Desktop Computers, Tablets, and Smart Phones

Over time I have noticed a shift in devices that guests use to access the internet and search for information.  About 6 years go, guests were primarily relying on laptop computers on the estate for internet access.  But this has slowly shifted first to tablets and now to phones.  This transition presumably reflects what is happening outside the Bubble and I have adapted by first shifting to a tablet and now to an iPhone, although I still prefer the desktop for many jobs. 

One of the major initial problems when the Painted Pony Resort opened was the ability to find the estate.  Guests had problems finding the location of the estate in the rural high desert of New Mexico.  For example, the first image below shows the location of the Painted Pony Resort (red dot) on a typical street map at that time.  Notice access is from Highway 9 down something called Falcon Dr. on some maps.  The reality is this access crosses private land and is gated in 2 places.  In addition, it is just a ranch road, a 2 track, nothing a passenger car can traverse.  None of the newer roads even showed up on the maps at that time.

So way back then I began a project to update the major online maps with current information about local roads and access in the area, especially directions to the estate. Using the online desktop maps such as Google Earth, Yahoo maps, Bing maps, Open Street maps, Wikimapia, any map of the area I could find and began either adding new roads on maps where I could or submitting information about the Painted Pony Resort and the abysmal state of maps of the area.  This resulted in updated maps for these major map websites and guests could find accurate directions to the estate from their desktop, laptop, or tablet.

Then another shift occurred outside the Bubble, now to mobile phone usage.  With the rise of mobile phone usage there was a simultaneous increase in the number of mobile navigation applications that guests were using to find the estate once they were in the area.  It was not until I used the provided iPhone map application that I found there was another problem.  Apple partnered with Tom Tom to provide navigational maps and upon looking for the estate I was only able to search and find Painted Pony Rd and not the Painted Pony Resort (that search took me to Mesa AZ).  Realizing there was a problem with visibility I began a second round of map updating but this time with mobile navigation applications.  Starting with free navigation applications for iPhones I began down loading navigation applications and searching for the Painted Pony Resort.  Below are some of the results I obtained from different navigation applications. All pretty poor results for guests trying to navigate by phone, especially at night in an area they are unfamiliar with the roads.  Updated information about roads and the location of the estate was submitted to a number of navigational application websites and hopefully, like before with desktop maps, improvements will occur. 

Sometime later

Several days after submitting corrected information to a number of navigation applications, I began to hear back and the good news is the navigation applications are updating.  One of the early respondents was Tom Tom and now a search for Painted Pony Resort on the Apples iPhone maps app returns the correct location, see final image below.

A current mobile application map showing the roads around the Painted Pony Resort.  This application is using old map data which does not show current roads in the area.

A current mobile navigation application showing no roads to the estate.

A mobile navigation application that only shows Painted Pony Rd but not the estate (the blue and white dot is from location services)

Another mobile navigation application with old map data.

A mobile navigation application showing the wrong address at this location but does show updated maps of the area and locates Painted Pony Rd.

Apples' navigation application now showing the location of the Painted Pony Resort.