A bunch of updates for foursquare for BlackBerry!
Hey #TeamBlackBerry, with today’s update, we’ve made some changes to make your foursquare experience on BlackBerry even better, like making the app speedier (yay!) and continuing to improve our GPS logic.
Plus, we’ve made it even easier to keep up with everything that’s going on in foursquare by moving all your notifications right into your BlackBerry inbox.
We’ve also added NFC capabilities to the app, which means you can share places and tips among other BlackBerry and Android devices (or even check in at places with NFC stickers), with a simple tap of your phone. (P.S. BlackBerry nerds, you’ll be able to see all this in action, and win prizes from RIM, at the upcoming BlackBerry Worldand BlackBerry 10 Jam conferences in Orlando.)
Get the update now at BlackBerry App World!
Madonna, Big Boi, Ani DiFranco, Alicia Keys, The Kooks, and more! Keep up with your favorite artists on foursquare! #4sqFF
For music fans, foursquare is a great way to keep up with your favorite artists, share your concert check-ins with friends, and even see what shows are trending nearby. Plus, with Specials at concerts, musicians can give their fans rewards for checking in to their shows, like special encores, backstage passes, signed merch, discounts, and exclusive downloads.
For today’s Follow Friday, we’re featuring a bunch of artists on foursquare who are checking in, leaving great tips, and rewarding their fans with awesome check-in Specials. Make sure you click through to each of their pages and follow the artists you love – it’s a great way to keep up with their shows, updates, and get insider tips just for fans: Ani DiFranco, Madonna, Graffiti6, The Kooks, Big Boi, Alicia Keys, Emeli Sandé, Curren$y, Asher Roth, Counting Crows, Other Lives, Theophilus London, Gossip, Daniel Bedingfield, James Durbin, and Martin Sexton.
Happy Friday! Let us know your favorite artists on foursquare (or one’s you’d like to join) in the comments!
Mary-Kate & Ashley, Tia & Tamera, St. Paul & Minneapolis…twin badges for Twin Cities!
These Minnesota hot spots may be twins, but they’re definitely fraternal. That’s why we’ve created two badges, one to honor each side of the Mississippi!
To unlock the City of Lakes or Pig’s Eye badges, check in to five spots on the Minneapolis or St. Paul lists at foursquare.com/4sqcities. Stay tuned for more international badges, including our #4sqCities contest winners!
Check-in photos from Coachella 2012!
The past two weekends, thousands of people checked in to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival to share their amazing weekend of music, art, and sunshine with their friends (and get their Coachella badge, too!).
We’ve posted some of our favorite check-in photos below. Check out the gallery to see hundreds more (or to relive the memories, you lucky ducks).
See more photos here! And remember, whenever you want a sneak peek of place, like a potential date night spot (and the food there), coffee shop, park, or concert venue, you can always check out the photos before on foursquare!
Get outside for Earth Day! Biking and running badges are here
Spring is officially here and we’ve got two new badges to get you outside, just in time for Earth Day this Sunday!
Since our Gym Rat and Downward Facing Dog badges have been so popular, we wanted to find more ways for people to show off their active lifestyles in their trophy cases. To unlock Velocipede or Joggernaut, you’ll need to check in ten times (no time limit!) at running tracks or bike shops, or by shouting things like “just ran 5 miles” or “biking to work today” when you check in at a gym or outdoor spot.
There are lots of ways to make the most out of Earth Day with foursquare. Check out these lists of running and great outdoor spots, or find more places by searching for things like ‘outdoors,’ ‘hiking,’ ‘running,’ or ‘trail’ in Explore. Have fun out there!
Announcing badges for Greek organizations!
From Alphas to Zetas, Greek organizations everywhere are taking notice of the huge number of students checking in to fraternities, sororities, and events. And because so much of Greek life is about shared community and making a difference in the real world, they’re also starting to use foursquare as a great tool for growing the Greek community on campus.
Fraternities and sororities at campuses across the country have already been using foursquare to make the most of their organizations’ activities.
- At the University of Pennsylvania, students used foursquare for Greek Week events like an Academic Bowl, Faculty Tea, Powder Puff football game, and even a canned food drive. Plus, Mayors at Greek locations won free dining certificates!
- At Penn State, the InterFraternity and Panhellenic Councils, who team up for philanthropic efforts like the annual Dance Marathon, use foursquare to spread the word with fun tie-ins, prizes, and helpful lists.
- The Sigma Chi chapter at Boston University had students check in and unlock event-specific Specials at Derby Days, the largest annual student-run fundraiser at the school.
Our first custom Greek badge: Phi Delta Theta
Phi Delta Theta, a fraternity with thousands of foursquare followers, was one of the first organizations to incorporate and promote foursquare on a national level. The Phis created a page to establish a home on foursquare for Phi Delta, created tips and lists, claimed over 100 chapter houses across the country (and Canada!), checked in to events, and created tons of Specials on Phi Delta clothing.
You’re next!
Because we’ve seen so many check-ins at fraternity and sorority houses, and such amazing uses of foursquare to promote Greek life, we’re going to start rolling out custom Greek badges, with Phi Delta Theta as the first. Are you a national Greek organization official? Get excited for a badge and sign up here!
Thanks for celebrating #4sqDay around the world!
It’s the day after 4sqDay and we’re still reeling from the whirlwind of exciting meetups, tweets, photos, and proclamations. Three years running, 4sqDay continues to be a truly global movement, and we couldn’t be more inspired by you, our amazing community.
