A quick recap of the evening of LondonLebowski3 – Third Time Lucky… 

One week ago (24th of August) the Rummble team gathered at the Trocadero to participate in a geek bowling event organised by @cyberdees. At the very beginning we were looking for something to eat – working till 6PM, it’s so tough! After charging our batteries we were ready to spread the word and give our new stickers (much like these) to peeps. They split us to different lanes, so we could chat with various geeks. We met great people out there! Thanks for talk and play to all people who supported us bowling. Especially to organiser – Desigan Chinniah!

Claudio Weeraratne (Software Engineer), Maria Neumayer (Android Engineer), Paulina Rabizo (Intern), Callum Jones (Junior Engineer). Photo from Desigan Chinniah

Finally only one of our Rummblers contributed to win trophy for Top rolling lane. But we still had fun and we even got Team Lebowski badges! This kind of events should be every week!

This cool evening couldn’t exist without the help of the sponsors: Threadsy, DAD, Total Media, e-search, MinuteBox, Chinwag Jobs, PayPal X, Flow Interactive – So thank you very much sponsors we had a really good time.

Rummble Launches Swedish Language Version For Android

Not a native English speaker? Don’t worry here come some native languages for you!

You can now use Rummble for Android in Swedish. Android language settings are specified by the native language you’re running on your device, so if your Android O/S is set to display Swedish, Rummble for Android will now appear in your native Swedish language.

Rummble for Android is the first part of the Rummble service to be translated. Rather than wait until the website is done we’d thought we’d get it out to you as soon as possible!

Why not help us?

If you want to see Rummble translated in to YOUR local language, please contact us and in return for some translations we’ll give you a big bag of Rummble swag!

Rummble Launches Polish Language Version For Android

Not a native English speaker? Don’t worry here come some native languages for you!

Angielski nie jest Twoją mocną stroną? Nie przejmuj się, mamy dla Ciebie polską wersję językową!

You can now use Rummble for Android in Polish. Android language settings are specified by the native language you’re running on your device, so if your Android O/S is set to display Polish, Rummble for Android will now appear in your native Polish language.

Już od dziś możesz używać polskiej wersji Rummble dla Androida. Ustawienia językowe w tej aplikacji są określone przez język jaki masz uruchomiony na swoim telefonie, więc jeśli jesteś posiadaczem systemu Android z językiem polskim, Rummble dla Androida automatycznie pojawi się w języku polskim.

Rummble for Android is the first part of the Rummble service to be translated. Rather than wait until the website is done we’d thought we’d get it out to you as soon as possible!

Rummble dla Androida jest pierwszą z aplikacji od Rummble, które zostaną przetłumaczone. Nie czekając dłużej na tłumaczenie naszej strony internetowej pomyśleliśmy, że tak dotrzemy do Ciebie najszybciej!

Tłumaczenia naszej strony internetowej, aplikacji Rummble dla iPhona i strony mobilnej Rummble zostaną uruchomione wkrótce i to nie tylko po polsku… Mamy już dostępną niemiecką wersję językową!

Why not help us?

If you want to see Rummble translated in to YOUR local language, please contact us and in return for some translations we’ll give you a big bag of Rummble swag!

Chcesz pomóc?

Jeśli chcesz widzieć Rummble w TWOIM lokalnym języku, prosimy napisz do nas, a w zamian za pomoc w tłumaczeniu dostaniesz od nas w prezencie wielką paczkę z gadżetami Rummble!

The new version Rummble for Android 1.2.1 now supports sharing a picture from your gallery to create a new rummble.

Just select a picture in the Android Gallery, tap share, select Rummble and the application starts with the Add Rummble process – with your picture already included! This saves you time when rummbling a place.

The updating of your location has also been improved, to give a precise location for your recommendations. It is now easier to set the location for new rummbles on the map.

You can download the new version from the Android Marketplace now!

Rummble Launches German Language Version For Android

Not a native English speaker? Don’t worry here come some native languages for you!

Ist Englisch nicht deine Muttersprache? Keine Angst – hier kommen native Sprachen für dich!

