Now you can get some of your favorite widgets from WHERE on your iPhone and iPod Touch! With widgets like Yelp, GasBuddy, Starbucks, Eventful, Buddy Beacon, and more, WHERE gives iPhone users the ability to discover nearby friends, places and things of interest. WHERE uses the location capabilities of the iPhone and iPod Touch to determine where you are, then finds what you’re looking for around your location. So now you can add the iPhone to the list of over 80 handsets that WHERE supports. Pretty cool, huh? Read more about it in our press release here.

Want to get WHERE on your iPhone? Of course you do. Just visit the brand new Apple App Store that just launched today! Download iTunes version 7.7 to access the Apple App Store. Once you have downloaded or upgraded to the new version, click here to be directly taken to the Apple App Store.

This should come as absolutely no surprise to any of you who ever read this blog.  As you may, or may not know, I live in Montana right now and as such, we do not have Spring and Summer until it morphs into this one, small, fleeting season around June and July.  We shall call it Spummer.

That said, I woke up yesterday and there was enough sun for me to get properly sunburned on about 80% of my body.  Believe it.  So, this week, I chose the WHERE Weather Widget for the WHERE Widget of the Week because I’m terrified that snow will be coming again next weekend.  Logging into the WHERE Weather Widget will show me just how much I’ll be needing to bundle up in the days to come.

Yikes.  It is an oldie, but a goodie.  To me, the WHERE Weather Widget is an absolute staple.  I can’t deal without it.

Just thought in lieu of the WHERE Widget of the Week, I should show you some WHERE Awesomeness. I don’t know exactly what that means, but I do know that one way I can describe it is through this amazing screenshot of the WHERE front page from today.

How rad is it that 10 out of the 15 finalists in the Navteq LBS Challenge were built on the WHERE platform? Amazingly, stupendously, mind-bogglingly rad. Check out the screenshot for the pretty visual of the achievement. Me likes.

Just a friendly reminder if you actually forget to click the pretty picture, here’s where it leads.

It is not a stretch in any sense of the word to say that GPS is one of THE hottest technologies around these days.  The innovations being made in the industry (*cough*WHERE*cough*) coupled with the increasing availability are making devices and the service itself one of the most important new trends to inundate the market.  Start playing around with it and you’ll see exactly why.

Knowing this, what are you to do if you Do wish to jump into the market and get yourself either a GPS enabled cell phone, maybe say one that runs WHERE, or a portable GPS device for yourself of vehicle?  Well, I’m glad you asked.  You can either call around to every electronics store you can possibly think of, OR, read this handy little guide I found over at PC World that offers up some helpful and friendly tips to get you started.  Who doesn’t like helpful and friendly, I mean come on?

According to the article:

“Today’s navigation tool, the portable GPS device, can do things that paper maps are incapable of, such as automatically showing your precise location anywhere on the globe, providing precise turn-by-turn instructions on how to drive from any Point A to any Point B, identifying where the nearest gas and coffee outlets are, and warning you when traffic problems make a detour highly advisable. It’s like having a localized MapQuest right on your dashboard or in your pocket.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself!  Now, head over and read their advice, get some knowledge on the tech, and then heed this simple piece of advice from me…WHERE and our WHERE GPS Widgets allow you to do all the things portable GPS devices allow you to do, including finding those traffic detours, those coffee shops and those “Point A to any Point B” turn by turn directions…All from your cell phone.  Beyond rad friends.  Beyond rad.

Yes, it’s featured again!  Why, you might find yourself asking?  Simple, the weather is FINALLY changing ’round these parts and instead of flaunting the Weather Widget to celebrate, I decided I’d throw out the Fore! Widget to show you that the very moment it gets warm enough, I’m ON the golf course baby.

That’s right, the WHERE Fore! Widget does just that:  “Want to get in a couple of holes during lunch? The Fore! widget will find the closest golf course to your location so you can get a quick 9 in.”

How cool and simple and amazingly helpful is that?  Very.  Now hurry up Mother Nature, I need to get out of here and onto the course!

