August 8, 2011 Posted by: Todd Wasserman
You can add one more app to the burgeoning list [1] of food-truck-locating mobile apps. The digital agency behind Burger King’s Subservient Chicken [2] has created another.
The Barbarian Group’s Gastrodamus is a free iPhone [3] [iTunes link] and Android [4] app that aggregates local trucks’ Twitter feeds.
Cities covered at this point include New York; Los Angeles; Portland, Oregon; Washington, D.C.; San Francisco and Boston. Unlike other apps, which use methods ranging from GPS to self-reporting, Gastrodamus is completely based on Twitter [5] . If a truck’s feed mentions a location, it gets listed for that day. If not, it doesn’t.
The app, developed by the agency as a side project, is a work in progress. The Barbarian Group is asking users [6] to send suggestions for new food trucks. One major oversight is the app’s inability to find the food truck closest to you. There are other glitches as well: Participating trucks that clearly state their location, like Korilla BBQ [7] and Van Leeuwen Artisan ice cream [8] , don’t show up in the “most recent” feed and get a “couldn’t locate this truck” notation.
Still, it’s hard to complain about a free app, especially one that provides some solid info.
Below are five other mobile apps that can help you locate food trucks:
1. Food Truck Fiesta [9]
Food Truck Fiesta is a simple $.99 iPhone [10] and Android [11] app based on a blog of the same name. The site posts updates about new food trucks and food-truck events, maintains a catalog of food trucks and tracks trucks on a live map using their Twitter feeds. The app is basically the map in mobile form. Clicking a truck's location pulls up its Twitter feed.
2. Eat St. [12]
Food Network's Eat St. show highlights the most innovative mobile cuisine in North America. Its free iPhone and Android apps are attempting to help viewers track down gourmet meals on wheels near them.
With somewhat of a different approach than most of the food-tracking apps on the market, Eat St. allows food truck owners to update their own locations, menus, hours and profiles. Other food trucks can be added by users, but their profiles remain barren and their locations dubious.
"We’re devoted to finding new ways to keep locations accurate and are constantly improving," reads the current app description [13] . "In the meantime, the most accurate cities are those with mostly stationary food carts. L.A., New York, Miami and San Francisco have mainly roaming food carts and while the database has grown, it’s best to get location from the carts’ Twitter feed."
These limitations aren't unlike those of most food truck tracking apps -- Eat St. just seems to be more honest about them.
3. Roaming Hunger [14]
Like Food Truck Fiesta, Roaming Hunger is a blog that chronicles food truck news and events. Its scope is much larger than L.A., however, and its catalog includes a smattering of trucks in most major cities.
The free iPhone app uses tweets and calendars to keep track of the trucks. You can search for trucks near you, those recently tweeted, most liked, savory, sweet or vegetarian. It also allows you to plan ahead by searching for trucks that are open at different times.
Because it covers many cities, its library isn't as extensive as some city-specific apps, and like most apps that rely on Twitter and calendars, its map points represent predictions rather than actual locations.
4. Road Stoves GPS [15]
L.A.-based RoadStoves sells food trucks and books food trucks for promotions and events. Its free iPhone and Android apps use actual GPS location to track food trucks.
This makes its map one of the most accurate, but also one of the most sparse. Most of its trucks are in Los Angeles, and only about 15 of them are GPS-enabled. The app makes it easy to access the Twitter feeds and menus of other trucks, but it doesn't put them on them on the map.
5. TruxMap Lite Food Truck Map [16]
TruxMap's free iPhone and Android apps plot open food trucks near you in green, and soon-to-open food trucks in blue. It uses the trucks' Twitter feeds to track and plot their locations.
The app makers say they're tracking trucks in 21 cities, but the majority of them are in Los Angeles, Austin and New York. Users can request new trucks be added to the app via the website.
Image courtesy of Flickr, Stu Spivack [17]
More About: android, apps, Barbarian Group, Food trucks, iphone, Mobile 2.0 [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23]
For more Mobile [24] coverage:
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Links
- ^ burgeoning list (mashable.com)
- ^ Subservient Chicken (www.bk.com)
- ^ iPhone (itunes.apple.com)
- ^ Android (market.android.com)
- ^ Twitter (mashable.com)
- ^ asking users (www.barbariangroup.com)
- ^ Korilla BBQ (twitter.com)
- ^ Van Leeuwen Artisan ice cream (twitter.com)
- ^ Food Truck Fiesta (foodtruckfiesta.com)
- ^ iPhone (mashable.com)
- ^ Android (mashable.com)
- ^ Eat St. (itunes.apple.com)
- ^ app description (itunes.apple.com)
- ^ Roaming Hunger (roaminghunger.com)
- ^ Road Stoves GPS (www.roadstoves.com)
- ^ TruxMap Lite Food Truck Map (7.mshcdn.com)
- ^ Stu Spivack (www.flickr.com)
- ^ android (mashable.com)
- ^ apps (mashable.com)
- ^ Barbarian Group (mashable.com)
- ^ Food trucks (mashable.com)
- ^ iphone (mashable.com)
- ^ Mobile 2.0 (mashable.com)
- ^ Mobile (mashable.com)
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