"Where" tries to do too much, fails completely

by August 16, 2008       App Score: 0.5/5  

Where, by Boston based "uLocate" is an example of a company trying to do too much in an iPhone application, and failing miserably. Clearly, "uLocate" is the kind of ambitious big company that felt that it had to "own" the mobile space, and by doing so had to create the ultimate app combining every type of local information available from locations of StarBucks outlets, to comparison shopping for unleaded gas, concerts and even star charts (of the astronomical kind).

The interface is confusing, with multiple different "modes" of showing the local information. There is at least one social network (called "buddy Beacon") thrown into the mix, a photography application (upload your local photos), and shameless promotion of starbucks at every opportunity. This kind of app probably cost a lot of money to develop and fails on every level. Avoid at all costs

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  • N-Y-Guy

    I totally agree with this assessment. It seems like every other person who blogs about ULocate is totally wrapped up in the company's PR hype. The app is actually a confusing mess. It attempts to be a holistic portal for location apps but it doesn't use any kind of unifying approach to link everything together. It's a difficult application to learn and it continues to feel clunky once you do learn it.

  • http://www.iphone.com citizenjane

    Hate to pick on anything free (what isn't these days?) but Where has gotten annoying. It presumes to be a "platform" and just rely on others' works to somehow define the purpose. The result is like a stroll throug a 5th grade science fair: Magnetic nail and lightbulb over here, baking soda volcano there,etc. All these applications, you can just pick on iPhone or elsewhere. Maybe when they first started "Where" they thought nobody else would ever put GPS on phones so they would be a huge catalog or something. So now you just have to ask, "Why" bother with "Where" "When" you can make your own collection without the bad interface?

  • http://twitter.com/aseidman/status/1363335016 Ariel Seidman

    Under the category of what were they thinking: http://www.appcraver.com/where/

  • dave

    I love where, location aware, gas buddy is the bomb and its free ... whats with all the hate ?