Taxi Magic by RideCharge gives smartphone users the ability to book taxis and sedans on their iPhone, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry smartphone.
"The reponse has been incredible, The downloads have been in the tens of thousands in the first couple of month on the iPhone," said Toby Russell spokesman for RideCharge, "Business travellers have been particularly excited about the BlackBerry version because it makes it easy to track expenses and get reimbursed."
Taxi Magic booking is in real-time 24-7 through the dispatch systems
of
metropolitan taxi fleets in major US cities including Chicago, Los
Angeles, Atlanta,
Phoenix, Minneapolis, Washington DC, Detroit, Miami, Orlando, San Jose,
and many others (the best way to check for coverage is to a serach in
the app.) Sedan black car service is available in New York.
All
versions let you know when the cab is coming gives update on where the
cab is via the cab's GPS, including distance away. Payments through the
service incure a $1.50 charge, for which you receive you an electronic
receipt in email and online.
For iPhone users Taxi Magic summons a taxi through your iPhone or iPod Touch.
Taxi
Magic will dispatch a taxi for you
in 25 cities . Tthe taxi request form is fat because your iPhone already
knows where you are (or you can enter a different address).
I used this and loved it, on a trip in San Francisco. I was able to queue up cabs while I was still in the lobby so it was right there as I stepped out the door, and the e-receipts were great for plugging into the expense reports. No need for cash, no hassle trying to deal with a robot in the middle of traffic.
The login is so small you can not even navigate to the PIN and even though the email box appears to be long enough to hold many chars, it wraps after half full.