Despite the fact that I make a living writing electrical engineering software, I am not a gadget guy or early adopter of technology. Thus, when a commenter on the
Six-Pack Equivalent Calculator post requested an Android phone version of the SPE tool, I filed it away as something I might pursue sometime, but since I don't have a smart phone myself, it never got very high on my list of priorities.
As luck would have it, my neighbor Lindsey -- who
is a gadget guy, but a fellow cheapskate -- was recently gifted an old Android by a merciful friend. So he took it upon himself to create an
Android Beer Cost Calculator that gives you the SPE of any quantity of beer. Right now the app is free and shows an advertisement; later Lindsey may offer a 99-cent ad-free version. Under the terms of our agreement, I'll get 10% of any money over $50,000 that he makes off of this. (For those of you with limited sarcasm-detection or math skills, that means that Lindsey will make a few dollars more than the $0 I will make. Which is fitting, since he actually inspired the SPE idea in the first place, as a way to understand
growler prices.)
In case you're unfamiliar with the
SPE, it is the legal tender of
It's Pub Night. When trying to compare the relative price of differently-sized bottles, kegs, or glasses of beer, it helps to convert them into a unit we're all familiar with -- the beloved six-pack. Before anyone goes on a rant, let me clarify that I wouldn't expect snifters of rare Belgian monk nectar to cost the same as a six-pack of Miller High Life. This is just a tool for normalizing prices so you can understand what kind of value you're getting for your money, or compare two similar beers of unequal volume.
Of course an iPhone SPE App would be more popular. If someone has an idea of how to develop iPhone apps without an iPhone or a Mac, let me know. [
Update: you now have a choice of two
iPhone SPE apps.]
First out of the gate was Shawn Bernard, whose ad-free SPE calculator will set you back a mere 99 cents. A competing app by Mark Rickert is an ad-supported free Six-Pack Equivalent calculator. Full disclosure: I have a gentleman's agreement with these guys to kick me back 10% of everything they make over $50K on these apps. I'm gonna be rich.
