Loopt is in the news today. In addition to getting a nice surge in iPhone downloads after being featured in an Apple TV commercial, we’ve heard that they’ve hired investment bank Allen & Co. to represent them in a sale or financing transaction.
A sale in this economic environment is extremely unlikely, so we’re guessing they’re looking to add to the $13.3 million they’ve already raised from… → Read More
Facebook and MySpace have great mobile apps. At least, they’re great if you’re satisfied with a subset of the features you get on their normal websites. But they don’t yet take advantage of location/presence features on the iPhone and other platforms. We said this summer that they ignore location at their peril, and we still believe it.
Loopt, one of a handful of location-aware iPhone social… → Read More
We’ve had serious legal threats five times in the past, from YouTube, Marvel, Rivals, Mediascrape and my personal favorite, Richard Figueroa. None of those threats went to court because all of them were absurd, and we don’t back down under any circumstances (unless we’re in the wrong, which we never were).
But today, based on the calls I’ve received from CNET and the San Jose Mercury News, we’ve… → Read More
A scantly known startup out of Chicago called Earthcomber has filed a rather absurd patent infringement suit against Loopt, a location-based social network with a substantially higher profile in the Valley and elsewhere.
The suit claims that Loopt has infringed an Earthcomber patent, filed in June 2003 and issued in July 2006, that outlines “a system and method for locating and notifying a user… → Read More
Here at TechCrunch we’re big believers in mobile social networks. In February I wrote about how the iPhone is the perfect ecosystem to have it’s own social network (awesome device and software, location aware, elitist users). And in April I showed a teaser of an upcoming social network from Loopt that did everything I had asked for: iPhone only to start, location aware so that you could meet new… → Read More
We’ve been bullish about location-based social networks for quite awhile now, especially since Apple announced that it would open up the iPhone to developers. And with two significant developments in this space just this week (more on that below), we thought it would be a good time to take a step back and look at the options currently available through the Apple App Store.
What makes a… → Read More
Facebook and MySpace, the two largest social networks, eagerly launched new iPhone applications last Friday. Both quickly shot up the top apps list. Apple has since turned off the download count feature, but Facebook is no. 7 on the free list, MySpace is no. 11. But while both applications are useful for heavy users, they won’t drive new users to the services because they failed to leverage… → Read More
All of us iPhone fanatics are just getting our hands on the new apps, but I’ve already found one that I’m sure to consider indispensable within the next few months: Facebook’s new app. Why is it so compelling? Because it almost eliminates the need to maintain a separate contacts list on my phone. While Facebook’s web app for the iPhone was cool enough, the native app… → Read More
It’s not official quite yet, but the iPhone App Store is live and you can download version 2.0 of the iPhone software – which is all you need to run the 552 applications currently available. We’ve been gathering videos and overviews of many of the applications and have held them until now. We received demo vidoes for dozens of applications, ranging from basic games to complex… → Read More
Mobile social network Loopt is making a big push this summer. CEO Sam Altman already took stage at last week’s Stevenote prior to the unveiling of iPhone 3G. He was there to present the friend tracking software Loopt has been developing in time for the iPhone App Store launch on July 11th. But while Altman describes Loopt’s iPhone version as the company’s best ever, he’s… → Read More
As Apple gears up for the launch of its 3G iPhone, outside developers and startups are finally going to get to sell or give away their own applications that run natively on the phone (as opposed to being optimized for the Safari browser, as are most legal, third-party apps today). These apps, which are built on the iPhone SDK announced last March, will be distributed through the upcoming iPhone… → Read More
Last November, we reviewed the first product from Seattle-based startup Pelago – a mobile mapping service called Whrrl meant for sharing reviews of places and events with friends. Whrrl feels very much like a dormant technology that, like other mobile apps, has the potential to explode after the new iPhone – both in terms of software and hardware – gets unleashed next month. In… → Read More
Weplug is a new social networking site out of France that aims to combine the best parts of Twitter, Facebook, and geo-location. The site has just entered public beta, and is available on the iPhone at the same URL. Weplug has a clean interface and full featured (if somewhat generic) social networking functionality. Users can add their current status and location to a “lifestream”… → Read More
Anyone who’s been reading this blog for more than a few months knows I’m bullish on mobile social networking. The space is wide open at this point – no one has created an application that has gotten enough traction to go mainstream. That’s partly because of tech limitations – browser based networks don’t leverage the power of the mobile device, and client based… → Read More
Loopt, a mobile social network that can be used to see where your friends are currently located, has partnered with Verizon to put its software on that carrier’s phones. It’s a big win for Loopt since Verizon has more location-aware handsets than any other carrier. If you don’t know anyone who uses Loopt yet, that’s because the company is still working on getting its… → Read More
Loopt has the most tightly integrated and feature rich mobile social networking service we’ve seen, and we’ve seen a bunch. Loopt’s mobile application lets you broadcast your location even while your phone is closed and send messages or photos between you and your friends. It can do this to a greater degree because of their deal with Sprint/Nextel, which recently went… → Read More
We’ve been tracking a few emerging mobile-only social networks. All of these services are downloadable applications that run on your mobile phone. Mobile social network Loopt’s deal with Sprint, however, has given it the distinction of being one of two with automated location updates and deep integration with a U.S. carrier (Helio is the other). This opens up a lot of possibilities for… → Read More
Loopt has announced their partnership with Sprint to bring the first social mapping service to the US of A. For those unfamiliar with Loopt you need only to look at Boost Mobile and their “Where you at?” campaign. It essentially keeps tabs on your friends in your Loopt network and shows you where they are via GPS. Helio has a similar service with Buddy Beacon. Sprint customers will now be… → Read More
The DEMO conference is wrapping up here in San Diego and unlike when it began 16 years ago the conference wasn’t dominated by mobile launches. None the less, there were some very interesting mobile services here like ScanR and Realeyes3D image scanning by mobile photo, Flurry‘s simple email and RSS on Java phones and Grand Central (which I’ve written about at length). 3Jam and… → Read More
Boost Mobile, the hip-hop-themed pre-paid service from Sprint Nextel, has the tagline “Where you at?” This grammatically frightening phrase now has meaning, as Boost has partnered with Loopt to launch a mobile friend finder. Just download the little Java app to your phone, set permissions, add your like-Boosted friends who’ve done the same and you’ll all be able to find… → Read More
Mobile presence application Loopt has launched its service tonight. Loopt uses GPS and related data to display the location of a user’s friends along with their presence status (available, away, etc) on maps and lists. Users will be able to request alerts when friends are within a certain distance, send messages to groups of friends within a certain distance and soon will be able to tag and… → Read More
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
San Francisco, CA
Berlin, Germany
Boston, MA
