Drivers using ethanol (specifically, E85) to fill up their vehicles can now use a new iPhone/iPod touch app to find nearby gas stations selling the biofuel. Sure, you can do some of the same things at Ethanol Retailer, but this is an app we're talking about.
E85 Fuelfinder uses a built-in database of E85 stations from the U.S. Department of Energy. The developer has geocoded each station so tapping on the Google Maps link makes the station appear accurately. The stations are available in a list based on your current location or you can search by city and state. On the iPhone, you can tap to call a station. You can also set up a list of favorites if you often go to the same stations.
Why do this? Well, the app has the ability to list the current price for E85, so if there are a couple near you, you can compare prices and head out to the cheapest station, if that's your thing. A test of stations in our area showed this feature isn't exactly running smooth right now – all stations are listed as selling E85 for $0.00 a gallon, and we don't think the biofuel is that cheap these days. The developers say, "We're hoping to harness the power of crowd-sourcing to gather Price Per Gallon (PPG) and station features."
The developers are also working to update the app to use an external database so that the station updates happen in real time.
E85 Fuelfinder uses a built-in database of E85 stations from the U.S. Department of Energy. The developer has geocoded each station so tapping on the Google Maps link makes the station appear accurately. The stations are available in a list based on your current location or you can search by city and state. On the iPhone, you can tap to call a station. You can also set up a list of favorites if you often go to the same stations.
Why do this? Well, the app has the ability to list the current price for E85, so if there are a couple near you, you can compare prices and head out to the cheapest station, if that's your thing. A test of stations in our area showed this feature isn't exactly running smooth right now – all stations are listed as selling E85 for $0.00 a gallon, and we don't think the biofuel is that cheap these days. The developers say, "We're hoping to harness the power of crowd-sourcing to gather Price Per Gallon (PPG) and station features."
The developers are also working to update the app to use an external database so that the station updates happen in real time.
[Source: E85 Fuelfinder]
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