It was inevitable that a programmer would be hired to take the technological brilliance of the iPhone and merge it with a gay's favorite pastime: hooking up.

Behold Grindr, a new iPhone app that uses GPS to find guys in your area looking for the same thing you are: No-strings screwing. Or, for the more modest: An opportunity to meet a new platonic friend for skinny vanilla lattes or professional networking! Riiiight.

Grindr is the type of platform that, like any website dedicated to meeting other sex partners, increases in value with the more users signed up (just like Facebook and Twitter). The iPhone already uses GPS to recommend nearby restaurants and locate your friends; finding circle jerk buddies was only a logical next step.

Once you check in with your own location, you can see photos of guys in the area. Look promising? Start up a chat right in Grindr and decide whether it's gonna be your place, his place, or the Hilton.

And did we mention the best part? It's free! Which means you can install Grindr just to, uh, see which of your friends are cruising the neighborhood — and then bring it up at your next dinner party. (We've already spotted a close friend, who's betrothed, signed online … but he's "only looking for friends.")

If sites like Manhunt and adam4adam are wise, they've got competing apps en route.

YOUR TURN TO SHARE: Have you used Grindr? Okay, fess up! Tell us how you've used the app to find new "friends."

[Grindr — iTunes Download Link]