Apple News

Filed under: iPhone

Booyah’s very popular MyTown app has updated again, this time bringing some more innovation to the “check-in” idea. Instead of just checking in to locations, the app will now “check-in” to various products with the iPhone’s camera. So when you use a certain product, you can use the camera to scan a barcode, and presumably, MyTown will recognize it, add it to your check-in history, and then reward points and progress as usual.

Of course, this also means that Booyah will get a list of your favorite products and merchandise, which CEO Keith Lee says is “a holy grail for marketers and brands” in the press release. It seems a little unfair to take such valuable information from consumers while simply rewarding them with a few achievement points and virtual stickers, but MyTown definitely has a following, and the app’s fans can’t seem to get enough of their virtual collecting. The app will eventually include other types of gaming in the service, like scavenger hunt for certain items

On the plus side for Booyah, this just means that marketers and brands will be even more interested in supporting the app. We can expect to see even more agreements with real-world businesses from them in the future.

TUAWMyTown adds product check-ins originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 26 Jul 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Booyah – MyTown – Keith Lee – iPhone – Unofficial Apple Weblog

Filed under: iPhone, App Store

Booyah has released MyTown 4.0 for the iPhone, the latest update to their extremely popular check-in game, and it adds a whole new round of social functions to the system. Properties that you own (which you get by checking-in at real-life properties) can now create items of their own, and different categories, like shopping or dining, will create different types of items. Additionally, items can now be traded with friends in the game, and all of this adds a new level to the gameplay — not only are you earning points for checking-in, but you’re collecting items, and those items can give you extra boosts or otherwise mix up the game.

Plus, actual virtual items helps out Booyah’s in-app sales, and I’m sure they will eventually put some of their branding agreements to work by making some of those created items brand-name products. Version 4.0 also adds “location tips,” which allow users to leave comments at certain locations (to enable Yelp-style discussions), and check-ins now recharge over time, while max level players can check-in as much as they want.

MyTown’s growth has been phenomenal, and with the amount of work going into the app, that growth likely won’t slow down any time soon. The app is free and on the App Store right now.

TUAWMyTown 4.0 adds item creation, location tips originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 05 Jun 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AppStore – iPhone – Booyah – MyTown – Unofficial Apple Weblog

Filed under: Software, iPhone, App Store

If the iPhone has a leading app genre, aside from gaming, I’d say the current surge of “check-in” apps is probably it. Sure, back when the App Store first opened up, Twitter apps were everywhere (and they’re still being made daily, it seems), but in terms of a genre that can only exist on a location-aware device like the iPhone, “check-in” apps like Foursquare, Gowalla, and so on, are making their mark right now. Here’s news on two such apps continuing to grow on the App Store skyline.

First up, Loopt [iTunes link] has announced a partnership with a company called Mobile Spinach to start trying to monetize this kind of app usage. Mobile Spinach delivers local ads, and Loopt says that it’ll be using their location-based social networking service to bring specials and deals to users from wherever they check-in from. Note that while Apple doesn’t necessarily want location-based advertising as the sole purpose of an app, it seems to be all right with location-based advertising as an extra feature like this. Loopt tells us at TUAW that it’s a great deal for the company, as it is “an easier and cost-effective way to do online/mobile advertising,” and that it means “Loopt users can get great free offers on everyday things they want in need just by walking around in the neighborhood.” It’ll be interesting to see just how useful this extra advertising can be.

After the link below, read about how MyTown finally got the success they’d been hoping for.

Elsewhere in check-in app news, PocketGamer has an interesting interview with Keith Lee of Booyah about their extremely popular MyTown check-in app. It’s been fascinating to follow these guys — they’re former Blizzard devs, and their first app called Booyah Society, had some good ideas but failed to impress. So they went back to the drawing board, and MyTown [iTunes link] (which I’ve been playing with lately) has definitely made a few steps forward. As Lee points out, they looked at how they could better validate what people were doing, and they also upped the “gaming” side of it — you can earn points and money and even buy the properties you check in from to create your own kind of social networking city. And then when other people check in from the properties that you “buy,” you earn “rent.”

Lee says they really pushed on iteration and what felt fun for the team — he says that they had a few different expectations for Booyah Society, but that the relative failure of that app helped them learn a lot about which directions to go with on MyTown. Lee also talks about monetization — the app currently has a partnership with Citysearch (so you can easily access news and information about the places you check-in from), but they’re just running in-app ads, not necessarily anything tied to location yet. The app also has some in-app purchases — Lee says that they wanted to design for both the occasionally “check-in” user as well as the social “spammer,” so there are a few ways that the game balances those two types of players out so everyone levels at a fair rate.

