Tag: MOSOSO

Astronaut Doug Wheelock just became the first person to unlock the NASA Explorer badge on Foursquare by checking in from the International Space Station. We're assuming he's also now the mayor of the ISS, an accomplishment that will be tough to wrangle away from his space-suited hands. But don't fret, you Foursquare completists: you'll now be able to unlock the Explorer badge by visiting various ...

Technology, particularly the Internet and social networking, allows NASA to engage space enthusiasts through an expanding assortment of entertaining and educational interactive programs. Space geeks can read tweets from astronauts, launch their face into orbit, help map the moon, participate in research projects and -- now -- earn virtual moon rocks, spacesuits, shuttles and (awesomely absurd) ...

Location-based social network Foursqare has updated its iPhone app to 2.0 (with a similar update to hit Android and BlackBerry soon). The app received a significant reorganization that separates your tips and to-dos from the rest of your feed. Thanks to the two new buttons on the bottom navigation bar, those places you've been meaning to check out are easier to locate. You can also quickly add ...

Found an awesome taco truck off the beaten path? Don't go blabbing about it on Foursquare, you asshat! At least that's what Brent Cox says over at The Awl, as he dissects a culture of "coolhunting" that's ruining food fun in favor of perceived awesomeness: "There is something to be said for Just Experiencing something and letting the sole record of it be your memory." ...

Advertisers and retailers have been looking for new and unique ways to leverage the recent influx of GPS-enabled smartphones in attracting customers and gathering important information about their shopping behaviors. Foursquare introduced some new ideas, but retailers wanted to take it a step further. Enter Shopkick. The new app turns shopping (and violating your privacy) into a game that, ...

No longer content to just sit in the background and feed its readers their daily news, the Boston Globe has launched a new mobile scavenger hunt that sends its readers around the city. The 'Boston Globe Trek' uses SCVNGR, a location-based game system that's similar to Foursquare or Gowalla, to challenge users to solve riddles, snap photos of landmarks, and scan unique QR codes. After ...

Quite frequently we hit the streets of New York City to ask random passersby if they can identify the latest gadget, app or Web site, but we don't think we've ever seen our subjects as stymied as they were when trying to identify Foursquare. Most simply shrugged their shoulders, and one poor person even thought we were giving them a math quiz. In the end, we were only able to find one urbanite ...

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines.... When free services like Twitter and Google crash, users may caterwaul and whine, but the sites don't immediately suffer from significant revenue loss. Outages certainly penalize online retailers, though. Amazon endured a rare three-hour crash yesterday, leading to a 7.8-percent drop in shares by the market's Tuesday close. Based on ...

On Monday, Twitter officially jumped aboard the geolocation bandwagon by announcing a new Places feature. According to the Twitter Blog, Twitter Places -- which is now live on twitter.com and mobile.twitter.com -- allows users to tag tweets to a specific place, rather than a city or broader area. For example, if somebody is you're tweeting about a World Cup match, you'll be able to tag whether ...

Really, it was only a matter of time. China already blocks Facebook, Twitter and Google, so it's no surprise to see the geolocation-based social game Foursquare added to that list. Details surrounding the censorship are not entirely clear, as with most things coming out of the country. It is widely believed, however, that the blockage is connected to the 21st anniversary of the massacre at ...

If you're social networking-savvy and looking for a summer road trip, Pennsylvania could be the place for you. We know the Keystone State might not sound like the most appealing vacation destination, but, according to Ad Week, the Pennsylvania Tourism Board has partnered with Foursquare to give summer travelers extra incentive to visit restaurants, stores and historical sites across the state. ...

There's a load of great tech news happening out there every day, and, unfortunately, we just can't cover it all. Here are a few of the other noteworthy things we saw today on our never-ending journey through the wild, wild Web. Illustrator Mattias Adolfsson gives 'Star Wars' the baroque treatment in this wonderfully whimsical series of images depicting Jabba in a wig, Boba Fett with a ...

Share Facebook has made clear its intent to incorporate location-based technology into its platform. And McDonald's has made clear its intent to shed its unhealthy, fatty factory image. So the two have joined forces to bring location-based services to the world's most sedentary population: McDonald's customers. Soon, fast food fanatics will be able to check in on Facebook from any McDonald's ...

For quite a while now, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has been a prolific tweeter. But apparently the micro-blogging service wasn't enough for the former action star-turned-politician. According to The Los Angeles Times, Schwarzenegger has jumped on the Foursquare bandwagon. That's right; you can now see what restaurants, bars, parks and pretty much wherever else the Governator goes when he ...

In an effort to get fans to come watch an abysmal NBA team, the New Jersey Nets turned to Gowalla, a location-based social network, earlier this month. The Next Web writes that the team deposited 500 virtual tickets at sports-related locations within 75 miles of the Nets' arena, like sports bars, basketball courts, sporting goods stores and so on. Then, Gowalla users visited these locations and ...