iPhone App Reviews

POV: mPassport Paris

Michael (Admin) | Dec 16, 2009 POV, Travel

* “POV” (Point of View) is a new feature that we’re testing out *

mPassport Paris is on sale for free – normally $2.99

HTH Worldwide’s rating: 9.0
IAR’s rating: 9.0

I’ve done some traveling in my day, and when you don’t speak the local language it can be pretty hard to get what you need! Luckily I’ve only needed food, bars, and bathrooms for the most part so the language barrier wasn’t really a huge concern, but I imagine I’d be singing a different tune if I needed to be inspected by a doctor or locate some drugs of the legal variety.

mPassport Paris is designed for exactly that situation… whether you need a dentist, a shrink, a pharmacy, or pretty much any other medical service, this app will find it for you if you’re in The City of Light or, as most Americans know it,  The City of Hot Lovin’.

HTH Worldwide’s summary:

What mPassport Paris does:

The app features detailed profiles of nearly 100 carefully selected, English-speaking, Paris-based physicians and dentists as well as an appointment scheduling concierge function that helps travelers arrange office visits with these providers on short notice. The application makes full use of the iPhone’s mapping and GPS tools to help visitors to Paris find the shortest route to convenient care.  It even allows users to choose a Paris landmark or neighborhood as their  point of departure; this feature  allows users to  plan ahead when reviewing their options.

mPassport Paris also maps and profiles the local notable hospitals and pharmacies and provides brand name equivalents for over 350 common prescription and over-the-counter drugs. Built-in translation tools allow users to play audio of hundreds of key medical terms and phrases in French.

What this app does right:

Everything is easy to find and use.  Convenient features such as auto-saving recently viewed items, and  manual-saving for repeat viewing are built-in.  All of the information is downloaded onto your iPhone or iPod touch so that it works even without an Internet connection.  Of course, using the mapping features and Google Maps for walking or driving directions as well as sending an appointment request require a connection.

Where this app needs to improve:

There are a few things that will be fixed in the next update.  The pushpins colors used for your location and the location of the doctor, hospital or pharmacy you are viewing get switched when you jump to Google Maps (red and green to green and red, respectively).  Also, when working with locations, it would be helpful to be able to see all of the Paris landmarks on the map at once.

Features and improvements planned for the future:

Right now, other cities are only available through our mobile website at http://www.mpassport.com. Keep an eye out for additional destination-based iPhone apps in the near future!

IAR’s take:

Most of these POV posts follow a very distinct pattern in the ratings department: the developer gives their app a nice high score, and we give it a lower score because the app usually isn’t quite as good as the maker thinks it is.

mPassport Paris is definitely an exception to that rule. HTH Worldwide gave themselves a score of 9.0 which indicates that they think the app is REALLY good but still has some room for improvement, and I have to agree with them!

My travels so far haven’t included Paris, but I’ve been to Korea and Thailand and, if I wanna really stretch it, Windsor, Canada and Tijuana, Mexico. Ok, so I haven’t truly visited Canada or Mexico but I’d feel a whole lot better about going nuts in Tijuana if I had a Tijuana-centered app like mPassport Paris in my pocket.

If you’re going to Paris anytime soon and are reading this right now, consider yourself lucky because (a) the app is currently free, and (b) it really is as good as HTH says it is. It contains phone numbers and mapping for a whole bunch of doctors that do everything from general practice to dentistry to pediatrics to obstetrics to cardiology to urology to… well, you get the point. Everything is, as HTH says, easy to find, but the features that impress me most are the built-in English/French translations for a ton of medical terms and the drug equivalency guide which tells you what your drugs are called locally and/or on the generic market. Chances are a legitimate doctor will know what to prescribe without you having to refer to the drug guide, but the peace of mind this kind of thing could bring is potentially huge since language barriers and prescription drugs can make for a very bad combination.

The medical translations section is especially nice because it’s really thorough and includes a search function. You can browse by category such as allergies, body parts, medical history, etc. or you can just look at All English Phrases and search for a keyword that describes your ailment. Each translation includes a spoken French recording and, like all other items in this app, they can be saved to a list for quick access.

As for improvements, HTH refers to the pushpin colors being reversed when you access the in-app map for a doctor or other location. The colors of the pushpins don’t really bother me, but the thing I’m surprised this app doesn’t do is either give directions or provide a link to the native Google Maps app to help you get from Point A to Point B. Currently, when you look at a map in mPassport it will show you your current location or a preselected landmark location, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to get step-by-step directions. Granted, I’m not in Paris so it’s possible that directions might actually appear when using Current Location, but when I designate a landmark such as Champs-Élysées the directions aren’t part of the app. Sure, I could write down the address, exit the app, and manually enter it in the Google Map app, but I was kind of hoping mPassport would make that process easier.

Another thing I’d like to see this app do is allow reordering of the Recents and Saved screens. It’s cool that mPassport saves every item you view under Recents and the Saved thing is also handy, but when you go to edit those screens all you can do is delete. Changing the order isn’t an option.

Overall, this app is really good at doing its job. Even the in-app appointment setting function works as advertised… I submitted a request for an appointment and, 90 minutes later, got an email from an HTH staff member! Nice. If I were planning to head to Paris and had health issues I’d pay good money for this app because asking Parisian strangers for medical help doesn’t really sound all that fun! And even if you’re just a Be Prepared type of traveler it would still be good to have this angle covered in case something comes up.

Since the app is free, grab it even if you think you *might* visit Paris at any point during your lifetime. It’ll give you a good idea of what the app is like, and if HTH Worldwide releases versions for other cities that you’re actually going to visit then you’ll know what you’re buying when the time comes.

iTunes Link – mPassport Paris
Version 1.0
Tested on iPhone 3G OS3.1.2

* POV is sponsored by the developer

Tags: $2.99, translator