As a dedicated untappd user (500 unique beers, way more checkins), what does beerquest offer over untappd? It looks beautiful; clearly a very well put together app, but is there a compelling reason to switch? Either way, great work!
The biggest difference between the two apps is that BeerQuest is just as much about the place as it is about the beer. We don't rely on third party places data like Untappd does (Foursquare). Checkins are about checking into a place and not a beer. If you're at a place and are drinking a beer, you 'drink' a beer. We also think the journal and maps aspect of the app turned out really well. Quickly map out all of the great places near you and everywhere you been.
From a technical perspective, BeerQuest was built using Objective C instead of HTML5, so it feels like a true native app because it is.
I don't think so. The showcase on PhoneGap was posted in July 2012. Additionally, it's easy to tell that the app isn't utilizing the Cocoa Touch UI framework. Look at how the views bounce, how the buttons "feel". Those are dead PhoneGap giveaways.
I've found that most people don't care about this unless you're delivering an extraordinary native experience (ala Path)
A native app is great if you've got a team who can do it well. If you can't, simple PhoneGap-ish apps will suffice. It's a sunk cost in that if you get traction, you'll eventually need to switch over to native to compete: effectively a re-write.
It looks like there is quite a bit of data already for Austin users (which makes sense for SXSW), but I just tried this in San Francisco and it looks pretty empty.
Is there an existing data set out there for beer? I know there are a TON of beer review sites, but I'm guessing none have an API or a way to integrate.
If you want this to take off I'd suggest trying to get a few early power users in San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle to light a fire in the Pacific Northwest as this is definitely micro-brew country.
I can already think of a few great uses for this. A few weeks ago I had a friend come into town for San Francisco Beer Week and ALL he cared about was finding which bars carried Pliny the Younger (it's won "Best beer in the world" at least once). There was no easy way to do this.
Even if you know where Pliny the Younger is being served, there's still no easy way to do this. They release a limited amount and it usually sells out in the first hour or so. If you go to the Russian River brewery it's a 5 hour+ wait. Crazy stuff.
Non-app related question, is there a stock service that will slice together and create the animated screen transitions you have? I am about to put together a site for an iOS app and I'm guessing that this is common enough that I can spend a little money and save a lot of time. (any link related to buying designs/layouts welcome too)
I did a similar App for restaurants in another country, however, I did an Android and iOS version and found that much more people are using my Android app. The conversion rate seems to be better on Android as well.
So, I'd love to see this App on the Google Play store since I am a huge fan of great beer and the bars where to find them.
Great feedback regarding the conversion rate. We actually went down the road of building both an iOS and an Android version out of the gate but found that the Android platform seemed fragmented. With hundreds of different devices all running everything from 2.x to 4.x, it seemed too complicated initially to do it right.
Looks great (and I live in Austin, so recognizing some of the places was cool!) but I only have an Android phone. Would love to know if you make a version for it.
Is the data for this app user-submitted, or do you pull from somewhere?
Untappd is lovely on Android, sounds like it's some way ahead of this app. I use it in New Zealand and it works great. Nothing else mentioned in this thread is close.
