Urbanspoon Gets Supersized For The iPad
Finding a good place to eat just got a lot easier for iPad owners. Popular restaurant guide Urbanspoon for the iPad has landed on the App Store bringing along those slot machine decision makers with it to help guide you to your next culinary destination.
Urbanspoon for the iPad offers essentially the same functions as its smaller iPhone sibling with the ability to search for restaurants by town, cuisine type and price. While the iPhone version is great for randomly selecting a place to eat with a shake of your device, the iPad version leans more towards discovery of new places to eat. What you'll notice right away is that the app takes full advantage of the screen space by featuring a persistent map below the slot machines to list all of your choices by map or list view.
The ability to view your selections this way helps make your dining choices even easier as you can visually find locations near you that you might have missed otherwise. Additionally, if you're toting your iPad offline you can still access this list of restaurants but you'll be limited to only the map and name of the location. For restaurant features and reviews, you'll still need a data connection.
Because of the limited portability and convenience of carrying your iPad out to dine, the iPad version does lack certain features found on the more mobile friendly iPhone version. Gone are the integration with Facebook and Twitter and with a camera absent, the augmented reality based Scope function is also removed. The iPad version does however, retain the "Shake It" feature to help you choose but it can be somewhat cumbersome shaking your iPad.
What you do end up getting is a very comprehensive and beautiful looking iPad app that now takes advantage of the extra screen space to help you research your next culinary outing. With an easy to use interface, helpful food reviews and detailed restaurant information including links to websites and menu listings, finding a good place is just a few taps away. Best of all, the app is free to download.
