Thanks to the ever steady growth of social networking, savvy users are keen to use specialist services. While those seeking work may look to LinkedIn, foodie types can revel in the wonders of DishPal.
DishPal allows users to share dishes and ideas with friends and other food fans, all from within the app. Offering Facebook style commenting services along with photo uploading capabilities, DishPal goes one step further with the ability to participate in themed parties in which people can share their preferences and tastes while learning new ideas connected to the theme. Tagging functionality also aids users in discovering new ways to cook and new friends.
Also offered is a magazine section that can be customized according to the user’s tastes, comprising of exactly what they enjoy most in the food world.
It’s all tantalizingly attractive and a great way to share new recipe ideas and creations.
Regardless of the location, there’s bound to be something interesting going on somewhere. AroundNow seeks to provide an easy way of seeing exactly what’s going on locally at any time.
Using Twitter as a notification system, AroundNow offers news of interest depending on the area the user happens to reside in at the time. That news can range from all manners of things from entertainment events such as concerts or celebrity spottings to parties or demonstrations. Traffic information such as road works or traffic jams can also be provided as well as something as regular as a good sale in a local store.
As it’s partly a social networking app, AroundNow relies upon user participation to truly be great but it’s an excellent idea. In a busy and bustling city, it’s easy to miss out on something exciting so this app could be the ideal way to get involved in local events.
Being on trend is very important business for the fashion conscious. This is where Luster has iOS users covered. It’s an app that makes browsing through the newest, most lusted after and nearest fashion finds wherever the user is.
Using an interactive map, users can see precisely what’s trending in their area and even browse through local boutiques to see what they offer. Users can search according to brand, piece or even occasion, resulting in the ability to save a compilation of things that interest.
Somewhat like a social networking tool, the user can even follow other fashion fans whose interests and loves most closely match theirs. They can even take photos of the different outfits and share likes and comments about them.
It’s an ideal companion app for those keen to know what’s popular near them at any given time.
As part of Luster‘s launch, there’s also a competition. To enter, users must take a photo of a fashion find they love and tag it with the relevant store and #fw hashtag. The person whose photo has the most Lusts from other users on the app by February 27th, will win the item in their winning picture up to a value of $1000! Not too shabby at all.
2nd and 3rd place photos win items up to a value of $500. Full details are available on the Luster website.
Recently, Facebook users will have noticed the introduction of the Timeline feature which, amongst other things, adds a huge graphical banner across the top of someone’s profile page. It allows artistic types to add a banner that depicts themselves or a major interest of theirs.
Facebook Cover Designer is an app that makes it all the easier to implement. Offering a selection of filters and the ability to rotate, zoom in/out, shift or tilt, users can create an attractive Timeline cover and then publish it directly to their Facebook profile all from this one app.
Users can either take a photo directly or use one from the camera roll, Facebook, Picasa, Flickr, Photobucket or Instagram.
It’s all extremely easy to get to grips with and great results are achieved in hardly any time at all.
Facebook Cover Designer is available for free and there’s the option to unlock pro mode for $0.99 which provides more filters.
Posted December 30th, 2011 by Keri Honea Our Rating: :: KING OF CHECK-IN APPS
CheckIn+ HD allows you to check-in with Foursquare and Facebook Places at the same time, all while showing you where your friends from both networks have checked in recently as well as local mayorships.
Having been in a long distance relationship, I know how tough it is to maintain regular contact and intimacy with a significant other. It’s apps like Cupple that could go some way to ensuring that couples always feel close to each other.
Cupple is a private social networking app aimed specifically at two people in a relationship. It allows users to share various details just between the two of them such as galleries of photos, private messages and even locations so that each person knows where the other person is. In each case, images or notes can be added for the personal touch.
The key thing is that it encourages intimacy. It’s the kind of app that’s particularly ideal for the couple who have to frequently travel for work but still want to keep in regular contact, even if it’s simply to say they saw something and thought of the other person.
Cupple is a free to download app and is available now.
We’ve all seen countless check in type apps like FourSquare and Facebook‘s built in functionality but that doesn’t stop developers devising new ways of adding extra features to such a simple concept. This is precisely what’s happened with Clingle.
