(Guest Post by Ilan Peer)

Since I don’t have an iPhone, it rarely happens that I update my location status, or tweeting where i hang out. To top this all off, I don’t even fully utilize this cool app that I’m writing about! Since it really caught my attention, I wanted to share my thoughts on foursquare – an application that allows you explore your city – has unlocked a certain code for location based service engagement and positively affected income of many local businesses.

An interesting fact about foursquare is that one of their Founders, Dennis Crowley, is a also the former Founder of Dodgeball – another location-based social network that was acquired by Google (can you see the pattern here?). I once read that Dennis was a student of Clay Shirky – which makes his background very credible. Foursquare started with 12 cities and have already reached 53!

The simplicity of the foursquare game is amazing. People “tag” places and venues to get points and badges that will place them in a higher social graph. Meanwhile, local businesses enjoy the uprising of visits to their establishments. The latter part may sponsor a free drink or snack for the mayors (user with most visits to their venue). It is easy to see how this service is addicting when distinguished members of the high-tech industry Tweet about their mayorship.

Here is the foursquare business plan and it’s simple: there are about 150 venues offering mayor specials (treats exclusively for top visitors).

The game is based on a social network of recommendations. Whether it’s a new pub, a special dish or friends’ based recommendation, there are 3 advantages that you can benefit from:

1. Find Your Friends – if not, what the heck are we all doing in facebook??

2. Points and Badges – getting recognition, free drinks and nachos!

3. Explore the City – as they put it: “Think less ‘the food here is top notch!’ and more ‘Go here, do this’ “

These tags and friending-up people are very common these days: follows, lists, groups and fan pages – all these “sort us up.”

It is like when Twitter came up with lists. I think Twitter is in need for people to sort and list the huge directory of people in their data base. As far as foursquare goes, us users will probably turn to little Yellow Page agents, going places, tagging and passing info on to as personal tips (hence the friends layer: the WOM effect).

I’m very close, yet still far from using foursquare since they have not hit Tel-Aviv yet. When foursquare does decide to hit tel aviv, i bet you’ll see me running the streets looking to tag new venues and becoming the mayor of my favorite diners.

Until then, I’ll give it a try with the Israeli new site called CUin.co.il which allows users to look up their friends from Facebook (via Facebook connect) and see where they have checked in.

Update:
Foursquare announced they will open their service for Tel Aviv city in the next few days
Article at Nana10.co.il [in hebrew]

And a presentation by Dennis Crowley at Mobile Monday Amsterdam:

photo by: the lovely miss604

Ilan Peer is the Advertising and Marketing Manager at Blonde 2.0

He is a veteran in the Israeli interactive industry. He’s experienced in creative, design, UI, account managing and media buying. Technology is his fetish. He’s an early adaptor and a gadget freak.

(Disclosure Blonde 2.0 has cooperated together with Beck’s on this project)

When done properly, a branded iPhone app can achieve brand international exposure for relatively little investment. However, if not done properly, the brand will suffer from bad criticism and the money will go to waste. Take for example – the useless iPhone application made by Taco Bell. This application had the potential to be very cool, giving redeemable  coupons and a location-aware store finder; but instead, the app only calculates the various 79¢, 89¢, 99¢ items on their Value Menu that you can purchase with the spare change in your pocket. Definitely a missed opportunity.

Unlike Taco Bell, Beck’s has recently launched its new iPhone application - Gig Finder – and this app actually places giving value to users in top priority. Users can search for gigs in any location supported by the Last.FM database worldwide, allowing  music fans globally to stay connected to their local live music scene. This app is available for music lovers worldwide and has been localized for the English, German, Italian and Romanian languages. With quick access to information about upcoming gigs showing in the area, Beck’s Gig Finder makes it impossible for any music lover to miss a gig. This application allows users to always be on the know regarding where and when their favorite bands are playing.

The Gig Finder is an all-inclusive application locating local gigs but also providing helpful directions via Google Maps as well as giving the inside scoop on special guest appearances. The app also enables music fans to browse their favorite music artist’s information on the Web, tune-in to their YouTube videos and also share this information with family and friends.

When compared to its competitors, Beck’s is the only free iPhone application out there giving these specific capabilities. A cool feature included that I particularly like empowers music fans to tag gigs as ‘Favorites’ and receive push notifications/reminders about these upcoming shows.  The app is offered in multiple languages – including Italian, German and Romanian.

Below you’ll find a demo video showing exactly how helpful the Gig Finder really is. By creating such a useful app, Beck’s shows users that they care more about giving them value than just creating yet another useless branded app.

Download Gig Finder yourself here to explore the app.

(Disclosure: Xsights is a Blonde 2.0 client)

Xsights is a new start-up company that has just come out with its Light iPhone app which enables its users to bring print to life. Xsights makes it possible to transform static printed items that can be captured through the cell phone’s camera into an interactive multimedia experience.

Xsights empowers its users and lets them add a creative, personal touch to their printed items. While using Xsights’ advanced technology, users have the ability to take any printed object and connect it with links of their choice. With Xsights Light app, these printed images become a door to endless opportunities of content. Users can “attach” a YouTube trailer, a 3D view of a specific street via Google Maps, a Wikipedia page, a Facebook or Twitter profile or any other link to invitations, greeting cards, photos, maps or business cards.

In addition, with Xsights, users can now also view movie trailers of the top 100 movies showing in US theaters currently by taking pictures of any of the digital images in the “More Things to Capture” section on Xsights website: http://xsights-services.com/Movies.aspx

All of the images that appear in Xsights’ “More Things to Capture” section are already uploaded to their servers, therefore users can take a picture of any of these movie posters, games or logos when they appear in magazines, wall posters, bus stops or anywhere else outside, take a picture and view their relevant clips moments later.