From Las Vegas to Tampa, Riga to Milan, and Shanghai to Khartoum, people came together to celebrate 4sqDay in local plazas, parks, bars, and cafes. Local businesses and national brands alike offered extra creative specials and tons of great giveaways. Support flooded in from university campuses everywhere, as well as a few unexpected places, and major cities like Brisbane, Philadelphia, Bratislava, and Tampa (the birthplace of 4sqDay!) really got behind the festivities. Even government officials from Senator Wyden of Oregon to President Sarkozy of France tweeted about the day!
All in all, 4sqDay 2012 was amazing (dare we say, it may have been the biggest international social media holiday ever)! Some particularly awesome stats:
- 746 celebrations in cities around the world.
- Twenty-seven cities proclaimed April 16th ‘foursquare day’ in their city, from New York City, San Francisco, and Ithaca (cities that most of team foursquare calls home), to Savannah, Wroclaw, Omaha, and Ruhr! A new record!
- Dozens of cities put a new spin on last year’s awesome foursquare-frosted cupcakes by Vanessa of 4sqDay Los Angeles.
- One explorer celebrated 4sqDay at the North Pole!
Miami Beach, Florida
Paris, France
Houston, Texas
Madrid, Spain
Istanbul, Turkey
more amazing cupcakes and pops by Vanessa in Los Angeles, California
So thanks to everyone who participated in 4sqDay this year, whether checking in with friends, offering a Special at your business, or organizing an amazing meetup for your city. This year’s 4sqDay wouldn’t have been possible without Justin and the team at 4sqDay.com, and all the cities leading the 4sqDay charge. (And, of course, 4sqDay wouldn’t be what it is today without 4sqDay founding team, Nate, Jessica, Walter.) We can’t thank you enough and can’t wait to see what the next 4sqDay will bring.
Share your 4sqDay stories with us in the comments. More pictures coming soon to flickr.com/foursquare!
Lemonade pong, proclamations and more – #4sqDay roundup, campus edition!
From custom foursquare treats, to games of pong (with lemonade, of course) and four square (the playground kind!), the 4sqDay spirit was alive and strong across college campuses everywhere yesterday. Here’s how some campuses celebrated:
Syracuse handed out ice pops, foursquare t-shirts, Syracuse 44 buttons and games of lemonade pong. At their iSchool, students satisfied their sweet tooth with 4sqDay cupcakes (above).
University of New Hampshire made a list of exclusive 4sqDay Specials on campus, including discounted tickets to athletics events. Plus, a t-shirt and crown awaited the campus mayor!
At Brandeis, our campus ambassador and brothers of Phi Kappa Psi led games of four square on their quad and rewarded participants with swag.
Members of the Des Moines badge-winning social media class at Drake University ran a contest encouraging students to check in with pictures of their favorite professors and leave tips at their favorite study spots. They also set up a court for people to get their game on!
Toledo baked up a sweet batch of special foursquare cookies and handed out flyers on how to use foursquare on campus. Students also competed for t-shirt prizes in “Toledo Tip Trivia” by correctly naming guessing places on campus based on the foursquare tips people had left at them.
On the main plaza at Duke, students got free goodies and added sticky note tips to a big campus map.
Students from Cornell got a 4sqDay proclamation from the Mayor of Ithaca! They teamed up with Sonar for a 4sqDay event at a local pizza spot, and foursquare engineer David W joined them!
Got any great #4sqDay stories from your campus? Share them in the comments!
From local biz to big brands, #4sqDay Specials abound! Free phones from @bing and lots more
4sqDay is a community-started celebration, powered by foursquare fans around the world. Today, tons of businesses, both big and small, are offering Specials to honor the occasion!
- In the US, Bing is giving away Nokia Lumia 900 Windows® Phones to 6 random winners who follow Bing on foursquare and share a check-in with the #Bing4sq hashtag to twitter.
- Do fries come with that shake? Also in the US, McDonald’s is giving the first ten people to tweet their McDonald’s check-ins every hour from 10am-3pm a free shirt.
- Share your Nine West check-in to twitter to win a pair of shoes from their Colorblock Collection.
- Domino’s UK will be sending pizza to the London #4sqDay meetup in Trafalgar Square.
- Sonar will be joining the fun at the LA and Ithaca #4sqDay meetups
- Scoutmob will be repping meetups in Atlanta and San Francisco.
- In Tampa (where 4sqDay began!), McDonald’s and Ikea are both running specials.
- In Portland, Pizza Schmizza will be giving out free slices of pizza, along with dozens of other local businesses.
- In Houston, look out for food truck love and more at the #4sqDay party
- In addition to the great sponsors at their party, @4sqLA has put together a list of over a dozen Los Angeles businesses running #4sqDay Specials.
- There are tons of local Specials in Atlanta, in addition to love from Sweetwater Brewery and a food trucks at tonight’s party.
- In San Francisco, the Laugh Box, Hahan Winery, and Scoutmob SF will be bringing love to the #4sqDay party.
- In Ljubljana, Nokia will be providing free snacks and drinks at the #4sqDay party.
- There will be over 16 specials at the mall in Riga where their meetup is being held.
- Tons of businesses and brands are participating in #4sqDay Milan’s festivities.
- In Chicago, check-in at lunchtime to get a free sandwich at the Chik-fil-a Water Tower location.
There are just a few examples of how businesses and brands are participating in 4sqDay this year. Know of any great Specials or celebrations in your area? Post them in the comments! And don’t forget to find a party to attend tonight!
Happy 4sqDay from team @foursquare to you!
In 2010, foursquare fans declared April 16 4sqDay (4/4^2 – nerds after our own heart!). Two years and two billion check-ins later, you’re still why we get out of bed each day. Thanks to all 20 million of you for making us part of your lives.
There are hundreds of amazing parties planned for tonight! Find one near you here. The foursquare team will be at meetups in NYC, SF, London, Ithaca, and Whitewater, WI – we hope to see you!
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