Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Facebook Places and Locle on News at 9
The launch of Facebook Places, which uses manual location check-in similar to FourSquare, Gowalla and BrightKite, prompted coverage of Locle by Irish broadcaster RTE on the national news. Locle co-Founder, Pieter Oonk explains the joys of location based social networking to mothers across the nation.
The usual concerns about privacy are raised, but “you don’t have to turn the feature on”.
For Locle, Facebook Places cements the split in the location-based apps sector between game-play manual checkins (Facebook Places, FourSquare) on the one side and serendipity through automagical trackMe (Google Latitude, Locle) on the other.
Watch the clip here:
http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0819/9news_av.html?2805540,null,230
Locle for Palm Pre on App Catalog
Locle for Palm Pre and Palm Pixi is now available in the Palm App Catalog. This version of Locle is developed on Palm’s new webOS platform, which makes use of web standard HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
The webOS version of Locle has been selected for pre-install on O2 Palm Pre phones in the Irish market.
Locle is now available on more mobile handsets and smart phones than any other geosocial networking app. Go to get.locle.com from any of these phones: iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Palm Pre, Windows Mobile, UIQ, Symbian for Nokia, Java ME for Sony Ericsson, Samsung, LG and more, in addition to the mobile web version at m.locle.com.
http://developer.palm.com/appredirect/?packageid=com.locle.locle&applicationid=2187
Locle Nominated for Mobile Premier Awards 2010
Locle has been put forward for the Mobile Premier Awards 2010 by Mobile Monday Dublin. The awards received over 600 nominations, of which 50 companies are nominated.
Thanks to everyone at MoMoDublin.
http://www.mobilepremierawards.com/blog/2010/01/18/mobile-premier-awards-in-innovation-nominees/
2010: year of the location-based mobile apps
At this time last year the Locle team put together a little list of 8 predictions for 2009. We were just having a laugh, but the last laugh was on us when two of them seem to have come to be:
- Steorn, the Dublin company that claims to have discovered a way to extract unlimted free energy from the Earth’s magnetic fields, actually launched their product publicly with a live demonstration on Dublin’s Grand Canal Basin. Wild.
- Google launched their own phone called Nexus One, named after the killer cyborgs who “call home” to their creator in Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner. Creepy.
This year we’re only going to make one prediction. And it’s going to come true too:
- 2010 is the year that location-based mobile social networking takes off
Locle was ahead of the zeitgeist when we started the company in February 2008 (before the launch of iPhone apps!). But the mood seems to have caught up with us.
New services such as Google Latitude, FourSquare, BrighKite and Gowalla are following early innovators such as Rummble, Belysio, Nulaz, Mobiluck and of course Locle to show the potential of location.
Om Malik from GigaOM Network wrote yesterday that “Today we “check in” to places, but soon it will become part of the platform, and when that happens we’ll shift focus to applications and services that build upon the concept of checking in”.
At Locle, we enter 2010 well positioned with not only a location platform (as launched at GigaOM’s Mobilize 09 in San Francisco) but also a suite of web, wap, sms, iPhone and native mobile apps and services that are suited to almost any use.
The London Evening Standard wrote “…location-based social networking, where people use laptop or cell phone applications to tell each other where they are physically located at any particular moment. It’s an idea that’s been around for years but never quite managed to take off — until now.”
There are many reasons why “geosocial” networking is about to take off: mobile app usage, social networking activity, low-cost geopositioning, better smartphones. But most important will be the irresistable delight of a little Serendipity in our every day.
We hope you will continue to follow us through the New Year. Literally 
Locle Mini for iPhone 3GS now on App Store
The new version of Locle Mini for iPhone is now live on the App Store. Locle Mini v3 is a major upgrade from the previous version and includes fully interactive maps, facebook connect, twitter and Netlog. The user interface has had a complete overhaul and includes some features not seen on an iPhone app before.
Locle Mini for iPhone v3 is available for free download from the iTunes App Store here:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=305188273
