Foursquare up for Sale?
Foursquare, the mobile location-sharing service who recently struck a partnership with the Wall Street Journal, has been rumored to be in acquisition talks lately, with Yahoo as one potential buyer. However, now CEO Dennis Crowley is saying that the company will decide within a few weeks whether or not to sell.
It’s interesting timing for such an announcement, considering that Foursquare just reached 1 million users. With a reported price tag of $100M, that’s valuing each user at $100 for their lifetime. Doesn’t seem like an awful lot, but then again, checking-in your current location — whether at a bar, restaurant, gym, library, or wherever — isn’t exactly a common practice and brings its own privacy concerns. It’s hard to say at this point whether it ever will be without some changes to the way check-in apps work.
Via The Where Business.
Have a mobile device, platform, application, service, accessory or related news or tips you want to share? Email info/ press releases to callstyleblog at gmail.com.
Foursquare Partners With The Wall Street Journal
Foursquare, the popular mobile location check-in app, has just partnered with The Wall Street Journal. In the deal, WSJ will provide tips and three new check-in badges: Urban Adventurer, Banker, Lunch Box. Each badge will have its own challenge for New York, ranging from checking in to different boroughs, the financial district, or reviewed restaurants.
Other Foursquare partners include Bravo Media, SPIN magazine, Metro News and New York Times. The latter partnership related to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The Foursquare API has been used to build a number of location-based services (LBS) applications. Currently, Foursquare has apps for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Palm and other devices.
Via Mashable.
Have a mobile device, platform, application, service, accessory or related news or tips you want to share? Email info/ press releases to callstyleblog at gmail.com.
As Apple Lifts Restrictions, VoIP through 3G Now Possible in the iPhone
Prior to this, VoIP through cellular networks was not possible for the iPhone. Or should say, Apple did not allow the feature. For whatever reason, you can only make VoIP calls whenever your iPhone is connected via Wi-Fi. Sudddenly, Apple realized that it’s now time to lift this restriction and allow VoIP feature through cellular networks.
As soon as Apple updated the iPhone SDK, we now have the first iPhone app to make this possible – iCall. In fact, this app will go down into history as being the first and currently the only VoIP application that uses 3G networks for the iPhone.
So, now you make unrestricted free local and long distance calling vover 3G networks using your iPhone.
iCall is already available at the Apps Store as a free download. And iCall CEO is more than happy about the release of this app and applauded Apple for lifting the restrictions.
“I applaud Apple’s decision to allow iCall to extend its functionality beyond Wi-Fi and onto the 3G networks. This heralds a new era for VoIP applications on mobile platforms, especially for iCall and our free calling model. I hope that now more developers will begin using our VoIP as a platform to integrate VoIP into their applications.”
Here’s the link to iCall iPhone App at the Apps Store.
iPhone App Review: TimeLines
Update
My original review of the Timelines time logging app is below, but after a few more weeks of use, I’ve decided to write an update to this review.
As you’ll see in the original review below, I was very excited about Timelines, especially because I found the interface gorgeous and the graphical breakdown of time codes enough to satisfy my data visualization fetish. My disappointment was that the interface was not entirely intuitive. However, out of fairness, I have to admit that I used the app without really making much of an effort to more than browse the instructions and video primer. But now, after a few more weeks of use, I’m finding that I actually enjoy the Timelines app. It’s still quirky and “sticky” in funny ways, but other than that I get out of it what I want in a time logging tool.
Original Review
The TimeLines time logging app for the iPhone and iPod Touch looks fantastic and seems great in theory, but in actuality, it’s the first iPhone app I’ve paid for that I’ve been disappointed in and felt like I wasted my money. So far, I’ve found it difficult to use, lacking in instructions, difficult to correct.
That said, I love the visuals and the charting potential, but the unusual way of entering times and durations for project tasks/ activities is very awkward at first and “sticky” in a bad way. And if you need to change one task’s duration, it could have a domino effect on subsequent tasks in the timeline.
To improve this app and make it worth the US$4.99, a number of things have to be improved:
Foremost is the funny way the current vertical bar of color sits underneath the point you stop at. Take a look at the screensnap above. The final vertical bar for (task ‘Code 3′) ends 15 minutes below the point that the ‘break’ bar sits at. Visually, the break bar suggests that a task ends there, so why is it sitting 15 min above the task code bars bottom? But wait, it gets odder. If you leave the app and come back, there’ll be a ‘break’ bar at the bottom of the final task, but the break bar of 15 min earlier will still be there (see snap below). Instructions to this regard would help.
Another big issue I have is that if you define, say, 10 different task/time codes but a given day does not use them all, all the codes still show up on the left. That might mean you have to scroll down needlessly to see durations for various time codes. What happens if you have, say, 20 different time codes? To be a more efficient app, only the codes in use for the given day should be visible. Of course, the current screen makes it easier to enter durations for a given task code, but harder to view overall. So to facilitate the improved viewing of durations, Cronologic will have to change the way task codes are selected.
I really hope they improve this app. It looks like it has a lot of potential. (A free, basic version would have been nice, with maybe only 2 or 3 time codes allowed.) But for now, I’ll log my work tasks as I’ve been doing: in a Google spreadsheet.