Tuesday, November 10, 2009
If someone needs help perfecting pick-up lines, there’s an app for that. If someone wants to know if he or she has what it takes to become a psychic, there’s an app for that. If someone needs help finding a liquor store or a fun new drink recipe, thanks to University alumnus George Franklin, there’s now an app for that as well.
Franklin has created an application to help smart phone users with all things alcohol. Franklin, a KU graduate in computer science, created the application called Liquor Run Mobile for phones with android operating systems. The app will soon be available on the iPhone.
University alumnus George Franklin created a smart phone application called Liquor Run Mobile. The application can locate the closest liquor stores within a 10-mile radius as well as provide drink recipes.
Franklin said that the application not only provided information available in a phone book, such as locations of liquor stores within a 10-mile radius, but it also offered extra incentives.
“You can find the closest liquor stores, you can find information about those liquor stores,” Franklin said. “If you’re in the liquor store, you can find one of thousands of drink recipes, you can find information about how many calories are in the drink you’re going to make.”
Franklin works for Tallgrass Labs, a virtual entrepreneurial company that got its start in Lawrence. The company, formed this year, has no headquarters but employs people throughout the nation to develop applications for smart phones.
Above is a screen shot of liquor stores located in Lawrence that appears when using the Liquor Run Mobile application developed by a KU graduate.
Marc Hoffman, Bullhead City, Ariz., senior, serves as the application’s one-man marketing team. Liquor stores must pay to have their information show up on the application, and Hoffman’s job is to give the stores an incentive to buy into the product. He said that he was almost finished making the rounds pitching the application to Lawrence liquor stores and that he planned to head to Topeka liquor stores to expand the application’s use.
“We’re trying to make a presence on pretty much every social media platform,” Hoffman said. “My responsibilities, on top of seeking out future clients, have been to kind of increase our audience because the app is for Google Android phones, which is a new operating system and it’ll be a huge deal probably about six months from now.”
Android operating systems were developed by Google in 2007. Only five phones available to the public have android operating systems right now, including the T-Mobile G1, Sprint HTC Hero, HTC Magic, T-Mobile myTouch and Verizon’s Droid. The android operating system is supposed to increase the speed of Internet connections.
Hoffman said he hoped to have Parkway Wine and Spirits, 3514 Clinton Parkway, and Mass Beverage, 3131A Nieder Rd,, signed for the application within the month. Neighborhood Liquor, also known as Mom and Pop’s Liquor, 1906 Massachusetts St., has already signed up for the application.
Mike Myers, owner of Neighborhood Liquor, agreed to pay $215 per year for his liquor store’s information to be accessible on the application.
“I don’t do a whole lot of advertising and I thought that might be a way to bring in a few new people particularly people passing through town,” Myers said.
Myers said the application would be more widely used around Thanksgiving time, when Franklin said the application would be available on iPhones.
— Edited by Jonathan Hermes
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Comments
An application to drink to
Awesome! This is totally what the world needed!
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