AroundMe revolutionizes the way you can experience foreign soil (ok maybe foreign soil is a bit extreme), but new places at least! This app is a must have in the iPhone arsenal for many reasons, but mainly because of the abundance of information it has and the ease of accessibility to that information! Sounds simple, it is! Thats what makes it so useful! Plus it has Augmented Reality (AR), think of it like “cyborg” view, still confused, check out the wiki link, AR…P.S. this is the future of technology! Ok lets get right too it!!

The app opens up to a list view interface (that is customizable with a few themes, Fancy – the default theme is the best looking, probably why its the default) with a few buttons: a Search button (top right corner), Location button (bottom left corner), and Settings button (bottom right corner).

Around Me Default Screen with Fancy Theme

As you can probably guess the location button allows you to change the location the information is based off of (the default is current location). An example of why this could be useful: say you are traveling somewhere and want to pick a place to eat after you check-in to your hotel but still have 2 hours until you arrive. You can use the zip code of your hotel to see what restaurants are around you (me).

The next button the Search button is just as straight forward. Think of AroundMe as a huge database, or better yet like the Cars.com commercial (you know the one where there are all the cars and the filters keep dwindling down the amount of cars left). All you are doing is filtering results so that the only entries in the database you see are the ones that meet the criterion you have input. The Search button just allows you to apply a custom filter instead of the pre-configured filters that are housed on the AroundMe default screen above. For example, instead of searching the database using the one of the pre-configured filters, Banks, you search the database with your custom filter, “National City Bank”. Now the results that will be returned to you will be the most relevant…i.e. National City Banks sorted by proximity (closest first)!

*A nice feature of AroundMe is that the app will save your most recent searches, which is really convenient because just think of the example above, now you have a place where your “pre-configured” filters will be saved!

Search Screen

Results Screen for “sushi” search

One of features developers try to include within their apps is standardization and AroundMe does a phenomenal job incorporating standardization. No matter what you searched for it always looks and operates like the Results Screen above, but different content obviously. Ok before I get into the fun stuff let me just tell you a little about the Settings button.

Settings Screen

The settings that can be controlled within the Settings Screen are: Units (kilometer/meter or Miles/yards), Temperature (Celsius or Fahrenheit), Theme (Classic, B & W, Ruby, Fancy), Statistics (on/off, this just takes your data,  anonymizes it and then sends it to AroundMe), and then a link to another app my by the same developer as AroundMe. Below are what the app looks like with the different themes enabled.

Alright now that all the boring stuff is out of the way (and I am a few flabongos in, jk) lets Party! Like I said early, AroundMe is basically a huge database that you submit queries to (custom or pre-configured) and receive the most relevant results! The database that AroundMe has amassed is gargantuan! The pre-configure searches that are available are:

• Apple Retail Stores
• Banks/ATM
• Bars
• Coffee
• Favorites – I will show you how to add a favorite from the Business Profile Screen
• Gas Stations
• Hospitals
• Hotels
• Movie Theatres
• Nearby – the most basic search, only filter it uses is proximity to your location or location defined by you (if you changed it)
• Parking
• Pharmacies
• Pubs
• Restaurants
• Supermarkets
• Taxis
• Theaters
• Weather – YES! you can easily check the weather, with the three-day forecast on this screen, icons and all!

Weather Results Screen (based off Location)

*the active location your searches are based on is always displayed in bottom of the screen, “Wright St – Indianapolis”

There aren’t any differentiating features between categories, the list format looks the exact same (Results Screen), but with different content obviously (is it redundant to put obviously?). This is one part of the app I would like to see have more integration. For example, if you are looking for restaurants the ability to reserve a table while within the app or even a quick link that throws you into Open Table (if you didn’t catch on Open Table is an iPhone App that allows you to make reservations instantly from your iPhone, there is even reward bonuses when using Open Table). No worries though I have a lil’ something something to combat this problem in the Way2Hype Starter Kit!

Ok now its time to watch AroundMe in action! Here is a scenario: My friend and I decide we are hungry. I don’t know what I am craving and neither does she. Lets use AroundMe to see what is…uhhh AroundMe (what a great app name)! I press on Restaurants and I am immediately taken to the Results screen (my search is for restaurants closest first).

