• 5/12/2010
  • Post By: admin

Oneupweb Reviews: iPhone 4G & Droid Incredible

Who doesn’t love smartphones? With all the power of a NASA super computer (from 20 years ago) these phones make one feel connected, secure, and impoverished. We’ll stay away from the cost of ownership of one of these little babies for now. Today let’s take a look at a couple of the latest and greatest smartphones and see how they rank.

Droid Incredible:

Who would have thought, even just 5 years ago, that a phone would have a 8 megapixel camera? That would have been incredible to think of back in the day (I wonder if that’s where the name Incredible comes from?).

This phone really is something else. Take a look at the specs below:

  • CPU Speed Qualcomm® QSD8650, 1GHz Snapdragon™
  • Platform Android™ 2.1 (Éclair) with HTC Sense™
  • Memory Flash 8GB + 512MB/RAM 512MB
  • Display 3.7-inch AMOLED touch-sensitive screen with 480 X 800

It’s just amazing that a phone would have all of these features and plenty of storage too. I remember when my desktop computer had an 8 GB hard drive.

Now although it’s not out yet, the closest competition to the Droid Incredible is the newest version of Apple’s iPhone.

iPhone 4G:

A few weeks ago Gizmodo was able to grab a leaked version of the phone seen below:

This new iPhone appears to have a front and back facing camera (including a flash), and Apple has departed from the traditional rounded edges and back. In addition, the phone now features an aluminum border. Seen below is a video of a similar prototype rumored to be the iPhone 4G.

It really is amazing what smartphones can do nowadays. And there’s no doubt that we geeks at Oneupweb love new technology, even if that technology has yet to be released. If it can continue to support our internet addiction, then we fully support.

Oneupweb Review: Thumbs 45 Degrees

Only because the iPhone 4G isn’t actually out yet. But overall we love our smart phones.

What has been your experience with smartphones? We want to hear your stories. Comment below!

Categories: Mobile
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  • 5/6/2010
  • Post By: admin

Oneupweb Reviews: BOOYAH’s MyTown

MyTown is a GPS game that allows users to “buy” and “own” local shops, restaurants, and hangouts. Once a property is purchased the owner can then collect rent, purchase upgrades, and buy other properties.

MyTown logo screenshot

Much like the effectively marketed site Foursquare, MyTown allows users to check-in and earn points for doing so. The terminology can be confusing since it mirrors real world terms such as cash and buying/selling property. However, you never really purchase any real world properties, nor do you collect real-world rent. As the New York Times put it, “MyTown turns the real world into Monopoly. “

MyTown website screenshot

How Do You Buy a Shop?
After you check-in at a location, you can buy it. You can buy from the Profile page or the MyTown page, but you can only buy a shop after performing a check-in there.

  1. To buy a shop on the MyTown page, tap the MyTown tab on the profile page. If you have a property slot available, tap the building that says “Tap to Buy”, then choose your location to purchase.
  2. To buy a shop from the Profile Page, tap the Buy button. You will buy the location where you did your last check-in.

How Do You Collect Rent?
You earn rent for each property that you own. Press the MyTown button on the main page. Then hit COLLECT button to take your rent from your first property. Then, slide the screen to view your next property. You can collect rent from each property you own. The more upgrades you buy, the more rent that you earn. The more people who check-in at your shop, the more your shop is worth and the quicker you earn rent.

What Do We Think?
MyTown has recently hit over 2 million users. Similar services like Foursquare by comparison have around 1.1 million users and Gowalla 250 thousand. Needless to say, MyTown has gained a large following, despite the terminology of the app being a bit obscure. Here are some images of MyTown’s app.

MyTown App screenshot

MyTown App screenshot

I can remember my younger brother torturing our family by playing Monopoly and forcing us to pay property tax out the wazoo (all I ever wanted was Boardwalk and Parkplace man). He would slum lord us all by buying up the cheapest properties early on, forever stealing my hopes and dreams of becoming a board game millionaire. However, the idea of real world Monopoly with actual shops and properties sounds like a lot of fun. Though the numbers already speak for themselves, we think MyTown has a good chance at becoming a successful location based service.

Oneupweb Review: Thumbs Up

Categories: Mobile
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  • 4/12/2010
  • Post By: admin

Oneupweb Reviews: Kickball App Puts Foursquare On the Map

If you like Bing’s integration of Foursquare, you’re going to love Kickball.
kickball logo
This iPhone app integrates maps into the Foursquare experience as seen below:
kickball app for iphone screenshot
With Kickball you still have many of the features the official Foursquare iPhone app has like badges, check-ins, and the list view that shows your friend’s statuses. You can toggle between this traditional list view and the friends/places maps view.
kickball app for iphone screenshot

Kickball features the ability to upload photos to individual venues. You’ll receive push notifications when friends upload photos of their favorite places.
kickball app for iphone screenshot

If you are sitting right next to your friend, and they check in, you can press I’m Here, too! letting them know that your are in the same venue. Of course you could always turn to them and say, “I’m here too!” but this method is so last year.

What’s not to like about this app? It takes a location services and puts it on the map, literally. And according to Gorlochs the company that developed the app, they have big plans for Kickball.

However, this is only the beginning for Kickball! Upcoming versions will include the following: Quick Check-in, enhanced Twitter integration with photos, new badges, Gowalla & Brightkite integration, and “King of the Hood.”

We would like to see all location services integrate some kind of mapping feature. After using Kickball for a while it’s hard to believe you ever got by using Foursquare without it.

