While this is a food blog, there is no doubt that the techie in me wants to take every opportunity to drop some nugget of wisdom every once in a blue moon. Today is just such a day. UrbanSpoon, a social review site for restaurants, just launched an Android version of their popular iPhone app.
For those of you with accounts (like me), you can use the app to login to the site and go about your daily business. However, the coolest feature doesn’t require an account. As you’ll see below, they have a slot machine toy. Shake your phone, and US will suggest a nearby location for you to eat based on neighborhood, cuisine type, and budget. Pretty slick and I’m glad they’ve ported the application over to the Android ecosystem.
For those of you who are still with me, this only works on Droid and Nexus One phones. If you’ve got the barcode scanner, here’s the direct link to install:
Though slightly off-topic, we here at Foodie Buddha do recognize the symbiotic relationship between drink and morsel. Hence, this post!
We all know the feeling. You’ve had a few too many, you’re either completely elated or totally depressed, and all you want to do is call that person. Perhaps it’s your wife and you want to tell your you love her (don’t – you’ll sound like an ass), perhaps it’s your significant other (don’t – you’ll sound clingy), or perhaps it’s the one that got away (DEFINITELY don’t – you’ll sound like a dwebe because you are one).
So while we all know these are things we shouldn’t do … we end up knee deep in the shit. Thankfully, technology is here to help. Enter The Bad Decision Blocker (website).
So yes, this little phone app is here to prevent you from drunk dialing. Sadly, it is only available on the evil empires platform…but rest assured, it will probably end up on a phone near you sometime soon.
Yelp! can’t avoid trouble for love or money. It seems like almost everyday, the hugely popular review site finds itself in some sort of public hot water. Be it lawsuit, business backlash, or even bribery, they have their share of public relation problems. The latest snafu comes at the expense of Apple, and their seemingly ubiquitous iPhone.
This isn’t a tech blog, so I’ll spare ya’ll the techie talk … but here’s the long of the short. Apple has introduced something called Augmented Reality (AR) [Wikipedia] for the iPhone. In this case, AR allows you to utilize a mashup (tech talk for “combination”) of online maps, street view, and yelp reviews. Here’s how it works:
Looks and sounds pretty cool huh? The problem is … the developers of the Yelp App had to jump through some hoops to get it in place before the release of the upcoming iPhone update. The end result is the Easter egg described above. Now there’s been a lot of love bestowed upon the app and its makers (here and here), but a guest post over on TechCrunch raises some points that have some people scratching their heads.
Yelp isn’t a frequent stop for me, but I do shoot over there every once in a blue moon (foodiebuddha.yelp.com). It’s a site that absolutely has some utility … but I just can’t figure out why they keep pissing so many people off. Keep in mind, I’m not talking about the people who frequent Yelp or our very own Ambassador. I’m just sayin’ – the people calling the shots seem to have a pension for punishment.
Speaking of just sayin – here’s your laugh of the day:
You can now get Epicurious on your iPhone, that little gadget that seems to do everything but provide good call quality. Actually, this is pretty much awesome! Relying on sources like gourmet.com and bon appetit, you can find many many thousands of recipes on this bad boy. Heck, the entire Gourmet Cookbook is available! Supperlicious!
The real cool thing is that this sucker is actually usable. You can take the recipe and turn it into a shopping list. I just spent a few minutes playing with the app and think it is not half bad. There is some room for improvement; but, given that this is free, I can’t complain. Download it here: Epicurious for iPhone
Do I have an iPhone? Absolutely not. Will I ever get one? I seriously doubt it. Is that something Im proud of? Damn skippy! That said, foursquare (iTunes page) is a kick ass app that ALMOST makes me want to rethink my stance.
What exactly is foursquare? Its a location aware social media tool that allows you to update your location, send shouts to your friends, track your ‘achievements,’ and keep a to-do list that is shared with your friends. You can also add additional information about your favorite food or beer to your favorite hangouts.
Ive watched a couple of demos of this thing and I gotta say it looks like a winner. I, like the gang over at Read Write Web, think the real kicker to this whole thing is the achievement system. Think of it like the Xbox 360 Achievement system for your night life! Though Atlanta is not yet available, I am glad to see that they have a mobile version so those of us using dated technology (Treo 755p cough cough) can still play.
For those of you who live here in Atlanta, be patient Im sure theyll get to us soon. For now, the city selection is limited to Austin, Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York City, Philadelphia, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, & Washington DC.
A few days ago, Chipotle, the [used to be] McDonalds owned burrito joint, launched Chipotle Mobile Ordering [App Store – now dead], an iPhone app that allowed people to order from their mobile phones. While I don’t like Chipotle, and I can’t stand Apple … that was a pretty cool utility.
The app was built around Chipotles recently revamped online ordering system. Much to my surprise, the App went gang busters. It has since been pulled down due server overload (that’s techie for too many people wanted it). According to TechCrunch, the developers hope to have the app back up and running within two weeks.
