By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, Apr 7, 2010 | Loopt has not only launched a new iPad app this week, Loopt Pulse [Free - iTunes link], but now a new version of their iPhone app as well [Free - iTunes link]. What’s the big difference? How about the ability to easily find interesting people, places, and events with just your iPhone and Loopt’s map screen. Yawing in the middle of a droning conversation, eyes drooping at a lame party, not sure where to go in the center of sleepy-town USA? Loopt’s full-scale assault one boredom just might have your back. There’s also a new version for BlackBerry, if you find that interesting. My Canadianess prevents me from trying it (location services are typically highly region-sensitive by virtue of their content partnerships), so if you give it a whirl let me know if I’m missing out. Read More

We just spoke with Loopt CEO Sam Altman about their iPad app, below. Another screenshot after the break. Altman: I think the iPad is going to be a huge revolution in the way people use computers. People will carry it around all around the the house, put it in a backpack and then head off to a coffee shop or on the train to use it [TNW Location note: i.e. different from the iPhone where people use in the street or in a bar]. Altman: Rather than play the checkin game, we want to help you plan what to do – so we’re focused on places and events. We try to put the most interesting places and events around you. This is all tied to Facebook Connect – people tell us all the time that “I only want to see the places and events that my friends like”. One of the Read More

by Instead of just making their iPhone app bigger, Loopt has opted to go in a different direction and focus on providing real-time content related to nearby places and events that are popular among friends with Loopt Pulse for iPad [iTunes link]. If screenshots are any indication, Loopt’s approach to location-based content on the iPad is both stunning and relevant. It looks to be an interactive and visual cross between review sites like Yelp, event sites like Eventful and maps apps à la Google Maps. The app integrates with Facebook so users can login via Facebook Connect and opt for a map or photo experience of popular nearby places and events. App content is seeded from Loopt partners like Zagat, Bing, Zvents and CitySearch, and users are free to explore it all with their fingertips. The app also allows users to RSVP for Facebook events, share recommendations with friends and view friends’ Read More

In preparation for the launch of the iPad tomorrow, iPad Apps are live in iTunes and we’re sorting through the best ones as fast as we can. But with more than 2,000 iPad apps in the App Store, the choices are already daunting. To help you find the best apps at launch, we’ve put together the definitive list below. It includes all the iPad apps reviewed on TechCrunch, as well as other promising ones we have not gotten to yet. If you have a favorite you think should go on this list, tell us why in comments. Here is our list, which we will keep updating through the launch of the iPad: Apple’s answer to the Amazon Kindle, iBooks turns the iPad into an electronic book reader with 60,000 books at launch to choose from (the app is free, the e-books are not). Although the Kindle has many more titles (450,000), Read More