The next thing in social networking

The great thing about Twitter and Facebook is that people can always see what friends are up to. Often one friend will say to another, “I’ve been stalking your Facebook page.” Stalking, in this sense at least, doesn’t have a bad connotation anymore. People love to see what others are doing. They like to stay in touch and in the loop so to speak. That’s why the newest social networks are location-based, which basically means that when a person logs in their location is shown.

There’s actually a whole lot of these sites for people to choose from, but the one that I think is cool is Foursquare. The idea behind the company is to get people out to new places that friends would recommend. The site offers tips based on what your friends like or didn’t like at a place you’re going. But the fun part about Foursquare is that it’s a competition.

People love to compete. That’s why the Olympics are such a big deal. It’s why professional sports in general are such lucrative markets. Even when you’re not actually playing the fans get into it because of the nature of competition. I’m a Mets and Giants fan. Please don’t talk to me about Philadelphia. And I have a friend who lives near Philly whose family hates me when the games come on.

At Foursquare you have the chance to become the “mayor” of a location. All you do is log into Foursquare using the Android or iPhone app or go to the site on a laptop. Whoever has been to that location the most becomes the mayor. Which means you can be dethroned. And the main webpage has a live feed so you can be continuously updated. It looks a little something like this:

As you can see it’s available all over the world in over 100 cities, which is up from the 60 it was available in just a month ago.

Oh and there’s something else fun about Foursquare; how do you like free stuff?

Yes, I said the magic word: free. Or at the very least discounted. Restaurants and stores are beginning to have offers for people who go to the place and log in on Foursquare. For instance, you might get a free shot. You might get a free cup of coffee on your sixth visit or a free appetizer with your meal. That should be plenty of incentive to get people out and about.

Why the GPS is my favorite device

There aren’t a whole lot of things that make me wonder, how did we live before it? Let’s face it, as awesome as MP3 players, smartphones and laptops are, how much more difficult would life be without them? On the other hand, I don’t want to remember life before cell phones, the Internet and now the GPS.

When I got my first GPS two years ago on Christmas I was ecstatic. Never again would I worry about being lost after taking the wrong turn and trying to find my way back. I would never have to worry that I didn’t print out direction first or that I would have to try and read a map. My sister moved down to Virginia over a year ago and I never would have gone if I had to rely on actual maps. Who wants to do all that work?

When on the highway you should take a gander at the other cars (but only if you’re not driving!) and odds are more cars than not will have a GPS visible in the front. Really, how did we survive before?

Now I see something amazing. Don’t get me wrong, I love my GPS. It says street names and there’s a chime when I’ve reached where I’m supposed to turn. But this new thing I’ve found is possibly cooler. And at $90 it’s a heck of a lot cheaper.

This may look like the coolest and most useful GPS ever, but it’s actually an app for the iPhone. Sold! Those signs ensure that New Jersey’s crazy highways that criss-cross and have horribly confusing signs will never make me scream in frustration as I accidentally drive into Newark because I couldn’t tell just what the GPS was telling me to do. It has happened and it wasn’t a fun trip to get back out and driving in the right direction.

This is what I see:

Which isn’t exactly something to complain about, but I am in love with the view on the iPhone. There’s no guessing involved when streets do funny things as they sometimes do in the suburbs. But my GPS is still wonderful, just like all of them are because with them my mother and I no longer get lost everywhere we go. We really could have used a GPS 10 years ago when I was traveling to basketball games all over the tri-state area.

There are only few instances where the GPS has failed me: Harold’s Deli in Edison, NJ seems to be on its own plane of existence because no GPS can ever get you there. Instead you ‘ll find the GPS telling you that “you have arrived at your destination” while you’re driving on a highway and down a steep hill you can see the restaurant in a completely different location. You can wave at it while you go past, but, no, you can’t actually get to it from where the GPS leaves you.