“See it. Capture it. Bring it to life!” is Xsights’ slogan. The Xsights solution enables users to take a picture of any pre-defined object and receive immediate relevant and interactive online data. Xsights inspires its users to imagine a future world where soon everything they see around them will be considered “clickable” from landmarks, wall posters, street signs, ads, theater listings in magazines to book covers or billboards. Clicking on the item with their mobile phone’s camera will allow users to receive additional layers of information and open up doors to endless interactive content. The technology that Xsights specializes in is known as Augmented Reality. Welcome to the world of tomorrow.

Key differentiators of Xsights when compared to its competitors: Only the Xsights application can identify minute objects – even a small icon or text. In addition, Xsights also works in any condition – even if the printed item is wet or crumpled.

Xsights has just launched its iPhone app and will soon launch its BlackBerry version. Other selected J2ME handsets will also get Xsights soon.

Download the Xsights Light application from the iTunes Apple Store here: http://appsto.re/xsightslight.

Want to create your own interactive message? Watch the video below to learn how:

Guest Post by Ahuvah Berger

(Disclosure WorldMate is a client of Blonde 2.0)

WorldMate has updated their travel iPhone app and now enables users to share their itinerary with family, friends and colleagues, plus get a 5-day weather forecast wherever they are in the world. The new version WorldMate 1.6 offers the new features for free and Gold subscribers.

This is a great update for Road Warriors (men and women who spend their lives traveling for work) to stay connected with their iPhone contacts. With one click – they can share their itinerary with any of their iPhone contacts.

Another fantastic update is the new 5-Day Weather Forecast with three new options:

• Current city: Get the 5-day weather forecast for the city you’re currently in. Don’t get caught in the rain without an umbrella, or in the cold without your coat. You’ll leave for work knowing exactly what to expect.

• Itinerary Cities: Get the 5-day weather forecast for the cities on your itinerary, so you know if you should pack an umbrella, sunscreen or both.

• All Cities: Select any of the cities listed for a 5-day weather forecast.

Get the upgrade now at the App Store and share it with your friends and colleagues!

WorldMate was generous enough to give us 10 iPhone Gold app invites for Blonde 2.0 readers. Who wants ‘em? First 10 to comment on our blog will get them!

One sure fire way to tell if one brand trumps another, is if it receives more buzz when a new product comes out, or in this case, predicted to come out. And one swift sniff of air these days is all you need, to smell the sweet, juicy news that’s about to explode, because where there’s an Apple, there’s a buzz. Apple’s WWDC 2009 begins today and here’s what we think is in store.

It has been almost 2 years since the premier of the original iPhone so advancement in this piece of magic is inevitable. While the next iPhone is rumored to keep its basic design and color option, it will be upgrading its features and hardware. Since the camera quality is not up to par with competing phones, this feature will be the first to get some attention. Same notion goes to the video department. We’re to expect a better lens, sensor, and autofocus as well as video recording. Speed, memory, increase in storage and the megapixel count increases for photography, is also a given.

While iPhone’s daddy, the “tablet” will miss this year’s WWDC, it’s rumored that the new Mac OS X operating system, Snow Leopard might be presented. It will supposedly feature flat dark scroll bars like those in iTunes and a minimalist window design with translucent black-glass headers. The new Macbooks will be updated with built-in 3G capabilities. What would be even better is we could swap out our iPhone SIMS and use it in the MacBook for connectivity on demand.

So, no major surprises are predicted this year. The iPhone will once again be the star, and the software will get its needed upgrade.

Image Credit: Macnerd93

WorldMate is huge in the mobile world -it first started as a Palm OS app back in 2000. Then, as today, they realized that “travel = mobile” and so it made sense to build a mobile application for travelers. WorldMate had an innovative approach and built what was the industry’s first on-device portal with a myriad of travel content for online/offline use. WorldMate was so successful that many PDA/Smartphone makers including Nokia, Palm, HP, and Sony Ericsson pre-installed it on their devices. More than 3 million people use WorldMate across the Symbian, BlackBerry, Palm OS and Windows Mobile platforms.

But that was then when making mobile apps meant being pre-installed on a pre-sale phone. The world has moved on since the launch of the iPhone to a new world of online application stores. Now with after the SDK 3.0 and right before the expected launch of iPhone 3.0, WorldMate has come to the iPhone app store.

In many ways this is a huge validation of the iPhone platform, it’s one of the first dedicated for business applications of the kind that are huge in the BlackBerry world to make the platform jump to an appstore full of shall we say “less serious” applications (you can see more of this attitude in the latest WorldMate Max video embedded below).

It’s easy to see why they are coming to iPhone, the potential market is huge; there about 40 million business travelers in the US that take over 200 million trips totaling $200 billion in sales.  According to WorldMate these “road warriors” are continually jostled around with 30%+ of flights are delayed or cancelled, with meeting schedules change all the time, and because there’s a lot of stress trying to make split second decisions in unfamiliar environments with a lack of relevant information.  What’s more, these travelers spend on average $1000 per trip. WorldMate is the only service to that can help by effectively aggregating this disparate information.  But that is only half the battle.  WorldMate further distinguishes itself in that it can take this information and turn it into solutions.  For example, if your flight is delayed, WorldMate will let you know and then suggest all the alternative flights you can take instead to make it to your destination on time.

WorldMate in both its free and Gold versions have both shot to the top 20 apps in the travel category and it seems that not only is WorldMate ready for iPhone, iPhone is ready for WorldMate.