Oneupweb Official Review: Thumbs Up

Categories: Mobile
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  • 4/8/2010
  • Post By: admin

Oneupweb Reviews: Foursquare’s Cheater Code

If Your Check-Ins Are Fake, Foursquare’s Gonna Catch You!

Foursquare has had a problem for a while. Although it’s a location based service, users have been able to check-in when they aren’t actually… on location.

foursquare logo

Foursquare has tried to downplay the problem, as I mentioned in Oneupweb Reviews: Gowalla. Foursquare’s founder Dennis Crowley defended the user-driven check-ins:

“what spamming problem? there’s a few fake checkins here and there but that doesn’t change the fact that there’s constantly 5-6 venues with 100+ checkins. people down here [SXSW] chosing where to go not based on party schedule but venues are trending on 4sq….we ll always let people checkin wherever they want… people are often more accurate than gps”

According to Gowalla investor Chris Sacca:

“Foursquare has a spam problem. Which leads people to believe that Foursquare is more popular than Gowalla. He argues that it’s not that more people are using Foursquare, but that people are able to take advantage of the loophole.”

The Solution:

To fix this problem, Foursquare has announced its “cheater code” – which is basically an attempt to catch some of the folks that are checking-in from their couches to steal mayorships. Users can no longer check-in to a location, and earn points or badges, without actually being there.

Foursquare has stayed true to its promise that users will always be able to check in, and tell their friends where they are, even without GPS enabled. But now, unless the GPS feature is enabled, users will no longer be able to earn points or badges.

What are my thoughts?:

It’s about time. I couldn’t believe that Dennis Crowley had such an indifferent view on this problem. For me as a user it took the wind out of Foursquare’s sails. But I can only imagine the problems this caused businesses. If a business is offering people rewards for visiting their location, those people better actually be there.

The negative side to the “Cheater Code” is GPS isn’t always reliable. For example, if you are in a building sometimes GPS doesn’t work (not to mention GPS isn’t always accurate). Obviously this could be frustrating for the more honest foursquare users out there, who are on location, but receive no credit for it.

In the long run this is a healthy compromise for Foursquare, and it will help businesses adopt the service and offer rewards for users. And in turn more and more users will adopt the service because of the rewards. For cracking down on Foursquare abusers, we give Foursquare an…

Official Oneupweb Review: Thumbs Up

If you experience GPS problems, Foursquare has created a place for you to report any issues: http://4sq.com/4sqGeoWoes

Below I’ve added a link to Foursquare’s response to user concerns about the cheaters code:
The follow-up to our “mayorships from your couch” post

Categories: Mobile
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  • 3/22/2010
  • Post By: admin

Oneupweb Reviews: Gowalla

Oneupweb has been following location based services Foursquare and Gowalla closely, and it’s hard to say which one we prefer. However, we’ve recently discovered a Gowalla feature that might just push it over the edge; and with Foursquare lacking this feature, it could become a deal breaker.

Today lets take a deeper look at Gowalla, and see how it compares to its (currently) more popular counterpart, Foursquare.

I think for the most part we all know how location based services work. You install an app on your mobile phone, so when you are physically at a particular location you check-in, which enables you to share the places that you’ve been with your friends. It can be a lot of fun sharing where you have been with friends, which is why these services have become so popular. Check out video below to see Gowalla in action.

In the Gowalla navigation you can choose from Spots, Trips, or Friends. Spots allow you to see the places that people have checked-in in your area.

Trips are adventures, created by users, that you can participate in. You can also create your own trips.

With the trip above you can take a stroll across Harvard Yard, and check-in at some of the historical spots.

I can see local businesses really benefiting from the abilities that location based services offer. There is one small problem that we have noticed with Foursquare, and that is, you can check into a location without actually being there. With businesses looking to offer rewards to users for check-ins, you can see this (lack of accountability) poses a problem. If someone wanted to take advantage of this loophole they could with Foursquare, but not Gowalla.

According to Gowalla investor Chris Sacca, Foursquare has a spam problem. Which leads people to believe that Foursquare is more popular than Gowalla. He argues that it’s not that more people are using Foursquare, but that people are able to take advantage of the loophole.

• “Publishing to Twitter is the default behavior in Foursquare…So counting 4sq’s pushes to Twitter only really measures the aggressiveness of their app, not its true reach.”
• “Spam, and their write API definitely skew their overall checkin count”
• “This is compounded by Foursquare’s refusal to build any true accountability into their checkin system. You can essentially check yourself in wherever you’d like, regardless of where you actually happen to be.”

Foursquare’s founder Dennis Crowley immediately rebutted these spam assertions and defended the user-driven check-ins:

“what spamming problem? there’s a few fake checkins here and there but that doesn’t change the fact that there’s constantly 5-6 venues with 100+ checkins. people down here [SXSW] chosing where to go not based on party schedule but venues are trending on 4sq….we ll always let people checkin wherever they want… people are often more accurate than gps :) ”

I like the idea of having some accountability to people’s actions, and was shocked when I first found out that Foursquare was that easy to cheat. When I realized that the check-ins I had been seeing in my area might have been fake, it just wasn’t the same after that.

I think in the future we might see more people using Gowalla for this very reason. For many, the realization that there is no accountability with Foursquare check-ins, will lead them to the same conclusion I came to. But I like where Gowalla is going with their service. Offering people the same abilities as Foursquare but with the added accountability, and for that I give Gowalla…

Oneupweb Official Review: Thumbs Up!

Categories: Mobile, Social Networking, Tools
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