I can't listen to Pandora and play with another app.
I commute just about daily on the Chicago 'L.' Lately, I find myself doing very little for the 45 minutes, aside from sitting quietly and loosely observing my surroundings (e.g., scenery outside the window, flowing of passengers in and out). I suppose there's some meditative quality to it all, in that I only concern myself with the present moment.
I commute on the train everyday in London. Most of the time I will read books, mostly non technical. Recently I have started taking my laptop with me and coding on my side project. When I don't have either a book or laptop with me I will catch up on emails or hacker news on my phone.
I listen to my recycled songs in my iPhone. Too lazy to upload new ones (can't find a lotta Japanese music in iTunes either).<p>On bad days, I just doze off, and try not to get angry at humanity.
Listen to the news. Five minutes of that and I'm at work.<p>Small town life: we may not have all the opportunities of a big city, but the commute is a heckuva lot shorter.
Sleep. When I took the bus to college, that was all I had the energy to do. I would also try to read or do homework, but I could never get much done on the bus.<p>The public transit in my area is awful. The ride to school was an hour and a half plus a twenty minute walk to the bus stop, whereas driving there takes a half hour. The buses used to be one to two hours apart, but they've cut routes since I stopped riding. I'm glad I got a car.