Would you trust your phone to lead you to something to eat?
Do you ever get to a point where you know exactly what you’re craving, but none of your usual restaurants sounds good? Do you just want someone else to make a decision and tell you where to go? You should try the Hot Beacon.
A web app that works on phones with iOS 5 or above, the Hot Beacon asks you one simple question: what are you craving? Tell it what you want (sushi, tacos, a cocktail, etc.), and it will return a list of “intel” on a few unnamed nearby spots. All you’ll get is the category of the place and a foursquare tip that’s relevant to what you’re craving.
Once you’ve chosen one of the spots on the list, tap it and the Hot Beacon will provide you with a direction and distance to head. As you walk (or drive), the distance and direction will update until you’ve found the spot. Due to the inaccuracies of GPS on the iPhone, this tends to jump around just a bit, but should lead you there without too much trouble.
The results are powered by foursquare’s Explore data, so you’ll only be led to places that foursquare thinks are good recommendations for your search.
The Hot Beacon was built by David DeRemer, who is also behind the excellent Dish Freely (which we covered in February) and Eat Freely apps.
Will you use the Hot Beacon every time you want to go out? Probably not. But it is a fun way to find something new to try occasionally and just put your trust in someone else to lead you to something cool.
What do you think of the Hot Beacon? Would you blindly trust your phone to lead you to something good to eat?
