[jp]Latitudeにチャット機能がついたらこうなる？ カヤックが位置情報を使った「ナカマップ」を開始. 昨日はGoogleの位置情報サービス、LatitudeがiPhoneアプリになったことがちょっとした話題になった。 Latitudeは認めてくれた相手の位置情報をグーグルマップ上で見ることができるという、いってみれば非常に単純なサービスではある。 このLatitudeにコミュニティ機能がついたらどうなるか。 ユニークなサービスを生み出すことで知られるカヤックは友人や知人の場所を地図上にマッピングしながら、チャットができるiPhoneアプリのサービス「ナカマップ」を本日リリースする（追記：Android版もあり）。 間もなくAppStoreからダウンロードできるようになる。 ナカマップは自分でグループを作成するか他人のグループに招待されることで、そのグループに参加している同士の位置情報を地図上で見られるようにしている。 そして、グループ内でチャットができるというわけだ。 位置情報を見ながらチャットができることで、新しい使い方の可能性がありそうだ（たとえば、単純にはこれからみんなで合う場合に、待ち合わせ場所を全員の均等距離に設定するとか）。 ナカマップでは、ユーザーはそれぞれのグループに対して位置情報を共有するかしないかを選択できるようになっている（これはプラバシーのことを考えるとかなりうれしい機能だ）。 位置情報のソーシャルサービスはいろいろと出てきてるが、このサービスはチャット機能に絞っているので、直感的でわかりやすい。 Forrester reveals who uses location-based services the most. While only 4 percent of US online adults have ever used a location-based service, like popular check in app Foursquare, data from research firm Forrester shows that young adult males with college degrees appear to be the main user group.
In addition to being the main user group, the group may also be heavy online influencers as 38% of them claim that their networks ask them for their opinion before making a purchase decision. It would be interesting to know what types of products their networks ask them about before a purchase. Most likely, it’s probably electronics. Finally, the data shows that the group may also be heavy mobile researchers, meaning that they are more likely to search for information on products or services as well as look up ratings and reviews. If the user group is constantly checking in to locations, then they are probably also using their smartphones for the following. Foursquare: 5 million users, 25,000 new ones a day. Loopt unveils new check in features with launch of version 4.0. Loopt, an early leader in location-based services, today announced it has launched the next version of its application with several new features, including automatic check-ins, text messages, social recommendations, and rewards from businesses.
If you use any location apps, you may have experienced something called “check-in fatigue” — which just means you get tired of having to take out your phone and check in at every place you visit. The automatic check-in feature will now allow Loopt users to create small groups of friends or family who will have constant access to your location, without the need to work your way through an app’s interface.
The ping feature, which allows users to request another user’s location through the application, now allows the request to be sent via text message. Loopt is also looking to use the large amount of user data it receives to more efficiently recommend locations and activities to users. The Mountain View, Calif. Gowalla 3 plays nice with Foursquare and Facebook Places. Gowalla, one of the earliest and best-known services that lets you share your location with friends, is releasing a big upgrade today.
The most noteworthy addition is the fact that it now lets users check in and view their friends’ check ins on competing services like Foursquare. Co-founder and chief executive Josh Williams demonstrated the new features of Gowalla version 3 for me on Tuesday. He acknowledged that for some users, picking Gowalla can be tough. They might like Gowalla better as an application, but many of their friends may be using Foursquare or Facebook Places. Now, you shouldn’t have to make that choice, said Williams. There are already applications that support multiple check ins, like Mayor Maker, but Williams described them as “lowest common denominator” apps that don’t have Gowalla’s features like photos and comments.
Gowalla 3 isn’t just about playing nice with the competition. “I don’t think it will be a bloodbath,” he said. [top image via Worth 1000] Foursquare Partnership Seeks to Reinvent Grocery Store Loyalty Program. Safeway and PepsiCo are teaming up with Foursquare to reinvent the way grocery store shoppers think about location-based rewards and checkins. As part of the deal, Safeway has integrated Foursquare into its VonsClub loyalty program for a three-month pilot program that kicks off today. The crux of the program is that VonsClub members can now link their Foursquare accounts to unlock PepsiCo rewards every time they shop. Shoppers who link their accounts will earn instant Foursquare rewards on PepsiCo products — in the form of coupons printed at the register — at the time of sale.
Rewards are also personalized to the user and tied to the types of badges a Foursquare user has already unlocked. The program is being tested at roughly 300 Vons grocery stores in southern California, as first reported by Fast Company. The whole program is deeply integrated into Safeway's point-of-sale system and existing loyalty program. Image courtesy of Fast Company. Coke Targets Teens With Black Friday SCVNGR Promotion. Coca-Cola is kicking off a nationwide location-based rewards initiative targeted at young teens with SCVNGR as its platform of choice. The soda maker has seeded Simon Malls across the U.S. with challenges that players can complete to earn special Coke rewards. The campaign is called Coke Secret Formula and is set to go live at 10 malls beginning November 26 — otherwise known to holiday shoppers as Black Friday.
The idea is to encourage application users to look for hidden shopping experiences in the form of Coke challenges and unlock rewards in the process. SCVNGR players who complete the Coke mall challenges can accumulate enough points to redeem instant rewards including American Express gift cards and Coke-branded merchandise. Coke will be aggressively promoting the initiative with online, print and mall signage to include giant elevator wrappers like the one pictured above.
SCVNGR anticipates that it will hit 1 million members before the year's end. モバイルコンテンツのトレンドは「位置コミ」 | WIRED VISION. SCVNGR Uses Google's Places Database for Aggressive International Expansion. SCVNGR CEO Seth Priebatsch projects that the young location-based startup will hit 1 million members by year's end. That aggressive prediction is based in part around today's news: SCVNGR has gone international and just went live in more than 70 countries.
SCVNGR is leveraging the Google Places database to power the international expansion of its newly improved iPhone and Android apps. The startup is the first to publicly launch with the Google Places API, which is currently limited to select parties as a developer preview. The default SCVNGR interface for international users will be in English, but application users can add content and create custom challenges in their native languages. The decision to piggyback on Google's comprehensive place database was a necessary one, especially considering the startup does not have its own proprietary database for places — like Foursquare, for instance. Prior to today, SCVNGR was available in the U.S. only. Joe Hewitt. Last week I released my first iPhone open source project, Facebook Connect for iPhone , and today I'm ready to start talking about the next one. Five months ago I talked about open-sourcing as much of the Facebook iPhone app as I could, and as you can see by the delay, that has turned out to be easier said than done.
Developing an app and developing a generic library are very different goals. A lot of the code I wanted to release was not generic enough, used hacks that worked just well enough for my app, and was coupled with a Facebook-specific data model. So, one by one I've been redesigning and refactoring each of the components I wanted to open source, adding them to a new Xcode static library project, and then reintegrating them with the Facebook app. The name of the new project is Three20 , after the 320-pixel-wide screen of the iPhone. So, what kind of iPhone UI goodness does Three20 provide?
Photo Viewer Message composer Web image views Internet-aware table view controllers.