LinkNYC: I Still Got Game On These Stupid Things
You cannot actually play DOOM on a LinkNYC kiosk. But I got to an emulator and watched as the poor little tablet device struggled to play back the opening animation.
LinkNYC’s Wrinkle In Time
LinkNYC kiosks stepped back in time yesterday, showing headlines and emergency alerts from late December of last year. Seriously, how hard is it to get something like this right?
I Needed a Payphone
A few weeks ago I needed a pay phone. Really, I did. I had to call somebody without all of Queens Boulevard hearing both sides of the conversation.
LinkNYC’s News You Can’t Use
What to make of the AP's decapitated headlines showing up on LinkNYC's screens? Not much of any real use.
Another One Down, Maybe Three
One more payphone in my area disappeared with no LinkNYC replacement. A similar fate seems to have befallen a pair of phones on Manhattan's Upper East Side.
Why LinkNYC Installations Stopped Last Year, and Other Sexy Topics
It turns out CityBridge had good reason to pause its breakneck pace of installing LinkNYC kiosks last year. But what to make of the fact that the City has the right to levy tens of thousands of dollars in penalties against the franchise?
CityBridge Reports Phone Call Feature Not Working on 28% of LinkNYC Kiosks
CityBridge's hourly report on the functional status of its kiosks needs a lot of work. No way is today's report on the machines' phone calling status accurate.
LinkNYC: Replacing Payphones With… Nothing?
It looks like CityBridge now removes payphones and moves on, replacing them not with the Smart City LinkNYC kiosks but with empty squares of pavement. Is it asking too much for CityBridge to post a heads up announcement informing the public that a payphone they know will soon go away?
Reflection of Two Working Payphones in a Non-Working LinkNYC Tablet Screen
Non-working LinkNYC kiosk tablets make for interesting reflective surfaces as the city passes by.
How Not To Remove A Payphone
A payphone removal is supposed to be a pretty tidy affair. This was not that. A jagged eyesore where a payphone used to stand seems to invite calamity.
A Little LinkNYC Doohickey I’ve Been Working On
LinkNYC's Kiosk Status dataset: Sometimes it works, most times I can't tell.
You Can Call Me From a Payphone, But Not From LinkNYC
If anyone reading this is willing, could you try calling your phone from a LinkNYC machine and tell me, either in the comments or via email, if the call went through?
Seán Óg’s Has LinkNYC Coming To Its Front Door Soon. Or Does It?
Here's how to tell if a LinkNYC kiosk might be deposited outside your front door at some point in the future.
Hourly LinkNYC Kiosk Status Updates Arrive. Joy The World.
Without announcement (public, at least) CityBridge last month commenced publishing a Link Kiosk Status dataset that looked a little more promising than its predecessor. Despite my questions about the data’s accuracy and relevance I used it to map locations and functional status of LinkNYC kiosks. This new dataset replaces the previous, and at least appears…
All Quiet In LinkNYC Land
According to data released by CityBridge andThe City it appears there has not been a single LinkNYC installation in about 3½ months.
(607) 216-9781 Replaces (212) 477-3063 As The New (702) 992-9550
Unannounced in any venue I can find is the news that CityBridge replaced Vonage with RingCentral as the VOIP provider for the LinkNYC kiosk’s free nationwide phone call feature.
LinkNWK Already Looks a Lot Like LinkNYC
I found plenty of working payphones in Newark. The new LinkNWK Smart City kiosks were not so promising.
LinkNYC’s Manufacturing Facility Demolished
LinkNYC's manufacturing plant at 11-37 31st Avenue has been demolished.
What The Heck Was “LinkNYC Alert”?
A rah-rah piece about LinkNYC in Venturebeat briefly and unintentionally included a strange image of something called "LinkNYC Alert". What was it?
LinkNYC: Guess The Current Temperature
Weather conditions reported by LinkNYC vary so much from one machine to the next that guessing which report is accurate is like a multiple-choice quiz.
LinkNYC Kiosk Installations Have Come to a Halt, and Other Observations
Last week I posted a map of LinkNYC kiosks with the reported functional status of each machine’s WiFi, tablet, and phone. That data is pulled from NYC.gov’s OpenData portal. You can read more details about the data and the map here. In short, this dataset is said to provide a more-or-less real time snapshot of…
LinkNYC: On This Day, and Missing the Bus Revisited
Was it on this day, that day, or another day? Who's to say? Also, I put LinkNYC's bus arrival time feature to more of a test than I did last time, concluding once again that it is of value to absolutely nobody.
Can You Pay a Parking Ticket Using LinkNYC?
You are supposed to be able to but you cannot. But then, why would anybody want to pay for anything using a public kiosk such as this?
LinkNYC Misses the Bus
The MTA bus arrival time feature has returned to the LinkNYC kiosks, and it sucks the same as it did in April.
Updated: LinkNYC Real Time Kiosk Status Data Released
Everything looks awesome on the LinkNYC network according to a dataset released by the city last week that purportedly shows the latest status of the kiosk's WiFi, tablet, and phone. But wait... It's not as rosy as all that.
What is CityBridge Doing With My Phone Number?
Phone numbers called through LinkNYC kiosks are being harvested by CityBridge in plain text, and no one in the privacy world seems to care.
Seizure Time, From LinkNYC’s Smart City
Lots of craptastic Smart City fail on this LinkNYC kiosk. The kiosk's digital advertising billboard freaks out and the mapping app is yet one that retains a list of what previous kiosk users looked for.
LinkNYC’s Real-Time Network Availability Data: Where Is It?
LinkNYC promised real-time network monitoring of its advertising kiosks. So far, it has not delivered.