New York City Transit Authority using Keynote to run its kiosks
Faithful Macenstein reader Mike Solomon from over at The Cleverist sent us this video he made providing pretty convincing evidence that the NYC Metropolitan Transportation Authority is using Apple’s Keynote software to run its kiosks, as illustrated by those trademark transitions Snap! Crackle! and Pop!… err, Cube, Dissolve, and Pop.
While we think it’s great to see Apple software (and presumably hardware (?)) being used by such a large city agency, we have a feeling the MTA may be an equal opportunity OS customer. Having ridden the NYC subways numerous times, I am quite certain the MTA is also using Windows Vista to create that convincing virtual urine smell.
Thanks Mike!
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I would think that they might make them with keynote, and then export them as quicktimes to run on macs or pcs…
Linux also has spinning blocks… This is not at all convincing that the MTA uses OSX.
I don’t think the MTA updates the “keynote” for every station to show the right station name. Also i doubt they have a Keynote for every train going. Since they’re all different names and shit.
not really kiosks. they’re on the trains (2 to a car), and currently only on a few lines. I thought only 1 but this video was on another. so at least 2.
the display he is talking about only displays train name and final destination along with some basic ads so it doesn’t update for every station, but only at the ends of each line.
There is another (VFD?) display with the next 10 stops, then 5 more random stops after that (cycles 11-15, 16-20) which updates as you enter and leave each station. in the video you can see it change from “next stop” to “this is” to at 1:04.
And these transitions are pretty generic/universal to claim they’re keynote. but i guess a mini would be an off the shelf solution that would be easy to stash on a train (but also a theft risk) and just a bit overpowered, but a small linux box would probably be a better fit.
I’d just be happy if the MTA made an iPhone version of the web site, there is a mobile one. It’s just more wap friendly.
It’s about time! lol