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Apps for Valentine's Day
Image: Shutterstock Today's smartphones are, by their nature, quite versatile. It's impossible to guide every lover on Valentine's Day to the app for their particular needs, because despite the requisite "flowers, chocolate, *something*" expectations, we all do it differently. I tried to round up a few apps that might appeal to just about anyone who participates in tomorrow's festivities. Happy Valentine's Day, if that's your thing! Going out to eat If you're trying to get a reservation, one of the fastest ways to check and make a reservation is with OpenTable (hopefully your area's restaurants are on-board with their system). If you're out and looking for somewhere to eat, I still use one of the first big breakout apps from the App Store, UrbanSpoon. Of course, you can always ask Siri, but if you don't have a 4S, try Yelp. Going out to find someone to love Personally I've had a great experience with OKCupid, probably the least skeevy of the online dating sites and its app is quite excellent. There's also Skout, which I haven't tried, but it has good reviews and features a location-based singles finder in the app. There are also most specific love-finding apps like Grindr for the gay community and Cupidtino for fans of Apple stuff. Buying a gift Don't know what to buy your sweetheart? Apps like El Gifto, and Thoughtful (not yet available in app form) will help you answer that question by asking a few background questions first. You can use Red Laser to comparison shop (you hopeless romantic, you) or Giftiki to pool your money with friends -- the gift that says "I love you enough to beg our friends for money." Setting the mood Yeah we've all heard of Pandora by now, but lately I'm digging the DJ-powered Slacker Radio for less repetition and a wider set of music. Slacker also has several romance-themed stations set up, like this one called Love Songs. If you subscribe to Rdio or Spotify, you can build your own playlist for all-night romance without commercial interruption. My personal preference is Rdio, but it'll be fun to see all the romantic songs being played in Spotify on the night of V-Day thanks to Spotify's in-your-face social mechanisms. Having fun Spending a night at home? Try Scene It? Romance Movies for some lighthearted fun -- although it could be embarrassing if you never watch romance movies. If you want to reminisce about the times you had together and snapped with Instagram, check out Lovestagram, which will bring up all the pics of you and your loved one taken using the social photo service. iKamasutra is the App Store-approved Kama Sutra for the iPhone. You could just as easily buy the real deal in ebook form, but the app provides easy navigation to all your favorite, um, love pretzels. Got any other apps you recommend for Valentine's Day? If you need to call a florist, I'd suggest Google or Siri -- and that you do it fast.
Daily iPhone App: Cupidtino
We covered Cupidtino a little while ago. It's a dating site for Mac users who are looking for love. Given its purview and the fact that no web service is complete without an iPhone app, Cupidtino has released an iPhone app for single Apple fans. I kid but it's actually pretty nice. You can browse user profiles, your own, send messages and read the latest Cupidtino news. There are no standout feature but it's cleanly designed and runs well. What more do you need from a dating app? There is one catch. You must pay Cupidtino's monthly subscription to read messages sent to you. But it's less than US$5 per month, which is nominal for those who absolutely must date an Apple fan. All other features are free. I can't guarantee that you'll find a date (my luck with dating apps is as bad as my luck at finding a date in real life), but as an app, Cupidtino works great.
Mac dating site Cupidtino opens beta to the public
Good news, everyone! Cupidtino, the Mac dating site that we posted about a little while ago, has finally moved into open beta. Now anyone can go on over there, make a profile and start meeting Mac-minded single men or women looking for a partner. Anyone with a Mac, that is -- the site is only accessible via one of Apple's devices, of course. Once you set up a profile, you can add pictures, post about when you "became a Mac," add your list of gadgets, or go looking for the Mac nerd of your dreams. The pickings are pretty slim right now -- I found about 71 lovely ladies in my age range. Search is currently limited by country, as there probably aren't enough people on the service to get any more granular than that. But the good news is that in my objective single male opinion, there were some good-looking Mac fans to find. If you happen to spot someone you think might be the "one more thing" of your life, you can "Mac her" (tamer than it sounds, basically a "poke"), send a message (free for now, the page says), or find the nearest Apple Store between the two of you, so you can meet up and make eyes at each other over the iPad table. I don't know if we really need another dating site (unless you think being a Mac fan is a major dealmaker), but it is cute, and given what we know about Mac users, maybe we do really deserve each other. I set up my profile on the site -- if I happen to Command-F the girl of my dreams, I'll let you know.
Cupidtino will help you meet your iSweetie
I'm surprised this hasn't happened sooner -- Cupidtino is a brand new site that promises to hook you up with a fellow Cult of Mac member for romantic entanglements. That's right -- they claim to be the first "Mac-inspired dating site," destined to bring single and like-minded Mac fans together. Trying to meet someone at the Genius Bars can be so expensive and time-consuming, and all of those boys and girls on OkCupid just don't get it when you try to explain why the Unibody MacBook is such a great step forward and why the iPad isn't just a big iPod touch. Enter Cupidtino -- the site was started up by three San Francisco tech developers, and while it's only in pre-launch mode right now, you can sign up for a closed beta (and don't worry, as one of TUAW's only available bachelors, I did -- let the hilarity ensue). When you sign up, you're asked which Macs and Apple devices you own, and so far, those are the only qualifications. But if my potential lady friend owns an iMac, that should be good enough, right? I can already picture us, having a romantic dinner at some local Italian place, charming music playing in the background while we share a bottle of wine, talking quietly about our favorite customized Automator services. Ah, sweet romance! [via TechCrunch]
