Embed Centrl into your Webpage
Now you can embed Centrl into your site with just a few lines of HTML. For more information, visit http://centrl.com/developers
Centrl Launches New Web Client!
Centrl is proud to announce the release of its new web client. With the goal of improving user experience, adding functionality, and increasing its availability, this release marks a major milestone for Centrl and sets the stage for things to come.
Centrl’s latest release includes a number of new features:
- A Redesigned Search Interface makes it easier to locate friends, discover new things, and find out what’s going on in your neighborhood.
- New Profile Pages, automatically created for everything in the Centrl network! Now anything and everything can have its own web page. Check one out here.
- Exciting New Map Layers make it easy to find anything. Check out our ‘Recommendations’ layer to see what’s popular with other Centrl users or the ‘From Friends’ layer to see what your friends think.
- A Dashboard for quickly accessing Centrl’s most used features.
- Enhanced Privacy Settings let you share your location with everyone, only your contacts, or become invisible.
Centrl Review on TechCrunch
Serkan Toto has reviewed Centrl at TechCrunch. Here is his article:
Centrl Symbian App (beta) for Nokia phones
If you have a Nokia N40, N60 or higher, now you can give Centrl a try on your phone!
You can go to this page and install it and then you can let us know what you think at support at centrl dot com.
Centrl now available on iGoogle
Now you can use Centrl on your iGoogle page:
Click here to install the Centrl gadget on your iGoogle page.
Map tiles exposed
When writing an LBS application, you have many different options when it comes to map tiles.
At Centrl, we have licensed map tiles from Microsoft (data supplied by Navteq) for use on the iPhone and BlackBerry. We pay Microsoft per transaction, which is 8 map tiles downloaded from their map tile servers.
And we use Google map tiles (data supplied by TeleAtlas and more) on our website and on the Android (through the native Android Maps component).
Now there is one more option on the new iPhone 3.x SDK: a native Maps component that comes with map tiles from Google. We think this is going to make writing LBS apps on the iPhone much easier since there will be one less issue to worry about.
But no matter where you get your map tiles, you will find that, somewhere in the world, some user will definitely be dissatisfied with the accuracy, detail and zoom level of your map tiles. So you will have to go that country, find a local partner and customize your map tiles for that location to satisfy your customers.
It’s interesting that nobody has thought of creating a network of local partners that someone can just go and choose from, like a smorgasbord of high-quality local content that is aggregated very conveniently.
Furthermore, there are even companies that will fly over a specific area for you and create super high-precision map tiles for you. Now imagine all this were offered as a single menu where you could purchase from 
Fred Wilson at Entrepreneurs Roundtable 15
We had the great fortune of having Fred Wilson from Union Square Ventures as the guest ‘VC’ at the Entrepreneurs Roundtable last night. We had a sold-out full house and almost everybody in the room was an entrepreneur. Five startups were scheduled to pitch to Fred to get his feedback and with some extra time, Fred was gracious enough to let 4 more entrepreneurs pitch to him. Overall his feedback was amazing and everybody was very impressed with his energy, constructiveness and insights. We hope he will be back at a future event. Here are some videos from the event:
I will be uploading the rest of the videos soon. Please check back.
Push notifications in Centrl iPhone app
We have implemented push-notifications in our iPhone app so now, even when you are not running Centrl on your iPhone, your friends will be able to send you messages. So, you will never miss any important message or any great shared deals ever again.
This makes Centrl a more continuous experience and makes sure you get notified instantly on important messages from your friends. The new version of our app is now waiting to be approved in the App Store. Here is a screenshot of how it will look like:
As always, we are looking forward to your feedback at feedback-at-centrl.com.
New layers 11870, Oodle and Google Base now in Centrl!
We have just added new exciting layers in Centrl. Now you can access great content from 11870.com, Oodle.com and Google Base easily in Centrl as a map layer around you.
11870:
“The best services in your area. The service guide with reviews and images by friends and users.”
Find luxury hotels in Buenos Aires, tapas and flamenco in Madrid, shopping in Paris or bars in New York using our 11870 layer in Centrl.
Oodle:
“Buy, sell & trade locally. Oodle - a smarter classifieds site”
You can find that great rental apartment listed on Oodle from within Centrl as easy as 2 clicks. Type in some keywords like “1BR” and see all the available rental apartments around you.
Google Base:
“Post it on Base. Find it on Google.”
You can find great rental apartment listings from Google Base easily in Centrl. Again, type in some keywords “2BR” and you will see all the active listings around you on the map.
Please enjoy these new layers and let us know what other new layers you would like to see in Centrl at feedback at centrl dot com.