You can now use Rummble for Android in German. Android language settings are specified by the native language you’re running on your device, so if you’re Android O/S is set to display German, Rummble for Android will now appear in your native German language.

Du kannst jetzt Rummble für Android in Deutsch benutzen. Die Android Spracheinstellungen werden durch die Systemsprache, die auf deinem Handy läuft, gewählt, also wenn dein Android Betriebssystem auf Deutsch gesetzt ist, wird Rummble für Android jetzt in Deutsch angezeigt.

Rummble for Android is the first part of the Rummble service to be translated. Rather than wait until the website is done we’d thought we’d get it out to you as soon as possible!

Rummble für Android ist der erste Teil der Rummble Dienste, der übersetzt wird. Anstatt zu warten, bis die Website fertig ist haben wir uns gedacht wir bringen es so schnell wie möglich raus!

Die Übersetzungen für die Rummble Website, Rummble für iPhone und die Rummble mobile Website werden bald veröffentlicht und weitere Sprachen sind auf dem Weg…

Why not help us?

If you want to see Rummble translated in to YOUR local language, please contact us and in return for some translations we’ll give you a big bag of Rummble swag!

Warum hilfst du uns nicht?

Wenn du Rummble in DEINER Sprache übersetzt sehen willt, bitte kontaktiere uns und als Dankeschön erhältst du eine große Tasche von Rummble-Goodies!

As a developer it’s important to know what exactly what happened when the application crashed. On Android Crash Reports were introduced with Android 2.2, but a lot of devices are still on Android 2.1 or below and will probably never get an update.

So what about these devices? A user can only tell you what he was doing where the crash happened, which is important. But a lot of errors are not reproducible, because they happened on a different device or under special circumstances. If the user has installed aLogcat he could send his log file, but a lot of users have not installed this application. Another problem is that some users just see that the application crashes, uninstall it and give it a bad rating.

We’ve solved this problem by using acra – a library, which sends crash reports to a specified Google Doc. Acra works with all versions of Android and sends more detailed device information than the standard Android 2.2 solution. Also you can show a notification, a toast or just send the report automatically when the application crashes. The integration is very easy – just follow the introductions on their Wiki Page. We have integrated this feature in Rummble for Android 1.2 – released later today!

Photos on Flickr by Moo Founder, Richard Moross

Some of the Rummble team attended Moo’s 4th birthday party at 93 Feet East, an event that celebrated Moo’s success, starting as a small European startup based in London and growing into one of the web’s biggest and most innovative printers, with offices in the UK and USA. It’s fair to say Moo has rocked the dry printing world.

Callum Jones (Intern Engineer) and Andrew J Scott (CEO) from Rummble. Photo by Steve Kennedy

Callum Jones (Intern Engineer), Marta Datkiewicz (Product and Marketing Manager at WAYN), Emma Fayers (one of Rummble’s London users) and Andrew J Scott (CEO). Photo by Steve Kennedy

The event was a fantastic place to meet people in a variety of roles from London’s hottest startups; such as GoMix, Viadeo, Tweetmeme, Huddle, WAYN, BookingBug, GroupSpaces, and brand new startups on a mission to carve cool niches.

All in all it was another entertaining dive into London’s startup community, which is growing ever stronger thanks to initiatives like TechHub (http://rmb.ly/17TJJ), now offering free co-working on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to tech peeps.

To follow on from a recent post that explains how to publish your rummbles and check-ins to Twitter, it’s also worth sharing that Rummble has been rocking Twitter API OAuth for a couple of months now.

So what does that mean for Rummble users? OAuth is more secure and you won’t have to tell us your new password if you change it on Twitter.

Photo credit: Some rights reserved by paulswansen

How does OAuth work?

Think of it like a car valet parking service for web services, where for each Twitter user OAuth keeps a record of which apps and permissions that are allowed and handover the keys after a securely signed handshake giving authorisation to go and park your car (i.e. authorising an app to connect). Connect your Twitter account here.

Why is OAuth better than just logging in using my username and password?

