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While the rest of the world checks-in with apps like Foursquare, Facebook Places and Gowalla – China has its own mobile social location-based service called Jiepang. The company is now teaming up with Starbucks to allow coffee drinkers to win some cool badges and real awards for checking in at more than 200 Starbucks stores in Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.
The game is already on and will last through December 17th. When the number of badge issued hits 20,000, the Christmas rewards will be unlocked, and those who have collected the badge will get a free upgrade – a bigger size of drink at Starbucks between Dec 17 and Dec 25.
Aside from using clicking the “check-in” button in the Jiepang app, users with NFC-enabled smartphones such as the Google Nexus S and Nokia C7 can also check-in by waving their phone over a NFC postcard that will be placed on the community boards inside the Starbucks stores. Kinda neat when you think about it. 
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
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http://stikinotes.tumblr.com Adam Winterflood
