nosh nook #90 - friday, july 17, 2009

new pizza hut iphone app cuts out strenuous phone ordering (link)
07.16.09 - the inquisitr - kim lacapria

the wait is finally over! as i mentioned a few weeks back, the big pizza chains are getting all giddy about technology & as such, are developing viral campaigns, social networking tools & iphone apps, all designed to marry the wonders of technology with the excitement of ordering crappy pizza.  pizza hut is leading the iphone race with the release of their new iphone app, "ihut," which, according to their demo video, is "the killer app for your appetite." the boys in creative must've spent hours on that slogan.

i wanted to test out the app for myself, so yesterday, whilst sitting at the airport, i downloaded it & fired it on up.  for starters, to do anything but play the "pizza hut racer" game that's part of the app, you have to go to the pizza hut website & create an account.  it turns out that you can't even create an account from their mobile site, so my plan for ordering up a large pie with the works & having it delivered to gate C12 (isn't that an explosive?) were foiled.  i kicked ass at the racing game though...a time of 1:22 and only three collisions with pizza boxes, one with a pan pizza & another with a thing of wings.

luckily, kim lacapria of the inquisitr (can i buy an "o" please?) has put together a rundown of the ihut app's benefits.  it's mainly designed to let hutskateers virtually place orders via interactive options that allow you to resize pizzas, drag & drop toppings and sauce your wings with a shake of the iphone.  you can't go too far though.  as the pizza hut press release for the app explains, "if an overeager pizza customer adds too many toppings, the pizza explodes and toppings go flying across the screen with an alert to make their pizza happier with fewer toppings." how fun! on top of ordering & playing racing games, there's a "virtual fridge" with coupons on it, so you can pay less for your crappy pizza.  lacapria thinks it's nice & all, but notes that she's "a born and bred New Yorker- if someone didn’t swear at you while you ordered it, it ain’t a pizza, dude." for the record, in my eight years in nyc, i've never been sworn at whilst ordering a pizza...sounds like ms. lacapria brings out the worst in people.