I’ve been using Vindigo for at least a decade. It’s a big part of what kept me loyal to Palm PDAs and phones. It provided a restaurant guide with reviews, maps, and walking directions; movie reviews and show times for theaters; museum listings; a guide to bars and clubs; locations and contact info for local businesses; and even bathroom locations for cities around the U.S. I used it both on the road and at home. And it didn’t require an Internet connection to work — new info was downloaded whenever I sync’d my Palm.
I got email from Vindigo in March saying the service was shutting down. Their home page is a blank screen. However, the software continues to work. I’m still able to download info for new cities, and the sync with vindigo.com appears to be functioning. It’s a zombie.
A month ago Vindigo started presenting an error message saying “Your Vindigo 2.0 subscription was scheduled to renew on 4/11/2009 but you haven’t synced your device recently. As a result, we are unable to verify the status of your account. Please sync within the next 19 days to avoid a disruption in service.” I thought it was about to die at the hand of its billing module. But the warning message went away after a few weeks and Vindigo still works.
Since no new data is being provided, movie and museum info are useless and there won’t be any updates to the restaurant info. But it’s tolerable for now. I feel like the app is on life support and could go any day. And , assuming it continues to work, I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to transfer it to a new phone (assuming I stay with Palm).
Lots of people are mourning the loss of Vindigo and looking for a replacement. So far the best bet seems to be running web searches on one’s phone — a poor substitute in my opinion. Or maybe a return to Avantgo, which I used before finding Vindigo.
I’d love to hear about options for a downloadable guide to restaurants, movies, and shops that works even when you can’t get connected to the web.
Me too! I used Vindigo all over the world. And what about that “find a bathroom” feature!
Same story, except today I sync’ed & movies and weather were current. Man, this service is close to a must have. Just the existing database is essential for NYC.
Fascinating. Movie times are working again for San Francisco, as well. But Museum listing aren’t.
Every now and then when i synched, my TREO would tell me data was lost and the program wouldnt come up. Although I learned vindigo was kaput a few months ago, program had worked but then I got that error message. So I just synched it again and got the same positive result as Solo500. Matter of fact, I found this blog cause I was looking for a vindigo like app for my TREO to replace it. But somehow or other, it seems to still work with updates for movies — but of course no new restaurants. It’s still a great tool for finding a place in Manhattan. Zagat is available but last time I looked it didnt allow you to search by street address — a major boon. Maybe someone will buy vindigo and resurrect it.
I’m waiting for Verizon to release the Palm Pre, which sounds like it will happen in December. Of course, I will want to install Vindigo on the Pre. But it probably won’t run on Palm’s new OS.
According to David Pogue’s Q&A about the Palm Pre, “For $20, you can buy (from the app store) a Classic app that runs all the old Palm OS software!” So Vindigo might make the leap.
David Pogue updated his Palm Pre Q&A. The Classic app is now $29.95.
I have a Palm m515 which I love and although I’ve hot synced and the date on Vindigo is current (July 4) none of the information is. I see some people are getting downloads so I wonder if I am not because I have such an old device – is it time to remove Vindigo and move on to something else or do I need a newer device? Maybe both??
Pam,
The data feeds are erratic. The movie listings seem to have stopped updating (at least for San Francisco and L.A.) on 6/25. Museum listings seem to have stopped last October. Still, the restaurant and bathroom listings are handy.
I hope that Vindigo will be resurrected or that I’ll find something better.
It’s probably futile to respond to such an old thread, but here goes: I too, am a crusty old Vindigo user who was sad to see it go…but my experience was similar – the movie listings, which I used the most, were updated sporadically since the official shutdown. The last time they worked for Boston, however, was October 17th. I’m still syncin’ and hopin’, however…
Vindigo on my Centro has new movies. It’s Nov 09. I am not complaining about this. Outalot is a worthy successor, but Vindigo is still full featured & there is a place for local (not only cloud) storage of info. What’s worse, my Vindigo obsession or my Palm (classic) one? Ah.
Ditto on Solo500’s remark. I wasn’t receiving updates for months, but I was be to re-install the app from the site (some pages beside the homepage are still up) –and presto!– Vindigo is syncing again with new movie timetables. Keep in mind this is only for NYC, I can’t speak for other cities.
The weather report is still out of date, but I’ll take what I can get for as long as I can get it.
That said, I would be more than happy to subscribe again, if some one would buy the rights and develop a 3.0 version for Palm or the iPhone. Without Vindigo, I have no reason to hang on to my Centro. I’ve been with palm for over 10 years. It would be tough to upgrade, but eventually I’ll have to.
I also loved Vindigo since at least 2000, and it’s also a big part of what kept me loyal to Palm. O, the irony — I got a Treo 755 about 2 months before Vindigo went belly-up. Here in NYC the restaurants are definitely out of date — haven’t tried to sync movies for a while so not sure about those. Desperately miss it and wish there were a successor; will have to try Outalot.
Don’t know if anyone is still searching or pining for Vindigo but there seems to be alot of passion as well as REAL need out there. Anyone interested in joining forces to build an app and actually make some money? NOTHING IS CLOSE TO IT IN APPLAND – none of the gps enabled “around me” kind of apps, or urban spoon is remotely as useful and as user friendly as Vindigo.
I would buy a Vindigo replacement, or even a hack of a serever that would let it sync to data source that could spoof the Palm conduit.
Vindigo was pretty awesome. Sad that they didn’t make the leap to an app.
Vindigo is like a ghost that won’t go to the other side. It was before its time and more app like than what is out there now. I so wish someone would rebuild it. I heard the creators are still in NY and in the industry, wish they would et the band back together for another tour.
Fergie was wondering, Where are they now?
http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/12/crowley-goes-back-to-his-vindigo-roots-with-foursquare-explore-on-the-web/
Regards, -Will