De Leguanen - Alternate reality game trailer

De Leguanen is een Nederlandse Alternate Reality Game. De spelers van deze game gingen begin 2011 aan de hand van raadsels over het erfgoed van Breda op zoek naar smartphones. Om zo de opa van Eef te redden uit de handen van het privacy verwoestende data mining bedrijf, Panopticom.

The Iguanas is a dutch Alternate Reality Game. The players of this game started early 2011 on the basis of puzzles about the cultural heritage of Breda. The searching for smartphones. So they can save the grandfather of Eef from the destructive hands of the privacy data mining company, Panopticom.

LvL App preview

LvL App is a location-based gaming application that applies game principles to a real world setting.

Any user can ‘drop’ a challenge on a certain location, which others can attempt to complete. You can earn real rewards from stores in your neighborhood by adding challenges and completing other users’ challenges.

I think this game is still in development because i cannot find it in the App Store or Android Market.

Record, analyse and share your ski track!

Take your phone out skiing!
One of America's largest ski resort companies is hoping to make the sport even more social this season, with a location-based gaming app it's calling Epic Mix.
Vail Resorts, owners of resorts in Colorado and California debuted the mobile and web-based application at a press event at the Ace Hotel in Manhattan.

When the mountains open in November, Epic Mix will allow visitors to the resorts to track the runs they completed, log their vertical feet as a score, unlock achievement 'Pins' and access several utilities, both in iPhone and Android apps and at epicmix.com.

The project combines lots of location-based service and gaming elements; rewards for varied experience, social sharing of vertical feet in a leaderboard and more.

RFID enabled
Perhaps the most interesting feature of the Epic Mix tracking system is it works on the RFID chips in skiiers' passes. There's no fumbling with your phone on the lift to check in to a run. When your pass is scanned at the lift, you're checked in, and no constant GPS contact and battery drain is required, like North Face's Trailhead iPhone app.

Gotta go? There’s an app for that!

Mom always said, “Be sure to go before you leave the house,” but a long work session at the coffee shop can ruin the best laid plans when it comes to finding relief on the mean city streets.

Rather than run the risk of a public urination charge, now there’s an app for finding sweet relief (or offering it) in the city. CLOO, designed by Hillary Young, throws open the bathroom doors of friends and friends of friends “for the cost of a latte,” and that’s something we can all drink to, right?

Playing the GoGame app with Veronica Belmont

Veronica Belmont is a technology and gaming-centric video host based out of San Francisco.
An avid gamer and social-networking junkie (with over 1 million Twitter followers), Veronica often speaks about her interests at conferences and panels.

2 Dutch girls discover a new sport: Figure Running

Everybody loves playing outside. Figurerunning is a new sport that encourages you to get creative, go outside and discover new places while running and getting fit. The competition is not about your running speed or distance, it’s all about drawing. Become a master the art of Figurerunning. Do it when and wherever you want and be sure to share your art with your friends. The world is our canvas and you are the pencil!

Every serious sport wants to be recognised by the IOC’s Olympic Programme Commission. Their mission is to be included in the Olympic Programme of Rio de Janeiro 2016.

Take part and run figures!

Photosharing app "Color" gains enormous attention (and money).

A just recently released iPhone an Android app called Color has made a kickstart. This simple video has been viewed almost 60.000 times in only 5 days!

Instagram has taken the app world by storm, but here comes the challenger in a universe obsessed with instant photo sharing, complete with a tonne of great social features, and minus the need to “filter” everything for coolness, instead, showcasing location based group albums.

Now, it’s not just “location” as the primary feature, its actually all about creating social photo albums based around those locations, from you, your friends and every other stranger within 150 feet. The app takes everything into the “multi-lens” view, were you can literally see every photo being taken right now, with in that 150 feet, allowing you to experience a location or say, an event, from other perspectives in real time. It also allows you to comment and interact with the people taking photos.

At first glance, this is about to become a “must have” event/party app, but I suspect it might just be a little more in the long run as people discover the power of social perspective.

Venture Capital
It is worth adding that this new app Color has a number of interested investors. Color, a California based company has till now raised $41 million investment money.

Thanks to DigitalBuzz.

Google makes Foursquare/Gowalla Check-in lookalike.

Google has finally hopped onto the check-in bandwagon, but with extra twists that make it more appealing than many of the other options.

Numerous other companies—Facebook, FourSquare, Gowalla, Yelp, BrightKite, Foodspotting etc.—also allow users to check in and share photos of the businesses they are patronizing, and people have already flocked to one (or more) of those services. Google is stepping up to the challenge, though, by making it painfully easy to check in through Latitude.

One of the main problems with check-in services is that they usually rely on the user to remember to check in whenever he or she enters a place—Google is addressing this by either letting users' phones automatically check in for them, or sending notifications to users to remind them to check in when the app detects that they have arrived somewhere.

Facebook's check-in service, also called Places, already lets businesses give discounts to users when they check in, so the idea isn't entirely novel. Still, Facebook implements it differently than Google probably would—the combo of Groupon-style "deal of the day" with location-based check-ins would at least differentiate Latitude from its competition

Play The Go Game like it's your job!

The Go Game App is a location-based game that’s part scavenger hunt, part mobile party and full-on fun. They have run over 5,000 street-level games since 2002 and now they are bringing the party to the iPhone.

Awesome Content
Unlike other games that ask you to do the writing, they have done all the work for you. Game experts have scouted thousands of landmarks, bars, cafes, and other urban gems and written clever clues that will set up a range of hilarious experiences perfect for any occasion.

It’s Customizable
Got a Bachelorette party coming up? Company offsite? Birthday? The Go Game team has done them all and know how to bring the fun to each and every occasion. Now you can customize the Go Game App to create the experience you want for your group. Simply select your city and occasion, then pick how risqué you want your game to be and… BAM, you’re ready to rock in less than 3 minutes.

Read a review at Mobile Beat

The Best Camera... is the one you have with you!

Although Chase Jarvis is a professional photographer he likes taking pictures with his iPhone an share them with others. It's not the techstuff, it's the story that counts. So, this is not really a location-based thing but it still is about sharing interesting locations through pictures.
You can only love this guy's enthousiasm.

The worldwide hub for mobile photography

Post something on my real wall...

‘Dead Drops’ is an anonymous, offline, peer to peer file-sharing network in public space. USB flash drives are embedded into walls, buildings and curbs accessable to anybody in public space. Everyone is invited to drop or find files on a dead drop. Plug your laptop to a wall, house or pole to share your favorite files and data. Each dead drop is installed empty except a readme.txt file explaining the project. ‘Dead Drops’ is open to participation. If you want to install a dead drop in your city/neighborhood follow the ‘how to’ instructions and submit the location and pictures. I will do that asap. What a fantastic idea Aram!

Created by German artist Aram Bartholl.

Looking forward to 2011 (and beyond)

At the end of the year everyone looks forward. Especially marketeers want to predict the future based on the latest trends.
This one is from the trendwatching group of global advertising agency JWT.

It sounds like exciting times that were are up to.
I wish you all the best in 2011!

Read an article on "location-based everything" from JWT here.

Foursquare explained

Howcast is a really useful series of "How-to" video's that can be watched on YouTube, on a mobile app and on Howcast.com