In case you’re not aware of it, SCVNGR is a social network based around location check-ins with the addition of game-like challenges once you’re there.  According to the iTunes blurb, the app will help you find new places to go and fun things to do, all the while sharing your activities with your friends.  The app can connect to Facebook and Twitter too. Until now SCVNGR has only been available in the USA using their own location database, but the team has now adopted Google Places instead, allowing them to spread out over the world, adding 80 new countries this week alone.  The iPhone app has seen a recent update too, with a control panel which should look familiar to Facebook iPhone app users, the ability to comment and to add a ‘+1′ to things you like. The app is free to download and now more countries can access it, they Read More

(CNN) -- Seth Priebatsch was at a burrito joint in Boston recently when a message popped up on his smartphone from an app called SCVNGR. If he opened the foil on the burrito ever so carefully and turned the wrapper into a piece of origami art -- and if he uploaded a picture of his creation to the app, the note said, then he would earn points toward a free burrito. Priebatsch thought: That might be fun. "I made a really weak origami crane, because I'm no origami artist myself," he said, but "it got me closer to unlocking a free burrito, which was cool." SCVNGR, which Priebatsch helped create, is one of the latest apps to build on top of the idea of a "check-in," that emerging term some tech-savvy people use to describe the act of using a GPS-enabled smartphone to share their whereabouts with friends. Increasingly, app developers Read More

SCVNGR, a Google Ventures backed mobile location startup, will become one of the first few trusted partners to be allowed to write updates to Facebook through the Places API today. The company says it has already brought its game and challenge-based service to more than 600 companies, museums, universities, conferences and other organizations, including Princeton, MIT, The Smithsonian National Zoo, the City of Philadelphia and the U.S. Navy. It plans a major new push with free promotion of local businesses in major cities throughout the US starting next month. "It was only a matter of time before Facebook owned social networking plus location, through something like the check-in," 21 year old founder Seth Priebatsch said by phone Thursday. "That's why we've been focused on being the game layer. Will they give better ranking [in the Newsfeed exposure algorithm] to interesting, premium content in location? We expect to get a nice lift Read More

...been playing SCVNGR. You should check it out.Go to http://bit.ly/cVUb0Z or http://bit.ly/9BM8C5 to grab the free app... Read More

When SCVNGR CEO and founder Seth Priebatsch dropped out of Princeton to pursue his startup full time, he spent the first year of operations going after enterprise clientele. Thursday, those behind-the-scenes efforts will culminate in a significant release that introduces a rewards element to game play. At launch, 1,000 locations across the U.S. will begin rewarding SCVNGR users with freebies or discounts for completing custom-designed challenges at their venues. Alternative shoe retailer Journeys is the biggest brand participating at launch and will be offering $10 off to shoppers at stores nationwide. Customers can complete six-second challenges inside stores, such as snapping a photo of their favorite skater shoes, to accrue the 35 points required to earn the $10 off coupon. In case you’re still new to SCVNGR, as most people are, the location-based app is designed to serve as a game layer for the real world. It’s backed by Google and Read More

Browsing the App Store this weekend?  Here are fourteen new or updated apps worth taking a closer look at if you are: The classic Sega Mega Drive game comes to the iPhone, with both US and Japanese editions of the dolphin-sim included.  The graphics looks suitably original, but the control system seems to need some work.  $2.99/£1.79. Welcome to the Fantasy Zone, get ready!  Another Sega arcade game out this week, this appears to be the Genesis conversion many expected to be a part of the Sega Genesis emulator app.  It certainly looks authentic and has all 13 stages along with two bonus rounds too.  $0.99/£0.59. The iPhone app of the popular how-to website, with a neat collaboration twist.  Free. Authentic Brazilian music, an exotic setting and promises of uncovering the secrets of the Brazilian approach to life and fitness, cannot cover up the fact this has ladies in bikini’s leaping Read More

Jason Kincaid currently works as a writer at TechCrunch. He grew up in Danville, California and later relocated to UCLA in Los Angeles, California, where he studied biology with a minor in ‘Society and Genetics’. You can reach him at jkincaidtc@gmail.com (he has other addresses too, so don’t worry if you have a different one). → Learn More Location-based gaming startup SCVNGR is continuing to flesh out its Foursquare competitor. Today, the service is launching online profile pages, giving users the ability to showcase all of the challenges they’ve completed, as well as the associated photos and tips to other players. It’s hardly a huge feature, but it’s one that the service has been sorely lacking (and was, unsurprisingly, the most requested feature after launch). For those that haven’t tried it, SCVNGR shares similarities with services like Foursquare and Gowalla in that it’s based around ‘checking in’ at various venues. But it Read More

