Location update: Gowalla and Foursquare update apps
Foursquare and Gowalla have both updated their iPhone apps overnight ahead of the SXSW conference in the US.
Let’s start with Foursquare, version 1.7 contains a refreshed UI, speed improvements, and places now support categories like the website.
Available from the iTunes Store
Gowalla gets a full point release, reaching version 2.0. This update also contains a update to the design, which increases usability and is easier to read. You can now add photos to a venue after checking in and browse photos others have taken at that location. That’s huge !
Available from the iTunes Store
Track your parcel with the Posted iPhone app
If your comfortable shopping online, then your likely aware of the wait that transpires after clicking on buy. Sometimes a few days, sometimes a few weeks before delivery, wouldn’t it be nice to know the progress of your delivery ? Whilst most stores provide you with a consignment number, checking it repeatedly isn’t a great experience.
Usually involving a hunt for the email containing the details, then its a matter of finding the right site, and entering your number. Fine for a once off, but really not conducive to repeated checks. A new iPhone application offers a much better solution to the problem.
The Posted iPhone app supports the tracking of goods from a wide range of Australian delivery companies. These include:
- Allied Express
- Australian Air Express (AAE)
- Australian Post – eParcel, Registered & Express
- Australia Post – Express Post Platinum
- Couriers Please
- DHL International
- Fastway Couriers
- Hunter Express
- Interparcel
- Smart Send
- Star Couriers
- StarTrack Express
- TNT Express Domestic and International
- TransDirect National Couriers
Once you enter in your tracking number, that’s it, whenever you want to see where your delivery is, just fire up the app, then select which parcel and you get to see the entire history of delivery points on that items journey. There’s also the added benefit of having this functionality with you all the time, wherever you go, wether your around a computer or not.
As someone who buys tech gear online regularly, this app is well worth the price. Normally A$2.49, Posted is currently on special, for A$1.19 for the paid version. The free Posted lite version has the restriction of only tracking one item at a time.
More @ PostedApp.com
HP MediaSmart iPhone app updated
Owners of the HP MediaSmart Home Server and an iPhone, should check the app store for updates.
There’s a new and improved version of the MediaSmart iPhone app. A couple of the new features are increased speed and coverflow for audio files.
For more details, checck out the pics below.
Gowalla updates to 1.4.0
The location-aware application Gowalla has been updated to version 1.4.0. The upgrade brings some fantastic speed improvements, as well as the ability to simply pull down to refresh.
Competition is fierce in the location space, so Gowalla needs to keep the updates rolling to maintain user-interest.
A critical piece to the success of an service like this, is to get businesses on board. If users gain real-world benefits to checking in, rather than just virtual goods, it’ll keep use high.
Personally i’m a big fan of Gowalla, but had been questioning the time I was investing in creating new spots and checking in to existing ones. It’s great knowing where ure friends have been, but I need more, and soon.
Fans of location-based apps should also be on Foursquare. It’s early days in this market and it remains to be seen who will dominate. Competition is a great thing for us consumers.
Australian Open app serves up free info
There’s an awful lot of Tennis fans out there both in Australia and internationally, so this app is set to be very popular. The official Australian Open iPhone application is available for free, so don’t be fooled by the competition.
The features are also quite comprehensive, including the ability to watch:
- Live scores
- Upcoming schedule
- Draws
- Player information
- Maps
- Photos
- Tweets
- and more.
The Australian Open runs from the 18th – 31st January 2010, so get it before the action begins.
Facebook iPhone app pushes to 3.1
Overnight one of the most heavily used iPhone apps – Facebook was updated. Version 3.1 now includes push notifications and contact sync.
Push Notifications – This solves the annoying problem of having to launch the app just to see if there are any new updates. Those popular people who get tonnes of updates may wanna turn this off, it’ll get annoying pretty quickly. But if your one of those ADD kids who have to stay on top of everything at every second, then this is a great new feature.
Contact Sync – Like many people I sync my iPhone’s contacts with gmail. There’s a lot of crossover between that list of contacts and my friends on Facebook. The new Facebook contact sync, works as you’d expect. Combining data from fracebook into your contact list. If you don’t have a picture for your contact, it’ll pull from your friend’s current Facebook profile photo, it’ll also add a website link into your contact which works in a unique way. The link is a specially formatted URL e.g. fb://profile/profilenumber – Pressing on this link doesn’t launch Safari, but rather the Facebook app, directly to the profile page of the associated friend. Very cool indeed.
Facebook v3.1 iPhone app is available from the app store now. Note: I didn’t see listed as an update, had to search Facebook in the App Store.
Snarl Traffic reports traffic incidents for NSW, QLD, others soon.
If your in NSW or Queensland and own an iPhone and drive a car, then you should check out Snarl Traffic. As you’d expect with any traffic application, by tapping on any of the incident pins on the map, Snarl provides information about traffic incidents on your path.
The application received an update to version 1.20 today which ads details about traffic incidents, how long ago the incident occurred and location of traffic cameras. Future updates will add support for Victoria, specifically Melbourne.
You can also check out the Snarl website to see a Live Traffic map. This means those without an iPhone can access the service via a browser – http://www.snarl.com.au/map
The application is free, ad supported.