Foursquare celebrates one billion check-ins with updated mobile apps

You know what’s cooler than a million check-ins? A billion. Popular location-based check-in location service Foursquare today announced on its blog that it has reached one billion check-ins, as well as launched updated versions of its popular iPhone and Android apps.

Check-in growth on Foursquare has nearly tripled in a year, going from around 200 million in July 2010 to almost 750 million in June 2011. The company claims the one billionth check-in occurred … Continue Reading

Gowalla’s next location check-in app features city guides

Location-based check-in company Gowalla unveiled the next version of its mobile application today, which features guides that include more in-depth information about locations.

For example, users can see guides to locations such as Disneyland or the University of Texas, which highlight some of the more important or interesting sights at the theme-park or campus. The guides are professionally curated by partners or created internally by Gowalla. But Gowalla users can also participate by adding photos … Continue Reading

Foursquare finds revenue stream in daily deals partnerships

Popular check-in application Foursquare, which recently reached 10 million global users, today announced on its blog that it will be offering local daily deals from 5 new partners, including LivingSocial, Gilt City, Zozi,  AT&T Interactive and BuyWithMe.

Similar to how current local business specials are displayed within the “explore” tab, the new deals will show in real time and enable users to quickly secure a deal with just a few clicks. To avoid any spamming … Continue Reading

LevelUp makes redeeming check-in rewards easier with American Express

LevelUp, a pilot in the local deals space created by check-in app Scvngr, today announced a partnership with American Express to give users the ability to redeem deals with their credit cards, eliminating the need for printed coupons or showing your phone at the point of sale.

Essentially, consumers will be able to connect their American Express cards to LevelUp and be able to redeem in-store deals.  Once connected, users can simply swipe their cards … Continue Reading

Qubulus: Indoor positioning is here whether you like it or not

Like many people I have an addiction to Google Maps on my phone, so a world where GPS capabilities can follow me indoors has me curious. Qubulus makes accurate indoor positioning possible with its Qubulus Positioning System (QPS).

The young startup, based in Malmö, Sweden, got some exposure this week at the Global Mobile Internet Conference’s G-Start Up competition in Beijing, where it was picked as one of 20 startups to pitch an audience of … Continue Reading

PhoneTag app promises to keep social media meet-ups private

Smartphone app startup Ripple Mobile today debuted its PhoneTag application, which uses GPS-based technology to help mobile device users share a user’s real-time location and coordinate connections privately with their friends and contacts.

PhoneTag lets a user select as many people as they want to be in a session — whether those people are contacts from their address book, someone they just met, business associates or anybody else with a smartphone. Users can set the … Continue Reading

Flirtomatic's iPhone app introduces location-based time-travel flirting

Flirtomatic, the mobile flirting network with over 4 million members, launched a new iPhone app today that uses GPS and Google Maps to let members time-travel to flirt with others by location.

Flirtomatic’s app, which had connected members on the basis of preferences, interests, location and other information stored in their profiles, now includes a location feature and allows members to search for, and connect with, people who’ve been or will be in the same … Continue Reading

MeMap app lets you track Facebook friends on one central map

MeMap launched a mobile app today that aims to bring together all of your Facebook friends’ location data from various location-based networks and put it on a single map.

That includes data shared with Facebook and Facebook Connect by third-party location-based social networks like Foursquare, GoWalla, Buzzd and others.

The San Francisco-based startup said the new app puts Facebook on one central app accessible by mobile devices. The app is available only on the iPhone, … Continue Reading

Foursquare 3.0 will recommend where to check in

Foursquare, the hot location-based check-in startup, today announced on its blog that it will be releasing Foursquare 3.0 later today for Android and iPhone. The new version comes with several feature updates, but probably the most notable is the much-rumored recommendation engine.

We hinted to the recommendation engine back in September when co-founder and chief executive Dennis Crowley announced the possibility in front of Picnic, an annual three-day festival for sharing concepts in Amsterdam. The new feature … Continue Reading

Find out where to meet friends with Echoecho

Everyone has been in that situation — stuck in a back-and-forth texting war with a friend deciding where to meet for coffee or lunch. It can be a bit of a hassle.

