REVIEW: Planning help for those on the go . today

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly feature, Yay or Nay. Every week we’ll review a new wireless application or service from the user’s point of view, with the goal of highlighting what works and what doesn’t. If you wish to submit your application or service for review, please contact us at [email protected].
Applications: Movies and Showtimes by Stylem Media, and Restaurant Guide by Boo Rah.
Running on: HTC G1 using T-Mobile USA’s 3G network
Yay: Both provide quick, accurate information on movies and restaurants and can go quite in-depth on specific information.
Nay: Neither allowed for planning ahead; they only focused on the here and now.
We say: Good for those always on the go and planning last minute. Not so good for the types who like to plan ahead and know before they hit a location what movie they’ll be seeing and what they’ll be eating.
Review: We all know the feeling: We’ve darted out the door to go see a movie or grab a bite and now something has come up or we forgot the details. How nice that in today’s world we can reach in our purse or pocket and pull out our handy-dandy phone to quickly (sometimes) connect to the Internet and figure out a destination. Applications such as Movies and Showtimes and Restaurant Guide are designed to make that mobile process a bit easier. And they do.
Movies and Showtimes: When this app is opened, it immediately begins loading movies playing in your area. The service uses Google Maps to find your location and list the movies in various theatres playing in the area. Once you click on the film of your choice, it shows the theatres and times that it’s playing. It also lets you read some movie information and ratings through the IMDb Web site. And if you click on a theatre, it brings up Google Maps so you can see the location. Sounds great. Now, what if you’re trying to plan, from your mobile device, a movie for tomorrow night? You can’t. This application only searches for the current day. It allows you to change locations and see other movies/times in different spots, but no planning for tomorrow.
Restaurant Guide: This app seems to work just as efficiently, but is even more limited. Once opened, it provides two choices: Restaurants Near You or Top Restaurants Nearby. When you click on either option it scans your location and pinpoints restaurants in the area on a map. However, they are just numbers with locations, no restaurant names. You must click on “list view” to see the restaurants. The list shows a photo, restaurant name, address, type of cuisine and the percentage of reviewers who said “Rah!” to this choice. Once you click on a restaurant, a few more reviews are listed in a more detailed fashion and it gives you the opportunity to call for reservations. However, unlike Movies and Showtimes, Restaurant Guide does not allow you to change the location. It will only search near where you are, which once again, hinders any planning if you don’t want to eat somewhere where you are.
What’s nice about this feature though is you can easily call for reservations, write your own review or fix any information.
There’s also a camera option that automatically launches the phone’s camera. Don’t know exactly why that’s there, but its there. Overall, these two apps work great; they are efficient and the information we saw was accurate. But perhaps they’re not the best option for those who need to plan days ahead for where they’ll eat or be entertained.
One perk, though: They’re both free.