In celebration of the release of the Sloshspot iPhone app, we thought we’d write a little something about how you could use the app for an eventful night out. And this got us thinking: what if we were to combine this app with a few of the other popular iPhone drinking apps that are currently in the market. Combining their forces, and allowing these apps to do the work for me is probably the closest I will be to becoming a cyborg, at least until Steve Jobs announces that we can get an iPhone implanted in our heads for Christmas in 2013.

For now, we will have to settle for the combination of useful apps that will together make our lives both easier and more enjoyable. I use my iPhone for pretty much everything in my daily routine, so I might as well use this device that I have a healthy love-hate relationship with in conjunction with some of the apps that have recently been created for recreational purposes.

After working hard all week, I love to go out and grab a few drinks with friends (and occasionally wake up still wearing my shoes), and this is what I mean by recreational purposes. So, download these apps for your iPhone and use them in this order this Friday, and embrace the fact that we are fast-tracking our way to merging with computers, and enjoy a night without having to think too hard about what to drink, where to go, and when to stop.

Pocket Cocktails: $4.99

When I was in college, it seemed like everyone had a bartender’s guide in their bathroom or on their bookshelf. But when I went into their kitchen to find martini shakers and glasses, it just never added up. All we did was beer bongs or Jager bombs, so I don’t think I ever had a martini until after college. Were we all too lazy to open up the book and pick a recipe?

Now, with college a few years behind me now, I still don’t have a good bartender’s guide, save for some rickety memories jammed into the remote corners of my brain. Odds are, at any given time, you have one ingredient for drink A and another ingredient for drink B, but not the right ingredients to make either drink A or drink B. If I had a nickel for every time I’ve had bourbon with cranberry juice, I’d be a wealthy man. (Note: I did walk into my house this last Saturday and saw an empty bottle of vermouth that my roommate had consumed after he and his buddy finished a bottle of Evan Williams.) I don’t even want to imagine what that was like.

If you are fed up with the conscious effort required to remember and choose a unique cocktail, use Pocket Cocktails before you start your evening. The great thing about this app is that you can hit up the grocery store on your way home from work on Friday night, and easily pick up the ingredients for some cocktails with little effort. You don’t have to print out or email yourself a shopping list. You can just walk down the alcohol aisle and think about what sounds good. Then, if you’re watching your spending like I am (Thanks, stock market) you can pick your drink based on what sales your local store is offering, or see what ingredients you would need to pick up based on what you already have at home.

The list that Pocket Cocktails offers is very extensive. You can look up practically any drink under the sun by name, or by ingredient. So, if all you have in your apartment is a few ketchup packets, an orange and a ¼ bottle of gin, you may be able to figure out a drink. This will also come in handy if you come across an incompetent bartender at California Pizza Kitchen who doesn’t know how to make a Singapore Sling. The app has a sleek interface and, if you like to impress people as much as I do by feigning legitimate bartender skills, you can use this handy little tool to make some drinks without even mentioning it to your guests – act like you are text messaging someone while you make a Japanese Slipper Martini. This is a good way to start your evening, and now it is time to call a cab and head out.

Sloshspot: Free

Of course we are partial to the new Sloshspot application, which should go without saying. But this app truly will help you in situations where you are in a new city, or if you are sick of going to the same old places, and anywhere in between. Because the Sloshspot community is accessible via the app, you can use this feature to see what events have recently been updated in your town, who goes to certain bars as regulars, and where some of your Sloshspot friends are going each night.

There is also information regarding specials, drink promotions, and other information that will come in handy when picking where to spend your evenings. If you’ve been pre-partying a little bit at the house, there may be a bit of contention about where to go. One of the cool features we’ve added to this app is that you can access all the same information available on sloshspot.com, so bars will list the features such as whether or not they have pool or foosball tables, if they have a smoking patio, if there is a dance floor, and what type of live music they have. If you need a change of scenery, or if your decision on where to go depends on who else is going/performing there, this is quite the tool.

