Product Reviews Net » Foursquare http://www.product-reviews.net Information on the latest gadgets, technology, news and product reviews Sat, 26 May 2012 11:39:50 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Amazon servers go down hits FourSquare and HootSuite http://www.product-reviews.net/2011/04/21/amazon-servers-go-down-hits-foursquare-and-hootsuite/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=amazon-servers-go-down-hits-foursquare-and-hootsuite http://www.product-reviews.net/2011/04/21/amazon-servers-go-down-hits-foursquare-and-hootsuite/#comments Thu, 21 Apr 2011 14:27:32 +0000 Gary Johnson http://www.product-reviews.net/?p=128438 Earlier today we reported to you that the Sony PlayStation Network was experiencing some down time. But it’s not just Sony having technical difficulties today, as Amazon’s cloud computing centre has been down for some time now.

The centre in North Virginia supplies services to a whole host of websites which include HootSuite, FourSquare, Reddit, and answer service Quora. Reddit’s search service is out of action and posted that Amazon were working on it according to an article by Charles Arthur from guardian.co.uk.

The trouble started around 9.40 a.m. BST or 1.40 a.m. West Coast time, and is still ongoing at the time of writing. Amazon has so far not given any time scale for when the problem will be fixed. They run a few cloud computing centers and are designed so that if one goes down it doesn’t take any of the others with it.

Amazon has also not given any reason for the outage in North Virginia, and has not redistributed any of the service it offers to other centers. Has this outage affected you?

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]]> http://www.product-reviews.net/2011/04/21/amazon-servers-go-down-hits-foursquare-and-hootsuite/feed/ 0 Social Networking Stats at South By Southwest 2011 http://www.product-reviews.net/2011/03/18/social-networking-stats-at-south-by-southwest-2011/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=social-networking-stats-at-south-by-southwest-2011 http://www.product-reviews.net/2011/03/18/social-networking-stats-at-south-by-southwest-2011/#comments Fri, 18 Mar 2011 17:38:41 +0000 Jamie Pert http://www.product-reviews.net/?p=125827 Some interesting social networking statistics have recently been revealed when analysts studied all of the #SXSW tweets which occurred earlier this month, these stats looked at three main categories which are: mobile platforms, group messaging and check-ins.

According to the charts and statistics posted on DigitalTrends 60% of tweets mentioning #SXSW were made by iPhones, 14% were made by iPads, 14% were made by Android devices, 12% were made by BlackBerry smartphones and just 1% were made by Windows Phone devices.

In terms of the Check-In War Foursquare made up for 65% of the #SXSW Twitter mentions whilst Gowalla was responsible for 22% of the mentions whilst SCVNGR and Whrrl accounted for 12% and 7% respectively.

Finally when looking at Group Messaging GroupMe was the most popular solution with 65% of the Twitter mentions whilst Beluga, Kik and Fast Society accounted for 22%, 10% and 3% respectively.

These stats show that iOS-based devices are responsible for a massive percentage of mobile Tweets, however we have to remember that the type of people who would tweet the SXSW hashtag are probably the same people who queue up for iPads and iPhone upon launch, that said I was quite surprised to see Android accounting for just 12% of the #SXSW Twitter mentions.

All of the statistics above were based on 315,000 #SXSW Tweets which were tweeted between 11th March and 15th March 2011, do any of the statistics surprised you? Let us know in the comments section below.

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]]> http://www.product-reviews.net/2011/03/18/social-networking-stats-at-south-by-southwest-2011/feed/ 0 Sony Ericsson and Foursquare for 2011 Miami Masters http://www.product-reviews.net/2011/03/15/sony-ericsson-and-foursquare-for-2011-miami-masters/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=sony-ericsson-and-foursquare-for-2011-miami-masters http://www.product-reviews.net/2011/03/15/sony-ericsson-and-foursquare-for-2011-miami-masters/#comments Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:28:58 +0000 Tina Chubb http://www.product-reviews.net/?p=125382 If you’re a tennis fan who’s thinking of attending the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open (aka Miami Masters), then we may have some exciting news for you. Sony Ericsson has just joined forces with Foursquare, in order to make the upcoming tournament the first ever fully Foursquare-integrated sporting event.

As Matt over at thenextweb.com recently noted, Sony Ericsson and Foursquare will be encouraging those who attend the event – which begins on March 21st – to check-in at the various different venues, and then reward them with specific Tennis Fan Badges, prizes and even discounts on tickets.

Users of the popular location-based social networking service will even be given the opportunity to win access to post-match conferences with the players, as well as a personal one-on-one autograph session with them. There is also a nice little treat for those that are able to become the Mayor of each court.

