If you haven’t seen it yet, Gowalla is a location-based iPhone app that allows you to check into spots & pick up or drop items that you collect. It’s recently become my second favorite iPhone app. I won’t go all into the details of the app here, but you can read my previous post comparing Gowalla and Foursquare.

Here are some tips or “best practices” that users can use to make Gowalla more enjoyable for everyone:

• When creating a new spot, it’s OK if you don’t spell it correctly, put it in the wrong correct category, or if the location is off a bit. Just log into the web site when you get home and make any corrections to the name of the spot, it’s category, and it’s location on the map. I know some people might try to mark new spots while driving by them. The GPS of your iPhone might not always be accurate. Editing the spot’s location will fix that easily.
• If the spot you’re creating is for a well known company or organization, don’t forget to spell it correctly. You can always go back & edit it if you didn’t.
• When selecting or correcting the category, make sure you select the category that best describes the spot. Each category will sometimes give other users that check into that spot a unique item that’s associated with the category.
• If check into a new spot that you haven’t checked into before, drop an item that’s not associated with the spot, if you have any items to drop.
• Once you go back to edit a spot that you’ve created, don’t forget to add an interesting description for the spot. If you don’t know of anything off the top of your head, see if the spot has a web site and see if there is any interesting info there. “Food” isn’t too interesting description for a grocery store. Pretty BORING if you ask me.
• If you are having problems, a great idea for something, or feedback, go to http://getsatisfaction.com/gowalla and say something. I have recently posted a few ideas on there. Like the Asian food should be split up into different sub-categories. Make places
  easier to identify. And there is no Caribbean food category. That was posted as an idea. Or maybe there is a spot that is spelled completely wrong and the creator can’t be gotten hold of, post a new topic with the info (get the URL of the spot from your web browser) and correct info and a Gowalla employee will fix it.
  
• Toll exits from highways and freeways don’t make good spots to check into. Driving while playing with Gowalla can be dangerous!
• If you have spare items, don’t forget to drop one off at spots you check into. Even swap out items at spots. Each spot can hold up to 10 items.
• If you need items, start checking into different spots.
• If you come across a spot that has been created, but not founded drop an item if you have any available.
• Not sure about what to categorize a spot, ask a fellow Gowalla user.
• Personally, I have a thing with privacy issues, so I wouldn’t recommend creating at spot for your house.

Some tips inspired from Gowalla:ProTips at bluwiki.com.

Web site – http://gowalla.com
Twitter – @gowalla

Look for updates to this post in the future!

                          

I’ve come across two iPhone apps that people say are fun to have, play, and use. First, I found Gowalla (App Store link). Nice interface. Interesting GPS-based location game. You start off with a blank passport. You go to different locations (they call them ‘spots’) and check in. When you check in, you get a stamp for the spot. You can also pick up items or drop items at the spot for others to get. If you come across a new spot that no one has been to before, you can easily enter the location’s info into the app to create the new spot for Gowalla. If you drop an item in that new spot, you become the founder. You start of with five objects. Unfortunately for me, don’t live in a major city so I’ve had to drop all of items to become the founder of new spots. Not too big of a deal. I don’t think I’ll have a large collection of items until for a while. One nice thing, Gowalla will surprise you sometimes with giving you an item when you check into spots sometimes.

As for the finding ability of Gowalla, it uses the GPS on the iPhone and it works SPOT ON. No issues. If you make a mistake, you can edit the spot’s name, actual location on the map, category, and check-in radius. As far as I can tell, it’s for the web site only. There are multiple spots set up close together called trips. You can complete trips by going to each of the trip’s spots. You can also create trips for others to complete.

One last note about Gowalla: Do not get discourage if you drop all of your items if you live in an area where there aren’t many Gowalla users. You’ll find more when you check into spots. Trust me.

Next, is foursquare (App Store link). It seems to be popular in some major cities worldwide. It works similar to Gowalla in that you go to different locations and check into them. Instead of getting stamps in a passport, you can get badges and earn points for different things you do, like go to a new spot, bringing friends with you, and traveling some distance.

I’ve played with the app for a few days and have be very disappointed. Since I don’t live in a big city that’s supported by foursquare, I’ve had to create new locations. After doing so a few times, I’ve discovered that this app is not GPS based, but based off of addresses from Google Maps. So my new locations are way off from their actual location because foursquare does not use GPS to pinpoint my iPhone’s location. Even if you do edit the address of a created location, it still won’t be right due to Google Maps. I’ve tested this on the iPhone and on the Google Maps web site. The problem is with Google Maps. foursquare tweeted me after I tweeted with what I’ve found and they were quick to blame the iPhone’s GPS for the errors. They said “Phone GPS can be wonky sometimes… esp when deep indoors.” That might be true IF I was indoors, but I was outside. I WAS OUTSIDE. Now this might work great if you live in a major city, but I don’t. I live in the suburbs.

If foursquare ever changes how their app finds location then I’ll give it another try, but my clear favorite is Gowalla. Both apps are free, so it doesn’t cost you anything to give them a try and see for yourself.