tags

Foursquare can be fun--but it can also start to feel like work. If you're the Mayor of your favorite coffee shop, holding onto that title can turn into a chore. The hundredth time you drag out your phone, pop open the Foursquare app, wait for it to figure out where you are, and then finally check in, the novelty may have faded a tiny bit. Fortunately, there's a sweet, free Android app called ToothTag that can automatically check you in at your favorite places, as long as they've got Wi-Fi or Bluetooth signals you can recognize. Here'… Read more

Nielsen thinks that Android phones are finally more desirable than iPhones, but Antuan could have told you that based on less than scientific observations. Justin shows us a phone that he does not desire, the HTC Droid Incredible 2. The unlikely Barnes & Noble Nook Color is rapidly becoming the most desirable Android tablet thanks to a new firmware update. Meanwhile, Motorola plans to give hardcore users what they truly desire, quad-core processors and more hacker friendly Android phones. All of that plus more news and the answers to your emailed questions on this week's episode of Android Atlas … Read more

For some odd reason, I put my keys in a different place every time I take them out of my pocket at night. The problem is that I can never remember these unique locations when the time comes to retrieve those keys. The simple solution would be to change my behavior, but I'd rather solve my problems with technology and apps. Enter the Cobra Tag by Cobra, a two-part hardware and software solution to finding your misplaced stuff.

The first part of the system is the Cobra Tag sensor, a small electronic dongle that can be attached to a … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--Marketers are everywhere here at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival, but this year they've discovered some prime new territory: private transportation. The annual geek gathering is nominally headquartered at the Austin Convention Center, but in reality sprawls all across the city's downtown, and given the amount of late-night revelry taking place, cab rides are commonplace. Luckily for this year's attendees, a whole lot of those rides are free--or cheap.

Social-networking site Tagged decided to intercept travelers as soon as they landed at Austin's airport, setting up a display for a "Tagged Wheels" … Read more

Microsoft and Google have teamed up to challenge a patent held by GeoTag--a geolocation technology company--that has been used to sue more than 300 other businesses.

The technology giants said the lawsuit, filed in District Court of Delaware earlier this week, is a result of the hundreds of suits GeoTag has lodged claiming those businesses infringe on the patent, which relates to geotagging technology. Many of the existing lawsuits are with customers of the Bing Maps and Google Maps services, the filing said.

"The suits have placed a cloud on Plaintiffs' web mapping services, have caused customers to … Read more

Too many music lovers rely on their media player's library and file management features, which too often aren't up to the task of finding, organizing, and even playing all your music files, not just MP3s. Mp3nity is a free all-in-one music file organizer, manager, converter, and even player. It can rip CDs, generate playlists, and convert and compress files. It has some unique tools for managing large numbers of files simultaneously, including editing tags, renaming files, and fetching updated information online.

Mp3nity has an efficient layout that does a good job displaying tons of information, though of course … Read more

Taking yet another step in the ongoing process of upgrading its photo-sharing service, Facebook announced today that it will soon enable facial-recognition technology--meaning that when members upload photographs and are encouraged to "tag" their friends, they will be able to choose from a list of suggestions.

Thanks to its treasure trove of user photos that have already been tagged, not to mention personal profile photos, Facebook has built up a huge base of data for gauging exactly who's in what photo. There are now 100 million photo uploads per day, according to Facebook, and 100 million "… Read more

In case a name and phone number on Fido's dog tag aren't enough to bring him home from his wanderings, a new tag from online pet community PetHub includes a Fido-centric URL that is scannable by smartphone.

One side of the laser-etched tag displays a human-readable Web link to information on your pet. The other shows a two-dimensional QR bar code that can be scanned by any iPhone or Android phone with the free code-scanning software NeoReader installed.

When scanned, the code automatically navigates a browser to PetHub to display an animal's information.

By default, PetHub shows … Read more

It's not every day a company gives you $20 worth of free cash to spend as you choose and let you run wild. And it's not every day you pay for your lunch with a wave of your cell phone. This is exactly what Bling Nation is doing to promote its new mobile payment product, which ties into your PayPal account.

We slapped a BlingTag--a yellow and white adhesive square--onto the back of several mobile phones and took the nascent payment solution for a field test at three freshly installed partner retailers in Bling Nation's incubation headquarters of Palo Alto, CA.

The BlingTag, as the sticker is called, uses NFC, or near field communication, a technology that relies on an RFID chip nestled within the adhesive to authenticate transactions made between your cell phone and the BlingNation payment console. NFC is a short-wave radio communications technology that's not unlike Bluetooth in concept. However, it has a much tighter range--up to 10 centimeters (about 4 inches) for NFC versus up to 30 meters (not quite 100 feet) for Bluetooth.

To make a payment, the cashier types in your total and your phone number. You tap (or hover) the BlingTag sticker over the sensor and almost immediately receive a text message with an authorizing pin that the cashier then types into the console. The machine spits out a receipt and you receive a second text message verifying your purchase. The dollar amount, meanwhile, is deducted from your paired PayPal account. If the merchant has signed onto Bling Nation's loyalty program, they could opt to credit you points that you could rack up, in lieu of using a punch card, to eventually purchase more of their product.

As with debit card payments made through a supermarket's card-reading terminal, there's no ID involved, just a pin-based authentication. In Bling Nation's case, the pin code isn't a secret, and it's constantly changing.

The entire process took no longer than paying by credit card, although we did experience a false start that required us to abandon our first BlingTag and begin again because Bling Nation is currently incompatible with Google Voice numbers.

What about security?… Read more