Loopt has now launched Location History settings — a way for you to download and save your personal Loopt location history into a KML file*. Your personal location history includes both your “check in”/share locations with Loopt, and all the tracking points in between that Loopt has saved in the background. Loopt Location History works on all models of phone supported by Loopt.

Why do this?

Your KML file can be used by Google Earth, for example, to create some cool visual mashups of trips you take, for example.  You might want add geo-tagged photos to your mashups. You might want to study your driving routes to find a more efficient commute. You might be interested to see how many miles you travel in a week, a month, a year. You could turn it on at the beginning of a road trip, and off again at the end. Whatever your reason, have fun!

Is it private?

Totally! We don’t specifically share your data with anyone. You can turn on or off Location History at any time. Loopt Location History is turned off by default.

To turn on Location History, do the following:

1. Log into your account on Loopt.com here: https://app.loopt.com/loopt/sess/login.aspx. (Or, click Login from the Home page of Loopt at http://www.loopt.com.) You use the same mobile phone number and password that you use to access your Loopt mobile account on your phone.
2. Click on Settings in the top right corner.



3. Check on the agreement, and click on Save It to start saving your history.

To download your Location History, do the following:

1. Go back to settings (see above).
2. Click on Download My Location History to save your KML file.

To clear your Location History, do the following:

1. Go back to settings (see above).
2. Click on Clear My Location History.  All traces of your Location History will be removed from the Loopt databases.

* KML – “Keyhole Markup Language.”  You can read more about KML here. The KML file specifies a set of features (place marks, images, polygons, 3D models, textual descriptions, etc.) for display in Google Earth, Maps and Mobile, or any other 3D Earth browser (geobrowser) that supports KML encoding.  You could, for example, import your KML file into Google Earth. Read more about how to do this here.

Upgrade to our shiny new version of Loopt 3.0 for iPhone is live in the iTunes store now. (Read about Loopt 3.0 here.). Get it now!

The new version has a few important things going on:

• You can now share your location in the background for up to 24 hours; with the Loopt 3.0 version, the maximum time was 8 hours; everyone wanted longer!
• It’s compatible with iOS3 and iOS4. (Note, you need iOS4 for background goodies.)
• You can create your own Facebook events on Loopt, and have your friends participate and RSVP from within Loopt.

We’re thrilled with response to Loopt 3.0.  We got over 300,000 upgrades in the first two days!  We’re seeing over 250,000 requests for Pulse information (Events, Places) every day, and 30,000 daily friend invites are going out.

Thanks for all the great feedback and support.

Now there’s even more reason to check in with Loopt Star. Free music! Seriously!

All you need to do is to check into any bar in the United States with Loopt Star.

You’ll win the Loopt Star Discover The Music Around You Reward.

What is this Reward?

The Music Reward is five free songs from very cool artists including: Mos Def, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Taio Cruz, La Roux and MORE!

How do I get it?

1. Find a participating bar.  A participating bar will have the “star” icon alongside its name:

 


2. Check into the bar. You’ll immediately be told you’ve won the Reward!
3. Go to your Me tab.
4. Click on Completed Rewards.
5. Redeem the Reward.
6. Give us your email address. (Don’t worry. We won’t use it for any nefarious purposes.)
7. We’ll send you a link and a special code to choose music. You have to redeem the music on your laptop, rather than on your phone. (But you can transfer to your music library later of course.)

What music do I get?

Go to http://www.amplified.com/loopt to see today’s selections. We’ll be changing them as we move along, so check back often!

This is cool. Try your hand at making us a Loopt Star commercial. Help us tell the world what Loopt Star is all about …

Go to http://tongal.com/looptstar for details.

$7,500 prize purse for the winning video. How sweet is that?! Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

On Monday, we announced the new Loopt for iPhone. It just hit iTunes, so get it now »

(Note: only users who have upgraded to the latest iOS 4.0 will be able to use this version of Loopt)

We’re really excited to take advantage of all that iOS 4 has to offer, most notably: background location sharing. With this update, you’ll be able to receive alerts when friends are nearby, even if Loopt isn’t running in the foreground. You can receive those updates via push notifications. To setup Friend Alerts, click “Alerts” from the home screen.

