the latest beta i'm checking out...

is brightkite.com which is a location-based microblogging service a la twitter or pownce. here's a preview by josh lowenshon over at webware. the service requires you to check-in which makes it a little difficult to use but once you do check-in it's supposed to let you see who is also checked-in around you. now, twinkle supposedly automates this process buy using the iphone's locateme feature but it requires you to jailbreak your iphone which is something i am not willing to do. hopefully it'll be available via the appstore including an automated check-in function once the appstore comes online in a couple of months.

i've got a few brightkite invites left. leave me a comment with your email address if you'd like one.