Clingle offers all the check in functionality anyone would expect but on top of that, it offers the ability to take photos, add video footage and even discover great deals and discounts in the local area. Users can leave surprise messages for friends to receive when they reach the relevant position. The chance to earn real life goodies in the form of the Clingle store is also available soon for those in India and USA.
While some of it might sound a lot like Foursquare, it’s the interactivity such as adding video and iTunes audio that makes all the difference. Who can resist leaving a video message for friends, after all?
Give Clingle a shot today. It’s free for all iOS devices.
I’ve never really been one for direct competition. I tend to prefer working with a team as opposed to fighting against other people, it’s just how I operate I suppose. But even I have to admit Spin Island might be on to something here. Their new app, iBeatThat, is something akin to a social networking YouTube hybrid with a decidedly “Top that!” vibe. Competitive types (read: normal people) will no doubt eat this stuff up.
The overall premise is simple: users pick a “real world activity” such as snowboarding, basketball, etc… and take a video of themselves doing something impressive in that category. Once that’s done, they can upload the clip through the app and see what happens. Which is to say, other users can view the video and rate it or even attempt to one-up the feat and see what the community thinks of their own attempt. They can also issue direct challenges to people on their friends list.
Would-be daredevils or “physical activity” enthusiasts will no doubt get plenty of use out of iBeatThat. And they can give it a spin right now for free. Just remember to play it safe, folks. Don’t go getting seriously injured out there for the sake of fleeting notoriety.
I don’t have children of my own but having spent plenty of time around my young cousins as they vie for increasing amounts of independence, I can see one such difficulty that parents face. It’s not just the independence of going out by themselves that’s the problem either. They want to sign up to Facebook and Twitter despite being too young to go on either, all thanks to the wonders of peer pressure.
I’mOK might not entirely solve all these arguments but it does do its darndest to minimize problems. The app is part social network, just for the privileged few and part way of parents keeping an eye on where their kids are going when they’re out. It’s not done covertly though, instead it encourages kids to share their lives more with their long suffering parents.
Kids can voluntarily share their location with parents in order to earn points which eventually lead to rewards, previously approved by the guardian. Nothing is done passively so it’s all done by the hopefully responsible child that’s keen to show off how trustworthy they are. It also means that parents can worry less, knowing that their kid will check in with them at the touch of a button.
I’mOK is a free app so well worth a look for any concerned parents or kids keen to show off how responsible they truly can be.
Gogobot, the useful social-networking travel website, has just released Gogobot, a useful social-networking iPhone app. It’s less confusing than it sounds. Trust me.
The website allows users to chronicle their travels throughout the world and post questions for recommendations on where to eat, stay, etc… Other users can then make their own recommendations, which are automatically linked to database entries with images, addresses and contact information. The app allows users to access their trip plans, check for recommendations, write up their own reviews for a location on-the-spot and even create their own digital postcards to commemorate their travels. The only feature that really seems absent is the ability to post recommendations for other users, but on-the-spot reviews will be saved to their account to be used later if need be.
Given the sheer amount of useful applications, the whole “make a postcard” thing seems almost quaint by comparison. That’s not to say it’s not a neat idea, though. I can imagine it would save a lot on postage. Additionally, their look can be customized somewhat, and who doesn’t enjoy creating nifty looking photo-things to send to friends and family?
Anyone who travels or plans to do any traveling should take a look at Gogobot. It’s totally free, and it’s in the App Store right now.
What’s the best way of knowing how to travel around an area? A satnav app like TomTom? That would be an easy thing to assume but it’s actually the wrong answer. The best way to explore anywhere is via local knowledge, right down to knowing where the regular traffic hotspots are or a new set of roadworks, recently installed in the area.
Waze has done a pretty good job in the past of providing social mobile navigation that combines gaming and crowd-sourcing in order to provide real-time, live maps and data. We already covered how useful Waze was last year, but it’s now even better thanks to a significant update in the form of 3.0.
Waze 3.0 has had its entire UI redesigned in order to implement a new and more minimalist interface. Two large buttons form the focus for much of the app, ensuring it’s easy to use. It’s also pretty glorious to look at with cutesy logos making for a much more attractive appearance than what we all know and are used to with navigational apps.
