Visitors to New York now have their own private tour guide for many of New York City’s most interesting neighborhoods using Racontours multimedia self-guided tours for handheld digital devices.
Through its Voyager software, a Java-based software platform for mobile devices, Racontours provides interactive self-guided walking tours of historical areas throughout Manhattan that can be downloaded and played on virtually any PDA, smartphone or MP3 player.
Racontours says it is the first touring system to integrate interactive maps, audio and visual material on mobile devices.
There are currently six tours of Manhattan available for download from Racontours’ website: Central Park, Greenwich Village, Lower Manhattan, Soho, South Seaport and Washington Square. A fee of $14.95 allows the user to download and license the tour to his or her handheld device; couples pay half-price for a second copy of the same tour.
It enable sightseers to guide themselves — according to their own pace and interests — through the streets and paths of the area of interest. Like a well-versed raconteur, each tour recounts stories, intrigues and little known facts while winding through a particular neighborhood.
Additional Details
- Each tour contains 120 to 150 images and photos and takes about two hours to complete, if done from start to finish.
- Tours can be downloaded and licensed to the user’s mobile device for $14.95, and then used as often as desired. For couples, a second copy of the same tour can be downloaded for half price.
- Earphones are recommended to hear the audio tracks over any traffic noise.
- Users can toggle back and forth between destinations on the maps and their images by touching a command icon on the screen (or a key on a control pad).
- Users can easily replay or skip to any part of a tour, or pause briefly to take a phone call, or indefinitely to have a meal or further peruse a point of interest and its surroundings.
Each tour is completely interactive and user-driven, and includes an audio track, interactive maps and synchronized images that help the sightseer maintain his or her bearings throughout the tour. At the same time, the user can enjoy seeing old photos and pictures of how specific points on the tour looked in days gone by, and historical maps showing how Manhattan’s modern-day labyrinth of streets and avenues evolved.
Because it is Java-based (J2ME — Java 2 Micro Edition), Voyager 2.0 — Racontours’ software platform for mobile devices — is compatible with a wide variety of operating systems and mobile devices.
Here are some “unofficial” audio guides for the Museum of Modern Art.
DailyWireless has more on Virtual Guides, Shakespeare PDA Tour and Embedded MP-3 Virtual Tours.
