City Announces Winners Of Local-Interest Smartphone App Contest
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Sometimes you can't find a parking spot or a cab at the moment you need one, but now there's an app to solve your problem.
As CBS 2's Kris Habermehl reports, Mayor Rahm Emanuel's social media director, Kevin Hauswirth, has announced 10 winners of the "Apps 4 Metro Chicago" contest grand challenge.
In the contest, developers were asked to create apps on any theme as long as they touched on metro Chicago. The winners covered everything from transportation and the environment to leisure and entertainment.
Coming in first is SpotHero, an app that allows parking spot owners to generate income by renting out their spots when they're unoccupied. The developers of SpotHero win $10,000.
In second place, TrailBlaze records and anonymously reports bicyclists' routes, and allows them to vote for new paths just by carrying their phones while biking. TrailBlaze's developers win $5,000.
In third place for $3,500, the Android-based app OwtSee presents information about city parks and community events.
In fourth for $2,000, Chicago Local Guide allows both tourists and locals to find points of interests, locate specials and promotions, and get updates on the city's cultural and social scene and breaking local news.
Coming in fifth for $1,500, Mi Parque is a bilingual app focused on the Little Village neighborhood, in which neighbors can shape the future of their new parks.
The sixth through 10th place winners each receive $500. They include, in order – FasPark, which helps drivers find street parking in real time; allSchedules, which provides access to public transit schedules in Chicago and around the world; OkCopay, a comparison search engine for medical care; IFindIt, which helps low-income and homeless residents locate needed resources; and Taxi Share, which allows taxi users to find each other and share cabs to popular destinations.
