iDine on the iPhone or OTHER Smart Phone / iDine apps (consolidated)
 

A search brought up a couple of posts in one thread (here) but no specific discussion of details.

So, what would it take for iDine to make their site suitable for the iPhone?

Or for somebody to design a third-party search interface for it or, even better, an application to access their database offline that could be periodically updated with a new download every day/week etc?

Do their terms and conditions prevent someone developing this, or are there technical barriers to it as well?

========================MODERATOR NOTE=============================

The "RN Dining" app is now available for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry smart phones.

AAdvantage Dining has been added as of late 2011 as well.

On this subject, OpenTable just released a free iPhone application. So hopefully that will spur RewardsNetwork to do one of their own, now that a competitor is in on the fun.

I would be very much interested in this, too.

Found it! It's coming "around February 2009":

Read more here.

So now we wait...

More on the general topic of iPhone apps for dining etc is here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/dinin...hone-apps.html

Now that someone from RN (Stacy?) seems to be reading our board here, this might be a good chance for people to put forward feature requests for the iPhone application.

I'll start:

* Please can you use Google Maps rather than Multimap so that the directions will integrate properly with the existing iPhone map and directions function?

Note to RN, if you're reading this thread: people really want the mobile applications!

A recent quote from another poster on the "no more rate your dine bonus" thread:

It's out. Here's the link (strangely not linked from the AA RN website):

http://www.mygpsdine.com/

Some preliminary thoughts:

1) It doesn't seem to work with my AA login right now. So I wonder what's going on... there's no button to choose which program your login refers to. Are they rolling out different applications for each airline/program? That would seem like a stupid idea. And there's a button that says "join now" but which sends you to a screen that says "We're currently developing the iPhone enrollment capability" or something to that effect, and asks you to call them. A bit shoddy, in my opinion -- sort of like putting an "under construction" banner on a website rather than actually fixing the website before rolling out a feature and providing that feature properly.

2) The reviews are a bit badly presented -- they're in a scrollable list at the bottom of each restaurant's page, with no visible scroll bar. And the text of each review comes out a bit strangely too. The interface does look like it was a rushed job. Someone with some UI design expertise does need to look at this. Have a look at the app "Things" for an example of a really well-designed iPhone program.

3) The maps are very much improved -- using native iPhone Google maps rather than the scrappy maps they have on their website.

4) The app is a bit slower than I'd like.

5) There's a "dial: xxx-xxx-xxxx" line underneath the restaurant name with no visible feedback that it's a link. But when you click it, it does dial the number from your phone.

6) The app often asks you whether you want to return to a previously saved search when you start it up again, after having closed it or gone to a map or phone call, for example. That's a little intrusive. It would be helpful if it just went back to where you were unless you told it otherwise. That's what other iPhone apps do -- maps, Safari, email, etc.

7) The app does a lot of buzzing with the iPhone's vibrate function (when clicking its buttons, giving you feedback etc) which is really quite annoying. I see now in the preferences that you can turn off vibrate but the fact that it's on by default is infuriating.

8) You only seem to be able to search by current location (great -- that's the point of the iPhone), restaurant name or zipcode. What about narrowing search results by type of restaurant, style of food, etc? That's available in the web version but not here. The iPhone app does allow you to choose to display either address or price/cuisine in the preferences, but why not show both? You can edit the default search radius in the Prefs, but it would be helpful to be able to modify that choice on a search-by-search basis.

All in all, my first impressions are that it's a start, but not nearly as polished or elegant as the OpenTable app. And I'm annoyed that it won't let me login with my RN airline account. I hate to wonder this, but perhaps this suggests that they're dumping the mileage programs in favor of the cash rebates? I really hope not.

Other people's thoughts and views would be most welcome.

Since nobody else has posted anything, I hope I'm not the *only* person using this app!

Just a note that an updated version appeared a day or so ago in the App Store. But the interface hasn't improved. Apparently, RN fixed a bug (but not one that I'd come across myself...)

I can't log in with my AA id as well.

Rewards Network Application for the iPhone
 

Hi,

Just wanted to alert you that Rewards Network has developed a very convenient tool for the Iphone. It really makes finding restaurants much easier, especially if you have a 3G Iphone with GPS.

Search for "Rewards Network" in Itunes or in your application store tool in your Iphone. The download is free.

Or, you could just get if off the RN site... www.rnmobiledining.com/?rnhpb

/.

There's much more discussion about this topic in a recent thread <redacted recurving link> that I started.

The problem is that the iPhone app doesn't allow you to distinguish between the different RN programs you might credit your dine to: and that matters, because often the restaurant list differs depending on the program or depending on whether you are or are not a "dining elite".

RN: please fix this issue!

The latest update to this iPhone app has specific programs, but AAdvantage is not one of the options. Also, it seems to not have all of the same restaurants listed on the full web site (it's missing some restaurants), which makes it less useful for me.

App (mobile?) to know which restaurants are part of which program?
 

If you're like me, you find it annoying to check online before going to a restaurant to see if it's part of any of the RN/iDine or other dining programs you participate in. Special occasions aside, I'm more of a spontaneous diner, so I'll just go downtown and choose whatever restaurant I like, provided it has a decent rating on zagat/yelp (which I can easily check with my phone). Another factor I would consider is checking whether it's part of a rewards program, but I don't know of an easy way to check (going to the website is way too slow, and I would have to check every network's website).

In another case, maybe you just find yourself in a restaurant, about to pay the check. Since some restaurants are in some programs and not others, and some give points for some cards and not others, it'd be nice to quickly check which program/card to use before paying.

Thus, a mobile app or a quick mobile-optimized website that can tell me which restaurants in the area are in which networks (note this includes all networks I care about) would be ideal. Does such an app exist? If not, do you think it's worth it to make one?

Edit: Even if the app wasn't mobile (i.e., just a site), it'd be useful to save you from checking the sites of all the programs you use.

Hi Rodrigo,
Elizabeth here from Rewards Network. We have two free mobile apps that let you search our network of restaurants while you're on the go!

You can find our iPhone app here:
http://www.mygpsdine.com

And our BlackBerry app here:
http://mygpsdine.com/index.php/blackberry

Happy dining!

Elizabeth

PS--We invite you to become an iDine fan on Facebook! You can learn more about our mobile apps and Facebook app, get the latest program news, and dish with other diners!