Closed
11 April, 2015
The service has been turned off, and the project has been open sourced. If anyone's
interested in commercial licencing, please contact me.
Souce on github:
https://github.com/karlp/dbeer
BarFinder is closing down
19 July, 2014
This is not maintained, and has not received daily updates since a change in the OSM exports in February 2012.
I always intended to at least get the import working again, but I also learnt that the app would need bigger changes to
be useful. The original idea of live crowd sourced prices was not easy enough to use, so I should have focussed on just
keeping up to date.
I expect to turn off the services supporting this data sometime around September 2014, and expect to publish all the
source code at that time, unless someone wishes to take over this project. I started this project while between jobs,
and it was an illuminating learning experience, but I have sadly never had the time to maintain it as well as it
deserved. So long and thanks for all the fish!
BarFinder is an android app showing you the nearest
bars/pubs/nightclubs to your current location, and how much drinks cost there.
It works worldwide, getting the bar listings from the excellent
OpenStreetMap and the price data from
you, the users. So if a bar is missing, or has changed it's name, you can
simply logon to OpenStreetMap and fix it. And if you're at a bar, and got a
different price, or any price, you can enter in the price you paid, and keep
the averages fresh for everyone.
BarFinder is currently a Beta product. It works, but it's not as
sexy as it could be. I'm after
any feedback at
all on how you find it.
Compared to...
Google Maps on your phone is actually pretty good, but it is only as up to date as it's search results.
It does include directions, but like all the others here, it makes no attempt at tracking prices.
If you want to try this, just open maps and search for "bar"
The other
Bar Finder
looks good, but is really just a front end to google maps. So, bars that no longer exist, bars that are
missing, bars that have moved, etc.
Like all the other apps, it makes no attempt to track prices.
The
Good Beer Guide
Mobile is similar, but focuses more on what beers are available. It has
no pricing data, only focuses on real ale pubs, and only has pubs in the UK.
It also costs 5 pounds for android.
PubCrawler
is similar to the Good Beer Guide, in that it focuses on reviews of the pubs,
doesn't seem to track prices, costs money, (3.99 USD) and is almost
exclusively for beer pubs and breweries in the US.
BarFinder focuses on one simple thing and doing it really well. Where is
a drink, and how much does it cost. It works worldwide, and the database of
bars is updated daily. It's also free :)
Requirements
Any phone running Android 1.6 or later. Phones known to work:
Vodafone 845 (Android 2.1)
Motorola Defy (Android 2.1)
HTC Legend (Android 2.2)
HTC Dream (Android 2.2.1)
Nexus One (Android 2.3)
Permissions
- Internet, to get the bar data and post price updates. (And eventually
ads)
- Fine location details, to find out where you are. If the gps is turned
off, BarFinder can use the coarse location details too.
- That's it!
Privacy wise, this is a location aware application, and as such, you're
sending
your location information to me while using the app. Long term, I want to keep as little as
possible, but I need to make sure the service still works, and that I can weed out anyone
abusing the service and posting garbage data. There'll be a more formal Privacy Policy, but for
now, figure that it's not private at all.
