Very smart mobile app from lastminute

Lastminute have just launched a new application for the Android G1 phone and though I don’t have one of these devices (I’m an iPhone boy) I had to write about this one as it is just the sort of web app I get very excited by. It’s called nru (get it? near you!) and I’d love to play with it.

Something I didn’t realise is that the G1 has a built in compass. This, coupled with the accelerometers, GPS and wifi/3G connectivity creates an application that delivers a view of things to do around you; this could be restaurants, bars, coffee shops, cinemas. Arghh I already want to play with it!

The app give you a radar map, showing establishments that are close to you at the centre of the map and places further away located on the outer edge of the map. Using all the features of the G1, as you point the phone in different directions you’re presented with new information. Apparently the application gets most of it’s data from Qype and if you’re looking at restaurants, the latest offers an booking facility from lastminute.com is incorporated.

This video shows how the nru works: Lastminute.com nru phone application

Nice eh?

Thanks, Qype!

Today I received a package in the post consisting of a bag of jelly beans and a long sleeve t-shirt. The sender wasn’t my mum or someone late for Christmas but Qype, the user driven content local listings and review site, as a thank you for submitting a certain number of reviews and contributing to the site.

I’ll confess that the jelly beans weren’t very tasty and I’ve given the t shirt away but it’s little ‘real world’ offers like this that can generate some warmth towards a website. And it got me talking about Qype – albeit to the person I offloaded the t shirt to. Though they’ve now taken this promotion down as I imagine it presents a dent to the bottom line so I am now thinking about ways to create a cheap real world connection to some of the Boring websites.