A new search engine means that Waze is fully integrated with Yelp, Foursquare and Bing. This means it’s easy for users to search for, navigate to and check-in at numerous destinations they might not have already known about. Such functionality makes for exciting developments such as real-time POIs (Points of Interest) such as the recent OccupyWallStreet protests and other similar fast moving events.
A wall type communication system has been added to Waze Groups, enabling users to chat with others in the area. A Waze mood feature provides more social networking fun, also.
Full text to speech functionality has been added for US and Canadian users along with other minor but ever useful changes such as the speed boost that Waze has profited from.
All these features put together means that Waze is now a pretty intelligent and worthwhile alternative to other Sat Nav products, even more so given the fact that it costs absolutely nothing to download!
Knowledge is power so they say. Excluding huge wealth, I suspect the elusive ‘they’ are right. Quora won’t provide great financial fortunes (probably) but it will provide plenty of knowledge.
Providing a neat combination of social networking and knowledge, Quora allows users to ask people questions as well as answer other people’s queries. Over 60,000 topics are covered enabling users to search through thousands of different location based topics as well as anything else that may grip them.
Kind of like Wikipedia, it opens up a huge breadth of knowledge on everything from current affair issues to simply asking people what it’s like to be in their chosen career field. Users could even use it for relationship advice or tourism information for a specific area. It’s a fascinating insight into just how much knowledge each and every person may have. An instant reminder that everyone is knowledgeable about something, even if they don’t yet realise it.
Quora is a free app so why not give it a shot today? It makes an entertaining change from the likes of Wikipedia.
It’s nice to have an active and busy social life. It’s not always easy to keep track of where and when such activities are going to happen though. While such information could just be added as a text entry, Doweet can make things much simpler to consult.
It’s an app that promises to revolutionize the way that its users do things together. While the jury’s still out on that one, it does look pretty useful fr those looking to play nights out or parties. Users can create activities for them and their friends then share them privately ensuring that people can hook up via the app and plan ahead. It sounds kind of like the Facebook event system but in a more casual and quicker way rather than being restricted to logging into Facebook.
Once users are together within one of these activities, they can then chat about the event and presumably plan further details. Nosey friends can also check out the real time social activities stream to see what others are up to at any time which could stimulate some conversations.
Doweet looks quite cool for the social iOS user taking out all the hassle of planning. It’s available now and it’s free.
Arriving on the App Store today is a clever combination of trusty local business search engine Yelp and people’s experiences of such businesses.
Jollyspot promises to make it easy to remember and share favourite places. Users can find the best hotels, restaurants, bars, cafes, shops, spas and more anywhere in the world all through trusted recommendations from friends who have already used such services. Further advice can then be offered via a notes system that allows users to add information such as the best meal, best time to visit a bar or other useful insider knowledge.
It’s a simple concept but potentially highly effective. There’s no gamification of social features like with Foursquare and other social apps, it’s all about the best places as chosen by regular people/friends. The friends element means the information is guaranteed to be pretty reliable making Jollyspot surely the first port of call for the scoop on the best places to visit.
Itchy feet? I know the feeling well and it’s not because of poor personal hygiene. Sometimes it’s just nice to get away from it all and discover new lands and cultures. It’s not always as simple as that though which gives an app like TripColor a dual purpose.
For those unable to travel, it’s an app that enables users to browse the blogs of people already on their journeys. Glorious photos can be added to keep everything about the app attractive to look at while a location function means it’s easy to see the path a traveller has taken. Users can browse a variety of different travel blogs but the real benefit stems from keeping track of a friend or family member who’s going on a trip of a lifetime.
That’s where the other purpose comes into play. For the user who’s planning a journey away, not only can they show others their journey but they can keep a diary of all their adventures to look back on at a later date. It’s a pretty neat idea and clearly more fun than using an all purpose blogging tool, with the added benefit of being able to blog without an internet connection.
At the grand price of nothing, this is surely the ideal time to give a different kind of social blogging app a try?
Thanks to the internet, everything is very public nowadays. Privacy to an extent is dead for anyone who uses one of countless social networks. Tweet regularly and your life is out there. Even have a Facebook account that’s heavily restricted and there’s still the chance of it all coming out. Throw in a plethora of location aware social networks such as Foursquare and any random member of the public can have their life opened up as much as a major celebrity.
