This is not just about the marginally useful ability to check in on location-based social networks such as foursquare or to address the always addressable consumer.
FORBES: The Mobile Revolution Will Extend Your Business Model Faster Than The Web Did
From the Me Tile people can check in to their location, post an update, set chat status, see what's new and monitor notifications across Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
ENGADGET: Nokia Lumia 620 announced: 3.8-inch WVGA display, 5MP camera, $249
Unlike some Web-based phenoms, the location check-in service Foursquare has an obvious potential business model: local ads based on your geographic location, perhaps coupled with inferred interests from your previous check-ins.
FORBES: Foursquare's Dennis Crowley: It's Still About Growth, Not Ad Money (Yet)
Customers can check the Sprint Worldwide Coverage and Rates page to check coverage in the specific location they plan to travel and find voice, text, and data rates.
ENGADGET: Sprint's BlackBerry Bold 9930 and Torch 9850 land on August 21st for $250 and $150
In a talk that was at times nostalgic, Crowley showed how Foursquare had evolved over the last 4 years from an app that looked to gamify check-in into a location layer that could allow the company to build predictive searches.
That explains why some start-ups are trying to make money by getting firms to partner with them on direct promotions that reward users for specific actions, such as presenting them with a discount coupon via their phone screen if they check in to a specific location.
According to Scott Daniel, CEO and Founder, HipGeo, the app is the second phase of location and check in technology.
Less than a month after photo social network Instagram caught huge flak over advertiser-friendly changes to its privacy policy (and claimed it was misunderstood), another social network, the location check-in service Foursquare, has announced revenue-friendly changes to its privacy policy.
FORBES: Foursquare Checks In To Real Names And Sticks A Big Fork Into Pseudonymity
Glyph also enables users to check in to venues via the app, where they can then push their checkins to Facebook and Foursquare, two popular location-based check-in platforms.
FORBES: Check In to Maximized Credit Card Rewards With Glyph
If you want to check the wind speeds in a specific location an anemometer will tell you all you need to know.
Many pitches involve ways to spread the word about ocean pollution, mostly through social media: iPhone Apps, data sharing, and location based check-in schemes.
FORBES: How Investors, Social Media And Actors Can Save The Oceans
Location-check-in services are nothing new.
FORBES: Facebook does 'Places' right when it comes to privacy
People can now check in for a domestic flight from any location, and they simply show their photo ID at the gate as they board the plane.
Foursquare CEO and cofounder Dennis Crowley is a South By Southwest veteran, having launched his location-based check-in app at the conference in 2009.
FORBES: Foursquare's Dennis Crowley At SXSW: Location Is The Future [Video]
But the company is mainly built on the location-based check-in service.
FORBES: Why Facebook And Booyah Could Burst Foursquare's Location Bubble
Foursquare, the mobile social-media app where people check-in to places and share their location with others, also gives businesses a profoundly powerful way of attracting, rewarding, and engaging customers in ways that were never possible.
FORBES: Retailers, Foursquare Makes Every Day a Black Friday
Precise location enables consumers to check-in with friends, find nearby concerts and exhibits, or get directions to the destinations of their choice.
ENGADGET: Motorola gives Google the boot, turns to Skyhook for location services
Time magazine, for example, has formed a partnership with Foursquare, a location-based mobile check-in service, for the conventions, in which Time has provided content that users can unlock when they get to certain locations in Tampa and Charlotte.
The company tracks your location and allows you to check-in at your favourite spots.
BBC: Le Web: The tech world's best talk about the hottest trends
If your business is government related, or you just want a peaceful location in the heart of town, check into the Capitol Hotel Tokyu in the Akasaka district, a popular holdover from the 1960s (the Beatles stayed here), which was razed and replaced with a 29-storey tower in 2010.
Last year, Facebook also unveiled a check-in service for its phone apps that allow users to volunteer their location to friends, and also find deals from nearby businesses.
Amazon, for example, utilizes an IP address locator, to check to see whether the computer someone is using to make a purchase is in a location that makes sense for that credit card holder, says Brady.
It allows a user to check in with key contacts when arriving home safely and lets guardians follow you via your GPS location.
Even Facebook was intrigued enough that it unveiled its own check-in tool (only to replace it a year later with the ability to add location to any status updates).
Since Kiip connects people to real-world rewards on its mobile app, it would be a natural step for Kiip to eventually move into location-based rewards, say at local businesses through some type of check-in or loyalty program the likes of which Groupon, Foursquare, startup Belly and others are trying to provide.
Fan Appz, a Facebook application taking advantage of location data sharing is running a campaign for Westfield Mall in California to encourage customers to check in for store discounts.
FORBES: The Place Race: Where We Are on Location-Sharing Services Adoption
These include the ability to check for product availability in nearby stores and to purchase the product online, then pick it up at a physical location.
Notably not in attendance (or at least, not visible at the event) were location service startups Foursquare and Gowalla, much of whose value lies in the rich database of check-ins they are sitting on.
Some shoppers visit a mall or big-box location to check out merchandise and then find lower prices on the Web, sometimes while using smartphones right in the store's aisles.
应用推荐