Foursquare 3.0 Checks In

In what has become a South by Southwest tradition, Foursquare has released the third version of their location-based platform in time for the hugely popular festival.

The timing of the release was a smart move, because Foursquare was really able to hit the ground running in 2009 because of the heavy adoption and integration with SXSW.

Here's the basic breakdown of what you need to know about Foursquare 3.0:

• Exploring your options: Replacing the 'Tips' tab, a new 'Explore' tab offers recommendations to users, broken down into 5 categories: Food, coffee, nightlife, shops, and arts/entertainment. This seems to be the focal point of the upgrade because it will allow users to use Foursquare outside of the initial checkin.
• Making checkins pay off: Foursquare has partnered with American Express to make it easier to be rewarded for checking in to certain places. Basically, you register your AmEx card and then get access to automatic savings specials when the card is swiped at supported locations. The caveat here is that this is definitely experimental and will only run from this Friday to Tuesday the 15th.
• Feeling special: Lastly, Foursquare has retooled their merchant specials by segmenting and categorizing them in an effort to make it easier for merchants to get involved with the specials features. The different types of specials are:
• Flash Specials - the first person or group of people to checkin after a certain time get a discount or reward.
• Friends Specials - Checking in with a smaller group Foursquare friends gets you the deal
• Swarm Specials - Large group checkins get special discounts and rewards.
• Newbie Specials - The first time you check in at a certain venue gets you a discount.
• Mayor Specials - The classic Foursquare special where being the mayor of a place gets you a discount.

Overall, these seem like strong improvements, although Foursquare is still combating Facebook Places and generally low adoption rates for location-based services as a whole. However, I do like that Foursquare is looking beyond the checkin to get more merchants involved and attempt to establish Foursquare as more than just the service you use to check in to places to get badges.

Will The Dark Knight Light The Way For Facebook-Based Movie Rentals?

While iTunes, Netflix and Amazon continue to slug it out to establish movie streaming dominance, Facebook quietly delivered a solid right hook in the ensuing fight with last night's announcement from Warner Bros. that you can now stream The Dark Knight through Facebook.

If you fork over 30 Facebook credits, or $3, you have 48-hour access to the movie. Granted, it's only one movie, but the big question is if this is a one-time deal or a look at the future of Facebook.

There's reason for optimism. Obviously Facebook has a massive built-in audience with hundreds of millions of potential movie viewers. Add in the fact that Facebook is also one of the largest video sites with millions of videos from sites like YouTube and Vimeo being watched, and it's not a stretch to think that offering feature-length films could be successful on Facebook.

QR Codes Still Popping Up Everywhere, But Are They Being Scanned?

Daily Axioms is no stranger to covering QR codes, but it's been hard to show how much they're being utilized because it's still relatively new and the numbers just haven't been there.

However, I stumbled across an infographic from QR code startup JumpScan that revealed some pretty interesting statistics:

• 1200% increase in QR code scanning from July to December 2010: While a significant increase was expected (considering QR codes are everywhere these days), a 1200% increase is a massive jump in scanning.
• 52% have heard about or seen QR codes, 28% have scanned: Obviously a 28% scan rate isn't overwhelming, but according to those stats a little more than half of the QR codes that are seen are being scanned. That's important because the biggest obstacle with any call to action, like scanning a QR code, is getting people to actually use it.
• 57% Facebook/Twitter users scanned at least one QR code last year, 40% scanned 4 or more: This is a very telling statistic because it shows that social media integration is very important is having your QR codes gain traction. Based on these numbers, social media users are twice as likely to scan a code, and about 40% more likely to scan 4 or more codes than the general public.

So although it's always hard to tell just how accurate these stats actually are, it seems like QR codes are more prolific and being scanned more than ever before.

Facebook Friday: Social Commentary

Despite all of the iPad 2 buzz dominating the news headlines, Facebook has still had a pretty good week. Not only are the latest rumors claiming that the social networking giant is valued at $65 billion dollars, but Facebook also released a massive third-party applicable commenting plugin earlier this week as well.

The commenting plugin closely resembles what you would see on a user's wall, with threaded comments that can be liked and voted on. The comments can also be synced to the user's Facebook page, leading to two primary advantages:

1. If you're already signed in on Facebook you don't need to re-sign in to access the commenting feature, making it easier for people to comment on articles.
2. The use of people's real names should theoretically cut down on the trolling that usually plagues the blogosphere.

The system is far from perfect however, with a few major issues still in need of tweaking.

1. Because the system requires a Facebook login, anyone who works somewhere that blocks Facebook will have to wait until they're out of the office.
2. Another downside of profile syncing is that if people reply to a comment in the Facebook News Feed it could end up on other sites. This could lead to a lot of non-sensical inside jokes in commenting streams.

The other question still looming is what this move means for Disqus, the commenting plugin startup that has been very popular the last couple of years. My guess is that it will be very similar to what happened to Foursquare after the launch of Facebook Places. In that scenario, many flocked to Facebook Places because of its huge built-in user base. 

However, in the end both services have managed to coexist, and I think we'll see the same thing with Facebook Comments and Disqus within a month or two.

Apple's iPad 2 Announcement Spoiled by iPad 3 Rumors

Apple revolutionized and dominated the tablet market with the iPad, prompting a wave of competitors trying (unsuccessfully) to knock Apple off its tablet throne.

And despite the fact that no one has created that "iPad killing" device, Apple still announced out an improved iPad 2 yesterday. With Android Honeycomb-enabled tablets like the Motorola Xoom right around the corner, it was definitely time for Apple to step up their game.

But did they maybe step up too much?

The iPad 2 does answer some of the complaints people had about the iPad, and does show marked improvement of its predecessor:

• The iPad 2 is 33% thinner, and only weighs 1.3 lbs.
• It sports a custom A5 dual-core system that should make it twice as fast (with graphics speeds up to 9 times faster)
• It features built-in front and rear cameras
• The iPad 2 also has a pretty cool magnetic case available.
• It's HDMI compatible.

However, those specs aside many tech bloggers are saying they're holding off. That's because even though the iPad was just announced yesterday, there's already rumors of an iPad 3 being released as early by the end of this year or early 2012.

Those tech pundits are claiming that the iPad 3 will address some of the issues that neither the iPad or iPad 2 addressed:

• No SD card slot available
• No USB port
• It lacks the Retina Screen that was such a big hit with the iPhone 4.
• No Gorilla Glass like most competing tablets.

So while it makes no sense to me why Apple would release the iPad 3 so soon after the iPad 2 (essentially cannibalizing the iPad 2 unless there's a steep price difference between the the iPad 2 and iPad 3), they have successfully refocused the tablet spotlight back on the original poster-boy for this emerging tech market.