Poynt Beta - Free Directory Service

Poynt is a free service that poses itself as a "free instant messaging directory service", and they have recently released their beta client for the Blackberry platform. This beta client promises:

• Saving time searching for businesses using their intuitive interface.
• Search for movies near your location and buy tickets on the go.
• Specify your location dynamically through your phone's GPS or IP Address; or statically through locations you type in.
• See results listed by distance relative to your location.
• Call companies or browse their websites directly from the search results.
• Get directions to and from anywhere in North America.

The interface is clean, simple, and to the point. It almost reminds me of some flash/shockwave content I've seen on the internet. Everything I need was easily found. For example, upon launching the client, you will be presented with three buttons: Businesses, Movies, Directions.

• Businesses: Presents you with a search bar interface.
• Movies: Allows you to search by: Movies Near Me, Theaters Near Me, Top 10, Movie Genres, Movie Title, and Theater Name.
• Directions: Basically links to your phone's Blackberry Maps

Note: Based upon my experience with the GPS in my phone (just like any GPS; 8330 Curve - Verizon), you may want to set up a static location in the event that Poynt cannot locate your position (you can always switch back to GPS on-the-fly from the pull-down menu at the top of the screen).

All search results are posted in the same program, instead of redirecting you to the internet through your Blackberry Browser. For example, I selected Movies Near Me, and was presented a list of ten movies playing in my area (Movies data is pulled from Cinema-Source") as a simple list sorted by title and displaying their rating. Moving the cursor of the results will expand each result and give you the runtime for each movie. Selecting the entry will give you the option to select Theaters Playing, See Movie Details, Read Review, or Email to Friend. I selected Movie Review for Coraline 3D, and was presented with a very simply formatted text review of the movie from Hollywood.com (still presented in the same program and not in the browser).

One feature that I liked, was the ability to either go back to the previous group (like the main Movies category, for example) or to any other search function the program provided without having to go back to the home screen and start all over again.

Poynt is a great, free product and I would highly recommend giving it a shot, regardless of having a blackberry with an internal GPS, or not. I did not have any issues that stood in my way from giving this product a "thumbs-up". Check it out, and let me know what you think!

If you wish to download the product Over The Air (OTA), point your phone's web browser to http://m.mypoynt.com/.