Foursquare: The Next Gen of Twitter

via Jennifer Van Grove from Mashable

I read Jennifer’s article months ago and was eager to get into location-based apps because the ones I’ve tried before seemed way behind. I downloaded the application for my iPhone and instantly fell in love with it. It’s so cool to get a notification about where your local buddies are and where they’re going or where they’ve been, create a social to-do list, and read reviews or tips in local areas or areas where you tend to travel and foursquare is provided.

i wonder why it hasn’t caught on “social media fire” yet. Maybe it’s meant for a bigger purpose. We will see soon.

Here’s a screenshot of the homepage on my iPhone when I open Foursquare. Check-In is for you to check-in to your location or send a shout-out to an event or something happening. Below are the other tabs you can view as shown below.

This tab is used to find places based on your location. There would be a list in this screenshot but I am in a location where there isn’t really anything nearby. If the place you are at is not listed you can use the ‘not in search’ or ‘we can’t find anything nearby’ to choose and input locations not show in the search.

As you can see there are nearby tips for places, a to-do list for myself, and you can also view your friends to-do list. This is a cool feature because if you go out and travel you can set up your own to-do list and people can view them and give you tips and etc. This also works for local use as well.

Badges is the coolest thing I think for Foursquare. They base it all on points and # of appearances. The more you check-in the more points you get. The more points you get the higher you are in your stats the more badges you get.

I’ll explain the point system briefly. You get points for checking in and you get bonus points for first-time appearances, adding places to the database, multiple appearances, multiple appearances per day, and more. Basically check-in as much as possible but don’t be overbearing. Don’t check-in at home or at the bathroom or any dumb places. Your compared to your local friends which is showed in the stat chart above.

You can add your friends, catch the latest scoop from FourSqare and updated your current location.

The application is just awesome. It is available for iPhones, Blackberries, and Android Phones. Just get it and join the community!

iPhone Facebook App Update

So yeah it’s 1:30am and I’m posting this because I think one of my prayers has been answered. No, it hasn’t been to meet Gina Carano. That will be answered another day.

This Facebook update is crucial beyond any updates. Forget the new Twitter Page, Jay-z’s Blueprint 3, look at this:

Isn’t it beautiful? Now let’s undress her.

Above: A simple UI with a notification bar on the bottom and a search bar.

News Feed Section: Photo insert to update your status, update status bar, the news feed stream that shows you right on the same page whether it’s been commented or not.

Profile Section: Let’s you reload without shaking although that feature is still available. Wall, Info, and Photo tabs on the bottom of the screen.

Chat: The chat section hasn’t changed much. It is in alphabetical order now and they have clearer status icons with the sorter on the right-hand side.

Events & Birthday: Happy Birthday Ivon! Now the Events and Birthdays are group together and are sorted by date and it shows age.

Photos: This was cleaned up. Looks great!

Notes: This was also cleaned up.

Favorites Section: This is new and cool something that I think I will be taking advantage of. You can add friends and page shortcuts to this page so you don’t have to sort through your long list of friends.

Friends List: Yeah I know you see the two tabs on the bottom. You can view both friends and pages. BUT what’s that little phone icon next to Alex Grant’s name. Oh yeah! I forgot. If your friends posted their numbers on facebook home, mobile, or business you can call/text them straight from the friends list. How effin cool is that? See picture below.

Since this is there first release for some people it may lag. So far for me it has been smooth although I’ve had to wait a few times for pages to load. There are still some bugs so please be patient.

I honestly have to say that I might give up browsing on the web for a while and just do it on my phone. What I still don’t like about the iPhone Facebook App is the Facebook picture sync that is missing. The Blackberry has it but why doesn’t the iPhone have it yet?

Please feel free to leave comments and opinions below. Thank you!