Augmented reality iPhone restaurant apps go head-to-head

GraffitiGeo and Acrossair to offer next-generation nosh recommendations

You wait years for a decent augmented reality (AR) iPhone app offering restaurant recommendations, and then two come along at once! What are the chances, eh?

Both involve pointing your iPhone at restaurants and getting listings and/or reviews to help you decide where to eat.

One is from UK firm Acrossair, which previously made headlines with its Nearest Tube AR underground application. Now it's working on a full AR browser that will offer restaurant and cinema listings. The company has published a video demo on YouTube showing how it works.

GraffitiGeo is a similar idea with some game-like elements wrapped around it. It offers actual reviews of restaurants, based on Twitter comments published through the app itself. It too has a YouTube demo.

There is also a heat map showing the most popular restaurants in users' areas. More strangely, users can band together in 'mobs' and earn points by commenting on restaurants, in a nod to the numerous mafia-themed iPhone games.