Not everyone wants that though. Sure it’s nice to be able to have a corner of the web to share with close friends, family or work colleagues but how to make sure that only the selected people can see anything? How about an app like Glassboard?
It’s an app that allows users to share things privately with groups of people, or boards as the app prefers to call them. Users can message a group of people quickly and easily in a format that looks like an SMS text message but it isn’t. Text isn’t the only restriction either with the ability to share photos and videos amongst this elite group. Even locations can be shared, potentially making it useful to arrange family gatherings. Suddenly, everyone can keep track of how far away people are from the meeting place. A notification system keeps everyone up to date on any situation whether it be a team meeting, social gathering or simply a work issue being discussed.
Security is tight here with only the board chairman or group leader able to invite people to the group. Users can’t even search for different boards ensuring there’s absolutely no chance of anyone stumbling across anything.
For the privacy conscious user, Glassboard is the ideal solution ensuring that they get a taste of social networking without the potential security issues.
Football season is about to be upon us! This is opposed to football news season, where young men playing a dangerous game for well below market value are scolded for being caught taking extra money or selling their awards, and where billionaires argue with millionaires about how they should properly divide pennies amongst themselves. No, the time for actual gridiron-crunching football is just about on us! OneLouder, developers of TweetCaster, have introduced a new kind of Twitter app to help football fans take in all the analysis, commentary, and even the snark that is posted on Twitter about their favorite sport.
SportCaster offers 5 sections for users to explore: Conversation, where users can get the latest tweets from analysts, experts, and athletes, and filter by specific terms to focus on specific comments. By default, general experts are listed, though users can also add experts and fans for specific teams as well. There’s a scoreboard view to keep abreast on all the latest scores, and can click on a specific game to get the latest tweets from experts on both teams. The Schedule view allows users to look in advance at teams’ games, and to view the chatter about the two teams. Standings is just a basic view of the recent standings and rankings of each league. Finally, there’s a Fantasy section, where users can search for information and advice that will help benefit their fantasy football teams.
This isn’t just an app for tweet consumption without contribution, though. Twitter is all about conversation, and sharing, so SportCaster includes options to reply and retweet tweets discovered in the app. Right now, SportCaster only supports pro and college football, but over the next year as the other pro and college leagues start up, they will be added to the app as well. SportCaster is available now for iOS and for Android.
Sometimes it’s the simplest things that are the coolest. That’s exactly what the new Facebook based app Profiles is trying to be.
It’s an app that focuses entirely on the user’s friends. It lays out all of the user’s friends’ profiles as a mosaic of images. It makes for a simple yet intriguing collection of images. A brighter person than I would probably call it a rich tapestry of someone’s life as friends certainly make life all the richer. Once the mosaic has been created, it can then be saved to the iOS device to be used as wallpaper, printed or anything else that might come to mind.
That’s not all there is to Profiles as the user can then simply tap on a person’s photo to view their recent statuses and updates just like a regular Facebook app.
There’s no denying that Profiles is a simple app but it does make for an interesting one. Considering it’s free to download, it’s definitely worth a look. Hopefully more features will be added in the future.
Somewhat similar to Liquid Fare comes DrinkedIn, an app more focused on the drinking experience than meeting new people.
DrinkedIn offers a similar GPS based experience with users able to find bars dependent on their location, however it’s the addition of the bar or pub reviews that make it useful. Much like a Social Networking app, DrinkedIn gives its users the chance to post pictures of them and their friends at a bar or write up a blog entry about it. There’s even the potential for discussion with forums available within the app.
DrinkedIn already has listings of over 150,000 bars across the US, UK, Brazil, China and the rest of the world so there should be something for everyone. Future updates are promised which will include listings and reviews of different types of alcohol.
For those looking for a different kind of drinking experience, DrinkedIn could quickly become an essential app. It’s out now and it’s free.
Casting an evolutionary spin on the world of social networking comes igobubble. It’s a social networking app all about bubbles. Well, not exactly bubbles, more like the person using the app, but it does so by providing everything in a series of bubbles.
