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One-time Foursquare competitor Gowalla is coming back as an AR app
Provided the pandemic cooperates, the hope is to relaunch the app in the first half of 2021 in select cities.
Instagram Designer Tim Van Damme moving to Dropbox in early August
Ready to tackle new challenges and experiences, Tim Van Damme, the Lead Designer for Instagram, will be leaving the Facebook-acquired company to join up with Dropbox. Van Damme has a healthy track record, having designed for Instagram since January of 2012, as well as Gowalla and TenForce prior to that time. He'll join former Facebook designers Rasmus Andersson and Soleio Cuervo in his new position starting in early August; in the meantime, he'll be taking a few weeks off, though we wonder if he'll be sharing any pictures of his vacation or the amazing food on you-know-what.
Switched On: Facebook's ecosystem dilemma
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. Despite amassing something close to a billion users, Facebook has mainly stayed true to the startup mantra of staying focused on a few core things. In this case, that has been promoting openness and sharing among friends and, increasingly, the world at large. Such was the case for its rival Google at the launch of the search company's IPO. Since then, however, the company has launched a pair of operating systems powering handsets and tablets around the world, a digital media store selling everything from apps to books, and its own social sharing service (at least twice). With the vast capital infusion that comes with an IPO, Facebook has an opportunity to expand far beyond its own site and Like buttons that now line up in a row next to sharing buttons using Twitter and Google+. The company certainly has no love for Google and has kept Apple at arm's length, but it has had a strong partnership with Microsoft, which made a financially shrewd $240 million investment in Facebook back in 2007. Windows Phone would be a poorer experience were it not for its tight Facebook integration. The giant social network would gain from entering the device market or spinning its own version of Android as Amazon has done, but there would also be significant challenges to striking out into its own ecosystem.
Gowalla officially shut down, uses Facebook to check-in at SXSW 2012
SXSW attendees may remember that both Gowalla and Foursquare launched at the aforementioned conference in 2009, and during its 2012 edition, the former is formally saying goodbye. Just three months after we heard that Facebook had picked up (but two months after the shutdown was promised), Gowalla is saying its final words. Specifically: "Thank you for going out with Gowalla. It was a pleasure to journey with you around the world. Download your check-ins, photos and lists here soon."Don't cry, Gowalla -- at least you won't have to deal with any more SXSW registration lines.
Gowalla confirms move to Facebook, service to shut down in January
Reports of an acquisition first surfaced on CNN Money late last week, and now Gowalla has confirmed that it has indeed been acquired by Facebook. According to the company, the Gowalla service itself will be winding down at the end of January, and the team will instead focus all of their attention on developing Facebook features (namely, Timeline). Gowalla's Josh Williams also assures users that their personal information isn't a part of the acquisition, although the company will be providing users with a way to export their Passport data and other information. You can find his full post announcing the deal at the source link below. [Thanks, Bram]
Daily iPad App: Highlights
Today's daily iPad app is Highlights, an app that lets you find new and interesting places around you based on crowd sourced recommendations from check-in services Gowalla and Foursquare. The app works by scanning Gowalla and Foursquare reviews and then processing them through Highlights' ranking systems. The results are then presented to you on an interactive Google Map. By default the app works by using your current location, but you can enter almost any address on the globe to get recommendations. This is especially handy for when you're planning a trip to another city. Highlights also features a "recommend in this area button." When tapped you'll see a list of the top spots in your currently viewed area divided into categories like culture, religion, arts, education, entertainment, food, hotels, nightlife, great days out, and more. As with other apps that spotlight cool areas around you, Highlights lets you narrow your search by category. It also offers basic translation of reviews into some other languages -- a nice feature for international travelers. Also besides the ability to search and browse places around you Highlights offers a planner feature that allows you to save those places to an itinerary. It even offers you pre-made itineraries via Gowalla Trips. Highlights' user interface is clean and easily navigable with large icons representing the categories of discovered venues. The app is also universal, so it runs on both the iPad and iPhone. The only immediate improvement the app needs is the ability to convert kilometers into miles. Though the metric system is far superior and easier to use, many in America may be put off by only having distances measured in kilometers. Highlights has found a permanent spot on my iPad and iPhone home screen. It's available in the App Store for US$0.99.
Cambridge researchers tout new location-based method to predict friends on social networks
Friend suggestions on social networks may already be a little too eerily accurate for some, but a team of researchers from Cambridge University now say they can do one better. They've devised a method that doesn't simply rely the usual friends-of-friends approach, but on where those people tend to hang out. According to researcher Salvatore Scellato, "it turns out that the properties of the places we interact can determine how likely we are to develop social ties," and that places like offices and gyms are better indications of potential friends than football stadiums or airports. That notion was borne out in their research (conducted over a period of four months using Gowalla), which found that "about 30 percent of all new social links appear among users that check-in to the same places." With the two prediction methods combined, the researchers say they're able to account for 66 percent of all new social ties. No word if they've moved onto predicting crimes next. [Image credit: Gowalla]
Boxcar Beta for Mac available, brings notifications to Mac
Today brings a delightful surprise for Mac users with Boxcar joining the Mac family. Boxcar has been the standard for getting push notifications from your social networks, email, RSS and other services on iOS devices since it launched in July of 2009, and it has been one of my favorite iPhone apps from the start. Boxcar currently supports more Twitter events than you probably have time to read, including mentions, direct messages, new followers, trending topics, Twitter list updates and keyword searches. Boxcar also supports other social networks for notifications from Facebook, check-ins from Gowalla and Foursquare, even Google Buzz.
Facebook for iPhone updated with 'Places' GPS check-in
If you've ever wished Facebook would integrate some of the functionality of online check-in apps like Gowalla or Foursquare, you're in luck. The Facebook for iPhone app has been updated to version 3.2 and includes a new feature called "Places." Places is Facebook's stab at sharing locations with friends via GPS tagging; by tapping a "Check in" button and choosing a location near you, you'll be able to share your current location in your friends' news feeds. Your check-in will also show up on the location's Recent Activity page, assuming the location has a Facebook page. So, you can look forward to a lot of "Johnny Appleseed is at Target in University Heights" posts in your Facebook News Feed in the near future. Hooray? You'll also be able to tag any friends who are with you, and you can see other Facebook users at that location by checking the "People Here Now" section. Places is currently only available in the USA (meaning that I haven't tested it), but Facebook promises to roll the feature out to other countries and mobile platforms "soon." I like the idea of this feature in theory, but in practice, as soon as this feature rolls out in my country, I'll be scrambling to disable it. I've always thought of apps like Gowalla and Foursquare as the electronic equivalent of hanging a big sign in front of your house saying "I'm away from home, PLEASE ROB ME!" Add Facebook into the mix, a site already notorious for its questionable privacy record, and it's enough to send people like me into paroxysms of paranoia. Facebook spent over half their Places introduction post stressing that any information users share with Places is completely under users' control, but we've all heard that one before.
Check-in from an Apple Store on Gowalla, get entered to win an Ollie
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...
First look: Rally Up, a social network for real friends
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.
Booyah releases MyTown 3.0, adds friends lists and social features
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.
Loopt teams with Mobile Spinach for check-in discounts, Booyah talks about MyTown
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.
Gowalla announces shared trips
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.
MyTown's uncanny success
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.
