Finding a good eatery on the iPhone just got a little easier

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Finding a good eatery on the iPhone just got a little easier

John Cook on Wednesday, October 14, 2009, 1:49pm PDT

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iPhone | Mobile | Startups | Urbanspoon

It used to be that you could just shake your iPhone to find a good restaurant. But Urbanspoon -- the Seattle startup that revolutionized restaurant search on mobile devices -- is now taking the concept a bit further with a new function called the Scope.

Just point your phone at the street and within a few moments the restaurants in that neighborhood appear on the screen. Urbanspoon co-founder Ethan Lowry admits that the service -- which only works on the new iPhone 3GS -- is "more about fun than function." But Lowry, for one, had some good luck with it last weekend on trip to Portland.

He didn't know where to eat so he pulled out his iPhone and -- using the Scope function -- got pointed to the nearby Park Kitchen. (Lowry described the restaurant as "fantastic.")

"It's definitely another way, like the "shake" slot machine, to discover a good place to eat," he says.

The New York Times compares the new feature to a "periscope" since users can point the phone in any direction to get the scoop on nearby restaurants. And they report that the service utilizes a new mobile technology known as "augmented reality."

Here's how Lowry told us that it works: "It taps into the camera, the compass and GPS for location. You point the camera at the buildings around you -- so it's just seeing what you are seeing -- and it superimposes information on the scene," he said.

About John Cook

John Cook is co-founder and executive editor of TechFlash. He has been covering the technology beat for nearly a decade, writing about startups, entrepreneurs and venture capital, most recently serving as a reporter/blogger at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

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