Yesterday we looked at Check.in, the universal check-in Web application that provides a single interface for registering your location with several location-based social networking services like Foursquare and Brightkite. Today, we’re learning of a native iPhone application that integrates Check.in’s functionality: Geolorean.
Not only does the new Geolorean application provide all the features of Check.in, it also provides an aggregated view of all your friends’ check-ins across the applications it supports: Gowalla, Brightkite, and Foursquare.
Check-ins and Check-in Streams
The Web page for Geolorean answers the first question we had about this application: Is this new? The site reads: “What do you mean you’ve seen this? It’s brand new.”
Well, indeed it is.
Check.in only launched out of private beta yesterday and already here’s an app taking advantage of the functionality it provides. The App Store, though, shows an “Update Date” of May 6th for Geolorean and the app itself launched back in late April. That means it actually launched even before Check.in went into public beta. If only we had known!
Geolorean (love the name, by the way) is a creation of two Chicago developers, Andy LaVoy and Max Beatty. With this $0.99 app you can view an aggregated stream of your friends’ check-ins and you can locate your friends on a map where you can see the details of each check-in. And when you’re out and need to check in somewhere, you can use the Check.in Web service, which is integrated into the application by way of a Web view. When selecting this option, Check.in launches within the app, not in an external Safari window.
The iTunes app description promises more “updates and expanded features soon,” but apparently that won’t include any additional location-based services for the time being. According to a Q&A on the app’s homepage, it will add other services only “if another one gets popular.” (Does no one use Loopt?) However, the site does mention that you’ll soon be able to use the app to merge contacts across the three supported services into a single contact in order to better track their check-ins.
There isn’t much more to this app, but I tried it this morning and it worked well without any crashes or noticeable bugs. Of course, I’m sitting here at home writing about it so I haven’t been able to test the Check.in feature yet. But based on my previous experience with the standalone Web app, it should do just fine.
If you’re interested in trying Geolorean for yourself, you can grab it from iTunes here.
