In this day of free cellphone apps, one must be aware of the old and very true adage, "There's no such a thing as a free lunch.”
Free apps usually have a “back door” where the developer has provided a way to extract information about your habits when using the app. That information is then sold; that’s why the app is free. The data extracted is usually about that specific app and rarely the personal or private information stored on your phone, but that is not always the case. Getting your app from a reputable source is the best way to ensure your personal information is safe and not being mined without your knowledge for nefarious purposes.
So why this long-winded dissertation about apps in a wine column? There is a fabulous new app available for your iPhone or Android cellphone called Thumbs Up WineFinder that is all about wine and isn't subject to private information mining.
The Thumbs Up WineFinder is the latest of several wine apps on the market that has both a good free version and a more advanced paid version that concentrates on giving the consumer a heads-up view of the wine he or she may being buying.
This app makes sure purchasing wine is no longer a guess-as-you-go or ask-the-clerk affair. All you have do is to open the app, input the wine you are curious about and up pops a review of the wine, its attributes and its price.
Thumbs Up also has helped to achieve one of our lifelong goals - to find a $5 wine that drinks like a $50 wine by inputing the wines' approximate values based on the opinions of wine gurus. Using this feature helps the consumers get the best value for their wine-buying dollar by pointing out if the wine in question is worth its sale price. We have done many comparisons using this feature by comparing the sale price of wines we were familiar with and our opinion of the indicated value. In every case, we completely agreed with the indicated value and found it to be a great aid in making a selection.
Thumbs Up also offers a search by variety, producer, price range and even by food pairing. There is a section that lets the user choose the store they are in or where the wine in question is available in your area, thus saving a lot of frustration, gasoline and shoe leather. There is even a place to make notes.
The producers think so much of the Thumbs Up app it can be downloaded for free. The advanced app, with many more useful features, is also available for a whopping $4.99, and if you are a wine lover, it can be the best five bucks you have ever spent. With this app, you become the equal to the top wine reviewers without even pulling a cork and are in a position to get the best values on the market, every time you buy a wine.
We are not afraid this app will make us superfluous. We are wine educators rather than wine critics, although we do often give our opinions of the wines we write about. It is our duty to call the attention of our readers to what is new and interesting in the marketplace.
Nixa resident Bennet Bodenstein is a wine columnist and manages ArticlesOnWine.com. He can be reached at frojhe1@att.net.[[In-content Ad]]
