Apple Thoughts - News & Reviews on all things Apple

"Google announced Thursday the release of Google Places for iPhone, a combination of Google's Hotspot and Google Maps that you can use to find restaurants (etc.) near you. This standalone app is effectively an effort to out-Yelp Yelp by offering search results that are ranked and affected by your own ratings and the ratings of your friends."

I use Yelp for most of my recommendations or searches, although for the last couple months I really haven't been out enough to bother. I like that it's integrated with Google Maps but I would expect no less, and it's free and available now in iTunes. I plan on using Yelp again but I think I will also give this a go, how about you? What do you use to get your recommendations for restaurants, bars, etc?

"Yelp, the fast-growing local search and review site, has announced an update for its iPhone app. Version 4.0 of Yelp for the iPhone and iPod touch allows you to log in to your profile and edit it. More interesting, the app also includes a "check-in" feature which tells your Yelp friends that you're visiting a particular business."

I use Yelp quite a bit, although I need to actually submit some of my own reviews more frequently. I find it quite useful in new locales, and actually get a lot of use in the ones with which I'm familiar. Now they are adding capabilities, along the lines of Brightkite or Growl, so you can update your friends on your location. If you use Yelp, feel free to send friend request! Here is my link.

"Yelp is a free service for finding information and customer reviews on local businesses like bars and restaurants by searching or using location services."

And as of the end of last week, they have updated the app to version 3.0. This actually is a handy app if you can get the right group of users on your friends list, people that actually review the businesses. Surprisingly enough, even in an area like mine I have found at least 6 or so people that are pretty prolific, so I get some good info. And for iPhone 3GS users, it has a newly added "augmented reality" feature using a button called a "monacle" that overlays local businesses on your iPhone screen based on your location. I have yet to get this feature to work on mine however.