“Does that mean my Loopt friends can see where I am, too, even if I don’t have the app open?” Only if you want them to, of course!

As with all versions of Loopt, you’re always in control of who can see your location.

Turning on location sharing is optional, and can be changed at any time you choose (you can change it to manual location updating or no updates at all).

Furthermore, you can “hide” your location from your Loopt contacts on a friend-by-friend basis. All of these features can be accessed by clicking on “Settings” from the home screen and then clicking “Location Privacy.”

You can share updates with your friends across your favorite social networks, like Facebook and Twitter. But what’s new with this update is that you can optionally push your live location to those networks for up to 8 hours. It’s a cool feature if you’re going on a trip, running a race—just about anything you can think of where you want your friends on Facebook and Twitter to be able to follow along with you as you complete your trek!

Here’s a summary of what’s new in this version of Loopt for the iPhone:

• Background location sharing takes advantage of multitasking on the new iOS 4 so you can always let your close friends and family know where you are, even when you’re using other apps
• Set up friend alerts to find out when they’re nearby via push notifications
• Brand new grid view on the home screen to easily navigate Loopt’s rich feature set
• Discover the places your friends and the Loopt community like best
• Choose favorite friends to quickly find them on the home screen

Try out the new Loopt for iPhone and iPod touch for yourself; get it now in the AppStore!

Have you got any? Hopefully you’ve at least earned your Rookie Achievement (view your collection of Achievements on the Me tab in Loopt Star)!

You earn Achievements for exploring the world around you with friends on Loopt Star — there are quite a few to get — for checking in to bars, restaurants, etc., and just getting out and about.

Tell us how it’s going, and give us feedback by leaving a comment!

Christmas came early when one of the Apple iPhone 4s we pre-ordered arrived in the mail earlier today—two days ahead of the scheduled date. Click here to watch the video of Sam opening it for the first time!

*Here’s our Press Release about the new Loopt update. It should hit the AppStore shortly; when it does, we’ll let you know here!

NEW LOOPT TO REVOLUTIONIZE LOCATION-BASED EXPERIENCE IN THE MOBILE WORLD

Updated Loopt iPhone App Takes Advantage of Multi-Tasking; “Background Location Sharing” Allows Location Updating without Checking In

Mountain View, CA., – June 21, 2010 – Loopt (www.loopt.com), the groundbreaking location-based social mapping service with more than 3 million users, today announced a new version that can finally deliver all the advantages and capabilities of “background location sharing” thanks to new multi-tasking features in the Apple’s iOS 4. Loopt for the iPhone can now run in the background so users can share their location with selected friends without having to specifically “check in” to update their location.

The upgraded Loopt iPhone application, available this week, allows users to keep friends updated on where they are with a unique hybrid model of check-ins and background updates: Users can check in to a location to tell friends where they are – and optionally share those check-ins to Facebook and Twitter — but they can also choose to inform a selected group of people where they are at any given time without having to check in or even launch Loopt. Friends appear on the Loopt map, which updates in real-time as friends move around.

Background location sharing also alerts friends when they are within a few blocks of each other so they can meet up, allows parents to stay informed where family members are, and allows friends to stay up to date on a friend’s adventurous cross-country travels. The feature is always completely user-controlled. Users choose which friends to include on the background location sharing updates, and how long to keep the location sharing turned on. Typically Loopt users will turn on background location sharing with a small subset of friends and family, but share check-ins with a wider group of friends on Loopt, Facebook and Twitter.

Background location sharing adds to the existing rich feature set of Loopt that includes browsing of cool events and places to hang out with friends. Loopt integrates content from partners including SonicLiving, Zvents, Metromix, Zagat, CitySearch, Microsoft Bing and TastingTable.

“The ability to run location-based apps in the background makes serendipity happen. With the new capabilities provided by iOS 4, users will be able to share their location and receive alerts on the phone in their pocket when they’re near a friend. This sort of accidental discovery just wasn’t possible with a Check In-only approach to location sharing,” said Sam Altman, CEO of Loopt. “We will be able to bring the full Loopt experience to our users, allowing them to find friends with a single click or instantly discover interesting events nearby in a way that is fully controlled, adjustable and above all privacy-conscious.”

