Poynt’s popular BlackBerry application has made it to iPhone, as expected, and has an added surprise: augmented reality.
At its core, Poynt offers restaurant search, yellow pages business lookup, white pages people search, and movie information all based on your current GPS coordinates. The bells and whistles that Multiplied Media have been able to include are what really set the app apart. Outside of having a smooth, simple user interface, Poynt makes great use of the iPhone’s accelerometer and proximity sensor: when oriented in landscape, it pulls up Google Maps, pinpointing the locations of whatever you’ve been searching. Most entries also have a phone number associated, which are dialed whenever you put the iPhone to your ear. Native app integration allows you to add search results to your address book, should there be a place you go to regularly.
The extra augmented reality bit will show whatever your iPhone’s camera can see on screen, with search results overlaid onto the image. When pointed downwards (according to the accelerometer), you’ll get a splay of arrows pointing in every which direction, but once you look up, results will lay themselves out in front of you, and adjust as you turn, thanks to the magnetic compass. Awesome stuff all around, although it took a bit longer to make it into the iTunes App Store than expected.
As ever, the BlackBerry app is also available for free – download links for both below. Hit up Poynt (or our hands-on with the app) for a closer look.
– Download Poynt for iPhone (Free) [iTunes Link]
– Download Poynt for BlackBerry (Free) [App World Link]