When you want to share something you like from a site in another site like Twitter, you click share, they ask you to enter your username and your password. When you do this, the site has the right to see your information. Just like giving your credit card and your password to the cashier. Is that really a safe way of sharing? The answer is no, that’s why we have introduced the OAuth API to Rummble.

You can now share the places you’ve liked or loathed even more safely than before!

• Not an existing Rummble user? Click here to Log in safely using your Twitter account using OAuth to Rummble
• Existing Rummble user? connect your account to Twitter under Settings here (you’ll need to be logged in to Rummble to use this link)

There is an email we’ve seen recently prentending to come from Rummble, requesting you to open an attachment.

We will never send you an executable or ZIP attachment by email.

These are scam emails, which target you the consumer while claiming to come from a trusted community such as Rummble. Usually they get caught by your spam filter, but incase not, please delete it. Here is a spam email I received just yesterday, which prompted this post (the email below is NOT from Rummble):

The example above is SPAM, not a genuine email from us.

The key things to remember are:

• We will never send you a .ZIP, .COM, or .EXE attachment to open.
• All links will be back to http://www.rummble.com/ or a child page of that domain

We will only ever send you:

• Bi-weekly personalised community activity email with content from your trust network
• A monthly Rummble newsletter containing updates about functionality and featuring fun recommendations
• A password email reset if you request it (with a link which takes you back to http://www.rummble.com to rest your password)
• Notifications of messages, comments or a new friend connection, with a link back to the www.rummble.com/  domain

We’re all used to the viagra spam and invitations from your bank, credit card or paypal, to click a strange looking link and open up a website to donate your private details to a spammer, or to infect your computer with a strange .ZIP file attached.  I guess one of the perils of being a popular site is spammers targeting our community in the same way as other popular brands.

Please double check any emails which may look like they’re from us and if in doubt, please contact us.

Thanks!

There are over 2,171 medals for Local Heroes up for grabs in America, but as of July 2010 the hardest of all to win is:

Local Hero for Restaurants
in San Francisco’s Financial Disctrict

With over 70 other users competing to be the most influential gastronomic advisor in the Rummble community, it’s knives and forks at dawn for those who enjoy their food!

If you’re not familiar with Rummble’s medals, you can read more about becoming a Local Hero here, but here’s a brief explanation:

What do the medals represent?

Rummble uses its unique trust algorithm to work out who are the most influential people in each area for specific topics. By influential, we mean who is trusted most for their opinions, by the rest of the community.

You can view the medals on any of our Rummble mobile apps and of course on the mobile website (m.rummble.com).

How does Rummble decide who wins?

When you Rummble (add a rating, review or check-in) in a specific area related to the topic (e.g. restaurants and eating out in San Francisco) you will be competing with other users who have reviewed places in that area. Whoever has the most trusted ratings in that area becomes Local Hero.

Why are some harder than others to win?

How hard each medal is to win, depends on the number of places in that subject in an area and the number of people reviewing.

How are the areas split up?

What’s really cool is that Rummble medals are calculated for real-life area boundaries in the US and UK. We hope to add more countries soon.

The financial district in San Francisco – there’s a war raging for the influence of opinion of restaurants in the area!

Why do the winners change?

As peoples opinions change about your reviews – because places change too! – you may win or lose the medal to someone who does ratings which are more accurate, more trusted or more up to date … So you will have to keep Rummbling in order to retain your medals!

Why do I want medals?

Being a Local Hero is cool because it demonstrates that you know your area really well

The medal is meaningful because it is based on other peoples trust in your opinions, rather than just how often you go to a venue or the number of times you check in

It’s really helpful for people arriving in an area to find a great trustworthy resource from one person about the types of place they’re interested in

It’s a great excuse to check out the latest bars, restaurants, parks – or whatever floats your boat – in your area

It keeps owners of places on their toes as their ratings change over time

Helps venue owners know who the influential reviewers are for a specific area ..which may help make sure you get that special table next time you’re eating out perhaps

Very soon, Local Hero’s will earn special privelages and the medals will become more valuable

..so watch this space!