foursquare

Check-ins come to Google Latitude app

Google's Latitude platform was a relatively early entrant into the current wave of location-aware apps--but until this point, it's steered clear of the "check-in" language that trendy start-ups like Foursquare have popularized. No more: Latitude's iPhone app, in an update announced today, finally allows users to check into specific places and share their location with their friends.

It joins a similar feature for the Latitude Android app, announced last week right before the notorious check-in playground of the South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, at which Google also announced a promotion with … Read more

At SXSW, IE9 envisions a happy, appy Web

AUSTIN, Texas--Just one year after it initially previewed its new Internet Explorer 9 browser, Microsoft formally launched the software today at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSW), bringing in representatives from launch partners from The Huffington Post, Foursquare, Groupon, and Pandora to demonstrate an experience that looks less like the Web as we know it and more like the app ecosystem of a smartphone or tablet.

"We're used to the Web getting better because of everything other than the PC," Internet Explorer's Dean Hachamovitch said of how the most innovative kinds of Web development have, … Read more

Mastering social media saturation at SXSW

AUSTIN, Texas--There was a time, just a couple of years ago, when you could figure out almost everything going on at the South by Southwest Interactive conference (SXSW) just by keeping an eye on the #SXSW hash tag.

Whether it was an impromptu wine party hosted by Gary Vaynerchuck or a Laughing Squid meet-up or word about a great panel going on, that hash tag was many people's essential organizing principle.

But with the explosive growth of SXSW and Twitter, the thousands who are prowling around day and night here this week looking for the next great thing to … Read more

Why Gowalla hasn't stopped moving

AUSTIN, Texas--It can't be easy for Josh Williams, the CEO of geolocation service Gowalla, to see once-close rival Foursquare plastered all over his hometown this week for the annual South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSW). On the massive outdoor "Pepsi Max Lot" where lucky Foursquare check-ins can earn users "golden tickets" to a Monday night concert by Big Boi, at local vendors participating in a blockbuster partnership between Foursquare and American Express, or just on the smartphones of the tens of thousands of geeks who flood the Texas capital for the conference each year.

"… Read more

SCVNGR at SXSW--high-flying, or head in the clouds?

AUSTIN, Texas--Hailing the 2010s as "the decade of games," Seth Priebatsch, founder of the Google-backed start-up SCVNGR, brought a bright dose of dreamy enthusiasm to the first official keynote of the South by Southwest Interactive Festival on Saturday afternoon.

Plowing through problems from education reform to global warming, and how they could be addressed by applying the principles of games, the skinny Priebatsch showed up for his talk, "The Game Layer on Top of the World," in a bright orange polo shirt with matching sunglasses perched atop his head and spoke with the jerky staccato of … Read more

Foursquare upgrades its iPhone and Android apps

Foursquare has upgraded its Android and iPhone apps to version 3.0 to kick off some new and enhanced features.

Officially debuting yesterday in Apple's App Store and Google's Android Market, the free Foursquare 3.0 app has added a new Explore tab that can zero in on the places you want to go.

Tap a certain category, such as food, nightlife, or shops, or type in a specific phrase, such as "books" or "gas station," and Foursquare will show you a list of local spots, anywhere from 2 to 10 miles from your … Read more

Facebook is not a measure of your self-worth

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded:

Opera launches a mobile browser-based app store

A new iPad magazine app called Zite arrives

Foursquare launches version 3.0 of its mobile app with more emphasis on rewards and recommendations

Mitsubishi has built an elevator that you can operate with voice commands

A new study shows that women who base their self-worth on their appearance share far more photos of themselves on Facebook

Have onboard Wi-Fi? See what's happening below

Have you often looked out the window of a plane and wished you could find out about what you're seeing down below? Thanks to a new service that went into alpha testing today, you could soon do just that.

Known as MondoWindow, the service aims to let anyone onboard a Wi-Fi-enabled plane get real-time information about the places they're flying over. And as the service gets more sophisticated, it will likely add all kinds of additional features like audio programming, videos, and games, all related specifically to the places you can see five miles below you.

MondoWindow comes … Read more

Foursquare names world's rudest cities

If you travel around the world, you sometimes find yourself marveling at just how many different cultures can intersperse every second word with an expletive.

It's a talent that some might say the British have turned into something resembling an art form, as long as you have a refined interpretation of what constitutes art.

I am therefore expleting with joy that an English city has been named, by the politically correct techies at Foursquare, as the world's rudest.

How did Foursquare come to this conclusion? Well, in a post on the the company's engineering blog, Matthew Rathbone, … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1414: Will Verizon doom the Xoom? (podcast)

Donald Bell joins us today to show off the Xoom in the flesh ... and yes, it's gorgeous, but is Verizon going to ruin it with high carrier prices and contracts? Molly lays down some shocking advice. Also, the new MacBook Pros have Light Peak, called Thunderbolt, Breakup Notifier gets the cold shoulder from Facebook, and the loosest adaptation of a true story we've ever heard. Good try, Battle L.A.