May 18th, 2010

Check.in Checks Out Of Closed Beta And Into Your HTML5-Compatible Device

Back in March, I wrote about the problem of check-in fatigue. That is, with so many location-based check-in services now out there, it’s exhausting to open each one every time to check-in to the same place across multiple networks. The solution, for now at least, is Check.in. And it’s ready to open to everyone tonight.

Check.in is an HTML5 web app made by Brightkite that allows you to check-in to… → Read More

March 17th, 2010

Apple Gets Location Fever Too In The App Store

SXSW Interactive is now over. While a clear winner in the “Location War” has yet to be determined, the truth is that many of the location-based services won, as all of them got a huge amount of exposure over the past week. And look for that trend to continue in a big way, as Apple is now highlighting several of them in the App Store.

As you can see in the images in this post, Apple is… → Read More

March 10th, 2010

Whrrl 3 Wants To Kill Farmville. Not Foursquare. Not Gowalla. Farmville.

Pelago knows that just about every location-based app in the world is seeking coverage right now just prior to SXSW where they will all battle Highlander-style. So they approached me with a pretty smart pitch: curing the “social rut.” What they mean by that is these days, despite the prevalence of social networks, people are actually less social than ever because they’re being roped into playing… → Read More

December 22nd, 2009

Whrrl, Still Trying To Find Its Way In Location, Focuses On "Footstreams"

Much of the web is based around clickstreams. The latest version of Whrrl, a location-based application by Pelago, wants to take that concept into the real world, with “footstreams.”

Up until this point, since the launch of version 2 of its iPhone app earlier this year, Whrrl’s focus has been on storytelling. That is, allowing users to tag places they’re at with stories and pictures. But the… → Read More

September 28th, 2008

The State of Location-Based Social Networking On The iPhone

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

June 9th, 2008

Here Come The New iPhone Apps

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

May 27th, 2008

As iPhone Second Coming Approaches, Pelago Adds To Its War Chest

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

November 2nd, 2007

Whrrl: Map and Mobile-Centric Social Reviews

Sometimes products are easy to sum up in single sentences, sometimes they are most definitely not. Whrrl, a new site by Pelago, is one of those that eludes definition. Hence, Pelago’s need to describe it unhelpfully as “a seamlessly integrated Web and mobile experience that is social, useful, and fun” (I admit, my headline’s not that much better). Let’s start with the… → Read More