More prizes are made possible by our partners

All prize winners and semi-finalists will be promoted at the O’Reilly Where 2.0 Conference and Where Camp events and on where.com

1. Register for the WHERE Developer Program
2. Send an email with your contest entry to create@where.com. The email should contain:
   • Your name, email address, and phone number
   • The URL for an application that runs within the WHERE online phone emulator
   • The URL for your 22×22 logo (8 bit png)
   • The URL for your 50×50 logo (8 or 24 bit png)
   • Concise step-by-step instructions for using the application for the first time
3. Accept and comply with Official Contest Rules

Yokel won $5,000 1st prize
Proxido won $3,000 2nd prize
CellSoul won global GPS phone 3rd prize

Ever driven right past the grocery store and totally spaced out the fact that you need milk, cereal, eggs, and toilet paper?  Yeah, join the club.  Hate it?  Me too.

Want to do something about it?  Then do.  That’s right friends, this week for our WHERE Widget of the Week we have something that aims to reduce the number of times you have to get home, take off our shoes and coat, get settled only to have to get back up, get unsettled, put back on your shoes and coat and go back to the store.  This week, I bring you PROXIDO!

Basically, Proxido is a location-based reminder service that does exactly that, reminds you of whatever you need reminding of, when you’re in, around, or near the location you told it to.  In simpler terms, you drive by the grocery store, BAM it reminds you that you must 1) stop, and B) buy milk, cereal, eggs and of course toilet paper.  Nifty aye?  Nifty.

Head over to your WHERE account, log in and drag Proxido into your list.  You won’t regret it and the next time you’re at home eating your scrambled egg milk cereal casserole and wiping up spills with that toilet paper WITHOUT having to leave the house, you’ll thank me.

“Everybody is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day…find your local Irish Pub for a little St. Patrick’s Day every day!”  I couldn’t have said it any better myself!  That said, this week I chose none other than the Irish Pub Widget for a very special and very specific reason:  It is St. Patrick’s Day THIS coming Monday!

That’s right folks, by the time it’s time for Next week’s WHERE Widget of the Week it’ll be too late.  SO, for this week, boot up your phone, drag the Irish Pub widget into your list and be ready, willing, and able to find the nearest Irish Pub at any and all times over the weekend and as we rapidly approach St. Patty’s Day!

That said, feel free to comment about YOUR St. Patty’s Day exploits between now and then…I’m half Irish, so for us, it’s more like St. Patty’s WEEK.

30 minutes or less or your pie is FREE!  Remember those days?  Yeah, too long ago right?  How much does it frustrate you when you order a steaming hot pizza, you begin to salivate because you’re so hungry, and then an HOUR goes by and no sign of the pie?  Ugh.

Those days, my happy pizza eating friends, might be rapidly coming to a close as multiple Pizza companies are now adding GPS Live Tracking to your pizza delivery.  Imagine that, you’re sitting down, wonder where your pie is, and you just check a map online, updated every 15 seconds, and see exactly where your pizza is sitting.  Heck, if it takes too long, why not just ride out and meet the guy halfway?
According to the article I just read:

“For the stores where TrackMyPizza is available, about 18% of all delivery customers in the last 60 days have gone online to track their pizzas, even if they ordered by phone…Online orders are up 100% since the service started, and that’s a big advantage to a pizza shop. Not only does it save employees time answering the phone, online customers spend on average about $2 more with each order, since they can see the full menu.” 

Ahh, a perfect marriage of technology and food.  I love it.

I don’t know where you all are that just so happen to be reading this, and as such, I have no idea what kind of gas prices you’re facing.  I just know that where I live, it’s darn expensive, and pretty darn annoying.  Every time I fill up I wish all my wishes that I had some OTHER kind of fuel to be filling up on.  Some OTHER technology propelling my car forward.

Lucky for some of you out there, that dream is a reality and you DO fill up on other things besides good ol’ gasoline.  That said, for all you E85′ers out there, this WHERE Widget is just PERFECT for you.  The official description of the WHERE NearE85 Widget is this:   “Using this widget will allow you to see the nearest 5 retail E85 fuel pump locations with hours and payment options. NearE85 maintains the most comprehensive list of E85 fuel pumps in the US.”

Groovy.  Log in, add it, load it up and you’ll be buzzing along in no time at all.  The environment will thank you, while it’s busy slapping me around.