Four NYC Big Apps winners connected to foursquare API

The annual NYC Big Apps competition pits developers against each other in a bid to build data-rich applications to make NYC even better. As a New York company, it’s no surprise that many of them are somehow connected to foursquare’s API. This year four of the winners have at least some connection to the foursquare API.\

Work+

The biggest winner of the connected apps is iPhone app Work+, which took home 2nd prize for Best Overall Application. Work+ is designed to help you find a coffee shop, park or other spot where you can pull out your laptop and get some work done (see the video above). The data comes from NYC’s list of wi-fi hotspots and foursquare’s venue database. You can filter for things like type of place, how noisy it is and the types of beverages they offer.

Once you’ve picked your spot, Work+ can track how long you spent there and keeps a log of it for billing purposes. It can even check you in on foursquare when you start the timer. At the end of your work session, Work+ asks for a rating, which it compiles and uses to help narrow down the selections for other users of the app.

uhpartments

The City Talent Award went to uhpartments for their mashup that finds and recommends apartment buildings near your current location. It uses data from NYC’s apartment complaints to grade buildings from A to F based on the number of complaints they’ve received. A data page for each building shows street view images, a list of the complaints, nearby laundromats, subway stations, nearby rental listings and recommended businesses from foursquare.

NY Trip Builder

NY Trip Builder won the Popular Choice Award for it’s online tool for creating travel itineraries around New York City. You enter the dates you’ll be traveling and a starting and ending point and the landmarks you’d like to see. NY Trip Builder then creates an optimized trip plan for you that cuts travel times to a minimum and delivers turn by turn directions for your entire trip. The only connection to foursquare appears to be in setting up an account as an alternative to the Facebook connect button.

Scene Near Me

One of my personal favorites, Scene Near Me, won 2nd prize in the Popular Choice Award. Their mashup, which we’ve covered before, sends you a text message when you check in near a famous movie location in New York City. They hope to add a link to an actual video of the scene in the near future.

You can see all the winners on the NYC Big Apps site. Which is your favorite?