Gowalla for iPhone is a social app from some fine folks in Austin, TX that allows you to check-in to locations, see where your friends are checking-in, collect items and complete trips.
For those of you not familiar with the whole “check-in” craze, the idea is you travel around town, land at a “spot” such [...]
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Gowalla for iPad is a social app from some fine folks in Austin, TX that allows you to check-in to locations, see where your friends are checking-in, collect items and complete trips. Gowalla for iPad is available now in the App Store for free [Free- iTunes Link]
Gowalla is the newest entry into the whole “check-in” [...]
Gowalla for iPad – App Review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
Filed under: Odds and ends
Iconfactory have a long history of lovely Mac things, including the spectacular Twitterrific iPhone app. When they created Twitterrific, they gave it an adorable icon of a little blue birdie. His name is Ollie. His popularity is always increasing. Of course, he is super cute, which helps. So super cute in fact, that the fellows at the Iconfactory have created a vinyl figure of Ollie.
Gowalla is a location-based service; you use it to check in at places and you can collect badges and see if your friends are in the same place too. Sometimes they do promotions where you can pick up a physical version of an item, not just a badge, when you check in someplace.
Do you see where I’m going with this?
From now until April 6th, when you check in at an Apple Store on Gowalla, you will be able to pick up a digital Ollie as part of your Gowalla booty. As an added bonus, a hundred exceptionally lucky folks will also receive an actual Ollie figure. If it turns out I am not among the winners, they will also receive the bonus of a bit of my jealousy.
No, I don’t know what prizes or surprises are in store for people who check in from the line outside the store, but I’m guessing if you aren’t in line already, you won’t be the person who gets bonus points for adding the venue. On the upside, this contest is open to anyone using Gowalla, so even if you aren’t in the market for new hardware this weekend there’s still a chance for you to win, provided you are wiling to brave the hordes who are in the market for new hardware this weekend…
TUAWCheck-in from an Apple Store on Gowalla, get entered to win an Ollie originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 03 Apr 2010 12:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Apple – IPhone – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Gowalla – AppStore
Filed under: Software
I have to admit it: I like location-based social networking apps. Probably my favorite to date has been FourSquare, which I love because I’m the “Mayor” of a couple dozen locations. But this type of app isn’t for everyone. My wife, for example, says that she thinks they’re a bit too much like stalking (to which I replied, “there’s an app for that“), so she won’t use them.Rally Up is a new location-based social network (that’s so awkward to say) that has several features that may sway my wife. The free app for iPhone, and soon for iPad, lets you set granular friend preferences. What does that marketing speak mean? Easy — you set your real friends to “real” on a slider, which means that they get full notifications (i.e., “Steve is at the Blue Bonnet Café) and their check-ins show up in your feed.
The next slider setting is “feed,” which is for those folks who you want to know about, but you don’t want to receive push notifications from. Next on the slider? “Lurker.” Here, you can see what’s happening with a friend, but you don’t let them see what you’re up to. And finally, there’s “mute.” What do you use mute for? It’s for all of those people who you started following because of social pressure, but who you really don’t want to follow.
TUAWFirst look: Rally Up, a social network for real friends originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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iPhone – Unofficial Apple Weblog – IPad – Apple – Social network
Filed under: Gaming
Booyah has released version 3.0 of their MyTown location-based social networking app on the iPhone. As Keith Lee told me at GDC a few weeks ago, this app makes up the largest number of location-based social users on the platform, eclipsing even Foursquare and Gowalla in terms of users. And version 3.0 overhauls the social side of the game, allowing you to now visit friends’ towns, view their check-in history inside the app, and track them across leaderboards. You can also send items and gifts to your friends, which will likely make up a huge part of their in-game microtransaction system. The upgrade is available on the App Store right now, and the app is a free download.
MyTown is almost the silent contender in the race over check-in apps on platforms like the iPhone — Foursquare and Gowalla are getting plenty of press, but Booyah is quietly building up a gigantic, dedicated audience for their app. As Keith Lee told us, they’re working on “some very interesting viral growth mechanics or loops that haven’t worked out yet on iPhone but have been done on other platforms.” This social update will likely drive their already sizeable audience to grow even bigger.
TUAWBooyah releases MyTown 3.0, adds friends lists and social features originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 26 Mar 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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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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