You’ve likely seen Apple’s Calamari iPhone commercial—the one that takes you from movie, to maps, to restaurant-reservation in search of a steaming heap of squid. It’s a great demonstration of how the various components of the iPhone can interact. Better yet, it’s actually useful. As in….

Yesterday my band had a concert-in-the-park gig (which went very nicely, thank you for asking). During the breaks, setup, and tear-down I flashed my iPhone at the boys in the band, demonstrating one cool feature or another. Satisfying oohs and aahs accompanied same. Kevin, our guitar player, is generally unimpressed by technology (unless it’s guitar technology, natch). However, while we were breaking down he mentioned that family had come in from out of town, was staying in Palo Alto, and he wondered where, as it was a hot day, they might find a restaurant with outdoor seating in Palo Alto.

It had been awhile since I’d tromped the haughty silicon-paved streets of P.A., but I managed to pull a name from the brain—Empire Tap Room. Except I couldn’t remember on which side-street it resided. The rest of

the band hemmed, hawed, suggested that it was within a block of University and only a couple of blocks up from El Camino, couldn’t miss it, when it suddenly dawned on me that I had the reply in my pocket.

Pulling out the iPhone I tapped Maps, entered “Empire Tap Room, Palo Alto, CA” in the search field and, within a couple of seconds, the red push-pin revealed the answer—651 Emerson Street. I whipped the phone around to show Kevin.

“Here it is,” I said.

“Wow,” he replied.

“Want to build a reservation?” I asked, handing him the phone.

“Yeah.”

“Tap the blue button there.”

“Wow,” again as the Info screen arised that listed the E.T.R.’s phone, home page, and address (along with Directions To Here and Directions From Here buttons).

“Now tap the phone number and start talking.”

Reservation complete he tapped the large red End signal button and, before returning the phone to me, gazed in wonder for a few seconds.

“This,” he said, “is impressive.”

Original post by Christopher Breen

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