Facebook is reportedly on the verge of acquiring the social-activity site Hot Potato, and the deal is another sign that the social networking giant plans to roll out a check-in service which could compete against Foursquare, Gowalla and others. TechCrunch is reporting the deal will be for about $10 million, which isn’t much in the tech space and makes the deal seem more like a talent acquisition than a real tech acquisition. Hot Potato does have an Apple iPhone app which allows check ins, as well as the ability to share other content. If and when the deal is completed, it should bolster Facebook’s efforts to get into the location-based service game with a check-in system. I actually expected Facebook to roll this out a few months ago at its developer conference and early information suggests it will involve a “Places” tab in the mobile version and apps. You’ll reportedly be Read More

...Potato Media, Inc. - Hot Potato Mobile - http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/hot-potato-mobile/id339932692?mt=8 #iTunes... Read More

When Hot Potato launched at our Realtime Crunchup last November it was already a solid app. Then came a new version in March (just before SXSW), and it was even better. Today brings version 2.0 — and it’s the best yet. And it’s also different. When it first launched, Hot Potato was basically an iPhone app that let you build a social stream around events happening at any given moment. Right before SXSW, the newer version of the app added killer Foursquare integration, and tied everything together with the service’s website. The update today shifts the focus away from events, and makes it about all kinds of activities. Really, anything in the world you may be doing, you can now “check-in” while you’re doing it on Hot Potato. It’s actually pretty cool. When you load up the app, you’re taken to a screen with six default prompts for what you may Read More

Back in November of last year, the location-based social event service Hot Potato launched at our Realtime CrunchUp. Today, they’ve taken what was a solid service, and made it a lot better with a number of upgrades. First and foremost, there is a new iPhone application that just went live in the App Store. With a completely revamped user interface, the app makes it easier than ever to find and participate in events. Perhaps more importantly, it makes it really easy to create new events — and notably, the service has the nicest third-party Foursquare integration I’ve ever seen. When you click on the button to create an event, you can still manually enter a location, but if you happen to be around the venue, you can simply pick it from Foursquare’s list of venues with the click of a button. This drastically simplifies the event creation process since the venue Read More

Plancast, the plan-sharing startup with big-name angel investors and "future as platform" aspirations, has just had its iPhone app accepted into the iTunes store. The app was built by contracted star developer Leah Culver. It's simple, functional, attractive and useful. It's going to be very good for SXSW and probably beyond, if the service continues to stick with users as it has so far. Here's the iTunes link and below you can see some screenshots. I'm posting my plans at Plancast.com/marshallk. You can see who's coming to our SXSW party Sunday night with NPR, PBS and more here on Plancast. See also: Hot Potato also has a new iPhone app just released today (iTunes link) which may come in handy for discussing the events that you attend via Plancast and otherwise. Read More