The Corpse Princess has set her sights on smart phones.

The anime series of the same name is coming out on DVD September 14, and distributor FUNimation Entertainment is using the mobile advertising network iVdopia to get the word out. It’s all about engaging fans of anime, a genre of animation with roots in Japanese manga, or comics.

Something called the Viper Ad lets users swipe away an entire screen-takeover with a fingertip, unearthing the next image. With mobile social media, users will be able to share Corpse Princess videos with friends on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Fans will also be able to view multiple clips from the series on their phones.

The campaign for the DVD release of the show, titled Shikabane Hime in the original Japanese, is a natural progression for a business that has long understood–and even encouraged–fan sharing. For example, the Internet is rife with fan-translated chapters of popular manga long before they’re released in English–which copyright owners allow to remain out there, knowing that these translations increase consumers’ interest for a book’s official release. While other video content owners fear allowing copyrighted material to be viewed on mobiles, the anime/manga industry gets it.

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Gowalla has long had an interest in stepping beyond the confines of the ubiquitous “checkin” to leverage location in other useful and unique ways.  The company today announced a new addition to its service that does just that.

Called “Highlights,” the new addition aims to define places using user experiences rather than checkins.  Here’s how it works: a user is asked to tag real world places based on a set of criteria, so for example, you’re asked to name your favorite “Date Night” spot, the place you think has the “Best Tacos,” your “Alma Mater,” and your favorite “Watering Hole,” among other things.  Each of these answers reveals a bit about who you actually are, and where you spend your time.

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Booyah’s latest LBS creation, InCrowd, has gone live in the Apple App Store.  Initially announced at Facebook’s “Places” launch event, InCrowd is the first app built off the Facebook Places API and the only location-based app that has exclusive access to Facebook search.

Leveraging data straight from Facebook, InCrowd takes the concept of “social gaming” to an entirely new level.  Beyond basic checkins and social utility, InCrowd allows users to create their own customizable avatars, “interact” with old and new friends nearby as well as accumulate status and virtual goods.

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Yet another major acquisition in the mobile space has transpired.

Google has scooped up mobile gaming startup SocialDeck in a move that furthers the search engine giant’s growing involvement in social media through strategic purchases and acquisitions.

With the ultimate goal of challenging social networking juggernaut Facebook, Google reportedly shelled out big bucks of the buy, although no financial terms have yet been made public.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the Canadian start-up has launched several games titles for Facebook, as well as Apple’s iPhone and Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry devices.

“SocialDeck’s games platform technology enables simultaneous game play across multiple mobile devices and social networks,” the WSJ explains.

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With heat like New York’s been having, it’s not to early to dream about skiing and snowboarding, especially when mobile technology will let winter athletes engage more closely than ever with each other–and their resorts.

Vail Resorts announced today that this coming season, it will deploy mobile a mobile strategy called EpicMix. The plan consists of a mobile application as well as RF (radio frequency) chips embedded in lift tickets, season passes, and the lifts themselves at the company’s Vail, Beavercreek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Heavenly resorts. EpicMix lets guests track the distance they’ve gone down the slopes; announce when and where they are on the mountain, and meet up with friends via private messaging; share blow-by-blow accounts in real-time via Facebook and Twitter; and even win “rewards” from the resort, in the form of collectible pins, based on their activities.

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AT&T yesterday announced a partnership with SCVNGR to offer in-store rewards and discounts for completing mini-challenges in select AT&T stores across the Midwest.

SCVNGR is a social game that involves checking into locations and doing challenges, while earning points and unlocking rewards in the process.  Through its partnership with AT&T, customers can complete challenges that include simply checking in to an AT&T store, completing various social checkins, snapping a photo of the new Samsung Captivate, sharing ringtones and more to amass points that can be turned into rewards on the spot.

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The launch of Facebook Places brought LBS into the spotlight and helped existing apps start getting the attention they deserved.

We already mentioned Foursquare seeing the most new-user signups ever after Facebook’s announcement last week, and today Booyah said they’ve now reached 3.1 million total users for their MyTown location-based gaming app.  More importantly, the company said that its users check-in to the app more than 15 million times each week across both rural and metropolitan areas throughout the United States, helping it remain the largest LBS app in North America.

Over the past six month, MyTown has recorded over 400 million check-ins across the country, with the top 5 location types being restaurants, grocery stores, K-12 schools, clothing stores and gas stations.  This is interesting to note as Booyah recently introduced product check-ins to the app to allow users to scan barcodes and earn points and rewards for doing so.