Earlier this week Guinness released a Pub Finder app for the iPhone. The app was created by KICK Design. First the details and screen shots, then my thoughts on the app will follow.

To assist you and consumers of legal drinking age across the US to join the Arthur’s Day celebration and more easily raise a toast with friends in the future, GUINNESS yesterday released the new iPhone App: GUINNESS® Pub Finder – U.S.

The GUINNESS PUB FINDER App is divided into a few user-friendly sections:

• “Locate a Pint” – uses GPS to locate the consumer and the pubs serving Guinness nearest to their current location. It then provides name, address and telephone number of the pub chosen, access to directions, and an email setup to invite friends to join! ***

• “Know Your Pint” – provides a tutorial on the 6 Steps to Creating the Perfect Pint, and also includes a ruler that can be used to ensure that the head of the pint is up to GUINNESS quality standards.

• Fun Extras – includes animated screensavers, a countdown clock to the “Arthur’s Day” celebrations and a live feed of the latest news regarding the GUINNESS 250th Anniversary celebration

• Responsible Drinking – Provides consumers with the DRINKiQ resource which shares important facts about alcohol to aid responsible choices.

You can expect periodic updates to the iPhone App that will share the latest from GUINNESS…everything from the newest promotions to value-adds like mini-games or quiz questions for continued enjoyment on-the-go with the iPhone.

The App costs $1.99

App Store Link

My Review:

Having just gotten an iPhone a couple weeks ago I was super excited to see that Guinness had made an iPhone app. It was one of the first things I checked for when I got my phone. When we got this email I got the app right away.

The pub finder on the app is great. It shows you all establishments in the area that have Guinness on tap. As you zoom the map out it shows more. I found two problems with this feature. There is no info other than contact information for the pubs/bars. I know one local place serves Guinness in plastic cups, but there’s no way for a person using the app to know that. I would say just stick with the places that have Irish names, it’s not full proof but your chances of getting a good pint are better there. My second issue with this is that it doesn’t handle showing lots of pubs well. As you know we are in NJ, I just zoom out a little and NYC is on the map. When that happens I get an error that there are too many pubs for the app to display properly. Then the app crashes. It’s obvious they know about this problem, hopefully they can fix it soon.

The other options are fun, the How to Pour a Perfect Pint section will let you make sure the bar keep is pouring a proper pint and the ruler will let you check it when you get it.

The countdown clock and news are cool. They are what you’d expect. A countdown to the 24th and a feed of Guinness related news. You get those by clicking the 250 Remarkable Years logo. I thought it was just a header at first.

My biggest complaint about the app is that you have to enter your birthdate every time you run it. It’s on my phone, this data should be stored. Maybe it can ask if I am me or something, but having to enter that every time is annoying, and user unfriendly.

So is the app worth $1.99? If you travel a lot, yes. If not, I don’t think it is quite on par with other $1.99 apps yet. If they come through with the additions spoken of above than it definitely will be.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 17th, 2009 at 7:12 am and is filed under Brewing, Commercials, Cooking, GuinnessPours, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.