Very interesting stuff. With their pedigree, it’s not surprising that Booyah eventually hit gold with MyTown, but the way they did it is really fascinating. I think we’re only scratching the surface of these check-in apps, whether you like them or not. As they get more competitive and more popular, we’ll really start to see some major innovation happening.

TUAWLoopt teams with Mobile Spinach for check-in discounts, Booyah talks about MyTown originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AppStore – IPhone – Gowalla – Foursquare – Apple

Filed under: Software, Freeware, iPhone, App Store

There’s a growing battle lately on the App Store over “check-in” apps — Foursquare, Gowalla, and MyTown have all seen big gains in users lately (and a few other contenders have been roaming the periphery), and it looks like we’re starting to see some innovation in the mix. Gowalla recently updated their free app [iTunes link], and introduced a new feature called Shared Trips. These are more or less tours (or a line of check-ins at different places around a given city), but they can feature all kinds of things: a set of bars, interesting buildings to see, the old bookstore/coffeeshop run, or any other ideas Gowalla users have. Trips can be shared and rated, and you’ll be able to browse through the most popular trips and even earn badges in the app for creating or going on a popular trip.

The new version also adds bookmarks, which will let you remember your favorite check-in spot — while you can’t add them from the mobile app yet, you can browse them from there, and they’re hoping to get the functionality in soon.

Obviously, this might not appeal to everybody — there are lots of iPhone users out there (including me) who aren’t so keen yet on sharing their location with everyone they know every time they leave the house. But it is interesting to note that this is a burgeoning mini-industry, brought on almost completely by the ubiquity of the iPhone and its up-and-coming competitors. Any time you have more than a few apps vying for a growing audience, you’re going to end up with some interesting innovation. It’ll be fun to see what kinds of ideas Gowalla and its competitors can come up with.

TUAWGowalla announces shared trips originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AppStore – iPhone – Gowalla – MyTown – Foursquare

Filed under: Software, Odds and ends, iPhone, App Store

I posted a few things last year about Booyah, an app that promised a lot, but turned out to be not much more than your standard social networking/check-in app. And despite a little hype around its introduction, Booyah had some trouble finding an audience. But the developers (former Blizzard folks still supported by some execs there) came right back with MyTown [iTunes link], and this time, they appear to have hit gold — despite the app’s low profile, it already boasts more users than the well-known Foursquare and Gowalla apps. That’s probably because it’s more of an actual game; rather than just checking-in, the app has a currency to it, where you can “buy” places you check-in from, and then charge money to the next person that stops by. Imagine Foursquare mixed up with Monopoly — instead of meaninglessly becoming the mayor of some place you visit, you can actually own and make money off of other people showing up there.

It’s an interesting idea, and it seems to be working. MyTown has just reached version 2.0, increasing the number of levels you can earn and items you can buy with the virtual cash. It’s still a free app, and originally, we heard that Booyah was going to earn money by teaming up with retail and business partners — Taco Bell would pay them, and then they’d attach some promotion to checking in from a Taco Bell. But they haven’t moved on to that point yet, apparently; right now it’s just about building up a userbase and setting up a solid formula. And so far, while the original Booyah app may not have been able to do that, MyTown seems to be rolling right along.

TUAWMyTown’s uncanny success originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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App Store – IPhone – MyTown – Apple – Gowalla

Filed under: Software, Freeware, iPhone, App Store

Location-based social networking on the iPhone is a tough game to play, apparently — the popular Yelp app [iTunes link] has recently updated to version 4.0, and along with a friend finder, hooks to Facebook and Twitter, and an updated version of their augmented reality Monocle feature, they’ve added the ability to “check-in” from locations around whatever city you live in. When you visit a great pizzeria, for example, you can send a ping out that says you’ve been there along with what you think of it. This replicates the functionality of another app, Foursquare [iTunes link], which is steadily building up its own social network prowess (you may have seen the “mayor of” tweets lately — that’s Foursquare doing its thing, either on iPhone or through a desktop interface).

In this case, the imitation isn’t appreciated — Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley tore apart Yelp’s new feature in a recent tumblr post, both comparing the two extremely similar “check-in” systems to each other and claiming that Yelp “copied the wrong stuff,” and that Foursquare is already working on improvements to their own system.

Which is the good news for us consumers, as competition tends to breed some great innovation. Personally, I haven’t been too interested in an app that helps me broadcast my location everywhere just yet, but there’s no question that these are popular apps and their popularity is growing. We’ll have to see what new features Foursquare has planned and how Yelp eventually responds.

TUAWYelp updates with check-ins, Foursquare not happy originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone – App Store – Apple – iTunes – Dennis Crowley