Was checking out the iTunes Apps Store when I noticed the number Paid Apps that goes by the name iManila. It has the Philippine flag for its icon and so I clicked on it to find out about some details. The iManila application description says – “iManila gives you easy access to an online phone “Yellow Pages Directory” for finding shops, businesses, restaurants and bars in the Philippines.” Now that got me interested and did not waste time to purchase the iPhone app ($.99).
It didn’t take long for the application to get into my iPhone as it only requires 1MB. I immediately search for the term “spa” and hit the search button. Less than a minute has passed before it displays the search results. I clicked on one of the results and the iPhone’s screen went to another page giving me some details about the results as well as quick links for calling the listed number, saving the number to my iPhone’s directory and an option for bookmarking the results.
Cool right? I investigated further and found out that the iManila iPhone app was created by MangoCode and that it gets its data from this online directory. I also found out that the application is good only for Metro Manila establishments and some parts of Cebu. The directory also doesn’t include movie theaters yet. And we’re really hoping that it will be included in the next version of iManila as it could easily be the most useful information.
Anyway, iManila is a pretty cool iPhone application with the Philippine branding into it. Hopefully we get to see more “localized” iPhone apps in the future aside from iManila and another application we featured not so long ago.
You may download the iManila iPhone app here.