Posts Tagged ‘Android’

Cheater Meter

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

Some time back I had posted about this new Android App that I was working on which calculated Rickshaw Fares. Well the good news is that the App is live !!! The App is called “Cheater Meter” and you can download the app for Android 1.6 and upwards from the website. If you don’t have an Android phone (or even a “smart” phone for that matter), don’t fret – we have a web enabled version as well. Just point your phone’s browser to cheatermeter.in and use the web-based mobile application.

So far we have added features that let you calculate the correct fare for both Taxi’s as well as Autorickshaw’s in Mumbai. In addition to this, you can also calculate the correct midnight fare for journeys after 12:00 midnight. In case you have a problem with the autorickshaw, you can call the toll free helpline started by the RTO, right from the application itself.

I am pretty excited about this application, and we do have a lot of more nifty features that we will roll out soon (including our entry into the Android Marketplace). Please do use the application and let me know how you liked it or why you didn’t like it and what features/improvements we can add in future versions.

PS: We are also on Twitter, so please follow for updates.

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The effect of change

Monday, June 28th, 2010
Cheater Meter

Cheater Meter

I have been a bit busy of late, so its been a while since my last post. What have I been up to of late ? Well not much other than “work” and a few pet side projects.

One of them materialized very recently as a result of a hike in the autorickshaw fares in the city. Earlier, one could calculate the fare payable by the simple formula of (10*meter-reading)-1. Life was good, but noooo… the autorickshaw unions had to go on strike to demand a raise. Following a very successful flash strike, the government relented and hiked the administered price to Rs.11 as the base fare for the first 1.6km and Rs.6.5 for every km thereafter. The result? Well other than the increased cost of an auto ride, the painful mental math needed to calculate the correct fare. In this case (13*meter-reading)-2.

This got me thinking – Could I somehow make it easier for me to calculate this on my phone? So I got round to creating a simple android application for the phone (tentatively called cheater meter).

The result is a fairly nifty app that lets you calculate the fare payable for both autorickshaws and taxi’s, created in record time over two evenings (pats self on back). I’m still working out a few kinks in it and it should be coming to an app store near you soon. There will also be a web app for all the non android phones out there (in collaboration with my good pal Aditya). Watch this space for more.

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