A BYU couple launched a new iPhone app last week designed to keep dates original and cost-effective.
The app, accessible through iTunes via an iPhone, allows people to design a series of locations and activities to build a date.
Once a date is built, it becomes available for other users to see and use.
The app includes exclusive discounts to local businesses such as Color Me Mine, Sammy’s, Los Hermanos, T’s Diner and the Pita Pit.
Jade and Saul Howard are the minds behind the invention; Jade is a senior studying secondary choral instruction and Saul is a graduate student studying information systems.
Both of them see the app continuing forward and building date series for cities worldwide.
“Right now our target audience is mostly the Provo area since the dating scene is so prevalent here, but one person has already built a date for the city of Tripoli,” Saul Howard said.
Saul Howard said should the app continue to grow and cover new places at the rate it has since its inception, a possible outcome would be for tourists worldwide to spend their evenings like a local.
As far as Provo goes, however, the Howards stress there are often overlooked places to visit.
“The app helps to keep dates different because people highlight on the site lesser-known destinations,” Jade Howard said.
The site doesn’t just include creative date locations, it also offers date ideas.
“One of the dates on the site is Skittle bowling, which means a couple base their bowling technique on what color of Skittle they pick,” Jade Howard said.
Charley and Lauren Schreiber are a BYU couple who got involved when they saw a flyer.
Having just done a date of their own, the Schreibers added it to the site. The date, they said, helped them stay in tune as a couple.
“We went to a dollar store and had to buy something that represented the other person,” Charley Schreiber said. “We added that to the site, but the thing I like about the app is how you can pick from different categories based on what you feel like.”
Some of those categories include romantic dates and outdoor dates.
Because the app was created for a competition hosted by the Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, anyone who subscribes to the app between now and Wednesday will be in the running to earn a $50 gift certificate to the date of their choice.
The app can be accessed at datebuilder.net.
