Neer Takes the “Suck” out of Social Geo-Location Apps

January 6, 2011 By

Facebook Places, Gowalla, Foursquare, Britekite, and all of the other social geo-location services suck! Why do they suck? Because they don’t automatically keep track of my location, and because they’re designed to tell everyone where I am.

My dream geo-location app is one that runs in the background and frequently updates my location. It’s also an app that’s crazy about my desire for privacy. It appears that my dream has come true with the debut of Neer for the iPhone 4.

Connect with your Inner Circle

Neer doesn’t try to connect you with all of the assholes you’ve friended on Facebook. Instead, it looks for people they think are related to you – your parents, spouse, siblings, and kids. It then makes it super easy to add them to your Inner Circle.

Neer Inner Circle

Neer makes it easy to set up common locations, like your home and work.

Neer My Places

It then provides alerts letting you know where your connections are.

Neer Alerts

Another nice, simple feature is its ability to tap on a contact, and then call or text them.

Neer Call or Text

There are a few more features I would like to see that would make this the perfect geo-location app. The main one is the ability to notify me when I’m in close proximity to a friend. For example, if I was passing by a coffee shop, and my friend was there, I’d like for Neer to push a message to me, alerting me to their presence. Then I could decide if I wanted to stop by and say hi.

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My Ideal Mobile Social App for iPhone

March 14, 2010 By

I’ve tried every social app for the iPhone (at least the ones with a fighting chance.) I’ve even given some of them multiple chances, because I really wanted them to succeed–Brightkite (iTunes) being one of them. Right now the shining star is Foursquare (iTunes), but I’ve already lost interest in that one too.

I think part of the problem is me. I’m not that social. That’s not to say I don’t have any friends or never go out. It just means I’m in my mid-thirties, I have kids, and I don’t get out that much. If I were a teenager, or single and in my twenties, then mobile social apps might be more appealing to me.

The Perfect Mobile Social App

There’s one huge problem with social apps that affect everyone. You have to manually update them.

Even old anti-social guys like me would use social apps on their mobile devices if we didn’t have to manually update our presence. So with that being said, I probably won’t use a social app again until it can solve the problem of manual updates.

For me, the perfect social app would automatically update my presence to a central server every five minutes or so. The same would be true of my friends. That’s it. That’s what I want, and what’s missing from all of the social apps out there.

There’s a beauty to auto-updates. The main thing is that I don’t have do anything to let others know where I am. But there’s also other advantages. They include:

  1. Automatically pushing a notification to me and my friend if we’re in close proximity to each other
  2. Automatically pushing a notification to me if there’s a person in close proximity to me that I want to avoid
  3. Automatically publishing my location publicly for places I’ve designated

Badges are cute, but I want my lazy problems taken care of first. Once that’s solved, I’ll be back.

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TomTom Navigation for iPhone Made Even Better with Support for “Real Time Traffic”

March 13, 2010 By

I’ve been using the TomTom iPhone App since it was first released and have been very pleased. Life got even better when they finally released the TomTom Car Kit for iPhone (there’s also a TomTom Car Kit for iPod Touch).

There’s a few things that have happened since then. First, the software got cheaper. TomTom for iPhone used to be $99, but it’s now only $69. Not great for me, but great for people who haven’t bought it yet. Second, it’s become much more stable and reliable. They’ve done an excellent job at listening to user feedback and greatly improving the software. The third and most exciting thing is the additional support for real-time traffic.

Real Time Traffic Support on TomTom iPhone App

I commute to work every day, and my drive home is almost always hit or miss. There’s a point in the beginning of my commute back home where I have to decide if I’m going to take the highway or a main off-the-highway route. I’ve tried using Maps on my iPhone to gauge the traffic, but it’s almost always way off!

With the addition of real-time traffic, my TomTom app now provides the best route to my home based on the current traffic conditions. Now I can get home in a reasonable amount of time–or at least take the quickest route each time–which gives me more time to be with my kids, and less time being frustrated in traffic.

Learn more about the TomTom iPhone App.

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“Real” Foursquare Badges

February 16, 2010 By

It was only a matter of time. The merit badges that make Foursquare and unique and fun, have infiltrated real-life. John Young took a picture of a tray-full of them.

Image Source: Foursquare Nerd Merit Badges!!! by tikaro

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iPhone Remote Control for Your TV

January 5, 2010 By

It looks like L5 Technology may have a hit on their hands. They’re releasing a remote control for the iPhone called the L5 Remote. The cost is going to be about $50 when it’s released in February, 2010. It will also come with a free iPhone app.

How Does L5 Remote Work?

Consumers purchase the L5 Remote hardware – an adaptor measuring 1.25 x .85 inches – and plug it into the iPhone or iPod touch docking port. They will then be prompted to download a free app from the iTunes App Store, which allows them to simply drag-and-drop to create their own customized remote control interface. The app will guide them through a short process of programming the app to control the infrared devices.

Using infrared technology, the L5 Remote can control any number of devices in any number of rooms. Consumers can easily set it up to control products in the living room, bedroom, office, or any other location. The L5 Remote will work to a distance of approximately 30 feet.

The L5 Remote is portable and does not require batteries, Wi-Fi or external power to work. The product can control thousands of devices, including TVs, cable boxes, stereos, DVD players, ceiling fans, air conditioners, and many other products.

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iPhone and iTunes Gets Updated

September 10, 2009 By

It was good to see Steve Jobs back on the scene again yesterday. There were several announcements about new iPod updates, most of which didn’t interest me. Funny enough, the two things that did interest me about the new products things that didn’t interest me, had to do with cameras.

The iPod Nano got a video camera and the iPod Touch didn’t. In an interview with Steve Jobs in the New York Times by David Pogue, Jobs explained it’s absence as being related to price and market interest.

…Apple is really pitching the iPod Touch as a game machine these days. And to do that, you have to make it as inexpensive as possible.

“Originally, we weren’t exactly sure how to market the Touch. Was it an iPhone without the phone? Was it a pocket computer? What happened was, what customers told us was, they started to see it as a game machine,” he said. “We started to market it that way, and it just took off. And now what we really see is it’s the lowest-cost way to the App Store, and that’s the big draw. So what we were focused on is just reducing the price to $199. We don’t need to add new stuff. We need to get the price down where everyone can afford it.”

Another interesting thing about the video camera in the iPod Nano is that it can’t take still pictures. Jobs explained that it couldn’t, because of differences in the size of hardware that enable it to take still pictures versus capturing video.

iPhone 3.1

Apple updated the iPhone software from 3.0 to 3.1. The main new features included:

  • Genius is now supported for applications
  • Access to 30,000 ringtones (woop-de-doo!)
  • Voice control now works over Bluetooth
  • Keeps original copies of videos after editing

iTunes 9

iTunes experienced an upgrade. Overall, I like the new polished look and features. The main new featured included:

  • Manage your screens for iPhone
  • Support for new multimedia enhancements for albums
  • Tweaks galore!

Of course it also included one more new feature, breaking the Palm Pre syncing. Haha, suckers! Oh, and the other suckers are iPod Touch owners, who still have to pay for the iPhone 3.1 update.

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