Palm points to pints

Having long billed itself as brewer of the beer that refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach, Heineken has finally figured out how to help you reach the bars other boozers cannot reach. The Dutch grog giant's system, dubbed BarTrek (ahem...), combines a Palm organiser and a GPS tracking system with an online database of bars located in 15 cities worldwide. Described as "first-and-foremost a fun application" but also "a global experiment in technologically-enabled social life", BarTrek allows users to log in, download the relevant city map, and let their Palm direct them right to the front door of the nearest decent alehouse. Well, sort of. The Register checked out Heineken's listing of good bars in London, a boozers heaven if there ever was one, and found a list of just eight sites, most of them music venues or tourist-oriented burger joints -- not quite the wide selection of gin palaces and pubs we'd recommend or even fall out of sometime during the wee small hours. In fact, we'd happily offer Heineken our services as reviewers of London's (or anywhere else, for that matter) pub scene. Said Frazer Thompson, Heineken's international marketing manager: "We hope BarTrek will encourage people out from behind their PC screens, and into the street, to leave their hotel rooms and meet people." And get roaringly bladdered, too, presumably... ®