I managed to get out for a night out this weekend and whilst doing so thought it would be a good opportunity to test out Foursquare’s new offering, the Checkmate app. I had done some reading on the auto checking app prior on the Mashable site and knew at some point, someone would come up with the idea but I was skeptical it would/could work accurately. Not to be too scenical I bought in and thought why not?. It works on the basis of once set, automatically checks the user into a venue without their intervention (actually checks in at 50 metres currently). My first thoughts were it would undoubtedly ping ‘false positives’, or simply, nothing at all. It works using the phones inbuilt GPS. The application works on iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 and eventually will add support for other checkin services.



I started by downloading the app at the AppStore (costing the princely sum of £1.19). It shows you all your current Foursquare checkin destinations (after you sign in with your Foursquare details) and allows you to add the ones you want the app, when on, to check you into automatically. You simply choose, save and switch on (like the image portrays). I chose the ones I knew I’d use for the night and after saving them, set the app running in the background whilst I waited for transport, nowhere near any of my checkins for a true test. In addition you have the same option with Checkmate as you do with Foursquare, the ability to share your destination with your Twitter & Facebook friends, inclusive of shouts (‘status updates’ for both, of the destination).

I’d only just got out of a cab in town to hear a ping and see a notification message – My first check in!. Ok, I wasn’t at the bar but come to mention it I wasn’t even near the door – I was on the street though!. I was a good 50 yards from said destination, so straight away it was a thumbs down. I mean I know it’s impossible to get it 100% accurate but it usually checks in at 50 metres which is some distance, especially if there are a number of your checkins nearby or on the same street. That was a huge catchment area and if it wasn’t maybe it’d have faired better. After all you could be just driving past on a weekday, sat at the lights on the way home from work to get checked it at the local bar. Totally inaccurate!. The good thing is, it will only check you into a venue once, inside 12 hours, so there’s no need to worry about multiple checkins for the same venue, say in the same night. Later in the night, I visited two more of my saved venues and.. well nothing!. I was right after all. After that I lost interest and will now just stick to manual checkins through Foursquare. It’s just better for me plus I’ll have more control over what information I decide to share with people. Battery usage also I found an issue as the app constantly runs in the background as you would expect. This led to some battering of my full battery.

Future Checkin is on the way though which differs by letting you adjust the GPS settings for more accurate or more battery-friendly automatic checkins. Both applications warn that by running location in the background, you risk draining your phone’s battery!.

Just my opinion – doesn’t work for me due to:

A nice concept but sadly no, it falls short of the mark!. Too many false positives and some destinations not checked into at all.
I like my battery too much to waste it on something about as much use as a chocolate fireguard.

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Recently I’ve been trying out a few app’s as I’ve said in a previous post for the iPhone. I have also updated my OS to the new ISO4. As I said in that post, some apps impressed me and well others, oustanded me they got the development time!. I know, that’s just my opinion but here it is. The apps I disliked the most were the free ones (nothing decent is free after all) but from what I’ve seen very few free apps tend to be of any use in that category anyway. They seem more… gimmicky!. The ‘download and try and quickly become bored and uninstall types’. Currently I have a mixture of both that I’ve tried and sometimes use.

I have been after a sat nav now for quite some time and after borrowing other peoples and comparing prices on units and was still undecided in buying, thinking they would come down in price gradually and it was just a matter of holding out. One of the most popular models, with good alround reviews seems to be the TomTom1. Most here in the UK are priced around the £100+ mark with additional subscriptions. Although I use one occasionally, I didn’t have the usage to justify buying one myself, so hence my intrepedation.

After seeing the Co-pilot in the App Store I’ll be honest, initially, I was wary. It was an app after all attached to my phone which I couldn’t separate from the phone to use independently, so no one else could say borrow it and of course I’d need a kit for the car. All costs. My thoughts were it was too cheap (just under £20 for version 7). What about updates, cameras and additional maps and other add-on features costs?. How much would they be?. Easy answer, nothing. I downloaded it and have to say, I’m very glad I did!. It’s no different in any way, shape or form than the usual sat nav you can buy. Plus it has some other good features, including, allowing you to connect to your music whilst using the app (shown in the video below), allowing you to connect to Facebook and update your location, much like the Forsquare app does. You can also find places of interest and of course, places in an emergency like a conventional sat nav can but there’s also the option of calling the place (hospital, doctors, garage, restaurant or say places of interest) once you’ve found it in the listings!. After all this it’s a phone primarilyl. I have used the app many times and each time it works well and does exactly what it claims to – it’s even updated itself recently (with traffic cameras updates) and that’s where I thought the issue would be in that there would be undoutedly, an additional fee. There isn’t but there is a new version, improved version 8. Version 7 is fine though. I honestly couldn’t recommened it enough (no they are not paying me). The UK version (all I need) is available on the iPhone, iPad & the Android. For price alone it’s great and functionality is nothing short of what any user would expect from a sat nav with some little extras. Thus far no gripes!. Very cheap, useful and very easy to use for under £20!. What more could you ask for?.

Here’s a demo video of it being used…

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