WorkSnug, an augmented reality iPhone app that is setting out to connect “mobile workers” (that’s everybody now, right?) to the nearest places to work in major cities, is now live in New York and San Francisco. This follows launches in London and Barcelona.
To kick-start a process to reach scale they’ve used volunteers and app users to visit and review hundreds of workspaces where the coffee is good and the screaming kids are less prevalent – rating WiFi, noise levels, power provision, “community feel”, with the idea that we all hang out in a mobile kind of way these days.
They have an Augmented Reality iphone app [iTunes Store link] which pulls in data from the site.
Within 4-6 weeks (with the wildcard of the Apple approval period) the app will work in Berlin, Madrid, Paris, the Amsterdam Randstaad region, Brussels and Brighton, UK (where there are lots of freelancers who wander around looking for Wifi, coffee and power).
Interestingly, Niall Murphy, founder of The Cloud wireless company is now on the board and the startup now has commercial agreements in place with both Plantronics and Cisco, through their Connected Urban Development programme. The Plantronics connection is effectively a sponsorship deal for noise-cancelling headphones. Figures, right?