Square, the mobile payment acceptance tool, is getting a lot more useful for merchants with version 2.2, which brings loyalty rewards for Square Card Case users, hardware integration with cash drawers and receipt printers and more back-end tools. The new app, which is debuting Tuesday on iOS and Android , continues the momentum for Square, which is now up to 800,000 customers using the app since launching last year. With Square 2.2, merchants who integrate with Square’s mobile wallet app Card Case, will be able to now identify and reward loyal users. They can set rewards based on a number of visits or a total amount spent at the business, and when the customer reaches that mark, the merchant can apply a discount to their purchase. It could be something like a 50 percent off discount or a free item. Merchants can tell a customer of the deal when they order and the discount will be noted in a user’s Card Case app. I just talked with Megan Quinn, Square’s director of products earlier this month about the hands-free payments for Card Case users and I mentioned that there still needed to be a way to reward regular users. Little did I know Square was working on that feature. Quinn said it’s all part of trying to improve the experience between merchant and customers, to turn their interactions into less of a transaction and more of a conversation that builds loyalty over time. “Meaningful sustained loyalty happens when people visit places where they have a great experience and feel comfortable. We want to turn customers who walk in once into someone who walks in every day,” Quinn said. This underscores what Square founder Jack Dorsey said at GigaOM’s Roadmap conference last week about how technology tools like Square can highlight and strengthen our Read More
You can see all recent activity on multiple conversations in the Boards tab. Updated: Group messaging and conversation apps are everywhere these days, and it seems barely a day goes by before we hear about another major player trying to get in the game, like Skype with its GroupMe acquisition. But despite all the competition, a new entrant with a less-is-more approach and emphasis on privacy might be just what some users (particularly those in business) are looking for. That’s exactly what the new iPhone app Glassboard offers. Glassboard is the latest from Mac and iOS developer Sepia Labs, run by Brian Brent Simmons, the guy who created popular RSS reader NetNewsWire and desktop blogging tool MarsEdit. The new app is, as mentioned, designed around group messaging with a special focus on privacy. Users of the app create boards to which they can add users via email invites. Glassboard doesn’t plug into any of your social networks, and the only person who can add members to a board is the board’s original creator. Finding and viewing boards is impossible unless you’re a member, and any content shared won’t be indexed for search. Board creators also have the power to revoke membership and delete boards instead of just leaving the conversation, something that isn’t an option with other messaging apps like Google+’s Huddle, for example. Threaded replies and likes for messages within conversations is a nice advantage for Glassboard. Glassboard also has some nice usability advantages over its competitors, including the ability to assign a picture to each board in order to make it much easier to see at a glance which is which. You can also share images in conversations, as well as text, video and location data, and each message posted can be liked or replied to directly via commenting. Read More
RunKeeper Pro was one of the top 10 grossing iPhone fitness apps of 2010 when the company tried something new for the new year. It dropped its $9.99 price tag for the month of January, then made it permanently free last week. The decision made RunKeeper another high-profile app to adopt the freemium model, but it signals a bigger shift for the company as it moves beyond its roots as a running app and branches out to a wider audience across a multitude of devices. I talked with FitnessKeeper CEO and founder Jason Jacobs, who said the Boston company is becoming more of a fitness system and platform that reaches across more devices and attracts users beyond the hardcore running set. The company has a packed year ahead as it releases an API, improves and broadens its experience and looks to tackle other non-running activities. The key for RunKeeper’s ambitions has been opening up the audience of the service. That’s why the company went free, to appeal to users who didn’t buy the app. The move has paid off handsomely. Jacobs said RunKeeper is poised to hit 5 million users this month, compared to 2 million at the start of the year. After a big spike of one million downloads in the first week of January, new users are still up five times since going free. Interestingly, RunKeeper’s premium $20-a-year Elite service has also seen a three-fold increase in purchases, though Jacobs said, overall, the company is seeing less immediate revenue than prior to the switch. The company is now looking to broaden the number of devices that can connect to RunKeeper online. It supports iPhone and Android apps, heart monitors, scales and watches. But with a new API due out in the first part of this year, RunKeeper is hoping to create Read More
This week, usage statistics released for November indicated Android may be slowing down somewhat, with ad impressions tallied by Millenial Media showing iOS and Android tied at 38 percent of all ad impressions on the network. The two platforms have been running neck and neck for ad impressions for a while, but the latest numbers show Android’s growth has leveled off. Android has grown from 14 percent of usage on Millenial’s network since March, but only increased one percent in the month of November. Android ad impressions may be leveling off, but other revenue avenues are ramping up, as recent quarterly revenue numbers from London/Tel Aviv based fring show support for Android has been a solid performer. Company representatives stated that fring for Android is bringing in $10,000 per day from voice and video calls using the Android app. Android now counts for a third of the app’s installed base, attributed to the increasing number of phones with front-facing cameras for video calling. The folks at fring expect to double revenue in the first quarter of 2011. LogMeIn Ignition is an Android app for remotely controlling Mac and Windows systems from a smartphone, and an update is coming to extend that capability to the tablet. We got an advance copy of the upgrade — which will be free to existing LogMeIn customers — and gave it a whirl on the popular Samsung Galaxy Tab. LogMeIn Ignition effectively turns an Android device into a Mac or Windows PC by displaying the remote system’s desktop on the tablet screen. Users interact with the remote system by touch on the Android device, turning any Windows PC or Mac into a touch computer. The app is popular with technical support folks who use remote control to service client systems. Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub Read More
Consumers armed with smartphones are invading retail outlets, relying on connected handsets to find both the best prices and the products most recommended by their friends. Of the $447 billion that U.S. shoppers will spend this holiday season, $127 billion of that retail spend will be influenced by mobile apps, so we are rounding up some of the best mobile shopping apps to help you shop a little smarter. Here’s a list of seven useful shopping apps for smartphones this season: (iOS). As the king of online retailers, Amazon has a wealth of pricing data that consumers tap into for comparison purposes in a brick-and-mortar store. Amazon’s newest app uses the iPhone’s camera to scan the barcode of a product so you don’t have to waste time typing. After snapping the barcode, Amazon’s app returns both its own price as well as prices from other online merchants. You can also capture an image of any product or speak the name of it if there’s no barcode to scan; Amazon will look for the product in either case. (Android, iOS). Similar to Amazon’s Price Check app, ShopSavvy is used for scanning product barcodes and finding the best online prices. But the app goes one step further by showing local retailers on a map and their prices too. The map is interactive, so if ShopSavvy shows a local store with the best price, one tap of the location will get you driving directions to the store. The app also taps into your social graph and online product wishlists to spotlight the best deals on items of interest. (iOS). This app may not look visually stunning, but it makes up for that by providing utility. Gift List does what it’s name suggests: helps you create and manage gift lists for your friends, family and co-workers. Read More
The Samsung Galaxy Tab is the first Android tablet to make a serious run at the iPad, and with Angry Birds now on Android, the question is: How well does the game run on the Tab? The answer is in this video, which shows bird flinging in glorious hi-res. WARNING: If you are one of the millions addicted to Angry Birds, do not watch this video. It may cost you hundreds of dollars. Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d): Read More
MyCityWay, a local city guide app, may look like a roll-up of a lot of other services; there’s dining, nightlife, deals, movie showtime information and more. But what makes the New York startup interesting is that it’s managed to pair a lot of that familiar information with government data that creates a very sticky resource for users, who have downloaded the app and its local versions 1 million times after it launched almost one year ago. It’s a great example of the potential for big data companies to mine overlooked data sets and turn them into viable consumer businesses. MyCityWay, which is available free on iOS, Android, and the Blackberry Torch,, turns to government data for only about 20 percent of the information in its different city apps, which are a collection of dozens of mini-apps. From that often unsexy data, the company is able to mine for important things like transit alerts, safety and recycling information, and traffic cameras feeds while also creating government resource mini-apps. One of the most popular features has been restaurant inspection reports. The municipal data is packaged with content filled out by partners such as Booking.com, Movietickets.com and OpenTable in some cities and firsthand work by MyCityWay, which has built its own databases of information about restaurants, bars, nightlife and other categories. The NYC Way app features street food carts and a listing for the changing color patterns on the Empire State Building. By marrying interesting data with government information, MyCityWay has built a guide for locals and visitors that tells people what they want and what they need. The idea began with an idea by founders Sonpreet Bhatia, Archana Patchirajan and Puneet Mehta, all former Wall Street executives who grew frustrated at the inability to find a comprehensive local resource for information. So the three collaborated on MyCityWay and Read More
You can “check in” to locations in the real world with your phone; now Meebo wants to bring the same idea to the web. The company, which offers a sharing toolbar that lets users connect to social networks while they surf, is launching a new version that allows them to check in to any site that offers the Meebo bar, and also allows them to follow other users and see what websites they are visiting. Available as a browser extension as of Tuesday, the company said the new features will be rolled out to all sites using the toolbar by mid-December. Meebo’s existing toolbar sits at the bottom of a website — much like other toolbars that can be downloaded and installed by users — but the Meebo bar is added by individual website publishers — including TMZ, Justin.tv and Entertainment Weekly — through a few lines of JavaScript. Users can log into — or create — a Meebo account that connects to their Facebook, Twitter and various instant messenger accounts, then share a link to the site via the toolbar, or even drag and drop individual elements of the page (images, videos, etc.) onto the bar in order to share them with friends. Meebo founder and CEO Seth Sternberg says the company heard from users that many wanted to know what sites their friends were visiting, but didn’t necessarily get that kind of information from Facebook. “On Facebook, they can see what sites their friends were looking at last night, but not the sites they’re on right now,” he said. So the startup decided to build the ability to “check in” and tell others where you are as you surf, as well as a “follow” function (following another user means that that you get to see their check-ins at the Read More
Opera signaled it’s ready to do battle in the browser wars on Android with a release of Opera Mobile, its full browser. The release of Opera Mobile 10.1 beta follows up on the launch of Opera Mini on Android in July and brings a number of features that should help it compete in an increasingly crowded space. Opera Mobile will bring an extra boost of speed via Opera Turbo, pinch-to-zoom, speed dialing, geo-location support, bookmark syncing on multiple devices, tabbed bookmarks and long-click menus. You can render pages locally for more clarity of if you use Turbo Boost, you can have Opera’s servers compress the data and speed it to you faster. The app can be downloaded here. This is Opera’s chance to really compete on Android. The Mini launch was nice but it didn’t bring the feature set of Opera, which is necessary to compete against Firefox, Dolphin Browser HD, Skyfire and the stock Android browser. Kevin liked Opera Mini back in July saying it was fast and data efficient but he found the rendering and zooming a little dated. Opera Mobile aims to build off the success of Mini while improving some of the look and feel. So far, it looks like the zooming is better though the rendering of images can be a little pixelated at first. One thing Opera Mobile doesn’t offer right now is Flash support, which is reportedly coming in a future release. Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d): Read More
StumbleUpon is about to take its web recommendation savvy and apply it to mobile apps for the first time. The service, which builds personal recommendations for users who want to find web content, is now launching an app discovery feature for Android apps. The beta feature will be included in StumbleUpon’s updated Android app, which was released in August along with an iPhone app. Android users will not only get recommendations on good web mobile content, but will now get suggestions on apps based on their tastes and preferences. StumbleUpon will look at a user’s profile and their current collection of apps and come up with a list of apps that other similar users have downloaded. StumbleUpon considers the popularity of apps and also looks for apps that are usually downloaded in combination with others. Garrett Camp, StumbleUpon’s CEO and co-founder, said Android is ripe for such a solution because the Android Market is not well-organized for users who want to do more than keyword searches. “I don’t think they’ve put as much effort into the store,” Camp said. “It’s not very personalized yet.” Camp said Android was not only more in need of a solution compared to other platforms, but it was also faster to develop on Android: both the actual building and the approval process. The app discovery feature took one month to create, Camp said. An iOS version is in the works, but there’s no time frame for when it will be available. App discovery in general still needs a lot of work, although Apple has done better than most in helping people find apps. But the lingering difficulty has given rise to third-party providers like Chomp, Appsfire, and AppsHQ, who try to make the discovery of apps easier and more social. The bigger question for StumbleUpon was what took so long Read More
