We have to hand it to Zagat and LastMinute.com, both of whom are responsible for bringing NRU (pronounced "near you", though it really isn't) to the Android Market. It's one nifty little application that both takes advantage of the G1's hardware bundle and offers a unique way of hunting for food places in your vicinity.
Zagat, of course, is the website billed (by themselves, probably) as the "...Most Trusted Guide to Restaurant Reviews and Ratings." I'm not even going to contest any of that, given that confirming a list of restaurant reviews is hardly in my immediate to-do list. Checking out their NRU app, however, is in my list of tasks and what a bundle of joy they've come up with.
Once you launch the app, you'll get a real time compass occupying the entire phone's screen, showing legends of nearby restaurants and locations. It uses your GPS and compass to determine where you are, with the interface conforming to both your movement and the accelerometer readings of how you're holding the phone. For the most part, it makes looking for something to eat feel like a treasure hunt of sorts, at least until the initial thrill of the new tech sinks in a bit.
Tapping on any restaurant in the grid shows you information about it, including the type of cuisine, price estimates, reviews, ratings and numerous other details. The information is sourced directly from Zagat's mobile website, so it's pretty complete and informative. I can't imagine a better tool for finding good food while you're on the road, at least in the US and Canada.
That's right, the app (and I think Zagat, for the most part) only supports use in North America (sorry international jetsetters) and that's not really the worst of it. While the app itself is free, the information that pops out of the screen after you tap isn't. Membership to Zagat's exhaustive restaurant database (over 40,000 establishments) will cost you $2 a month (or a discounted $17.50 a year). If you enjoy visiting new places and finding good food in the US and Canada, though, I can't imagine anything better, not to mention way cooler-looking.
Photo Credit: Zagat
[...] well know, the phone also comes with a built-in magnetometer (which should pave the way for some cool compass-based apps, like in Android) and a beefed-up graphics processor. One huge surprise out of all this, is [...]
I hope the guide is good and lists the good restaurants and not just any random place nearby. The membership charges is somewhat the bad part.