Greenbelt on your iPhone?
by James Stewart
For a few months now I've been spending quite a bit of my time playing with ever evolving development copies of the Greenbelt iPhone app. For the past few weeks I've been watching my email anxiously to see if it will make it through Apple's stringent review policies and be released. On Saturday evening we heard that it had made the cut, and was out just in time for the festival.
You can download it now at the iTunes App Store by following this link.
So what does it offer?
If you're like me you quickly run out of space in the "what I want to see" slots in the daily diary and carry around an increasingly ragged piece of paper all weekend. If you're an iPhone or iPod Touch user, those days are over, as are the problems of slipping extra events into the right spot after you've made your list. Simply mark an event as a "favourite" and it'll appear in just the right spot.
I'm also really pleased with the map functions. It's not easy getting a map as large as the Greenbelt site onto the phone—if you're new to the festival you'll probably still need some time on the ground to orient yourself—but being able to tap on a venue and get a list of what's happening, or to search for an event, click through to its venue and jump to that spot on the map is sure to help. Find yourself on the opposite side of site from where you'd intended and want to know what's coming up? Just tap on the nearby venues and you'll know.
So what are you waiting for (if you're an iPhone or iPod touch owner)? Head over to the store, get yourself a copy and start planning your festival.
(Much of the credit is due to festival trustee Paul Bennett who's spent many, many hours over the past months building and refining the app. If you want to follow his example and build apps for other types of mobiles, do let us know.)