Echoecho is trying to make that process a little easier by showing where nearby friends are on a map and suggesting nearby locations to meet. The company unveiled its iPhone application at the Launch Conference in San Francisco today.

When one Echoecho user … Continue Reading

Google Latitude gives 10 million users check-in power

Google may have just made its big move in the location-based services space. According to the company’s mobile blog, it has launched Google Maps 5.1 for Android and included the ability to check in to specific locations with Latitude, its feature for sharing your location with friends.

While in the past users where able to share their location, it wasn’t based on a specific physical location, like a restaurant or bar, but just longitude and … Continue Reading

Foursquare fights fake friends

Popular check-in application Foursquare is facing a problem that has long bedeviled social networks — spurious friend requests. And it’s dealing with violators by putting a cap on them.

Users now have a limit on the total number of friends they can have as well as the number of friend requests they can send, a change first noticed by AboutFoursquare.com.

For the average user, this may not be an issue: Most users don’t want thousands … Continue Reading

What can we expect from Foursquare's new app?

According to a recent Foursquare post on Twitter, the company just had the next version of its iPhone application approved by Apple. (The post thanked “SantaJobs,” apparently a reference to Apple cofounder and CEO Steve Jobs.)

Foursquare cofounders Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai have been dropping a lot of hints about a major revamp to Foursquare, a popular location service used by 5 million people who announce their location to friends by checking in on … Continue Reading

Google Latitude iPhone app will help you stalk your friends

After briefly appearing last week, Google’s official Latitude iPhone app is now live on the App Store, the company announced this morning.

Google launched Latitude in early 2009 as a way to easily keep track of your friends’ locations in real-time. Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Symbian users have been able to take advantage of the service for some time with background updating, which automatically updates their Latitude location. Now with an official app, combined … Continue Reading

Forrester reveals who uses location-based services the most

While only 4 percent of US online adults have ever used a location-based service, like popular check in app Foursquare, data from research firm Forrester shows that young adult males with college degrees appear to be the main user group.

In addition to being the main user group, the group may also be heavy online influencers as 38% of them claim that their networks ask them for their opinion before making a purchase decision. It … Continue Reading

Business-networking app Unsocial gets new leadership

The guys over at Unsocial, a mobile app that helps people find business connections in a nearby geographic area, have certainly kept themselves busy. Since launching at VentureBeat’s DiscoveryBeat conference just a few weeks ago, Unsocial has added a new CEO, executive vice president and 10,000 users — just in time to return as the official conference app of GreenBeat 2010.

Unsocial users can connect their LinkedIn accounts, or create a unique account for the … Continue Reading

NBA to launch Turnstile check-in app for games

The National Basketball League (NBA) may be looking to take advantage of the growing popularity of consumers checking-in to locations through its own application dubbed Turnstile, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The new application is supposed to be released with the start of the new season later this month and will focus on giving fans the ability to check-in to games both in-person and while watching on the television. A smart move as many … Continue Reading

Loopt brings users closer to Facebook friends

Loopt, an early leader in location-based services, today announced it has integrated Facebook Places into its mobile check-in application. The application is available for iPhone and iPod touch.

Loopt users will now be able to seamlessly connect their Facebook profiles with the Loopt application. Through the connection, users will be able to not only see where their Facebook friends are on a map (see above), but also have dual check-in capabilities. For example, a user … Continue Reading

Placecast and O2 bring location-based ads to 1M UK residents

Location-based advertising doesn’t seem to have reached a mass audience yet, but things may be changing. San Francisco startup Placecast just announced a deal that should bring its location-based ads to 1 million new users.

Placecast is partnering with O2 (owned by Telefonica) to deliver ads on the mobile carrier’s O2 More service in the United Kingdom. Previously, O2 More delivered offers based on customers’ age, gender, and interests to more than 1 million subscribers. … Continue Reading

Houston, we've got check-ins: Gowalla and NASA team up

Popular mobile check-in game Gowalla announced a partnership today with government space agency NASA. While a mobile game and a space agency might not be the most likely of pairs, the two have joined forces to offer a country-wide scavenger hunt for virtual items, including moon rocks, NASA patches, spacesuits and space shuttles.

The four virtual items can be unlocked when a Gowalla user checks in to a specific NASA venue, including NASA visitor centers, … Continue Reading