Four Square is a really cool new app for Blackberry or Iphone that I have been playing with.  Check them out at http://foursquare.com/.  The application maps out places in a city and users can then provide each other with tips i.e., try the caramel machiato at XYZ coffee shop.  So it allows people to see where you are and at the same time provides inter-activity of the user experience at the location.  It if a fun app!!

What is foursquare?

foursquare is a cross between a friend-finder, a social city-guide and a game that rewards you for doing interesting things. We aim to build things to not only help you keep up with the places your friends go, but that encourage you to discover new places and challenge you to explore your neighborhood in new ways.

How do I get it on my phone?

We have apps available for the iPhone, Blackberry, Android and Palm Pre. If you don’t have one of these phones, you can always use our mobile website or if you prefer to checkin via SMS you can send a text to 50500 (like this: @ Ace Bar ! Playing skeeball). For now SMS checkins are only available in the US.

Where is foursquare available?

You can use foursquare anywhere in the world! Check-in at the Statue of Liberty in NYC, the Golden Gate bridge in SF, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpu or the Arch de Triumph in Paris! Back in the day, we were limited to select cities, but now you can check-in anywhere you please!

What is a check-in?

When you tell foursquare where you are, that’s called “checking-in”. You can check-in from parks, bars, museums, restaurants… really anywhere. When you check-in we’ll let your friends know where they can find you and award you points and badges based on your adventurousness. Please only check in once to where you are at the time. Foursquare is meant to be a social utility that helps you connect with friends and experience your city in a new way, with a bit of fun thrown in. Please play fair!

How does foursquare know where I am?

The foursquare apps for iPhone, Blackberry, Android and Palm use GPS to show a list of nearby places. To check-in, just choose the name of the place you’re at from this list of nearby places. If we don’t have the place you’re looking for you can always add it to our listings. Don’t worry, foursquare doesn’t know where you are unless you check-in to tell us your location.

What is “The Mayor” all about?

If you’ve been to a place more than anyone else we’ll crown you the “The Mayor” of that place. We see lots of bars and cafes now offering “Mayor Specials” – a free coffee or appetizer or maybe a special discount to the mayors of their venues. Watch out though – if someone else comes along who has checked in more days than you, they will steal the “Mayor” title back from you.

What are badges?

Badges are little rewards you earn for doing checking-into interesting places. For example, staying out late on a school night or frequenting too many karaoke bars. We’re constantly adding new badges and would love to hear your suggestions.

A lot of our badges are tied to venue “tags”. People use tags to describe the places on foursquare (e.g. jukebox, pool table, fireplace, pizza, etc) Without giving away too much, here’s a few suggested tags you can add to your favorite places to help unlock badges : airport, college, douchebag, food truck, frat, gallery, gym, karaoke, movie theater, photobooth, pizza, playground, socialite, sorority, tourist, etc.

How do I earn points?

Most foursquare checkins will earn you points. You can earn points for your first checkin at a certain place or by adding a new place to our listings. We display a list of the users who have racked up the most points on the “leaderboard”. The idea is that the more you experience, the more places you visit, etc. the higher your score for that week. The leaderboard resets every Sunday at midnight.

Here’s how points are currently awarded: (and yes, we’ve been known to tweak this from time to time)

• +5 points for your first time checking-in at a venue
• +5 points for adding a new venue
• +1 point for per checkin, increasing by +1 with each checkin (e.g. your 1st checkin of the day is +1, 2nd checkin of the day +2 points, etc)