Spontaneous get-togethers are now more possible than ever with Facebook's new Nearby Friends feature. You'd think parents could use it to see if their kids got where they said they were going, but Nearby Friends is only available to Facebook users aged 18+. And then it's "opt-in" – not on by default – so sharing location has to be a conscious for adults who use it, and they can only share with … [Read more...] about Facebook’s new friend-tracking tool
geolocation
New phone app: Color me (& us) careful!
The new Color photo-sharing app for iPhone and Android smartphones, is free, potentially fun, and has no age restrictions. And it will probably have a lot of appeal for our highly social, digital photography-loving kids who love to share and tag. It also has staying power. Color "has all-star founders who have an impressive track record," reports ReadWriteWeb, and they raised $41 million to get … [Read more...] about New phone app: Color me (& us) careful!
Disable geotagging on kids’ smartphones!
If your kids love to take, post, and tag photos with their cellphones and they use smartphones like an iPhone, sit down with them and figure out how to disable geotagging. What's geotagging? It's a bit of software code that smartphones automatically embed in digital photos when you take them, so that – when they're posted online – people can fairly easily map exactly where the photo was taken, … [Read more...] about Disable geotagging on kids’ smartphones!
Good or bad ‘Deals’ for FB users?
Add the mobile piece to social shopping + social networking and we just might have a new killer app (i.e., huge uptake). What I'm talking about is Facebook's just-announced "Deals." Analysts are saying social shopping (users giving products in virtual stores, or Web sites, a "Like," review, or comment) was ho-hum. What really adds interest and potential mass appeal is a pay-off, the BBC reports – … [Read more...] about Good or bad ‘Deals’ for FB users?
Social location-sharing
More and more we're hearing about location-based socializing in the news – for example, Loopt and Latitude for keeping track of friends in a geographical sort of way, Facebook's new Places, the more game-like Foursquare, and Glympse for tracking kids for specific periods of time (like between 9pm and "curfew," up to 4 hours max). Well, in case you'd like a little primer on these location-based … [Read more...] about Social location-sharing