The new iPhone is a lust-worthy gizmo to begin with, but if you're into food and wine, there are even more reasons to chuck your Crackberry and give in to Apple: the apps.
One of the newest ones, WinePhD, was created by two locals, sommelier Brian Pierce and his business partner/co-inventor Dave Lauinger.
Pierce, the food and beverage director at the Four Seasons in Scottsdale, brought his wealth of wine knowledge to creating the app, which lets users search a library of 60,000 wines by name, varietal, maker, and food pairings. It also has a rating system from 1 to 100 that incorporates pro wine critic ratings with WinePhD's opinions. For $4.99, you get unlimited free updates and a very handy way to navigate the wine store.
Conveniently, PCMag.com has also just released a list of 10 iPhone apps for foodies:
LocalEats (99 cents): This app lists the best 100 restaurants in each of the 50 largest U.S. cities. An individual entry includes an address and phone number, along with price and category information. You won't find big chains; all the picks are small regional chains or standalone restaurants.
Urbanspoon (free): This app turns your iPhone into a slot machine to help you find a place to eat. Pick the neighborhood, cuisine type, and price then shake your phone to get a restaurant name. You can also browse or search to find what's nearby.
Yelp (free): Craving Cajun in Cleveland? Yelp uses your handset's GPS capability to deliver information and candid reviews for nearby restaurants, bars and businesses so you know what to expect before you sit down.
VegOut Vegetarian Restaurant Guide ($2.99): When you're a vegetarian, scoring great food in an unfamiliar place is like winning the lottery. VegOut's results are star-rated and can be filtered to include vegan-only, vegetarian, or vegetarian-friendly choices.
OpenTable (free): This lets you search eateries for available reservations by entering the date and time you want to eat, along with your preferred cuisine, price range, and number of people. You can secure the reservation, view menus and get directions straight from the app.
Tipulator (99 cents): Eating out is a blast--that is, until the bill comes. Find out who owes what by entering the total, calculate the tip, and split it among as many people as you specify.
160,000 Recipes--BigOven (free): Use your iPhone to make a killer meal. BigOven's app includes all sorts of recipes, each with a color photo of the finished product. You can search by recipe or specific ingredient, or simply browse for inspiration. Or just shake your phone and get a random recipe.
Pocket Cocktails Drinks & Wine (99 cents): This elegant app shows hundreds of cocktails to make your mouth water. Find drinks by category (martinis, classics, or shooters, to name a few), or browse an alphabetical list. Or try the pocket sommelier: Tell it the menu and it'll suggest wines that pair well with it.
Fast Food Calorie Counter ($2.99): This app will help you make better choices on the go with nutritional info for 6,000 menu items from 55 top fast food restaurants.
Calorie Tracker by Livestrong.com ($2.99): This app turns your iPhone into a mobile fitness machine. Track your daily food intake and find calorie counts from a database of more than 525,000 entries. Record your daily exercise along with how many calories you've burned, based on your body weight.