Lumiappaday #16: Hangover Helper demoed on the Nokia Lumia 800

Just a note – this is just a fun app, just something I liked and that my friends – who are mostly UK Uni students – also found particularly entertaining. As most Uni students will at one time get a really bad hangover, they can empathise with what this app is doing. Again, note, it’s just for fun! (I want to do various apps, mostly ones that my friends and I like). Of course, it’s not just for Uni students, a broader category of people like to have a drink too and may end up with the occasional hangover and can see the funny side of this app. Thought it’s quite appropriate for a Friday too.

#16) Hangover Helper

Price: Free or Paid

Link (free): http://www.windowsphone.com/en-GB/apps/9920d7b2-90fd-df11-9264-00237de2db9e

Link (paid): http://www.windowsphone.com/en-GB/apps/dbedc581-cd41-e011-854c-00237de2db9e

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuRzcAanHIA

Developer Blurb:

Hangover Helper Pro is your only true friend when you wake up somewhere unknown, with a hangover, after attending a social event involving consumption of alcoholic beverages.

The easy and headache friendly panorama-layout starts out by letting you know exactly where you are by providing a taxi-friendly street address and visual map. You can quickly send your current address to someone if you need to get picked up.

Then the application lets you review the photos on your phone in reverse chronological order to give you a rough idea about what happened last night.

From the application you can auto-generate messages to your partner/parent. This is a great feature providing quick damage-control before showing up at home. Hopefully the recipient has a sense of humor.

 

Sometimes it makes you feel better to know that others are suffering like you. The application lets you see and read about others who also have hangovers right now by tapping into Twitter. Finally, the application contains a checklist that will help you recover from your current state of hangover faster.

Rating: 8

Design: 8

Hangover Helper UI is your friendly Metro Panoramic affair. The background is a pint of beer, the bubbles at the top making the title bar stand out.

The app is very cleanly laid out, with each pane for one aspect you would perhaps need to cover in case of an extreme hangover. (Imagine if the guys from the Hangover Movies had this? Though I suspect if it were ever that bad, they’d possibly lose the phone)

Usability: 9

• It’s quick to start, and fast as usually the case with Metro UI apps.
• Your start page is the status. It will tell you where you are, what time it is as well as date as well as giving the option to send someone your location.  The Show map option is particularly useful as it will show you where you are and you can pinch-zoom and pan around. Trust me, there are some scary stories from friends of friends who had woken up with no idea where they were after an excruciatingly successful pub crawl. Maybe in some random house or bed? It’s great that you can text someone your location. Perhaps a textable taxi service? So many time (not drunk) we’ve had to call up taxis not really knowing where we are due to being lost. GPS would work but when disoriented, you might not bring that up.
• Pan over to the right to see what photos. Perhaps you don’t remember what you got up to. This will give you a snapshot of the last photo you took (click next to see more photos) to perhaps jog your memory on what happened the night before.
• Swipe to the right again and a really funny bit allows you to contact someone – the person waiting for you. Either a parent or a spouse (should give housemates as an option). Then give a name of one of your friends who was out with you drinking. Finally you can let the app tell the truth (and send a message saying you were totally wasted) or produce excuses for you where your named friend is part of that story.
• The next bit is called not alone. It brings up tweets I guess of other people with hangover. Might make you feel better to wallow is self pity along with other drunkards. More on this on the performance section. Great if it worked.
• After that you have a checklist for the rest of the day to nurse yourself back to health: Drink (non alcohol) drinks to rehydrate yourself, eat food to fill up your tummy and give you energy, watch tv/sleep – basically just rest, remove all unsightly photos published to Facebook and the promise said after each hangover, “I’m never drinking again”. It notes at the bottom do not drive if under the influence. Drink and Drive is a no no.
• Finally you have moral where you award youself a certificate for buying the app. It’s available completely free but if you like the app, you can give the developer a pat on the back. The price is not even enough to buy half a pint of coke.

Price: 10

• The developer has put up two versions of his app, both of which are ad free. If you like it enough you can get the paid version. It’s £0.79, not really enough to even buy anything alcoholic in the UK or even half a pint of coke.

Category: Applications, Lumiappaday, Nokia, Windows Phone