Friday, October 30. 2009

Augmented Reality Player Layar gets $1 million+ in funding

That's the word from VentureBeat. The company boasts 250,000 downloads and acknowledges all the funders in the current round are from Europe. Also: the app launched on Symbian.

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in LBS at 08:04 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

Wednesday, October 28. 2009

Stalqer: Foursquare running in the background

One of the big issues with location-based apps for the iPhone is that the operating system does not allow background processing. That makes playing Foursquare or other LBS apps and games a bit trying.

Stalqer ("stalker?") has found a way around that and offers a Foursquare-like app that runs in the background. There's also a connection to Facebook, such that if your friends make their info public, you can see where they are, even if they aren't running Stalqer. (I think I have that right...)

- TechCrunch
- Pocket Lint (includes video)

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Social Networking at 07:11 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

Tuesday, October 27. 2009

Podcast: The State of Augmented Reality

What is augmented reality and how does it relate to geospatial technology? Is it "just cool" or are there real uses for it? Further, is there any money it? Our editors offer up definitions, uses and suggestions for geospatial companies waiting on the sidelines.

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in LBS, Directions on the News Podcast, Geospatial Business, Data at 06:00 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0) |

Monday, October 26. 2009

VentureBeat: State of Mobile Social Networks

Saad Fazil does a roundup and explains why these networks are still not reaching their potential:

We decided to try out several of these apps ourselves and talk to the companies and several industry experts to find out. And what we found out is that there seem to be four factors holding these networks back: Users are hesitant to join unless their friends are already on board, businesses won’t join up without a critical mass of users, many phones still can’t handle the necessary technology, and there are privacy and behavioral concerns.

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Social Networking at 08:08 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

Friday, October 23. 2009

First Foursquare Transit Partner: BART

San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit will offer up free tickets for those who "check in" in various locations. "From November onward, the transit authority will award $25 promotional tickets to random users who check-in at one of 34 BART stations."

- ReadWriteWeb

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Social Networking at 07:59 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

Thursday, October 22. 2009

Loopt Acquires GraffitiGEO

I guess that broke the other day (TechCrunch). I wrote about the company in August. (APB) Now, TechCrunch has actual comments from Loopt CEO Sam Altman.

"In particular, he [Altman] says Loopt has been exploring location-based social gaming, local reviews, and augmented reality (which is another area GraffitiGeo has experimented in), so the company seemed like a good fit."

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Social Networking at 08:12 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |