Foursquare-Style Checking In For Couch Potatoes 86
This CNN article discusses a new breed of mobile "check-in" apps for people who aren't particularly mobile. The news apps were borne from the popularity of Foursquare, Gowalla, and Facebook Places, but instead of focusing on locations you've been, they spotlight movies and TV shows you watch, as well as books you read and video games you play.
"These apps let users earn virtual rewards and meet fans with similar interests. Users also can push their check-ins to other sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, to keep the conversation going. They each have their own benefits on top of that, from giving users recommendations based on the things they already like to letting them unlock videos and other extras when they've become 'super fans' of a show. ... While people in the United States may all have different hobbies and engage in different activities away from home, 'we know most people do three things — they eat, they sleep and they watch TV,' [Miso's CEO, Somrat Niyogi said.] 'We think the market is massive. We think this is going to be a much bigger market' than location-based apps, he added."
Huh? (Score:4, Insightful)
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There's nothing I love more than spelling a joke out to geeks who should understand a very venerable geek joke, I tell ya.
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In the future:
Desktops will be dead. No one will have them.
Laptops will be your workhorse. Many will have them for work.
Netbooks will be your casual computing device. Some will have them for novelty.
Phones will be your go-to interface for day-to-day needs. Everyone will have one.
In the future:
Foursquare will be dead. No one will remember it.
Laptops will be replaced by tablets. Many will have used laptops for work a long time ago.
Netbooks will be your go-to device for high-powered computing. Some will still type for novelty instead of using the cerebral interface.
Phones will be phones. Everyone will have one.
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Desktops were dead. No one personally owned computers.
Laptops for for cats and grandkids to sit on. Few people had laps while being mobile.
Books were used for casual information browsing. Some read them for novelty.
Phones were the go-to interface for day-to-day needs. Everyone had one at home.
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I think "novelty" isn't quite the right word here.
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the iPhone is only a distant memory having long since been supplanted by Android.
I'd really like to see this. Android may have remote app install/kill capabilities, but it's still far, FAR better than iOS in terms of software freedom. iOS is what's driving the trend towards closed software environments, and proprietary client apps instead of web apps, if it's killed off these trends would most likely reverse themselves.
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Obligatory Futurama Reference (Score:2)
They have phones in booths now? Finally! I don't have to lug this cell phone around. - Hermes
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Because who uses a couch and a desktop?
Also, all the big Apps now-a-days start in the Apple Store and work their way to the Mac and PC Via Facebook. I know, its like the flow of time is reversed, but you'll be used to it in about negative 2 weeks.
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Can't you post anything new? You made that exact same comment a month from now.
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1: There are a lot of times where you will be doing something you might want to check-in for when you're not around a computer (or not around a computer you can use for that purpose.) Seeing a new movie in the theatre is an obvious case, but there are others. That's a pretty good reason to have an app.
2: There are some stickers that you can only get by che
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If you never get off the couch, why do you need a mobile app?
Even people who stay inside have to be trendy. Ride that wave of mobile goodness, buy that iPhone/Android and sit in the couch lovingly stoking that touchscreen all day long.
Now, without leaving the couch to fetch your laptop you can ...
Marketers are laughing... (Score:2, Informative)
... all the way to the bank.
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... and bankers are laughing while sitting on the couch in their office. Eating potato chips.
And that's where that expression comes from.
a cynical take (Score:5, Funny)
FourGoHookupPlaces: for telling your friends when and who you procreate with! BONUS: use your iphone's built-in accelerometer to compute your "performance", and try to best your friends! Become the virtual "mayor" of PEOPLE! Make lovemaking an ONLINE social game!
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http://www.ijustmadelove.com/ is exactly what it sounds like, and exactly what you described.
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Huh, you're not kidding, all it's missing is the accelerometer game, but people would just cheat by putting their phone on a paint shaker.
To quote Warren Ellis... (Score:2)
"I'm the mayor of your mom"
GetGlue is great (Score:4, Interesting)
Of course on the downside that means that there are a number of people on GetGlue who will check into anything and everything as frequently as possible just in order to accumulate stickers/badges/achievements. Personally i only check into stuff that i'm actually doing and the people who've accumulated hundreds of stickers, thousands of "friends", and tens of thousands of "liked" things can irk me a bit, but i try and just remind myself that it's not actually a contest, despite what some of them seem to think. I'd rather have my stickers and "likes" reflect who i actually am, rather than how obsessively i can click on links.
Perhaps i should check out the other sites mentioned in the article, though i'm not sure if i'd want to maintain a presence on more than one such site. Checking-in when i start watching a show or playing a game or reading a book isn't too bad, but having to do so at two or three different sites might start to get a bit cumbersome.