Users can put thoughts, messages, photos, videos and everything else they can imagine and put it into a bubble. Much more interactive elements than in other social networking apps are then offered. Anybody can change such bubbles, move them, clone them or spread them around the app’s world of sorts. The bubbles even have lives of their own with the ability to grow, shrink, divide or even pop if they’re not popular enough. Plus users can keep track of how they travel, according to how popular they become.
It’s an intriguing idea and feels much more interactive and fluid than the potentially staid interface of the likes of Facebook and Twitter. This is a social network that concentrates more on growth and viral spreading with a Darwinian style twist. Whether it takes off is anybody’s guess but it’s certainly worth a look, if nothing else but to see the ingenuity behind it.
I must admit, the existence of Localmind is something I wasn’t even aware of until recently. Now I’m wondering why that is, since it’s a rather ingenious app. Utilizing an iOS device’s GPS in order to let users ask and answer questions about various destinations in their area seems like the kind of thing that’s both ahead of its time and has been a long time coming. It’s odd that it’s taken so long, I know.
So recently Localmind (the developer) released a new update for Localmind (the app) which includes a slew of new things. A number of them are being touted as mostly unnoticeable but still important (i.e. small tweaks and such). However, there are also a trio of specific additions that users have been clamoring for.
First, users can now use photos to answer questions which can provide some (I would imagine) very handy visual aids, such as an honest look at how long a line might be. Second, it’s now possible to answer past questions and those that have already been answered, adding a second (or third, or fourth, etc.) impression. Third, and perhaps most puzzling for a “Top 3 Requested Features” feature, is the ability to turn off the anonymous feature and use a real name and/or portrait. I’m not entirely sure about how essential that last one is, but I can certainly see how the other two options can be handy.
Localmind is the kind of app that can certainly be useful to just about anyone on certain occasions, such as when going to the movies or heading off to the airport. Folks such as myself in major metropolitan areas will no doubt get even more use out of it. Regardless, anyone who leaves the house every now and then would do well to check this out. Especially given the increased usefulness with this update.
There’s a lot to take in online isn’t there? Every day more and more information, whether it be useful new Wikipedia entries or funny and entertaining videos, emerges on the internet. Things can get a little overwhelming. As is fortunately the way, there’s an app to help tame it all. At least on the video side of things.
Shufflr promises that videos will find the user. It’s not quite as stalkerish as that, fortunately, but it does offer a way for users to quickly see what videos their friends are sharing on Twitter. They can also discover other people with similar tastes – whether that be complex political narratives or cute cats doing silly things. Plus there’s the all important personalized video recommendations and the ability to check out trending videos quickly.
For the video fan, Shufflr looks to be an ideal solution to missing out on all the latest and greatest without taking too long to find such things.
Kids want to participate in social networking as much as everyone else. After all, it’s fun. For young children though, it’s not always as safe as it should be on the likes of Facebook and other social networking tools hence the age limit that’s put in place. While parents can take the option of creating a heavily secured account and monitor their every move, a more fun alternative is something like Vikido.
It’s an app that allows kids to create audio, video or picture based content that can then be shared instantly with their parents. The parents can then choose exactly who gets to view such work. Close contacts from a limited list is possible or it can be shared via Facebook. Ultimately, it’s an app that allows kids freedom but adults the ability to protect their offspring.
Besides the publishing side of things, parents can also choose to ‘love’ rather than ‘like’ the creations and comment on things too.
Vikido looks like a halfway house towards allowing children to use more comprehensive social networking tools, and could be a great way of testing the water so to speak while keeping everyone happy.
It’s out now and it’s everyone’s favorite price: free.
Thanks to the ever steady growth of social networking, savvy users are keen to use specialist services. While those seeking work may look to LinkedIn, foodie types can revel in the wonders of DishPal. 
:: WELL-BUILT MACHINE
Regardless of the location, there’s bound to be something interesting going on somewhere. AroundNow seeks to provide an easy way of seeing exactly what’s going on locally at any time. 
Being on trend is very important business for the fashion conscious. This is where Luster has iOS users covered. It’s an app that makes browsing through the newest, most lusted after and nearest fashion finds wherever the user is. 
