Where To? GPS pointer

Well this is a first! I’ve been meaning to review this app for a while and, now that I finally get around to it, it looks like the app is up for sale. According to tap tap tap’s blog there’s been some internal stuff happening which has led to Where To? being voluntarily pulled from the App Store (for now) while they look for someone who wants to milk this cash cow.

Even though you can’t go to the App Store and get Where To? right this second, I’ll give you the skinny on it anyway:

It’s good.

I wouldn’t call it “great”, but it certainly qualifies as good. Chances are you’ve seen ads for it right here on this site or elsewhere, and its big claim is that it makes your iPhone act more like a GPS locator, or something like that.

What Where To? really does is give you shortcuts for mapping out the things you want to find on your iPhone’s map application. For example, to find a Thai restaurant in your area (or somewhere else, like near a friend’s house), you would normally have to open the map app, type “Thai restaurant” into the search box, and wait for it to spit up some results.

If you’re trying to find Thai food near your friend’s house across town, you’d have to put in that address first and then do your search. Yeah, pain in the ass.

Instead, with this app you tap the fork & knife icon, scroll down to the ‘T’ section of Food & Drink types, and tap on Thai. At this point you’re given some choices on where to search:

• Where I Am Now
• Current Location in Maps
• One of My Contacts…
• Some Other Location…

If you’re always jonesing for Thai food you can also add this search to Favorites for fast access in the future.

When you finish selecting your search option you get switched over to the iPhone map app and you’re looking at the results for “Thai restaurant”.

Some of you might be thinking pffft I don’t need to pay $2.99 for THAT… but never underestimate the power of suggestion. Where To? includes a lot of categories that might not occur to you when you’re trying to find this or that, kind of like when you flip through the Yellow Pages. These are the major categories included in Where To?:

• Food & Drink
• Entertainment
• Travel & Transportation
• Health & Medical
• Organizations
• Emergency
• Attractions
• Government Offices
• Education
• Services
• Shopping

I don’t know that Where To? lives up to the GPS claim, but it will definitely save you time and maybe even point you in a direction you wouldn’t have thought of on your own. The Food & Drink and Entertainment categories have a “Surprise Me!” option that will choose a subcategory for you just in case you’re tired of the bar scene and would be open to playing racquetball or bingo instead.

Would I pay $2.99 for Where To? If I were one of those people who’s always traveling on business, absolutely. I’d also pay for it if I found myself frequently trying to drive and search at the same time… seriously, this $3 app could save your life if you’re one of those people! Where To? would also be good for anyone who’s incredibly lazy, wants to minimize iPhone typing as much as possible, has an active social life, or all of the above.

I can see why this app has been so successful in the App Store… it may not be very GPS-ey, but it definitely has its uses and can save a lot of people a lot of time.

I hope tap tap tap finds a suitable buyer who will continue to develop Where To? and expand its usefulness, and if a buyer doesn’t surface then hopefully they’ll find a way to keep it alive. It’s a quality app that’s worth the price tag it carries.