places

INQ unveils Facebook-focused Android phones

INQ Mobile today took the wraps off two new Android smartphones, headed first for the U.K. market, that are designed for people who depend on Facebook.

The INQ Cloud Touch and INQ Cloud Q both heavily integrate the popular social network into their overall operation. Working closely with people at Facebook, INQ has outfitted the home screen with a visual feed that lets users quickly access updates, pictures, videos, and other Facebook content. The phones also provide quick links to various Facebook features, including chats, messages, wall postings, and notifications, according to London-based INQ.

Facebook Places is accessible directly from the homescreen, giving people the ability to use the feature to check in at stores, restaurants, clubs, and other spots. Facebook's Events feature is also available to let people schedule events and sync them with Google Calendar. And instead of requiring users to log onto each feature separately, the phones offer a single sign-on to access all of the Facebook features available, INQ said.

For entertainment, both phones provide the Spotify music player with all of its features available to subscribers.… Read more

Space love

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

Spotify and Shazam team up to help you find and purchase music

Sony may be announcing a new PSP soon

Facebook teams up with the Amber Alert system

Google will start selling ads on music videos in mobile YouTube

Google launches Google Places for iPhone

Microsoft launches a Web and app building site called WebMatrix

A new report in the Journal of Cosmology discusses the specifics of mating in space

'Google Places' Yelp rival comes to iPhone

Google's Google Places pushes further on Yelp today as it joins iPhone. Like Yelp, the free app, originally released for Android, lets you look up and rate local business. Since it's Google, the Places app ups the ante with another feature, recommendations supplied by Google's Hotpot recommendations engine.

To start using Places, log into your Google account and begin either searching for local businesses or browsing by category for nearby listings. Categories include the usuals--coffee, restaurants, gas stations, post offices, hotels, and so on. In addition, you can effortlessly add your own search categories even if they'… Read more

Google under fire by specialized search sites

Google is arousing the anger of rival search providers who argue that the company is intentionally and unfairly ranking content from its own specialized search services above their own.

The complaint centers on searches for specialized or local content, such as travel services, health sites, and reviews of local restaurants and businesses. In the past, users searching on Google for such content were typically directed to specialized search providers, companies like TripAdvisor.com, WebMD.com, and Citysearch.com.

But as Google has increasingly ramped up its own specialized search services, these companies believe the search giant is stacking the deck … Read more

Google mixes local and social reviews in Hotpot

If at first, second, and third you don't succeed, try, try again.

Google is taking another crack at a social service, this time with Hotpot, a tool designed to capture local knowledge and recommend establishments such as restaurants or stores you might want to visit. Google unveiled an early version of Hotpot in a blog post yesterday, and I think Hotpot has some attributes that could help it achieve modest success.

"With Hotpot, we're making local search results for places on Google more personal, relevant, and trustworthy," product manager Lior Ron said in the post, calling … Read more

Privacy concerns dog location-based services

It sounds like a sweet deal: report your location to a social network and get a coupon for discounts and prizes. The price? The possibility that advertisers and other third parties will know where you are and where you've been.

A recent survey by the Pew Center's Internet & American Life Project found that only 4 percent of Internet users have adopted location-based services, as Cecilia Kang reports on The Washington Post's Post Tech blog. That survey was conducted in August and September, before Facebook and Yelp joined Foursquare and Gowalla in offering coupons to users who … Read more

The 404 702: Where it's the end of the world as we know it (podcast)

Facebook just launched a new suite of features for Facebook Places that might be the beginning of the end for Web privacy as we know it. Luckily Natali Del Conte is around to calm us down and explain what's really going on with the new location-based deals.

Facebook Places is a service that lets users share their location directly on their mobile phones, but the latest product is called Deals, and it allows businesses to advertise to target customers by offering a special discount for those who "check in" at a location.

Once users activate it, Facebook will share the deal on their walls so others can cash in as well, and business can even offer "loyalty" discounts for members that return to a venue. The FourSquare and Loopt offices must be getting pretty hot right now.

If mobile tracking weren't enough, soon you won't even be able to watch a movie without being watched yourself! In an effort to combat Web piracy, some movie theaters are installing video cameras in front of the movie screens, designed to also monitor crowd reactions to trailers for market research on what audiences prefer to watch.

Even worse, the same company, Aralia Systems, is also planning to roll out infrared scanning systems at the ticket-purchasing stations that scan for recording devices and will sound an alarm to alert management if an illegal instrument is detected. It sounds similar to the TSA's "enhanced" security screenings we've been hearing about recently!

Internet "Captchas" have been around for a while--they're tests placed on some Web sites to determine whether the user is human, and they usually come in the form of a randomly generated word or phrase that you have to copy into a field to gain access.

They're only slightly irritating and require little participation to enter, but a software firm called NuCaptcha is hoping that video advertisement captchas will be the online ads of the future.

Instead of traditional squiggly words, the new system forces users to watch a video advertisement with a short message scrolling across it. After it's done, it'll ask you to identify and retype a part of the message to continue toward your destination, and although it sounds like an annoying process, companies like EA, Wrigley, and Disney have already signed up with hopes that people will actually pay attention to the ads instead of just clicking through. Soon we'll be reminiscing about a time when all you needed was a pop-up blocker to surf under the radar!

Thanks to Natali Del Conte for joining us on this rainy Thursday, and be sure to check us out tomorrow morning with Steve Guttenberg, aka The Audiophiliac!

Episode 702 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

MySpace gets slap on wrist

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

Facebook announces single sign-in for mobile and Facebook Places launches discounts and promotions for checking in

Microsoft expects to sell 5 million units of Kinect in 2010

AT&T announces AT&T ForHealth to help automate health care

MySpace gets a stern warning about performance from Rupert Murdoch

Facebook Credits are now the official currency of EA social games

FourSquare is cracking down on fake mayors

Why Google won't turn off location customization

I am not always awake, even when I appear to be clothed, eating, and mumbling.

So I am grateful to Google for waking me up the other morning with the news that it knew where I was. Of course, you always knew it always knew. But suddenly, as I was performing a Google search for a David Arquette Halloween mask, there was my location on the left side of the search page.

It felt like my neighbor had come in by the back door, sat down at my kitchen table, and helped herself to Weetabix and cookies. Well, not quite. … Read more