check-in

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

Texting 911

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

The FCC is looking into letting people report emergencies over SMS and streaming video

Netflix launches a streaming-only plan, letting people ditch the DVDs

Amazon launches a Black Friday shopping page

Yelp introduces Check-In Offers, giving people discounts for location check-ins

Google TV serves up almost no TV now that Viacom joins the networks that block the service from playing their online content

Amazon allows you to give someone an MP3 as a gift

Google Docs has a Microsoft Office plug-in that lets you sync your desktop documents to Google Docs

Amazon launches … Read more

The 404 705: Where Caroline McCarthy is starting The 406 Podcast (podcast)

Congratulations to Caroline McCarthy for completing last weekend's New York Marathon in four hours and six minutes! It's not only an impressive athletic feat for a first-time marathon runner, but a philanthropic one as well.

Caroline raced to benefit Camp Interactive, a program that introduces inner-city youth to technology through outdoor activities. Thanks to contributions from friends, family, and even some 404 listeners, Caroline was able to raise $5,431 for the cause.

Uncle Henry, aka Tapchus in the chat room, also joins us on today's episode with insights on how marathons have changed in the past 20 years. Henry's completed several of them himself, and even tells us about a bizarre race within the staircase at the Empire State building.

Henry ran back when Apple iPods, GPS tracking, automatic FourSquare check-ins, and wristwatch pedometers weren't around, so it's interesting to hear from Caroline and Henry on how running has changed with those inventions.

This year there was no shortage of runners wearing strange outfits for the marathon, and Caroline tells us that superheroes and animal costumes dominated the race this year.

Apparently there was even a guy who ran all five boroughs while juggling three balls--an achievement appropriately called "joggling."

There are also video voice mails today from two listeners: Lila recommends a pair of durable Sennheiser headphones, and Nate recalls a voice mail from two years ago that was featured on last weekend's 404 Throwback episode. Thanks for staying with us, Nate!

If you want to get in touch with the show, upload your video to YouTube and send a link to the404(at)cnet(dot)com. If you're camera shy, you can also leave a message on our voice mail box by calling 1-866-404-CNET as well.

Episode 705 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Loopt update puts Facebook friends on the map

Knowing where your friends are, and seeing their location are two very different things. Loopt's latest iPhone update, and soon-to-be Android update, illustrates this point nicely.

Today the iPhone version of the app is getting an update to finally include integration with Facebook's Places feature, which was rolled out to users in late August. Now Loopt users can check in to both networks at once, and see where friends are from both places on a single map.

Of course Loopt is not the first iOS app to map out Facebook friends (Sobees got there last month), but it'… Read more

GetGlue strikes book publisher deals

There's a new partnership for GetGlue, a start-up that lets users "check in" to the movies or TV shows they're watching, music they're listening to, and books they're reading. The company announced Tuesday that it's partnered with four major book publishing houses to launch "stickers," the equivalent of Foursquare's achievement badges, for the season's biggest-ticket fiction and nonfiction books as well as bestselling authors like Tom Clancy and Paulo Coehlo.

On board are Hachette Book Group, Simon and Schuster, Random House, and Penguin. The largest publishing house that isn'… Read more

Hot Potato officially lands in Facebook's lap

Hot Potato, an online "check-in" service that lets users report their whereabouts and activities to friends, announced on Friday that it had been acquired by social-networking behemoth Facebook.

The deal, which has been talked about for several weeks, is the most recent development in Facebook's efforts to juice up the location-based aspect of its hugely popular service, which lets people connect with friends and family via the Web and share thoughts, links, photos, and more.

On Wednesday, Facebook unveiled Places, a feature that enables Facebook account holders to advertise their current location to friends, and lets users … Read more

Facebook goes Places

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded: Update your Facebook Places Verizon on the iPad Google Chrome Web Store leaks Intel to buy McAffe Personal spy game with the iPhone

'Check-in' craze moves beyond location

Despite the press, geolocation service Foursquare is still pretty small. But it's proven influential in another way: the phenomenon of "checking in" has spread beyond telling people where you are, and a handful of services now focus on letting you "check in" to what you're doing--whether it's attending a concert or reading one of those ubiquitous Stieg Larsson novels.

One of them, GetGlue, announced Wednesday a partnership with HBO to promote its current series "True Blood," "Hung," and "Entourage," in which users who use the GetGlue iPhone … Read more

Are you worried about geolocation privacy? (poll)

Geolocation services--mobile applications that allow users to share their physical whereabouts with their networks--are gaining momentum. This week, Foursquare said it hit 100 million check-ins, with nearly 1 million "check-ins" per day. Earlier this year, Twitter added its own geotagging feature and now Facebook is reportedly working on its own.

But as these services gain speed, so too, it appears, do user privacy fears--at least according to a survey conducted by Webroot, a maker of antivirus and antispyware software.

Given the nature of Webroot's business, the company does have a vested interest in the topic. Nonetheless, the … Read more