MISTER App Re-launches with Enhanced Technology, Commits to Improving Gay Life

MISTER App Re-launches with Enhanced Technology, Commits to Improving Gay Life

Company Introduces “I Am MISTER” Movement Along with Redesigned App Focused on Getting Users to Spend Less Energy Online and More Time Meeting People

NEW YORK – July 16, 2013 – MISTER, the mobile app and online community for gay and bisexual men, today announced the re-launch of its mobile app designed to totally change the way gay men interact with each other on their smartphones. MISTER, which originally launched in December 2011 and now has more than 1 million users, has added new features, including one called MR. Right, that will help men find the right connections more quickly and efficiently so that they can spend less time searching through profiles and more time actually meeting one another and enjoying their lives. In tandem with the app launch, the company kicked off the community-focused “I Am MISTER” movement (#iamMISTER), which encourages men to be themselves, use their app with pride, and work to build stronger, better and more respectful relationships.

Gay men are some of the most active smartphone users, spending as much as 1.5 hours a day on gay “meet-up” apps. Unfortunately, a lot of that logged-in time is wasted time because only a small fraction of interactions turn into real meetings and even fewer into future connections. With today’s launch, MISTER is looking to change that.

“MISTER is a truly different experience for anyone who is sick of perusing endless photos of faceless bare chests or judgmental profiles,” said Carl Sandler, founder and CEO of MISTER. “With the new MISTER, we’re encouraging users to show their faces, and we’re also providing them with new features to help facilitate real conversations. We want to make finding what you’re looking for a lot easier so that you can actually meet new people.”

One fresh feature on the new MISTER that promises to deliver better connections to users is the technologically advanced MR. Right, which provides users new introductions daily based on the types of men they normally interact with. If a user, for instance, often talks to tall men in their early 30s, MR. Right will show that user other men nearby with similar traits. MR. Right works in the background as a personal wingman, always on the lookout for new, compatible men.

MISTER aims to do more than just get men together for fun and dating. The “I Am MISTER” movement asks users to behave differently in their interactions both on the app and offline and to be proud to be MISTER men. They’re encouraged to show their faces, be authentic, and opt in to the MISTER Code, an agreement urging users to treat one another with respect and honesty.

“Gay relationships have evolved, yet gay men are often still ashamed of using gay dating or hookup apps,” said Serge Gojkovich, marketing specialist for MISTER. “Some apps bill themselves as being better or catering to a certain niche within the gay market, but MISTER wants to move beyond that. MISTER encourages users to follow the MISTER Code, to be themselves, and to not be embarrassed about using an app to meet other gay men.”

MISTER is available for iOS and Android and on the Web. To download MISTER or to learn more, please visit misterapp.com.

MISTER will be celebrating its re-launch with parties allowing users to meet other users in the following cities:

• Washington, D.C.: JR’s 7/18
• West Hollywood: Revolver 7/19
• New York: Boxers (Chelsea) 7/19
• New York: Boxers (Hell’s Kitchen) 7/20
• Boston: Guilt 7/26
• Dallas: Victory Park 7/26
• San Francisco: Hi Tops 7/27
• Fort Lauderdale: Village Pub 7/28
• Atlanta: Heretic 8/2
• Chicago: Sofo Tap 8/3

About MISTER

MISTER is a leader in gay app technology. It’s a location-based app that helps gay men who are grown up connect with one another in an easier, more efficient, and more meaningful way. Unlike many other similar apps, MISTER offers access to users not only on mobile platforms like iPhone and Android but also on the Web at misterapp.com. MISTER is designed for diverse men who value integrity, safety, truth, experience, and respect. Members are encouraged to follow the MISTER Code, a shared set of values designed to make the MISTER community feel welcome, healthy, and safe. To download MISTER or to learn more, visit misterapp.com, follow us @theMISTERapp or #iamMISTER.

Blue Bottle in NYC

The San Francisco Ferry Plaza’s famous Blue Bottle coffee has been popping up in coffee shops all over San Francisco.  It’s served at The Summit SF in the mission and Elite Audio SF in SOMA.  But now it seems that NYC, a city more known for having a Starbucks on every corner than for artisan single origin espresso roasts, will be having a new cafe serving up the big blue bean.  Check it out below.

Blue Bottle Arrives in Manhattan With a Dramatic New Coffee Bar

By OLIVER STRAND

http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/blue-bottle-coffee-arrives-in-manhattan-with-a-dramatic-new-brew/?src=recg

In 2008, Blue Bottle Coffee turned heads in San Francisco when it unveiled a halogen-powered siphon bar. On Saturday, Blue Bottle will introduce New York to the theatrical coffeemaker when it opens its newest shop in a former loading dock on the ground floor of Milk Studios in Chelsea.

This will be Blue Bottle’s seventh location nationwide, and the first in Manhattan. (A Blue Bottle coffee stand operates on the High Line from April to November.) The new shop is divided into two parts: In front is a coffee bar equipped with all the gear New Yorkers have come to expect in this era of obsessively crafted coffee: a Strada (for cappuccinos, Gibraltars and other espresso drinks, plus single origin espresso), filter cones (where coffee will be brewed one cup at a time) and cold-brewers (for iced coffee). A glass case will hold pastries baked at Blue Bottle’s roaster and coffee bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

But walk up a short flight of maple stairs to the austere mezzanine in back, and you’ll find a thin slice of Tokyo: six stools pulled up to a slab of Carrera marble where coffee is made to order on a siphon or on a nel drip.

For the uninitiated, the siphon looks like a steampunk science experiment, and the drink it produces is so perfumed and delicate that it bends your idea of how coffee can taste. It’s an old method — siphon coffee first came into fashion in 19th century France — that caught on in postwar Japan and evolved into an art form in the coffee bars of Kobe, Kyoto and Tokyo. Japan has held a national siphon championship competition since 2003; it was expanded into a world siphon championship in 2009.

Often siphon coffee is made with an open flame, but the setup at the Blue Bottle is powered by brass-trimmed halogen burners that can be adjusted instantly and accurately. It works a little like a moka pot: a large glass globe is filled with water, a glass tumbler with coffee grounds is fixed on top, and as the water heats up it rises into the upper chamber, where it mixes with the coffee grounds. (The job of the siphonist — that’s the term — is to stir a bamboo paddle gracefully so that the coffee extracts evenly.) As the liquid cools, it filters back into the lower globe, which doubles as a coffee pot after the top chamber is popped off.

Blue Bottle will also offer nel drip coffee, which is made with a thick cotton filter. (A point of vocabulary: “Nel,” as the filter is called in Japan, is short for “flannel,” though outside Japan it is often known as a “woodneck” or a “sock,” one of the least appetizing nouns you could pair with coffee.) Nel drip is like a paper filter drip, only slower. Which is one reason you sit at a counter.

While a handful of other shops and restaurants in New York offer siphon coffee and nel drip, this is one of the first to embrace the full Japanese experience. In another nod to authenticity, the bar in back will also serve thick slices of toasted white bread, jam and butter on the side — just as at Shibuya Station.