Chocolates, exchanged hearts, and play dates. It must be Valentine’s Day this week and yet we’ve managed to include your pet dog and The Simpsons as well. See how it all comes together below.
ChocoFinder
Free
There’s the chocolate you’ll find at department stores and then there’s the sweet creations you’ll only encounter at specialty boutiques. When you have chefs driven to be original you get the delightful surprise of discovering coriander lime truffles, Mayan hot chocolate, or chocolate-dipped potato chips. Canadian-made app ChocoFinder will lead you to the boutiques in your neighbourhood, offer pairing recommendations for their notable treats, tips from other users, and discounts and deals if you show the app when you buy.
Newly launched, the app is currently limited to offering results from Downtown Toronto, Hamilton, Stratford, Niagara, Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, and Vancouver. The other twist is a limitation towards places that support “good” chocolate, that participate in The Fair Trade Movement which aims to make sure that chocolate served doesn’t come from exploitive industries in developing countries where there’s the risk of child labour and poor working conditions. When you buy chocolate that’s freshly-made and creatively presented, you want to make sure it comes from a good place.
The Simpsons Tapped Out
Free
When Homer becomes too engrossed in playing a game on his MyPad, he causes a meltdown at the power plant that destroys Springfield completely. It’s now your job to rebuild their world, tapping buildings and characters into existence and giving them tasks to do. Because they respond with the personalities and voices we know from the TV series, it’s been addictive enough to remain a top iPhone hit for the past year.
This week it comes to Android users and so I’m taking the opportunity to warn you. It may be free, but deviously so, as the game runs so slowly, forcing you to wait sometimes twelve to even twenty-four hours between actions, that it can be frustrating. Yes, you can speed things up, but for a price. Without restraint, it’s easy to rack up the charges.
With some discipline and patience, you can get through the game without paying and there’s a case to be made that the way the characters bemoan or gleefully avoid work is entertaining enough to make it worthwhile. The creators have been great in introducing favourite storylines from the TV show and releasing engaging updates for Halloween, Christmas, and Thanksgiving.
Android users will have to wait for those extras and will have to also wait for the social aspect of the game, in which players can connect and visit each other’s Springfields. iPhone/iPad users who are already sucked in and need help, you can request me as friend under the name “Mindslinger” and I’ll help you out with the Valentine’s Day story going on right now.
Dogbook
Free
Through scents and smells your dog can pick up a lot of information about the other dogs in your neighbourhood. Why shouldn’t you have that information too? Using GPS, Dogbook will let you digitally check in to parks and other locations each time you visit them. Yes, it’s like marking your territory, and each time you do so a search will reveal the other dogs and their owners who have been there before you.
Connecting this way allows you to see photos of the other dogs, to leave messages for them, and to read their status updates as their owners share the details of doggy adventures. You will need to give your dog a Facebook-like profile and can pick other dogs to become “friends” which can also make it easier to set up play dates.
Dogbook has been around for years now, but this week enjoys a major update that introduces badges you can earn for achieving certain goals and a Foursquare-inspired ranking system. Dogs that check in the most at key locations can be dubbed the “Top Dog” for that spot. If another dog manages to log in a higher number of check-ins, it can steal the title.
For some, social pet networking might be a little much, but those who do invest a little of time into Dogbook will find enough to make it worth being curious about it. There have been several attempts at pet-based social networks, Dogbook is one of the most feature-rich I’ve seen.
