5 ms·

Show HN: Varkala for iOS. No more scattered lists of restaurants/bars. Thoughts?

10 points by vivekmgeorge 12y ago

vivekmgeorge 12y ago
Hi I’m vivekmgeorge (or Vivek). I am working on Varkala with ruddct (Rudd). We are two guys who outside of our passion for tech love exploring and trying new things. One thing we have noticed is that all of us get recommendations for places to try from friends, family, or colleagues. Sometimes we get ideas as we commute, when checking our Instagram feed or reading a food blog. The problem is being able to keep track of all these great suggestions in an easy way and being able to share them. That is why we built Varkala. Varkala allows you to stop worry about finding the right place to grab a drink on a first date or coffee with an old friend because your personal journal of great places are saved in your pocket. We are planning on doing a big PR push in a few weeks and would love the communities feedback. Let me know what you think here or if you like you can email me directly at vivekATvarkaDOTla. Thank you!
coreymaass 12y ago
This looks great! Nice and simple. I know it's cliche, but I look forward to a social aspect, too. My immediate and/or local friends are the foodies, not me. :-)
- vivekmgeorge 12y ago
  coreymaass thanks for the feedback! We have focused a lot of attention on the design to make sure it is easy to use and aesthetically pleasing. There is currently some social aspects to it - you can share places and lists to FB/Twitter or directly to friends. Deeper social integration is something we are thinking about, but want to do it consciously and not in a "cliche" way. Thanks again for your input and let your friends know :)
sritch 12y ago
Is this US only? I want it in Canada!
- vivekmgeorge 12y ago
  Hey sritch! And want to be in Canada. We would absolutely love to be available outside the US, though unfortunately our location data provider doesn’t yet support it. We’re always looking for ways to expand beyond the US, but in the mean time you can manually add places in other countries by: * Opening the Varkala app and tapping ‘Add Place’ * Scrolling to the bottom of the screen and tapping ‘Can’t find it?’ * Then give the place you’d like to add a name and address Let me know what you think!
  - sritch 12y ago
    It's only in the US App store :(
    - vivekmgeorge 12y ago
      Correct. I know some people have changed their app store settings to the US to get Varkala :) Here are the instructions from Apple if you are interested: http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT6119 http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT6119

10 points by vivekmgeorge 12y ago

Hi I’m vivekmgeorge (or Vivek). I am working on Varkala with ruddct (Rudd). We are two guys who outside of our passion for tech love exploring and trying new things. One thing we have noticed is that all of us get recommendations for places to try from friends, family, or colleagues. Sometimes we get ideas as we commute, when checking our Instagram feed or reading a food blog. The problem is being able to keep track of all these great suggestions in an easy way and being able to share them. That is why we built Varkala. Varkala allows you to stop worry about finding the right place to grab a drink on a first date or coffee with an old friend because your personal journal of great places are saved in your pocket. We are planning on doing a big PR push in a few weeks and would love the communities feedback. Let me know what you think here or if you like you can email me directly at vivekATvarkaDOTla. Thank you!

coreymaass 12y ago

This looks great! Nice and simple. I know it's cliche, but I look forward to a social aspect, too. My immediate and/or local friends are the foodies, not me. :-)

vivekmgeorge 12y ago
coreymaass thanks for the feedback! We have focused a lot of attention on the design to make sure it is easy to use and aesthetically pleasing. There is currently some social aspects to it - you can share places and lists to FB/Twitter or directly to friends. Deeper social integration is something we are thinking about, but want to do it consciously and not in a "cliche" way. Thanks again for your input and let your friends know :)

sritch 12y ago

Is this US only? I want it in Canada!

vivekmgeorge 12y ago
Hey sritch! And want to be in Canada. We would absolutely love to be available outside the US, though unfortunately our location data provider doesn’t yet support it. We’re always looking for ways to expand beyond the US, but in the mean time you can manually add places in other countries by: * Opening the Varkala app and tapping ‘Add Place’ * Scrolling to the bottom of the screen and tapping ‘Can’t find it?’ * Then give the place you’d like to add a name and address Let me know what you think!
- sritch 12y ago
  It's only in the US App store :(
  - vivekmgeorge 12y ago
    Correct. I know some people have changed their app store settings to the US to get Varkala :) Here are the instructions from Apple if you are interested: http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT6119 http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT6119