We’ve been working hard to bring out yet another great update for you. We’ve included a bunch of new features:
Business Hours
How many times have you been going to a restaurant or shop just to find out it’s already closed for the day? Countless times in our case and reason enough to built that into Where To?. If the shop’s business hours are listed, Where To? displays them neatly on the details page. You can toggle between today’s business hours or the whole week. If you’re missing opening hours for a specific location, you or the owner can add them.Direction Indicator
On devices with compass (iPhone 4 and 3GS, all iPad), Where To? now displays a little arrow that always points in the direction of the venue. Turn around with your iPhone until the arrow points upwards and you know in which direction to go.External Apps
We’ve always been a big believer in an app ecosystem where apps work together seamlessly and concentrate on doing one task really well. For example we were the first working together with Navigon and TomTom for directions. Now we’re supporting two more external apps:
Google Earth (free) comes in handy when you’re looking at a hotel and wanna find out whether the surrounding looks nice. It appears as a selection when tapping “Open in Maps” and Google Earth is installed.MotionX GPS drive is a popular app for getting directions in the US and appears under “Directions” if installed.
Brazilian Portuguese
No matter if you’re living in Brazil or going on a trip to the Copacabana: Where To? (Para Onde?) now speaks Brazilian Portuguese (besides traditional Portuguese we support since 2009) and has optimized search results for Brazil. Huge thanks to Fabio Roselet for localizing it.
VoiceOver
While there aren’t that many users relying on VoiceOver, supporting users with visual impairments is a top priority for us. According to feedback we receive, visually impaired users love the iPhone:“The iPhone and iPad are real game changers in how I’m able to interact with the world. Great Apps like ‘Where To?’ support me in my daily life. One can easily look up points of interest and navigate to them almost like a sighted person.”
Philipp Stroh, visually impaired Where To? user
(Btw, I totally recommend reading Austin Seraphin’s highly emotional story about his first week with the iPhone.) In Where To? 3.7 we improved the VoiceOver support by speaking live direction and distance updates on the details page (“slight left, 200 yards”, “straight-ahead, 150 yards” and so on). Also, we’ve fixed an issue where the two-finger Z-gesture for “Back” wasn’t working. If you’re a user with visual disabilities, we’re eager to hear more feedback, particularly which apps you’re using to get walking directions.
Various improvements and bugfixes
- Added confirmation alert before initiating phone call
- Where To? 3D – Augmented Reality: Improved performance and animations
- Updated and optimized categories, brands and search optimizations
- Various bug fixes and improved stability
Staff update: I’d like to introduce Winnie Teichmann as a new member of the Where To? team. Although Winnie has a Java background, as a long time Apple geek she really enjoys doing Cocoa development for iPhone. Welcome!
Download Where To? 3.7 from the App Store. And please, don’t forget to rate the app, even if you’ve done that before. (As you may know, Apple resets the current rating with every update.) Better yet, take the time and write a review about how you’re making use of the app!
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Austin Seraphin
Hey, thanks for VoiceOver support, and thanks for linking to my article. I just came upon your app the other day, synchronistically enough. It works very well. These kinds of apps definitely help the blind, and I always love it when developers take an interest. Often a few little tweaks can make all the difference.