Where To is a nice front end intended to make your iPhone or iPod Touch act more like a portable GPS such as the TomTom or Magellan. It’s basically a slick user interface for the Google Maps function already built into the iPhone. But underneath this simple explanation, Where To is an awesome time-saving adventure starter.

Where To is set up with categories, so you don’t have to type search terms into Maps. It uses 11 top level categories to organize the expected sections — Food, Attractions, Medical, Emergency, etc. Below that are more than 600 subcategories making it easy to find just about anything you’re looking for without worrying about typing or spelling errors.

For testing purposes I started with Food as my main category and scrolled down to Thai as a subcategory. Using my current location, Where To sent my query to Google Maps which brought up a handful of restaurants in my area.

The only drawback is that there is no easy way to get back to Where To. Once my query was completed I decided I’d rather have tacos. But, there is no way to simply switch back and revise my search. I had to start over by closing out of Maps and restarting Where To. It would be nice if the two programs could integrate more seamlessly. Although this is probably more of an iPhone issue than a Where To issue.

One of the great features about Where To is the “Surprise Me” option. This is where the adventure begins. Hungry, but not sure what you want? Surprise Me! Who knew there were Icelandic Restaurants near Los Angeles? Bored and looking for something to do? Surprise Me suggests Paintball and five locations to go play.

Where To is another one of those simple applications that I didn’t know I needed. Yet it makes life better in a small, appreciable way.

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category: General Navigation, Navigation, Worthwhile Apps