Visa launches iOS app that serves location-based offers

by Vlad Bobleanta on December 15, 2010 at 03:30 PM

Visa has launched an iOS application that shows you offers based on your location. There are currently over 50 merchant offers, in areas including clothing, entertainment and dining. The app allows retailers, among which are Planet Hollywood, Holiday Inn, Hard Rock Cafe, Zales and New York & Company, to automatically deliver offers to Visa account holders based on their location.

Those who own Visa Signature cards will also receive special Signature offers in addition to the standard offers that everyone else gets. The offers can be redeemed either online or at physical retail locations, and they are stored inside the app. You can also get a map and directions to ATMs in your immediate vicinity, as well as nearby retailers where you can redeem offers.

Visa also has an Android application out, but participation in the Android program is currently limited to select US Bank debit cardholders, whereas the iOS app is free and usable by all US-based Visa account holders.

Download Visa Mobile Application for iPhone, iPad or iPod touch (iOS 3.0 or newer required) from the iTunes App Store

Tags: apps, finance, IOS, ipad, iphone, ipod touch, IpodTouch, offers, Visa, visa iphone app, VisaIphoneApp

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Microsoft launches Lync: 70 new devices supported now, Kinect integration in 2011

Microsoft lines up HP, Polycom, Logitech and others to suport its next-generation IP PBX
UPDATED: As expected, today Microsoft officially launched its next generation audio/video conferencing "PBX replacement" dubbed Lync. The company lined up an impressive array of over 70 hardware devices certified to support Lync. It also promised that support for Lync on the iPhone, Windows Phone 7 and the Xbox with Kinect would be coming later this year. Read more

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Google launches Hotpot for social place recommendations

Filed under: Web services, Google, Social Software

Google Hotpot is new a social place recommendation engine built on Google's existing Place pages. Up until now, Places have been rated and reviewed based on outside sources like Yelp, but Hotpot lets users rate local establishments using their Google Profiles. After you've entered a few ratings, Hotpot will use your tastes to recommend other places you might like, sort of like a Netflix for restaurants.

You can also add friends on Hotpot (again, via their Google Profiles). Adding friends is easy, as Hotpot can find friends through your Gmail address book. Once you've added friends, their ratings will get a little extra weight in recommending places for you.

As for the site itself, Hotpot has a pretty slick grid-based UI, with each place in a box featuring a photo and a star rating. Up top, you've got counters tallying your ratings and reviews. You can quickly access your history, your previously rated places, or your friends' recent ratings from a sidebar. The whole thing is quite user-friendly, and oriented toward browsing versus searching, which makes it ideal for finding somewhere to go out to dinner.

Since it doesn't require existing Google users to sign up or add a whole new bunch of contacts, Hotpot actually has a decent chance of catching on, and it certainly makes Google's Place pages more fun and useful.
Google launches Hotpot for social place recommendations originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 02:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yahoo launches Mafia Wars and FishVille

Filed under: Games, Internet, Web services, Yahoo!

Yahoo has just launched Mafia Wars and FishVille, two games developed by Zynga, the company best known for FarmVille and its other games on the Facebook platform. In the past few months though, Zynga has shifted away from being tied exclusively to Facebook and has launched its games on Windows Live Messenger, MSN Games -- and now Yahoo.

Mafia Wars and FishVille will appear in Yahoo Messenger, Yahoo Games, My Yahoo, Yahoo Pulse and Yahoo's browser toolbar. Starting the Zynga integration with just two games -- and not the most popular ones (where's FarmVille?) -- clearly means that Yahoo is in sort of a testing phase. If all goes well, expect to see more Zynga titles on Yahoo's properties soon.

[via TechCrunch]Yahoo launches Mafia Wars and FishVille originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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