Gowalla.com is a tool for sharing travel tips and adventures.

A new mobile app called Gowalla at Gowalla.com, promises to be a combination of Foursquare and something where serious travelers can share travel adventures or tips. According to its founder, "Gowalla enables its users to share their everyday ventures as well extraordinary places and events of their lives; in other word, to inspire people when they're traveling."
Available for the iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Palm smartphones as well as the iPad, Gowalla encourage people to take pictures with their phones and save them in the service in organized categories such as trips or specific sites. As with Foursquare, users will have their passports stamped when they check-in or for the trips taken.
It integrates smoothly with Facebook and Twitter which will allow for automatic posting of users' whereabouts on those sites. Users who want to stand out, can create their own trips and share them with the rest of the users on the site.
In the feature, Gowalla is looking for to use an editorial team to choose some users' generated content and promote them as featured trips according to pcmag.

For more, see pcmag.com

Hulu to start Hulu Plus a $9.99 a month subscription service

Emboldened by its dominant position in the Web TV viewing, Hulu the video Web site formed three years ago by two of the majors TV networks and Fox Entertainment, has decided to take the experiment to a new level with the announcement last week of its ad-supported subscription service. For $9.99 a month, users will have full access to more episodes of current and classic shows including entire seasons in many cases and on a much broader range of platforms: PCs, iPhones 3 and 4, iPads, Bluray players, video games consoles and even old Internet connected TV sets. The service called Hulu Plus will be initially available only by invitation to be handed out at random to the site followers or friends on different social networks with the possibility for people interested in testing the new offering, to request one on the service Web site.
On top of the paid version, Hulu executives said that what was free on the site like the most recent episodes of shows from the three partners, would remain as such.

For more, see AppScout.com

To help against impersonators, Facebook will allow users to register their computers.

With the recent wave of bad publicity stemming from its controversial measures related to its privacy policy, Facebook can benefit from any act seen as good will. A series of new features introduced by Facebook last month, failed to get the same kind of attention that its tinkering with its privacy got. One of those features has the potential to be of great help for users to guard against impostors and cybercrooks who may take over their accounts with very bad intents. The feature will allow users to register a list of "approved" devices -be it a home or work computer, a mobile phone etc- that they will be using to access their Facebook accounts and when someone try to access their accounts from an unregistered device, an alert will be sent to them via e-mail or text message.
If it happens that they were not the one trying to log in, they will be instructed on how to remove the unauthorized device and reset their passwords.
The new feature can be accessed from the "Account Settings" page and is easy to set up.

For more, see NewYorkTimes.com

Apple drops iPhone 4 restocking fees.

Following its mea culpa regarding the reception problem with its iPhone 4 and the numerous lawsuits that have been filled since the release of the phone by disappointed customers, Apple has decided to drop the usual restocking fees for people looking to return their devices.
Customers returning the iPhone4 with 16 GB, will be spared the usual $20 restocking fee while the ones returning the iPhone 4 with 32 GB will get a full refund without the $30 restocking fees. In any case, the return has to be made within 30 days of the purchase date.
In an attempt to deflect blame, Apple has also issued an explanation on why customers where experimenting those drops in coverage in the first place: a software glitch that was showing an inaccurate display in the real amount of bars that should be displayed to begin with.
In a blog post on Friday, Apple said that it plan to release a software fix in the coming weeks to address the issue with a display not overstating the actual signal strength.

For more, see pcmag.com

Facebook starts testing a photo-tagging feature.

Any Facebook user who has tried before to tag several pictures on the social network site knows first hand how painstaking of a process that is. Each picture had to be processed separately and the results saved. Catching up with technology, Facebook just announced the launch of a new automatic photo-tagging system that is in test phase and available to only a few users right now. With the new system, Facebook won't automatically tag the people on someone picture, but instead will select them and display a prompt asking " Whose face is this?" At that point, it will be up to the user to respond and enter the friend's name and hit "save."
There are no indication on when the new feature will be rolled out to the entire site but Facebook officials are promising it to be just one of many new improvements planned for a more enjoyable browsing experience on the site.

For more, see pcmag.com

FishPhone iPhone app gives you a lot of info about your fish.

Most the times, fish lovers or novice who want to know more about the fish they are looking at at the fish market or on their plates at the restaurant, there is not much to go by with. It does not have to be that way if you own an iPhone and are willing to download a free app called FishPhone from the iTunes store.
"With the FishPhone iPhone app from the Blue Ocean Institute, you have a wealth of information about the type of fish you're looking at and whether it's been sustainably farmed or caught right on your iPhone," according to AppScout.
The fishes in the app have an icon appear next to them indicating the level of sustainability or environmental friendliness in which they were caught or farmed.
Each fish in the seafood guide has an icon next to it that represents its sustainability or environmental friendliness.
Non iPhone or iPod owners who still want to know more about a fish they are interested in, can still get the information via text message from the Blue Ocean Institute by asking.

For more, see AppScout.com

New personalized travel guides from Stay.com

When planning to visit a new destination, it may be helpful to enlist the services of a tour guide if you can afford one. For more adventurist people, walking behind a tour guide may not be their idea of fun associated with discovering a new place. Maybe because they do not need that much of a hand-on experience, they would rather take matters in their own hands.
But whatever may be the case, travelers wanting to design their own paths, can do so by visiting Stay.com to generate a customized guide for the things they plan to see or do during their stay in a new location.
The new service is in beta mode and can used to create a customized guide for more than 50 cities around the world.
Stay.com integrates with Google Map allowing users to use push-pins to highlight destinations.
Users can view local attractions on a map and read reviews about them; better yet, they can view "personalized" guides created by other users and print them if they find them suitable to their taste.
After compiling a personalized guide, users will be prompted to register for free with the service in order to download their guide along with associated maps, directions, and photos to take with them on their trip according to pcmag.com.
The site tries to make money by earning referal kickbacks from some suggested locations if users choose to have Stay.com book those services for them.

For more, see pcmag.com