foursquare

SecondMarket: Private stock trades jump 55% in 2011

The IPO market may have regained its footing--sort of--but clearly not fast enough for some wanting to sell their private shares.

Trading on SecondMarket soared 55 percent in 2011 to a total of $558 million in transactions, as ex-employees, founders and others connected with hot startups cashed out shares. The company creates a marketplace for stock in private companies.

Demand, meanwhile, was huge, with those trying to buy private shares--measured by what SecondMarket calls "indications of interest"--offering more than $6 billion during the year.

SecondMarket says it's now completed more than $1 billion in private company … Read more

How to get started with the Save to Foursquare button

Foursquare just rolled out a Save to Foursquare button, which allows users to save a venue to one of their Foursquare Lists from nearly any Web page.… Read more

Look out! Here comes Apple's killer location-services patent

Apple has raised bludgeoning competitors with patents on key technologies to a fine art. (Just ask Samsung.) And now it may have a new blunt object to wield.

A reissue of a patent originally dating back to 1998 -- and that Apple got from Xerox -- has delivered into CEO Tim Cook's hands some serious, and scary, potential control over location-based services. If you thought that Google, Samsung, HTC, and others were already depressed over the legal success Apple has had in fighting Android, it's now officially worse.

Even more, it could bring some important activities of other … Read more

How to find the best deals on Foursquare

Now you won't have to check into places before you can see their awesome discounts and specials.

Foursquare is a fun mobile game to play, with special deals used as incentives to visit businesses. Unfortunately, you might be missing out on some excellent deals at local places due to the lack of a directory of such deals--until now! Here's how to get a list of deals in your area:

Step 1: Head to http://poorsquare.us/

Step 2: Select your city and state from the drop-down menu.Selecting your ZIP code isn't required, but if you … Read more

Roamz: Know more about the neighborhood you're in

I like Facebook. And Foursquare, and Twitter, and Instagram. I use all of them on my iPhone. And I'm intrigued by Roamz, a new iPhone application that weaves updates and photos from all of them into one stream about what's going on in your immediate vicinity.

The app, which debuted at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco last week, was created by a startup based in Sydney, Australia. It detects your location and displays items from the aforementioned services that have been geotagged as having happened nearby. It also includes its own feature for sharing updates … Read more

Foursquare moves toward ditching check-ins

SAN FRANCISCO--Interviewed at the Web 2.0 Summit, Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley talked about how the location check-in app is becoming more passive.

"One of the big hurdles we have is that you have to think about using it," he said of Foursquare. "If we can lower that barrier, we can juice the experience."

That's why the company recently launched the Radar feature, which, once you turn it on, collects info about where you are, the direction you're going, and so on. It'll tell you if people you like are nearby, and "… Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1562: RIM death-watch starts today (Podcast)

On this week's show, a moment of silence for Dennis Ritchie, the father of the C programming language and co-creator of Unix. Another moment of silence for RIM, and the three-day silence of BlackBerry's email servers. Come ON, RIM. Keep it together! Also, Galaxy Nexus announcement coming Oct. 27? And Facebook wants to own your data for serious--like "it's a trade secret now" serious.

Foursquare turns on Radar for iOS 5 users

Foursquare has launched a new feature, called Radar, that helps iOS 5 users find out what's going on around them.

To get the feature to work, users can start following lists. Based on the focus of a respective list--Foursquare gave "101 Best Dishes of 2011" as an example--the application will find locations or establishments nearby that might relate to it and alert users. The service also lets users know when and where a group of friends might be meeting up nearby.

"The app doesn't even have to be open, it just works," Foursquare wrote in a blog post … Read more

Five Foursquare hacks you need to use

Foursquare held its first-ever global hackathon a few weeks back, with developers and hackers gathering in cities all over the world, including Paris, London, Ottawa, San Francisco, and New York. All of the hackers had one goal in common: create some out-of-the-box idea on top of the Foursquare API. Not only did they accomplish their goal, but some of them even won prizes for doing so. … Read more

How to create and share Foursquare Lists

Recently Foursquare rolled out a new feature that allowed users to create and share a list of recommended venues and tips. Users can then follow that list, or if the creator allows it, they can even contribute to the list themselves. The Lists feature on Foursquare is fun to use, easy to share, and are very simple create. Read on to find out how to make one.