Brightkite iPhone App


Brightkite recently announced it’s iPhone App coming to the iTunes App Store soon. Here’s the video demo of the application:

[vimeo]1984673[/vimeo]

I have been using Brightkite along with Twitter for couple of months now since James has invited me to the service. It’s a darn impressive social networking application that uses Yahoo’s Fire Eagle which allows users to manage their location.

The features that are planned for the Brightkite iPhone app are:

  • Auto geo-location including Place Snapping and Pick a Place
  • Notifications (nearby friends, posts, friend requests, comments & mentions)
  • Posting photos and notes to locations
  • Nearby people and activity feed
  • Friends lists and activity feed
  • People, places and posts search
  • Threaded messaging
  • Profile streams
  • Place steams
  • Placemarks
  • Commenting on posts

The only drawbacks that I currently forsee are the following (at least w/ Brightkite.com web app):

  • You must have the discipline to “check in” to your current location. I’m hoping the “auto geo-location” can address this with no sweat.
  • Sometimes, the syncing between Brightkite and Twitter does not work. I think this is more on Twitter’s end (from what I heard following @brightkite).
  • There were a couple of times an emailed photo would appear late (2-hours late one-time) from the time it was taken.

All in all, it’s a great service. I can’t wait to use that iPhone app vs. going to Safari every time to check-in. I just hope the syncing (Brightkite to Twitter) get’s polished.

[cb type=”company”]Brightkite[/cb]
[cb type=”company”]Twitter[/cb]
[cb type=”product”]Fire Eagle[/cb]