Friday, February 5, 2010

Apple prevents App Store devs from using location-based ads


We’re getting closer and closer to some of the stuff we see it science fiction literature and films. a small Silicon Valley startup with a really breakthrough product that for now only works on the iPhone.

 

Here’s the deal. You download the free app, start it up, and tell it what you want. It could be “Will it snow in Des Moines today?” or “Where can I find the nearest burger” or it could be “Find the nearest parks”. It parses your comments, runs out to the web for a few seconds and comes back with a lot of suggestions. It gives you buttons to call the places you’ve found, or to show them on Google Maps and get you directions.
I tried to get a bit fancier saying “Make me a reservation for 2 at the nearest Olive Garden tonight at 7.” The app figured out Olive Garden didn’t take reservations through their service, but it provided me a number for the nearest Olive Garden and offered to map it.
[iTunes link]