Restaurants Results Screen

I browse thru and don’t really find anything that perks our interest! Then all of sudden we decide we want sushi (I love sushi, my wallet doesn’t, thank god for half price sushi at SOTR)!. Instead of using the pre-configured Restaurants search, I am going to create a custom search, “Sushi”. I type “sushi” into the search bar to create my custom query! Voila all the restaurants that serve sushi appear on the results screen, but I don’t want to look through the list I want to where they are located. No problem just press Show Map and the results screen transforms into the Map Results Screen!

*the blue pin pulsing is your location

Maps Results Screen for “sushi”

There is a lot going on this screen, you have your standard back navigation button at the top left and the Hide Map button in the top right, which converts the Maps Results Screen back into the List Results Screen. Also there are 4 buttons at the bottom that activate once you select a business :

• Arrow coming out of square (Bottom farthest left) – this button provides three possible actions Post to Facebook, Post on Twitter, and Show Route. The two first two are pretty self-explantory and if its your first time posting to Facebook or Twitter using AroundMe you will be asked for your logon credentials. Guess what Facebook uses, yup Facebook Connect!

Tweet Creation Screen

*Notice in the Tweet Creation Screen, this message is automatically populated (name of business, address) and inserted into your tweet and Facebook post. It is editable before you tweet or publish to Facebook.

The Show Route Option allows you to enter Maps or Navigon (you have to purchase Navigon if you do not already own it) and will auto-inserts the address of the business into the destination and creates the route for you! Really nice feature! You see integration can really enhance the usability of an app immensely!

• Telephone button – Just gives you the ability to call the business

• Email button – Allows one to email whoever they want with a prefabricated message including the Address of the business and a hyper link to that address in Google Maps! Pretty handy if you are inviting people to meet you somewhere and they need directions!

Email Generated by AroundMe (it is editable)

• “+” button – This allows you to add any business to your favorites or contacts! Your Favorites are accessible on the AroundMe Default Screen under Favorites. To delete a favorite, Navigate to the AroundMe Default Screen ->Favorites -> Press Edit Button in top right corner ->press red circle with dash ->press delete button!

Now if you if you press on the blue echelon while in the Maps View you will be taken to a detailed Profile Screen for that business. It basically makes all the options I discussed in the above buttons all one touch options (huh?!) Every action above has its own button…i.e. the “+” housed both add to favorites and add to contacts, now there are two separate buttons on this screen for both options. Along with the Contact Information (address and phone), Post on Twitter, Post on Facebook, Show Route, and Email. This is nice because you can see all your options on one screen instead of having to navigate thru a few layers like on the previous screen (map view)!

Business Profile Screen

On too the coolest part of the app, Augmented Reality! This is such a cool concept! To activate it all you do is tilt your iPhone into landscape orientation whenever you are in the map view! The basic concept of AR ( I mean BASIC if you want more info check the wiki link at the top) is that now that you know where someone is (GPS Location) and you know which way they are orientated or facing (magnetometer or compass, ) you can put images at very precise locations and when someone looks through the camera they show up overlayed on the background. Pretty sketchy explanation I know, but AR is more easily understood when seen! Checkout the screen shots below!

*You need a 3GS model because without a compass (magnetometer) you would not be able to distinguish where the person is looking

Another Screen Shot of Augment Reality in AroundMe

One caveat with the AR in AroundMe is that you cannot press on a business and go to their Profile Screen on UrbanSpoon and Yelp you can. I think one reason for this is that maybe the AR in AroundMe isn’t fully developed and they are piloting it much like Yelp did with Monocle by releasing it under the radar and not even assigning a button to it, but thats just my two cents because if it is finished its nothing more than a facade. Nevertheless play around with this feature it is really cool!

As you can see AroundMe is an incredibly versatile app it can be used as a broadsword to slice through massive amounts of information with the pre-configured filters or it can be used like a scalpel to cut out a tiny piece of information with the custom search (i.e. use the Restaurants filter or Banks filter or the “sushi” or “National City Bank” custom searches)! This versatility and convenience of being able to manipulate data so fast and return extremely relevant results is why AroundMe is part of the Way2Hype iPhone Starter Kit! As always the download link will be included below!

P.s. if you like AroundMe you are not going to want to miss the Siri Review! Siri is another amazing app thats guess what, yup, is part of the Way2Hype Starter Kit!

Download AroundMe iPhone App Here

What apps do you use to find businesses when you are traveling ?

Do you like AroundMe or find it useful?

Are there better geo-informants besides AroundMe?

Do you like the idea of Augmented Reality?

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