---
title: 'Zipcar iPhone app shifts into gear'
date: '2009-09-29T10:00:23-07:00'
type: post
word_count: 282
char_count: 1644
tokens: 367
categories:
  - '#featured'
  - Apps
  - iPhone
  - Oregon
  - Portland
  - SmallSociety
  - Zipcar
tags:
  - App
  - Apple
  - iPhone
  - 'small society'
  - wwdc
  - Zipcar
---

# Zipcar iPhone app shifts into gear

A few months back during [Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference](http://developer.apple.com/WWDC/ "Apple Worldwide Developer Conference WWDC"), the folks at Apple got up on stage to demonstrate a very cool little [iPhone app for Zipcar](http://www.zipcar.com/iphone/ "Zipcar iPhone app").

The app—designed by Portland-based iPhone agency [Small Society](http://smallsociety.com "Small Society")—allowed you to find and reserve Zipcars, unlock your car, even honk the horn. But for all the bells and whistles, the app had one major problem: it wasn’t available to the general public. Until now.

Now, describing the app is fine. But seeing it work is better. And while the UI and some of the features have been tweaked a bit, you’ll get a general gist of how the whole thing works from the WWDC demo.

\[HTML1\]

What’s that? You don’t use Zipcar? Well you can—and should—use the app anyway. Why? Because it’s a beautiful implementation of map kit, push notifications, and other iPhone OS 3.0 features. And let’s be honest, honking the horn is just fun—even if it completely annoys your coworkers. Or maybe especially because it annoys your coworkers.

The Zipcar app is free. And from the looks of things, there are quite a few vehicles available in the Portland area at the moment.

For more information or to download the app, visit the [Zipcar app in the App Store](http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=329384702&mt=8 "Zipcar"). For more on the development, see [Small Society’s write-up on the Zipcar app](http://www.smallsociety.com/projects/ "Small Society on Zipcar").