The database of bars and venues is now over 60,000 so you’ll be hard pressed to find yourself in a situation where you can’t find the perfect place to go, or a place that will not accommodate your tastes. Best of all, this app is free, and if you come across information that is missing, you’ll earn prizes by helping us add venues that are not yet in our database, and improving the ones that are by adding your ratings, reviews and photos.

Beerpad: $4.99

Once you make it out with your friends to your watering hole of choice, and before you are completely intoxicated, you should make sure to try out Beerpad. This app reminds me of an electronic moleskin for the beer snob. This app allows the user to look up beers from a database for suggestions, and keep track of the beers you consume. You can then rate them from best to worst.

You can take notes on which beer you had at what venue, what meal they complimented, and which beers are worth the premium price tag. One of the more useful implementations of this app is that you can make positive or negative comments on each beer consumed throughout the night. Also, it can keep record of past nights out, so you can use it as a reference in the future. From here, you can remind yourself to never drink a certain beer again, or to buy some of another beer for the house next time you’re at the market.

Another way to use this app is when you are in a new city at a great venue that the Sloshspot app referred to you, but the beer selection is different than what you are used to. You could simply look up your notes, and based on your previous experience with some of your lesser known brews, you’d be able to easily pick a winner. Similarly, you can make a reminder to come back to a particular venue next time you are in the area. If this concept sounds great, but you prefer scotch or wine over beer, the same developers have created Scotchpad and Winepad.

Drinkbuddy: $3.99

A lot of people have played the DUI lottery at some point and lost in the last couple years. At a mere $3.99, the Drinkbuddy could have saved them thousands, and more importantly it could have deterred them from getting behind the wheel. Drinkbuddy’s main feature is that it estimates your Blood Alcohol Level (BAC) based on your weight, sex and the amount of drinks you’ve had. Simply enter the data when you start drinking, and enter new drinks as they are consumed.

As the night goes on, the app keeps track of elapsed time, and has a countdown feature that estimates when you would legally be referred to as ‘sober’. In some cases, for some of us, this will be into the next morning. The application is also color coded to tell you how sober you are - perfect if you are too drunk to read and can only communicate through colors. If you are at the ‘red’ color (the scale indicated levels of drunkenness from green to red), and you are thinking about driving, hopefully a synapse in your brain will associate ‘red’ with bad things. If you imagine a stop-sign, a stoplight, the video from driver’s education class (Red Pavement), or Darth Vader’s lightsaber to name a few, then you will call a cab.

Again, this app should never justify drinking after driving, but rather should be used to remind you that no matter how much you convince yourself that you are good to drive, you should let a designated driver take the keys or hail a cab.

iBeer: $2.99

Now we’re at the point in the night where iBeer comes in handy. Chances are one of the following is going on:

1. You may have invited your buddy with a drinking problem who still wanted to go out with the guys. He can order diet Cokes all night long, and hold this to show off that he still has a good sense of irony about the disease.

2. If you brought a designated driver and he feels like pulling this joke: “Hey guys look what I got!” This is like the fantasy football of beer-drinking. Well worth your $2.99.

3. You were cut off from the bartender because you drank too much. This app is perfect to spite that bartender with. Simply spend half as much money as the next drink would have cost to buy this app and drink a beer while loudly yelling obscenities at him/her while shaking your new electronic beer in the air all the way up until Captain Beef working the door comes over to pin your arms behind your head.

So, if you’ve had your fill of the the same spot every weekend, and it’s time to move on, simply mix up something new using Pocket Cocktails, and find a new spot using your Sloshspot app. While you are at the bar, jot down some notes on what you enjoy on tap using Beerpad, and monitor your BAC using Drinkbuddy so you know when you are going to be sober. You want to shoot for something before 1PM on Saturday, at which point you can blankly stare at your iBeer and just drink pretend beers for awhile until you feel better.

Tags: