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With Foursquare seeing fast growth and starting to be embraced by elements of the mainstream (like their new deal with Bravo), it might be decision time.

A popular part of the gaming element of the service is gaining badges, virtual tokens that show you’ve done a certain task on the service. Most of these are clever, like the Photogenic badge when you check-in to three different places with photobooths. But some are a bit more risqué, like the Douchebag badge. As Foursquare keeps growing, will there be pressure to get rid of these?

Increasingly, this issue is being brought up on Foursquare’s Get Satisfaction page. As one user wrote yesterday in the forum:

Has it occurred to the too-cool-for-school hipsters at foursquare that unlocking a “douchebag” badge for your fans because they check in at places like Barneys might:
1. Be insulting to your users, especially if have chosen to share their badges with friends and
2. Might also be insulting to your future customers and business partners like Barneys?

Total FAIL, guys. Who are you to judge what your customers like and don’t like?

Another user follows that up with:

I agree, it is also offensive to me and I suspect many others. What’s next, “Asshole” and “Dickhead” badges? At a minimum, users should be allowed to delete/block such an offensive badge in their profile.

A week ago, another thread was started raising the same issue:

I’m surprised to have unlocked the “douchebag” badge by checking in to a trendy hotel and must admit that I find the badge name rather offensive. What’s the point of it and why use such a crude name?

Editorial comment: If you’re trying to build a service that’s going to be appealing to more than just the uber-geeky among us, don’t y’all think that, just maybe, you should screen some of the words involved with the service?

That actually ties in very well with what Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley told Bits today while talking about the Bravo deal:

Bravo’s shows really overlap with our users and a new mainstream audience that we want to reach. I don’t think check-ins are a nerd-only experience. It’s about sharing content and experiences with others.

While the Douchebag badge may have been fine for the “nerd-only” crowd, they’re clearly starting to move beyond that, and some users are getting upset about it.

And while you might not see why this is much of an issue, coincidentally, I ran into this issue last night. I have my Foursquare account set up to auto-tweet out when I unlock new badges. Last night, I happened to be at a bar tagged as a “douchebag” bar, so when I checked-in, I unlocked the badge and it automatically tweeted out to all my followers.

For the record, I think the Douchebag badge is hilarious, and could care less that it tweeted out. But I certainly can see how that could be an issue for some people. To a lesser extent, the same is true with the Crunked badge (4 or more stops in one night, implying you’re drunk — which is probably true) and others.

Also, what happens when a venue doesn’t like that they’ve been tagged as a “douchebag” place?

This brings up an interesting dilemma for Foursquare: do they abandon some of the fun, quirky things that made the service what it is, in an attempt to go mainstream?

[thanks malachi]

Filed under: Odds and ends, Apple

It must be nice to be the host of your own popular Comedy Central show and a host on the Grammy Awards. Why? You get to play with an iPad.

No, it’s not one of Tim Meehan’s faux iPads – this was a working unit that flipped from portrait to landscape mode when Stephen Colbert pulled it out of his jacket… or pants. Enjoy this short piece of video from tonight’s Grammy Award ceremonies.

TUAWStephen Colbert and his iPad at the Grammys originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We didn’t think we’d see an iPad surface so soon… If you were keeping up with the Grammys, you were probably just as shocked as we were when Stephen Colbert pulled one out to present Song of the Year. And of course, the iPad’s cameo wouldn’t be complete without a little gloating from Colbert himself. “Jay Z, did you not get one of these in your gift bag? Am I cooler than you?!” Bravo, Stephen Colbert. Hit the break for a video clip.

Read

We reported on Friday that all Macmillan book titles, minus a few stragglers, had been removed from Amazon.com’s U.S. site and its Kindle e-books store. The books were still listed, but you couldn’t buy them from Amazon, and still can’t on Sunday evening. Only links to third-party sellers are available. If you want to buy the bestselling tell-all about John Edwards, The Politician, a book that’s all over TV and radio talk shows this weekend, you’ll have to go somewhere else.

Even Macmillan titles on Kindle owners’ wish lists magically disappeared.

What happened, we’ve learned via forwarded communications from Macmillan and Publisher’s Marketplace, is this: Macmillan went to Amazon last week and told them that they earnestly believe Amazon’s $9.99 pricing for Kindle copies of books — a loss-leader price designed to jump-start Kindle sales and use — was bad for Macmillan, bad for their authors, and bad for the book business.

From now on, Macmillan representatives said, Amazon would no longer be a retail outlet for Macmillan books. Instead, Macmillan would require all e-book sellers to use what’s called an “agency model.” Amazon would act as a sales agent of Macmillan. Macmillan would set each book’s sale price individually. Macmillan books would be priced at $14.99 to $15.99, with a few $12.99 new titles.

As an agent, Amazon would get a cut, probably around 30 percent, of each sale. But Amazon wouldn’t be allowed to knock down prices to move units. Macmillan’s public stance was that Amazon would make more money per book from the agency model, so everyone should be happy. Even e-book buyers, because Macmillan could bring them more books in the long run, albeit at a higher price.

Amazon’s public stance on Friday was: Take a hike, Macmillan. If that’s the only way we can sell your books, we won’t sell them at all. We’ve deleted your print titles. Sorry, did we break your concentration?

Today, Amazon changed their stance. In a post on the Kindle forum, an official company statement says:

Dear Customers:

Macmillan, one of the “big six” publishers, has clearly communicated to us that, regardless of our viewpoint, they are committed to switching to an agency model and charging $12.99 to $14.99 for e-book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases.

We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan’s terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books. Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it’s reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book. We don’t believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan. And we know for sure that many independent presses and self-published authors will see this as an opportunity to provide attractively priced e-books as an alternative.

Kindle is a business for Amazon, and it is also a mission. We never expected it to be easy!

Thank you for being a customer.

Applications that looked amazing on larger multi-touch experiences like Microsoft Surface may have a more affordable consumer-facing counterpart. While the iPad has been widely criticized, many startups are thrilled by its possibilities. In mid-November we featured Paris-based Pearltrees as a new design interface for remapping web information. We spoke to CEO Patrice Lamothe to hear his thoughts on the release of the iPad.

Sponsor

Pearltrees is a new way of organizing information where users create mindmap-style visualizations of their favorite websites and web-based media. Each “pearl” or media node can have multiple branches and depending on how you want to arrange your pearls, you can drag and drop them to any branch point to suit your needs. Rather than scrolling through a linear hierarchy of bookmarks, users can delve into different branches of a pearltree. Naturally, this type of data visualization lends itself to the touch capabilities of the iPad.

Says Lamothe, “The idea of physically touching and moving items on a screen is in the DNA of Pearltrees. We won’t need to change much to the interaction design to make it suitable for the iPad.”

Nevertheless, while Lamothe sees the potential in the tablet’s touch interface, the fact that the device does not currently support Flash is a problem for the CEO. While many argue that Apple’s omission of Flash support is in favor of HTML 5, there’s no denying that lack of Flash would hinder the consumer experience. The plethora of pre-existing Flash apps and sites are inaccessible save for Adobe’s workarounds.

Says Lamothe, “I believe tablets can open up an entirely new field, something I would call ‘casual browsing’. It’s a really simple way to get information, browse the Web, enjoy content, play games and communicate with friends. It’s something you will do at home, in cafes, during your holidays – basically when you have a bit of leisure time. To be the perfect casual browser, the IPad would need a more open architecture, Flash, a camera and a few other features…In any case, it’s an exciting new way to enjoy the Web.”

Discuss

Motorola’s Backflip has yet to springboard itself over to AT&T, but those who call China home can hop on the bandwagon right away. Said phone — which sports a full touchscreen and a physical QWERTY thanks to the horizontal clamshell design — is now available from Moto’s Chinese portal for 4,298 Chinese yuan (in unlocked form), which translates to right around $630. While the rest of the world awaits the phone’s launch later this quarter, you can hit up Mobile.163.com for a downright beautiful gallery of in the wild shots. Go on, it’s safe. We think.

[Thanks, Me]

Motorola Backflip spotted in the wilds of China originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 23:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Government/Legal, Safety, Toyota

After a long spell as the apple of the media’s eye, Toyota is now officially in the bad news barrel. So far the Japanese automaker has announced the recall of 5.3 million vehicles for floor mat issues that may lead to unintended acceleration and a separate recall of 2.3 million vehicles for sticking gas pedals (watch the explanatory video). The entire ordeal has been a public relations nightmare, and as you’d expect, Toyota’s stock is taking a hit.

Last week alone shares in the automaker plunged by a jaw-dropping 14 percent. That’s a drop of $21 billion (with a B) in market value. The lion’s share of the losses are likely due to investors’ unease at how the the mounting recalls are playing out, but we suspect that part of the issue has to do with Toyota’s handling of the recalls to date.

Last fall Toyota appeared to be calling the original recall of 3.8 million vehicles for floor mat issues a voluntary matter, only to be rebuked by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which insisted that the recall was mandatory. More recently Toyota announced that it was shipping new pedals to factories, only to change its mind and send the parts to dealerships after an angry response from dealers and the public. Mizuno Credit Advisory director Tatsuya Mizuno reportedly told Business Week that Toyota has “wasted too much time without doing anything,” adding that the automaker used to have foresight for taking action but is now, “very far behind the curve.”

Other than a 75 second television interview by Toyota president Akio Toyoda in Davos, Switzerland, Toyota hasn’t said much of anything about the recalls. That will reportedly change this week as the Japanese automaker hits the news circuit in an attempt to allay customer fear about the recalls. Toyota U.S.A president Jim Lentz will appear on the Today Show Monday morning, followed by a conference call with other media outlets. BusinessWeek reports that Toyota may also be close to announcing a fix for at least one of the recalls, which should help investors feel a bit more comfortable that the situation is being handled.

Toyota also took out full-page ads in 20 major markets to explain why it has temporarily suspended production at several plants. Oddly, the full page ad didn’t focus on the recalls. The ad (shown above, click to enlarge) says “A temporary pause. To put you first,” in very big letters, followed by an explanation as to why the plants were temporarily shut down in comparatively tiny letters. The ad doesn’t give any specifics about the recall, but it directs customers to the automaker’s website for information about the Toyota recall.

While Toyota’s ad blitz will no doubt be crucial to winning back its very faithful customers and the company’s considerable reputation for quality and reliability, still more hurdles lie ahead. The next major step will be the announcement of a fix, followed by a potentially embarrassing February 25 meeting with the House Energy and Commerce Committee to discuss the unintended acceleration claims and the NHTSA’s handling of the matter. Beyond that Toyota will need to absolutely nail the execution of the recall and get as many vehicles repaired as quickly as possible. Lets just hope dealers can fix this problem fast than Toyota can explain it.

[Source: Business Week]

Toyota loses $21B in market share in one week, plans media blitz this week originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One of the more interesting aspects of the annual Game Developers Conference is the Independent Games Festival, a showcase for some of the best and brightest people and ideas in the industry. Hidden among the next big indie games is the Student Showcase. Here, 10 student-developed games compete for the top prize and $2,500, and past Showcase winners have gone on to create games like Portal, Flower, and de Blob. This year featured a record 190 entries, and the chosen 10 showcase a bright future for the video game industry.

Let’s take a look at what students are bringing to the world of gaming; the breadth of ideas is impressive.

Suzuki is determined to make a bigger impact on the U.S. market and is planning a raft of new models it hopes will be able to lure buyers away from current favorites. To do so the automaker is building a range of models decisively sportier than many of its rivals and packed with plenty of standard features. We’ve already seen the first of these…