I spoke briefly yesterday in a post regarding the emphasis on location apps at SXSWi, and one in particular that has a lot of potential is Brightkite’s “Check.In” multi check-in app for services such as Gowalla, Foursquare, Yelp and others.  TechCrunch’s Jay Donovan had a chance to sit down with Brightkite founders Brady Becker and Martin May to demo the yet-to-be-released app and talk a little bit more about its future plans.

Starting as a pet-project internally at Brightkite, based on frustration in checking-in via multiple services, Check.In was created to solve the growing problem that many face as more and more services integrate check-ins.  While basic in nature, the app allows you to log-in, choose your location or recognize via GPS and use it to check-in to all integrated services.

For the time-being, Gowalla, Foursquare and Brightkite are included, though some mention of Gowalla being removed at launch was made due to the fact that Gowalla has yet to release formal APIs to allow for such integration.  For testing purposes, Brightkite was able to get around the lack of APIs from Gowalla, but has been asked not to include such integration on launch for some reason.

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There’s usually a central theme accompanying every SXSW, with this year’s theme undeniably being location-oriented mobile services.  Beyond being a main topic of conversation, this year’s event is proving to be a battle ground for players in the location game large and small to duke it out.

Since Friday, over a dozen services have launched products or features centered around location, while Gowalla and Foursquare continue to battle it out in terms of who can garner the most check-ins during the festival, as well as who can report the largest numbers because of it.  If one thing’s certain, it’s that 2010 is quickly shaping up to be the “year of location,” with SXSW being the official starting line.

With nearly every attendee utilizing Gowalla and Foursquare to check-in at nearly every location possible around Austin, both companies are rallying to post the largest numbers in hopes of topping the other.  As TechCrunch points out though, the GPS check-in functionality of Gowalla, as opposed to Foursquare’s non-verification method, effects the numbers greatly.  Still, Foursquare and Gowalla are basically in a statistical dead heat when it comes to SXSW.

Gowalla and Foursquare aren’t the only ones in the spotlight, numerous other services are debuting their offerings when it comes to location, with the most notable in my opinion being the “check.in” service soon to launch by Brightkite.  Check.in is the first “unified check-in” app available, with support for Gowalla, Foursquare and Brightkite, providing a simple app that let’s users check-in to all their favorite services within the same interface.  A service of this nature was bound to launch eventually, and Brightkite was smart in being the first to market.

Read the rest

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As millions of eyes were tuned to the Oscars last night, the stage was set for one man to use the massive platform for a unique SMS call-to-action, whether the show’s producers wanted him to or not.

During the acceptance speech for winning best Documentary, the subject of which, Ric O’Barry, held up a sign that read “text DOLPHIN to 44144.”  Even though the camera cut away quickly, the message was still understood.

O’Barry, who captured and trained the first five dolphins who played Flipper in the popular 1960s TV series, dedicated the rest of his life to protecting and freeing dolphins from captivity after witnessing the ramifications of his actions — as well as the suicide of one of the Flipper dolphins in his arms.  His life’s work was chronicled in the documentary “The Cove,” which won the Oscar last night for best documentary of the year.

Following through on the campaign and texting “Dolphin” to 44144 returned a link to an Online petition and a means to send a letter to Pres. Obama.  MsgMe, the provider of the 44144 short code used in the call-to-action, said even though cameras cut away quickly when O’Barry held up the sign, the response was still significant.

“We saw steady traffic for the next five hours and have seen a huge spike in support over Twitter which we believe is generating the bulk of the traffic,” said Matt Silk of Waterfall Mobile, provider of the MsgMe SMS platform in an email today.  ”New subscribers are still coming in at a pretty healthy clip to sign the petition so we are ecstatic with the viral explosion of the campaign.”

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An interesting piece from MakeUseOf.com points to an often overlooked reality than few may have previously considered. In fact, any text-capable cell phone can now be just as reliable as a smartphone. How so? SMS-integrating services now make such a reality possible.

The article raises awareness of various options available to those with “regular cell phones.” These services “to which access is only a text message away” are designed to simplify on-the-go web activities for those who don’t have the latest, trendiest smartphones.

Posterous, for example, is a social network platform that enables the “cross-posting” of your updates across various social networking sites through a single email. Similarly, Hellotxt allows users to update better than fifty social networks from email as well.

Whether you’re sharing your status on Twitter or keeping in touch with friends via any of the gazillion social networks in existence, there are more opportunities for the low-tech cell phones in our midst than we may presently realize. To check out some of those you may have missed, visit MakeUseOf.com.

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It’s always nice to come across use-cases for SMS beyond the basic confines of marketing, and a perfect example is the increased usage of the medium for appointment reminders.

Headrush Hair Salon, an up-scale and high-traffic salon in the U.K, enlisted the help of TextMagic to introduce SMS reminders to cut down on no-shows and reduce the standby time for their stylists, helping curb the untold amount of revenue lost during idle time.  With over 4,700 clients total, no-shows had become a huge problem.

“TextMagic has improved our amount of no-show clients who may have forgotten the date and time of their appointment, therefore leaving a stylist in the salon with sometimes up to 2 1/2 hours of down time, which is clearly bad for business and profits.  We calculate that our number of no-shows has been reduced by approximately 70% since we’ve been using TextMagic and we expect this number to improve further as we obtain more clients’ mobile numbers.”

With SMS being inexpensive, easy to implement and having the ability to reach anyone quickly and easily no matter the type of device, it’s no wonder SMS reminder solutions have proved so successful.  Nearly every use-case I come across is deemed a huge success, with ROI that goes above and beyond most expectations.  As the concept makes itself known, wide-spread usage in a variety of industries will begin to take shape, for good reason.

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With all the talk about the New York Times’ accomplishments and endeavors in the mobile realm, you would think there are no other major newspapers in the Big Apple.

The New York Daily News, however, is not only one of New York’s biggest newspapers, it’s also the 6th most “widely circulated” daily paper in the United States today.

Befitting a publication of its stature, The New York Daily News is finally rolling out a new mobile application (developed by Handmark) that will deliver the biggest headlines directly to readers via their mobile device.

Based on the first impressions logged by readers and longtime subscribers, there’s nothing overtly innovative about the app – much like the apps from competing publications. Instead, the app is a meat and potatoes offering that serves up the news as only the NY Daily News can. And, luckily for the paper, that’s all readers seems to care about anyway. Read the rest

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Hoping to avoid the fate of myriad news providers and former publishing juggernauts that have succumbed to the digital media age, the Associated Press is continuing to roll out a multitude of new mobile and multimedia initiatives to give one of the world’s oldest news reporting organizations a fresh face in the mobile news era.

Tom Curley, the AP’s chief executive officer, says that “AP Gateway” will serve as a new business unit designed to cultivate new opportunities across new platforms, especially mobile devices like cell phones, tablet computers, e-readers, etc. With the ultimate goal of expanding the company’s AP Mobile news service for mobile devices, the powers that be at the AP have hinted that some of the applications and offerings will likely be introduced free of charge, while other services (like premium packages) could possibility be introduced on a paid subscription basis.

In recent weeks, the AP has earned as many headlines as it reports by announcing that the venerable news entity will create its own iPad application, a move that stunned many competing news organizations that are admittedly reluctant to embrace Apple’s much awaited tablet computer.

For now, the Associated Press says it will use the AP Gateway group as a mechanism by which to assist its fifteen-hundred member newspapers in developing and driving original digital content.

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