Posted on 20 August 2010
Woo! Fresh blood at Twilight Camp!
We were delighted to have some new-comers, and of course, always great to see some of our regulars. Once again, we did not get kicked out of Davis Kidd, which is really a shame because…
The next Twilight Camp will be at the LunaWeb office! Though I suppose it still wouldn’t be wise to get ourselves barred from Bronte Bistro. After all, there is that yummy chicken salad.
Now for the recap. The conversation kicked off with the news of the hour (of the literal hour), Facebook Places launched in Memphis at approximately 4:30 yesterday afternoon. As of the meeting, only one of us had gotten to use it at all, but what information we did have:
- There aren’t any prizes, badges, or any other “game” element to it.
- You can push check-ins from Foursquare to Facebook Places, but not vice-versa.
- You can tag your friends in your check-ins to let people know they are with you. This could be potentially problematic.*
*If you do not want friends to be able to check you into Places, go to “Account” in the Facebook toolbar, then “Privacy Settings.” Look for “Customize Settings,” then scroll down to the second section, “Things others share.” Find “Friends can check me into Places.” Change the setting to Disabled, and you’re done!
A matter of hours impacted some of the arguments from last night’s discussion of Foursquare vs. Facebook Places. Today, Mashable featured an article on the travel rewards program that will now be affiliated with Facebook Places. Topguest, the service that’s tapping into Facebook’s API, is fresh off the market, rendering its partnerships limited. So limited that, for now, rewards only come in the form of discounted hotel stays, watering down our argument just a bit, but it’s not null and void just yet – and we don’t expect it to be so any time soon… if ever. As for the privacy issues, well, they are still there. All this in mind, it seemed we all agreed that Foursquare is our preferred check-in app/game/stalking mechanism. It seems that it’s becoming that way for many others too. While we were Twilighting, Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley (@dens) was tweeting: “Just heard from The @HarryH that today was @foursquare’s biggest day ever in terms of new user signups. #dball4life.” Because Rachel isn’t giving up anytime soon, stay tuned for http://www.foursquarememphis.com/ (not yet live).
Also in Location-Based news, did you know there are different levels of editors in Foursquare? Well, I know at least one of you did. When you’ve checked in enough, it seems you can become a “Level 2 Editor,” which enables you to combine locations. So, if two people created two different check-in locations for Davis Kidd, say “Davis Kidd” and “Davis Kidd Booksellers,” a Level 2 Editor could merge the two locations into one. Who knew? Andy Glover did!
In iPad news (and there’s always iPad news, isn’t there?), Andy has an awesome new case with a very clever strap on the back to slip your hand through so you can easily hold the device with one hand. So simple, yet so brilliant. Then, our iPad scholars sang the praises of the Academic research sharing application, Mendeley (also available for desktop!).
Is the iPhone coming to Verizon? Well, of course, none of us know for sure, but signs point to… maybe. Verizon customers thinking about switching to a smartphone might want to wait a bit longer to see if any more evidence leaks (and we all know Apple has some trouble keeping their announcements under wraps these days).
Wordpress bloggers – check out the Zemanta plug-in! This thing is nifty. Once you install it, start writing a blogpost. The plug-in combs your content and recommends links, photos, Wikipedia articles, etc., and it’s super easy and awesome. I know another plug-in that does pretty much the same thing was mentioned. What was the name of that one, Andy?
Don’t miss the breakfast on September 1!
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