Does your restaurant embrace the latest and greatest in technology? Your restaurant has a Facebook page, big deal. You have a Twitter stream where you tweet the latest addition to the menu, so what. Oh, and you offer customers deals on Foursquare, how innovative. Your restaurant is hopelessly 2009 if the wine list isn’t on an iPad. Observe:

Bone’s Restaurant
The Atlanta steakhouse, featured in The New York Times in September, decided their wine list was best served on the iPad, simplifying searches for some 1,350 bottles. The move increased wine sales by almost 11 percent, the owners say.

aria restaurant
aria’s iPad app was actually developed right here by envisionit in Chicago, putting the menu right at the diner’s fingertips. The app gives additional information about aria’s wines, dish preparation, and definitions—because sometimes it’s difficult to tell what that potentially delicious French-sounding ingredient might actually be. Diners can then make their friends jealous by posting favorite menu items to Facebook, Twitter, or share them by email.

4Food
Naturally, New York City must have the most tech-based and healthy-resembling, tasty-sounding burger place in the history of ever. Go online, choose your burger facets (bun, choice of eight different patties, a “slice,” cheese, condiments, add-ons), give it a name, tell the world. If someone orders the YouBurger, you get $0.25 credit. Ordering online requires creating an online account, which is a nice extra step of hassle, but, apparently, there are iPads to order in-house and lots and lots of technologically advanced power outlets.

Chipotle
Making ordering a burrito simple with an iPhone app (online ordering also requires signing up for an account).

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We love the interweb in all of its wide and worldly glory. Every week or so we’ll be sharing a round-up of five links we enjoyed, and think you will too.

Thanks in part to the iPad, the tablet is enjoying a shining moment. Object of nerd lust, topping technophile Christmas lists everywhere, tablets are a bridge between smartphone and computer—and the mobility factor opens up a world of possibilities.

1. PCWorld declares 2010 year of the tablet.
2. Huffington Post showcases non-iPad tablets worth your while.
3. MSN: Rumors of a 7-inch iPad could be true.
4. Motley Fool blogs about who is using the iPad.
5. Technologizer explores tablets that failed.

Tell us: what kind of tablet would you purchase? How do you hope to use your tablet?

envisionit media teams up with Fairmont Hotel in Chicago to develop a “new dining experience”. The iPad application will give diners a behind the-scenes look at the more unusual and unexpected items on the aria menu. Diners can tap on specific ingredient names for definitions, descriptions, and notes about preparation. The wine list, organized by region, will suggest menu pairings for each vintage, as well as background information about each winery. The application also incorporates elements of social media, allowing diners to share their favorite items with people they know via email, their Twitter feeds, or Facebook walls.

-click here for the press release-

The Apple iPhone’s inability to display Adobe’s flash technology has been a source of much controversy ever since the iPhone first conquered the market 3 years ago. While many have speculated either a software update to existing devices, or the introduction of Flash support to the next generation iPhone, few have considered that Apple would just not support Flash entirely moving into the future.

With the recent introduction of the iPad, Apple’s intentions of Flash support on their devices in the future is quite clear…there will be none. Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs, has recently been publically quoted, venting his frustration with both Adobe and Flash technology altogether. “Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy, he says. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash, he says. The world is moving to HTML5.”

Google has already made use of HTML5, most notably in their Google Voice software. What makes this so interesting is that Apple has famously prevented Google from including Voice as an application within their App Store. The answer from Google a few weeks ago was the launch of Google Voice coded in HTML5 that can be accessed through the iPhone’s Safari browser. With the recent success of that product, Google, this week, has now rolled out YouTube support that does not rely on Flash, again utilizing HTML5. iPhone users can now access YouTube via their Safari browser, rather than relying on the traditional YouTube App.

So what does this mean for the future? A world without Flash? Only time will tell, but at long last, it does look like there is at least some hope for those caught between the Apple vs. Adobe Flash debate.

Read more about this case below:

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/01/googles-dont-be-evil-mantra-is-bullshit-adobe-is-lazy-apples-steve-jobs/