My Digital Life

iPhone App - Open Table

Back in October I purchased an application called Restaurant Reservations which provided users with an interface to select restaurants from the Open Table database and make reservations using Open Table's mobile web site. A couple weeks later that application was removed from the App Store.

Last week Open Table released its own iPhone application which you can download for free. It is a great application which makes it easy to locate nearby restaurants which have open reservation slots.

There seems to be a bit of a misconception in the reviews. People are expecting the application to work like the full web site. The iPhone application is designed to get you a reservation at the closest location based on your GPS/Cell/WiFi location or a location you enter. It then lists availability sorted by the establishment closest to you. This differs significantly from the web site which allows to search for establishment by different criteria, read reviews and once you select the restaurant you want, you then look for reservation availability. A few reviews also chided the applications for not providing directions, it does give you the opportunity to get directions via Google maps once your reservation is confirmed. And with the iPhone new firmware 2.2 Google maps allows you to choose directions by car, walking or transit which is great in the city...

You can argue one way or the other and Open Table should probably implement both work flows, but for now this is a very welcome application and it works well for me. I have placed it on the coveted first home page since I know I will use it often.

iPhone - Tip of the week - Street view

In version 2.2 of the iPhone software, Apple has implemented Google maps street view which is a 360 degree panorama of a street. To enable street view in Google Maps drop a pin on the location you want see. Tap on the pin, if the icon on the left hand side of the tag is enabled (not grayed out), tap on it to display street view.

The red arrow indicate where you tap to get to the Push Pin option as well as map, satellite or hybrid options. Street view works with any of the map display options. The yellow circle indicates where the street view icon is located. In this image, it is grayed out, letting you know that street view is not available from this location.

I dragged the push pin to the intersection and the street view icon is enabled allowing me to tap it.

Street view is only available in landscape (makes sense). Swiping allows you to move up, down, left and right in a 360 panorama. Tapping the map in the circle on the bottom right hand corner returns you to where you were. As you pan around the street name is also displayed.

iPhone App - Trapster update with ability to turn off continuous alerts

Trapter just released a new update to its iPhone application which allows you to configure the application to not alert you continuously of police or camera location within the selected radius.

 

I will be tuning "Continuous Audible Alerts" off. It would have been nice to be able to select the number of times you want to be alerted. You might not hear it the first time, so being able to set it to 2 or 3 times would be almost perfect. I have not had a chance to use this update but I hope the map rendering speed has improved...

iPhone App - Restaurant Reservations

The Restaurant Reservations (front end to Open Table online reservation system) application I purchased over a week ago seems to have been removed from the App Store. The developer; seedwireless still has the product page up on their web site.

Last week, I emailed them a question about how they planned to keep the restaurant database up to date but never heard back. I also found what I think is a bigger problem for my use of the application, the fact that they did not use or manage the cookie the opentable web site uses to keep your name, phone number and email address used to make a reservation. This means you have to enter the information every time you make a reservation. When you use the mobile.opentable.com web site automatically enters that information for you (after you entered the first time you use the web site).

Who knows what happened, it is too bad I thought the application had a lot of promise.

iPhone App - Trapster

Earlier this year I wrote a review on trapster on pocketnow.com. Trapster is basically a graphical (it uses Google Maps) forum to report police activity and traffic cameras. It is an excellent application of Location Based System (LBS) technology. At the time I wrote the review, there were applications for the Nokia N95 (Symbian) and Windows Mobile platforms. Now trapster.com has a version for the iPhone. The iPhone 3G with its GPS is the perfect companion for trapster. Version 1.0 is available free in the App Store. The application is easy to use but I have 2 complaints:

1. You cannot use finger gestures on the map (scroll and zoom)
2. There needs to be a way to control the voice prompt when you are within range of a camera or police activity, the continuous bark can drive you nuts. There is a mute button, but you should be able to set the number of times the voice prompt repeats itself.

I took this screenshot inside, which meant that I was not getting a GPS fix . The large red circle approximates my location based on the cell tower's location my iPhone is linked to. What this also demonstrate is that the application can be used by a 1st generation iPhone without GPS...

iPhone App - Restaurant Reservations

Update 10/20/08 application was removed from app .store.

I use the OpenTable online reservation system fairly frequently and have found that using their standard or mobile web sites in Safari is clumsy . If I know the restaurant I want to reserve, there is no issue. However if I want to browse for a restaurant close to my current location the web site is somewhat difficult to navigate. If you use a PC the OpenTable website works well, it is just not designed for the iPhone or Safari.

The developers of the Restaurant Reservations application realized the issues, and have provided an good alternative to using Safari to browse OpenTable. For $.99, it is worth the price.

There seems to be some confusion between the standard and mobile OpenTable web sites. The Restaurant Reservations application uses the mobile web site. From my support discussion with OpenTable they run those sites on separate systems (they have plans to merge them). The standard web site requires logon credentials while the mobile web site does not. OpenTable matches your account on the mobile web site by using your name, email address and phone number. Once you enter them once, a cookie is created to remember the information on your device. Also the reservations made on the mobile web site are not viewable in the standard web site and vice versa.

The killer function in Restaurant Reservations is the ability to use your current location to find nearby restaurants. It then provides you description information, address, phone number, transit information, and a link to reserve via OpenTable. The application brings up the OpenTable mobile web site for you to complete the reservation. You can then use Google Maps/Directions to find your way there.

It would be nice for reviews to be included, transit directions/time, and links to restaurant web sites. Since the current list of restaurant information is stored locally, I am not sure how the application synchronizes its database to keep it up to date. Hopefully this will be done over the air and not via iTunes...

Just as a note: Zagat also uses OpenTable to make reservations. Their mobile web site www.zagat.mobi provides reviews and links to the OpenTable mobile web site. You must however set your location manually. Zagat does require a subscription to view their reviews, basic restaurant information is free.