Welcome to Beer Suggest

Beginning today you can officially grab version 1.6 of the Android application. This update adds some of the social features available on the website. The full list of changes is as follows:

• View a list of all of your friend's recent activity including: beer ratings and reviews, place reviews, favorites, and additions to the website in a real-time feed.
• View your list of friends and view all recent activity for an individual friend.
• Search for and add friends directly on your phone.

If you have already downloaded the app, you should see the update hitting your phone very shortly. If you have not grabbed it yet, you can download it in the Android Market.

As long as no bugs are discovered, the next release will be 2.0. This release will focus on refining and optimizing the user interface and attempting to make it look better. I will also be focusing on improving the GPS functions. Stay tuned for future updates!

This afternoon version 1.5 of the Android app for Beer Suggest was released. I've polished the user interface in several activities and added a new feature or two. This release includes the following updates:

• Improved the user interface for Beer News. It now displays an image thumbnail, if available, as well as having improved formatting.
• Improved the layout of beer lists. Thumbnail images now accompany the normal information.
• Added the "External Storage" permission in order to allow caching of image thumbnails on your device to improve performance.
• Added a Settings menu option that allows you to easily login/register or logout of your account.

The latest version should be available in a few hours to download or to update your current version. You can download the app in the Android Market, or learn more about the app by visiting the Android page.

It's been quite some time since I've added any enhancements to the website. What seems like ages ago(a little over a year at this point) I eluded to including breweries in the search results when using the Places Locator. This functionality has been available in the Android app, but not when using the website. Starting today you can now choose to include breweries in your search results when doing a proximity search using the Places Locator.

In other news I'm preparing to release another new version of the Android app in the next few weeks. This new version will add the ability to quickly and easily jump to the brewer's 'Place' page when viewing a beer. From here you can read more information about the brewery, leave comments, get directions, or view their other beers.

I've got another new release for the Beer Suggest Android application. In this version I focused on refactoring a lot of the code to have a smaller footprint. But it wouldn't be a noteable release without some new features, and this version doesn't disappoint. The following new features were added:

• In the 'My Stats' section you can now view all of the beers that you have previously reviewed.
• I've made it even easier to find beer places and breweries. Before the only way you could search was to do a radius search based on an address. If you knew the name of the place and just wanted to look up some information about it, you were out of luck. With this release you now have the ability to search for a place by name.
• When viewing breweries discovered by using the place locator or place search, there is a new tab titled 'Beers'. This tab will list all beers that are in the database for the brewery that you are viewing.

You can download the application in the Android Market.

It was only half a month ago that I released the last version, and today I have a treat for you...version 1.2 of the Android application was just released! I have compiled user feedback and suggestions and picked out the most popular for this version. This release focuses on 3 new features:

• Improved Search - A common problem people had was that they couldn't find a beer when doing a search. It's not that the beer wasn't there, its that the search functionality didn't work the way they expected it to. Take this example: User wants to find Dogfish Head 60 minute IPA. Naturally the user begins typing Dogfish and sees no results. The immediate conclusion they draw is that it is not in the system. If they would have searched instead for '60 Minute' they would have found the beer. The problem was that the search only searches the beer name, not the brewery. To improve this when you begin typing a search it now searches for all beers that match the name, or beers whose brewery matches that name. This makes it easy to find all beers by a brewer by simply typing the brewery's name into the search box.
• Add/Edit Beers - Before, if you searched for a beer and it wasn't in the system you had to go to the website to add it. Not anymore. Now if you search for a beer and it isn't found, it gives you the option to add it. Fill in a few details and the beer will be available on your phone and the website. You can also edit any beer to correct information or fill in missing information, like a photo. Tap the edit icon, click the photo button, snap a picture of the bottle, and it will be updated in the system and on the website.
• Add/Edit Places - Places have also gained the same functionality as beers. If you do a search in your hometown and can't find your favorite spot, simply click on the + icon in the titlebar to add a new place. You can also edit existing places by clicking on the edit icon in the titlebar when viewing a place's details.

The update should hit your phone tonight or tomorrow. Keep sending in the feedback, everyone has been very helpful in making this application better and better. If you like it, don't forget to rate it in the Android Market. You can learn more about the application and view screenshots by visiting the Android page.

Today I have released yet another version of the Beer Suggest Android application. Version 1.1.1 includes the following new features:

• Changed the places layout to use tabs for "Details", "Comments", and "Reviews"
• Added the ability to view and post public comments for places
• Added the ability to view and post reviews for places
• Added a "What's New" dialog on start up when the new version is downloaded

The update should become available very shortly, if you have previously downloaded the app. The next release (version 1.2) will be available in March. It will provide functionality to add and edit beers and places directly from your phone. You can learn more about the app by checking out the Android page. As always, if you have ideas for enhancements or other suggestions use the feedback page.

It's been two weeks since the release of the Beer Suggest Android application. In my spare time I've been working on incorporating more new features. Last week I released version 1.0.1, which added support for searching for breweries and brew pubs when using the Places Locator. This makes it even easier to find craft beer locations near you.

Yesterday evening I released version 1.1.0. If you previously downloaded the app, you should be seeing an update hitting your phone very shortly. The latest version offers the following new features:

• Read beer reviews
• Write your own beer reviews that sync up with your account on the website
• Read comments on beers
• Post your own comments on beers that sync up with you account on the website

I have more planned features that I'm keeping under wraps for the time being. If you have an idea on how to improve the application contact me. You can read more about the app and view screenshots by visiting the android page.

The Beer Suggest Android application has been officially released today! You can purchase it today for the meager cost of $0.99, that's about a 1/5 of the cost of a pint of beer! Scan the code to the right to head to view the application in the Android Market.

To learn more about the features and view a ton of screenshots visit the official Android page.