Re:GetGlue is great (Score:5, Funny)
If you were truly "geeky" you'd write a script to do it for you.
we know all people do three things... (Score:4, Funny)
...they eat, they sleep and they shit. So where is the mobile app where one can "like" Charmin? Surely that'd reach an even bigger demographic than TV!
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Re:mobile app... Charmin (Score:1)
Awesomes! (Score:4, Insightful)
Does this work with Friendster and myspace?
This ushers in a whole new golden era of pointless web apps that makes me wonder how much information stupid people are willing to share without their knowledge. Incredibly there is no limit.
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Can someone write an app that links every app to each other, in a huge pointless loop that feeds information to itself?
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Can someone write an app that links every app to each other, in a huge pointless loop that feeds information to itself?
I "see" your one App and "raise" you one web search :)
Apparently Google's search results in your things like your|your neighbors name being available to spyware-spreaders or online data miners like pipl.com and "spokes" who clone your info. To incite you to pay to find "full" details, they feed it location data like age, hometown and last few different addresses [public USA records can be a pest to hide]. Some sites link google search visitors to "top search results for [your search string]" where you go in
It's like having a second (oh, what's the word?) (Score:1)
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This gives me a great idea! (Score:4, Funny)
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Wankbook?
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circlejerk?
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FapSquare
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Wow that's two whole new types of social networking sites I learned about today.
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Ehmm, lessee.
- Fetishbook (url available)
- Friendface (url camped)
- Theinternetisforporn (url in use)
And...just for you...Locked and Loaded
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Just one problem... what should I call it?
The internet?
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Checked in (Score:1)
With comments from GladOS (Score:3, Funny)
You're not even going the right way. You should have turned left before. It's funny actually, when you think about it.
Someday we'll remember this and laugh and laugh and laugh... Ohoh boy.
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From GladOS: I find that quite unlikely.
Another mmorpg without the rpg (Score:1)
This sounds like a grindathon mmo in the form of a social networking app.
I guess we're not normal? (Score:1)
Every one of us who visits this web site does at least one thing that is not in that list "Eat, Sleep, Watch TV"
We Read/Post things on Slashdot.
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Every one of us who is alive does at least one thing that is not in that list "Eat, Sleep, Watch TV".
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Oh right... I forgot to mention I don't ever Watch TV, and as a software engineer, I hardly ever get to sleep.
I would like to know something (Score:3, Interesting)
In these days when the economy is in rough shape, unemployment is high, and jobs aren't easy to come by, where are people getting all this time to do this stuff?
Personally, between work, school, and girlfriend, I am often at a crossroads where I must only choose two of the three. Girlfriend has been in Norway for over two weeks, and school doesn't start until the 30th, so I've just had work and I still only manage to pull about 50 hours a week. It seems to me there are lot of people who are lucky and have enough free time, or there are a lot of people slacking off in other areas of their life. Hell, it took me 30 minutes just to find a parking spot when I got home at midnight last night.
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unemployment is high, and jobs aren't easy to come by
doesn't that say it all?
plus you got time to post on /.
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Buy a Hummer.
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Only 50 hours?
It looks like you are the one doing something wrong.
And half an hour to find a parking spot? No thanks, I'd rather walk that 30 minutes to the next train station. It is healthier that way.
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Well since the GF is out of town I figured I would log some overtime while she's gone. I do have school to pay for, not to mention the (hush hush) ring I'm saving up for.
And yea, I would love to take a train, unfortunately I live in the city and work in the country. At least I commute against the grain, as it takes only about 35 minutes to drive there while those going the opposite direction are taking at least an hour.
It's the price you pay for living in the city. On the bright side, I am a five minute w
Not laughing, just dying of spasms. (Score:1)
As hard as it is to use the term 'Paradigm Engineering' with a straight face, isn't it way past the time when somebody started working on a system that ISN'T just about mapping, tracking, categorising, labelling and snooping on people for the benefit of the first bunch of market researchers to reach your door waving a billion-dollar cheque?
What's next? 'The Dollhouse' by 2015?
I swear, I'm going to have to start investing in tinfoil hats soon.
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If I wanted to fight over virtual ownership of virtual pieces of property there are many, many more fun ways to do it, and I wouldn't even have to step away from my gaming PC.
Not just checkins (Score:2)
I actually designed and coded a website like this - but there is a lot more potential to gain from item based sites than location based achievements. For me, it serves as a database of all the films and TV shows I've seen - so I didn't forget specific reasons for liking/hating a movie. I can also check in an instant whether I've seen something, rather than having to read through a description or watch a trailer. The equivalent to the Twitter/Facebook updates from my site would be Yelp reviews posted to yo
360 (Score:2)
I think they're right. (Score:2)
100% right! [salon.com]
Massive market (Score:2)
Possible translation? "lolfat"
Message boards too (Score:2)
"Soulskill just checked in on 4chan's /b/ board."
They're forgetting one thing... (Score:2)