Pizza Compass app guides users toward tasty meals

Welcome to the 21st century, where a compass can be used to find the nearest pizza place.

Thanks to Pizza Compass, an app released Tuesday, iPhone users can now turn their smartphones into their own personal guides toward melted cheese, warm crust and delicious tomato sauce.

The app, which costs $0.99, works like any other compass with a few differences. For starters, the arrow is actually a pizza slice and it doesn’t point north -- it points toward the nearest pizza joint it can find. The app uses information from Foursquare, and in some cases, it can tell users whether a place is open or not. As users get near a pizza place, the space around the pizza pointer will start to look steamy.

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The app is the creation of Dan Blackman, an independent Brooklyn designer who got the idea for the app months ago while out drinking with a friend.

“We were trying to find some pizza and everything seemed to be closed, and the idea just kind of blossomed from that,” he said.

The app didn’t actually get built until last month, when Blackman woke up one day and decided he would design the Pizza Compass.

After finishing the design, Blackman took his work to Studiomates, a collaborative space where he does his work. There, he teamed up with Oak Studios, which developed the app.

In total, Blackman said about $1,000 went into the production of the app.

“We got that back the first day, so we’re happy,” said a cheerful Blackman.

Blackman said the app started out as a joke but he also wanted to create something that worked and could help people.

“Everyone gets that it’s just lighthearted and a joke and were not taking ourselves too seriously, and it’s been a really great experience,” he said.

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