:: USEFUL
Recently, Facebook users will have noticed the introduction of the Timeline feature which, amongst other things, adds a huge graphical banner across the top of someone’s profile page. It allows artistic types to add a banner that depicts themselves or a major interest of theirs.
Having been in a long distance relationship, I know how tough it is to maintain regular contact and intimacy with a significant other. It’s apps like Cupple that could go some way to ensuring that couples always feel close to each other.
We’ve all seen countless check in type apps like 
I’ve never really been one for direct competition. I tend to prefer working with a team as opposed to fighting against other people, it’s just how I operate I suppose. But even I have to admit 
I don’t have children of my own but having spent plenty of time around my young cousins as they vie for increasing amounts of independence, I can see one such difficulty that parents face. It’s not just the independence of going out by themselves that’s the problem either. They want to sign up to Facebook and Twitter despite being too young to go on either, all thanks to the wonders of peer pressure.
Gogobot, the useful social-networking travel website, has just released 
Waze has done a pretty good job in the past of providing social mobile navigation that combines gaming and crowd-sourcing in order to provide real-time, live maps and data. We 
Knowledge is power so they say. Excluding huge wealth, I suspect the elusive ‘they’ are right. Quora won’t provide great financial fortunes (probably) but it will provide plenty of knowledge.
It’s nice to have an active and busy social life. It’s not always easy to keep track of where and when such activities are going to happen though. While such information could just be added as a text entry, Doweet can make things much simpler to consult.
Jollyspot promises to make it easy to remember and share favourite places. Users can find the best hotels, restaurants, bars, cafes, shops, spas and more anywhere in the world all through trusted recommendations from friends who have already used such services. Further advice can then be offered via a notes system that allows users to add information such as the best meal, best time to visit a bar or other useful insider knowledge. 
For those unable to travel, it’s an app that enables users to browse the blogs of people already on their journeys. Glorious photos can be added to keep everything about the app attractive to look at while a location function means it’s easy to see the path a traveller has taken. Users can browse a variety of different travel blogs but the real benefit stems from keeping track of a friend or family member who’s going on a trip of a lifetime.
Not everyone wants that though. Sure it’s nice to be able to have a corner of the web to share with close friends, family or work colleagues but how to make sure that only the selected people can see anything? How about an app like Glassboard? 
Football season is about to be upon us! This is opposed to football news season, where young men playing a dangerous game for well below market value are scolded for being caught taking extra money or selling their awards, and where billionaires argue with millionaires about how they should properly divide pennies amongst themselves. No, the time for actual gridiron-crunching football is just about on us! OneLouder, developers of TweetCaster, have introduced a new kind of Twitter app to help football fans take in all the analysis, commentary, and even the snark that is posted on Twitter about their favorite sport.
Sometimes it’s the simplest things that are the coolest. That’s exactly what the new Facebook based app Profiles is trying to be.
Somewhat similar to 
Users can put thoughts, messages, photos, videos and everything else they can imagine and put it into a bubble. Much more interactive elements than in other social networking apps are then offered. Anybody can change such bubbles, move them, clone them or spread them around the app’s world of sorts. The bubbles even have lives of their own with the ability to grow, shrink, divide or even pop if they’re not popular enough. Plus users can keep track of how they travel, according to how popular they become. 
I must admit, the existence of Localmind is something I wasn’t even aware of until recently. Now I’m wondering why that is, since it’s a rather ingenious app. Utilizing an iOS device’s GPS in order to let users ask and answer questions about various destinations in their area seems like the kind of thing that’s both ahead of its time and has been a long time coming. It’s odd that it’s taken so long, I know.
There’s a lot to take in online isn’t there? Every day more and more information, whether it be useful new Wikipedia entries or funny and entertaining videos, emerges on the internet. Things can get a little overwhelming. As is fortunately the way, there’s an app to help tame it all. At least on the video side of things.
Kids want to participate in social networking as much as everyone else. After all, it’s fun. For young children though, it’s not always as safe as it should be on the likes of Facebook and other social networking tools hence the age limit that’s put in place. While parents can take the option of creating a heavily secured account and monitor their every move, a more fun alternative is something like Vikido. 