Features new to Loopt 3.0 include:

• Background updating – taking advantage of iOS 4, Loopt will update a user’s location to a selected group of friends, without requiring them to check in or constantly re-launch the app.
• PNS alerts – when a friend is nearby, Loopt will push a notification to the user letting them know a friend is in the neighborhood.
• Grid based navigation – the user interface re-design allows for a simpler user experience by surfacing the rich feature set of the Loopt app.
• Closer Facebook integration – users can choose to share their location when they check in via Facebook; they can also send out Facebook friend requests joining the Loopt network.

The release of Loopt 3.0 comes shortly after the launch of Loopt Star, the first fully customizable, real-world rewards game for retailers and brands. Loopt Star allows businesses to give loyal customers something of real value, like discounts and free gifts, for checking in and encourages foot-traffic into stores.
Loopt 3.0 for the iPhone is available from the App Store. The Loopt app also runs on over 100 other phones, including Android, for which a new version was recently introduced, and BlackBerry. For more information, visit www.loopt.com.

About Loopt
Loopt is the leading location-based mobile social mapping company. Loopt produces a suite of mobile applications including Loopt, Loopt Star, Loopt Pulse for iPad, and Loopt Mix, to allow users to discover the world around them. Loopt products use location on mobile phones, iPad and iPod touch devices to help their users find and enjoy the friends, places, and events around them right now. The Loopt services have more than three million registered users and partnerships with every major U.S. mobile phone carrier. Loopt is available on over 100 phones, including iPhone. (See www.loopt.com/phones for the full range of supported handsets.) The company is located in Silicon-Valley. Loopt was designed with privacy considerations at its core and offers a variety of effective and intuitive privacy controls.
Contact:

Alice Lankester
Loopt, Inc.
press@loopt.com
650.230.6064

Samantha Murillo
On behalf of Loopt, Inc.
loopt@sutherlandgold.com
415.848.7167

Earlier this month, we launched Loopt Star, a really cool application that rewards you for going out and exploring the world with your friends. We had a lot of fun building and testing it, but it’s always nice to hear people outside of the Loopt family enjoying it. In case you missed it, here’s what others said:

The New York Times said that “these games and apps offer a new form of mobile marketing that goes well beyond a minibanner ad by rewarding consumers, individually, for their loyalty.” Mashable liked the fact that Loopt Star is extremely easy to use, saying “simplicity = smart.” TechCrunch likes the simplistic nature of Loopt Star’s Facebook Connect feature as well.

Photo by Peter DaSilva for The New York Times

But we’re most concerned with what you think! We’ve got a lot of really cool ideas on the future of Loopt Star, but in the past, some of the best ideas have come from you. So let us know what you think! If you haven’t played Loopt Star yet, jump on board and download it free in the App Store.

OK, back to work!

We’re really excited to be a part of this weekend’s Stanford Commencement Ceremonies. Not just because they did an awesome job taking advantage of some of the really cool features that Loopt Star offers to partners, but also because Stanford has played an important role in the founding of Loopt (after all, it’s where Sam, Nick and Alok first had the idea for Loopt while leaving class one day).

“By making Loopt Star available to students, we hope we’ll be helping them stay connected with each other and with the university once they leave campus,” said Howard E. Wolf, president of the Stanford Alumni Association and vice president for alumni affairs.

So here’s how to play:

• Loopt Star players who Check In to one of the following events get a Stanford Virtual Achievement.
• Players who Check In to two of the following events get a prize delivered right to their phone (shh! We can’t tell you what it is, there’s only one way to find out)! And you can only Check In during the events or you won’t get the credit…

1. Senior Dinner on the Quad [Location: Main Quad, June 10, 6:30pm-11:30pm]
2. Class Plaque Dedication Ceremony [Location: Main Quad, June 11, 2:30-4:30pm]
3. Baccalaureate Celebration [Location: Main Quad, June 12, 9am-11am]
4. Class Day Lecture [Location: Maples Pavilion, June 12, 11am-1pm]
5. Commencement Ceremony [Location: Stanford Stadium, June 13, 8am-12pm]

If you don’t already have Loopt Star downloaded on your iPhone or iPod touch, it’s time to start playing–pick it up from iTunes now!

Congratulation Stanford 2010 graduates from everyone here at Loopt!