Thanks to some of the new possibilities of iOS 5 being released later today, Foursquare has been able to add a new feature it is particularly proud of. That feature is known as Radar, and it allows for the discovery of interesting places nearby without even having to open the app.
Radar utilizes iOS 5’s new notification system to notify you when you are close to a location you might want to check out based on previous activity. If you followed a list and are near a location in that list, you’ll receive a subtle notification. The same applies to being near a location you saved in your To-Do list, or perhaps the best one: when friends are close by. Foursquare says “If you’re driving home and three of your friends are getting together nearby, we’ll tell you so you can meet up.” I think of it as seeing w hen your closest friends made plans and didn’t invite you, and dropping in to crash the party.
All this is bundled in Foursquare 4.0, a release coming soon to the App Store. No word on an update for Android yet. This very well could be Foursquare’s answer to Gowalla’s latest innovations in transforming check-ins into storytelling.
Also, if it means anything, Foursquare has another small bit of news: “Oh, and nobody freak out, but we changed the color of the ball on our icon. Say goodbye to purple balls and hello to big green!” Well alright, then.