If a Foursquare user attending the event does manage to become the Mayor of each court, they will then be allowed to head out onto the court before the match begins to take part in a pre-match coin toss. I may not be a tennis fan, but the Foursquare idea does sound pretty awesome.

Are you a tennis fan who is thinking about attending the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open?

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]]> http://www.product-reviews.net/2011/03/15/sony-ericsson-and-foursquare-for-2011-miami-masters/feed/ 0 2010 Midterm Election: Vote Incentive From Foursquare http://www.product-reviews.net/2010/11/02/2010-midterm-election-vote-incentive-from-foursquare/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=2010-midterm-election-vote-incentive-from-foursquare http://www.product-reviews.net/2010/11/02/2010-midterm-election-vote-incentive-from-foursquare/#comments Tue, 02 Nov 2010 12:20:53 +0000 Peter Chubb http://www.product-reviews.net/?p=112433 You do not have to live in America to know that today is an important day for U.S. citizens, as it is the day that they get to vote on the 2010 Midterm elections. We have seen in recent months how social media has played a huge part in politics, and today is no different.

Foursquare has made a new badge available, which they are calling “I Voted”. All you need to do to unlock this new badge is check in once you have voted at your poling station. So not only will you achieve a new badge, but you can make your voice heard by voting.

Foursquare is also in partnership with a number of other companies to offer details on how people are voting and turnout figures. This will be done on an average on how many people check-in. There will even be an embeddable version, allowing you to add it to your website. There are other ways to keep updated on what is going on, such as this iPhone app.

Foursquare explains that this is the first time that they have asked their users to do something serious, instead of doing things for fun. They have a point, what is the point of moaning about certain U.S. issues, when you do not vote? Visit Foursquare for more details.

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]]> http://www.product-reviews.net/2010/11/02/2010-midterm-election-vote-incentive-from-foursquare/feed/ 0 Astronaut Foursquare Check-in: Unlocks NASA Explorer Badge http://www.product-reviews.net/2010/10/23/astronaut-foursquare-check-in-unlocks-nasa-explorer-badge/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=astronaut-foursquare-check-in-unlocks-nasa-explorer-badge http://www.product-reviews.net/2010/10/23/astronaut-foursquare-check-in-unlocks-nasa-explorer-badge/#comments Sat, 23 Oct 2010 09:56:14 +0000 Peter Chubb http://www.product-reviews.net/?p=111748 It seems that you do not need to be on earth to enjoy social media, as a NASA astronaut has managed to check-in on Foursquare and earn his NASA Explorer Badge. He is the first person to do this from space, and will no doubt be the last.

Commander Douglas H. Wheelock was aboard the International Space Station at the time, would have been way cooler if he had did this while doing a space walk. This is a new badge available on Foursquare, and future space travelers will make it their mission to earn this badge.

However, you do not have to be in space to unlock the badge, Foursquare and NASA has placed badges at a number of locations in the U.S. A fine example this is the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum – where else?

Catharine Smith from the Huffington Post explains that Commander Wheelock is known for sending a number of images from space back down to us on earth, which you can see here.

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]]> http://www.product-reviews.net/2010/10/23/astronaut-foursquare-check-in-unlocks-nasa-explorer-badge/feed/ 0 How to Use Foursquare: A beginner’s guide http://www.product-reviews.net/2010/08/30/how-to-use-foursquare-a-beginners-guide/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-use-foursquare-a-beginners-guide http://www.product-reviews.net/2010/08/30/how-to-use-foursquare-a-beginners-guide/#comments Mon, 30 Aug 2010 09:22:45 +0000 Peter Chubb http://www.product-reviews.net/?p=107606 Foursquare was first launched in March 2009, and since then has grown to a user base of more than 3 million. OK so we know that this does not threaten Facebook and their 500 million users, but what it has done has made social networking much more fun – so much so that other social sites have been getting in on the action.

The Foursquare app is available for Android, Blackberry, iPhone, webOS amongst others. Once installed and signed up you will be able to check in with friends while you are out enjoying yourself at a bar, restaurant etc. Getting started is easy, and once signed up you can invite your friends from Facebook and Twitter.

Now you are ready to have fun with the real-life social game, well that’s what Paula Jacobs describes it as from Helium. So the aim is to check in when you are somewhere, then you or a friend can track the history of where you have been.

Jacobs points out that users can leave comments of places that they have visited so that people can see if it will be ideal for them to visit. This will have its pros and cons for the venues that have been commented on.

The aim is to check in to the same location more than anyone else, this not only allows you to become Madam or Sir Mayor but leads to rewards with badges or points.

For a complete guide to Foursquare visit Helium.

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