Microsoft's latest app wants to take the hassle out of meeting up with friends
One of the main headaches of trying to coordinate an event - either by using Facebook or by syncing people's calendars - is that it doesn't leave enough room for uncertainty. If you know you want to get some friends together for brunch tomorrow, but don't know where you want to go yet, or even when, you face the unenviable task of having to hammer all the fine print out over text message.
Microsoft's new app Tossup applies social polling technology to try to fix this problem. The app lets a group of people vote on aspects of an event - the wheres, the whens, etc. - in addition to saying if they'll be able to make it.
Built-in Yelp integration makes the app especially useful for deciding what restaurant you want to go to, since you can pull in restaurants from a specific neighborhood, complete with their rating. And even if your friends don't have the app, they can participate using a link sent by either SMS or email (similar to how the popular group messaging app GroupMe functions).
Tossup is one of the most recent apps to come from Microsoft Garage, the internal "incubator" that encourages Microsoft's employees to bring their novel ideas to completion. Here's a rundown on how this app can streamline your event.