New iPhone App for Navigating the Inauguration

Here’s a screenshot of the app.

The Washington-based PR firm Qorvis Communications and the law firm Patton Boggs have teamed up to launch a new iPhone application for the inauguration. Free to download, the app is designed to help out-of-towners find their way around the city.

Features include updates on Metro service and station locations, a Zagat guide for Washington, parking-garage locations, and where to find free Wifi. The app also counts down the days, minutes, hours, and seconds until the swearing-in ceremony and calculates your distance from the Capitol steps, where the inauguration will happen. Oddly enough, there’s also a button that allows you to see crime alerts near wherever you’re located.

We found an iPhone and took the app for a test drive. On a one-month-old phone, the download took less than a minute. After determining your location, the app takes you to the landing page, where you can see the inauguration countdown and your distance from the Capitol. (Apparently, we’re 3.25 miles away in The Washingtonian offices.) The crime-alert button turned up lots of thefts, robberies, and burglaries within walking distance (yikes!), and the Wifi finder pointed out five spots to find free Internet access within two blocks. The Metro button was the most helpful; it found all the stations, starting with the closest, and provided information such as when the next train would arrive and how to get to the station.

Download the app here.