May 27th 2010 at 8:00PM Kind of a cool idea. I really dig Gowalla, so I might check this out. Oh, sure. You just go rooting about in some 5,000 year old Roman funerary urn looking for free Bostonian Burrito coupons and you'll see what happens. You'll see. Well I've checked it out and I'm not seeing what sets it apart from social check-in apps like foursquare. Everything near me just has "check in" "say something" and "take a photo". Even w/"silly challenges" like the ones in the promo screencaps I'm not sure I'd use it. If the user community gets some real scavenger hunts (like at museums and such) then it may turn into something. This one has fewr vowels in the name. Soon, we wll be free of them forevr. I agree with Justin. Being a geocacher myself, I thought this would be a fun thing to try but Read More

Its unfortunate lack of vowels aside, Google-backed SCVNGR is emerging as a real threat to Foursquare and the bevy of location based services. Last week, SCVNGR launched its consumer-facing side with apps on the iPhone and Android, a major departure from its initial focus on larger institutions (like universities and governmental organizations). Since its consumer launch, SCVNGR CEO Seth Priebatsch, says he’s been astounded by the growth: “We’ve seen a ridiculous spike.” According to SCVNGR, every day since last Thursday has turned in record traffic numbers. Growth may be accelerating but SCVNGR still has a way to go before it catches up to its larger rivals— its total user base is still below the 1 million mark. Unlike Foursquare and Gowalla, SCVNGR has followed an unorthodox approach. The company focused on the enterprise side before moving to the consumer. SCVNGR launched last year as a gaming engine for large organizations, like Read More

...iPhone Apps: SCVNGR - SCVNGR http://dlvr.it/yTSZ... Read More

...been playing SCVNGR recently. U should check it out. Go to http://iphone.scvngr.com or http://android.scvngr.com to grab the free app... Read More

The current crop of location-sharing services like Foursquare and Gowalla rely on very basic game mechanics to entice their users to check in at their favorite bars, restaurants and coffee shops. Just checking in, however, really isn't that exciting in the long run. SCVNGR, which got a major investment from Google Ventures earlier this year, is taking check-ins to the next level by adding additional game-like challenges to virtually every one of the 20 million places in its database. For now, SCVNGR is only available in the U.S., but the company plans to expand internationally soon. While you can just use SCVNGR to check in at your favorite coffee shop (worth 1 point), you will get extra points if you fulfill one of the missions that either the SCVNGR team or other players have created for this place. This could mean taking a picture of the location, for example (worth 2 Read More

It was only a matter of time. Since last summer, we’ve been tracking the progress of SCVNGR, a location-based gaming platform that allows users to build engaging, real-world scavenger hunts that use their mobile devices to both receive clues and solve riddles. Until now the service has primarily catered to museums, universities, and businesses, who use it for things like tours, orientations, and team-building exercises (they’re up to over 600 paying customers). Now SCVNGR, which recently raised $4 million from Google Ventures,  is getting a bit more ambitious: it’s looking to turn the world into one big scavenger hunt, and it’s going to be taking on the likes of Foursquare and Gowalla in the process. To mark the launch of this new consumer-facing side of SCVNGR, the startup has launched new applications for iPhone and Android (you can grab the iPhone app here, and a QR code for the Android app Read More

9 Mar 2010 alle 18:20 Come ogni anno Apple ha dedicato una pagina su iTunes alla nuova edizione dell’Indipendent Gems Festival Mobile 2010, competizione dedicata ai migliori giochi indipendenti ed autoprodotti che, nonostante i budget ridotti, offrono tanto divertimento agli utenti. Vediamo quali sono questi titoli. Per vedere la pagina di Apple, cliccate qui, ed aprirete l’iTunes Store direttamente sul vostro computer. Read More

Independent Games Festival (IGF) will be handing out their 2010 Best Mobile Game award to one lucky developer during the IGF Awards at GDC 2010.  But before that big event even takes place, Apple has chosen to recognize the entire group of honorees for this year’s IGF Mobile awards by devoting an entire App Store page to them. The page is accessible via the giant “Independent Games Festival Mobile” ad on the front of the App Store, or you can just follow this link. The IGF Mobile finalists include: And the honorable mentions include: Category winners have already been revealed with Stair Dismount winning Technical Achievement, Lilt Line winning Audio Achievement, and Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor winning Best iPhone Game.  All finalists will be competing for the Best Mobile Game award worth $2,500 at GDC 2010.  Good luck everyone! Read More

For many people, the term “Scavenger Hunt” conjures childhood memories of running around the neighborhood on a quest for knickknacks like thimbles and socks — an experience that loses its luster beyond the age of ten or so. But as it turns out, they’re big businesses: major corporations and universities have successfully used more elaborate scavenger hunts as team building exercises, and a well-designed course can be extremely fun. SCVNGR is one young startup that’s managed to tap into this niche market very successfully, and today it’s launching a new consumer platform that will allow anyone to build their own scavenger hunts, which will work with any mobile phone. The new platform, called XPLR, is now in private beta, and the first 100 TechCrunch readers to go here and enter the code ‘TECHCRUNCH’ will be able to sign up and build their own missions. In conjunction with the news, the company is Read More