You asked, we listened. With this new version, we’ve improved back-end algorithms for friend alerts, added lots of new features and adopted a very clean redesign. Here is the low down:

Improved Friend Alerts
See even more of your friends when they are nearby.

Enhanced Map and Features
At a glance you can see which spots are bustling with traffic.

Social, Local, Mobile Search
Our new search helps you connect to other people with similar interests more easily.

Now Sign-in with Instagram, Foursquare and Gmail
We’ve added new sign-in options in addition to Twitter and Facebook so you can access more of your social networks.

Deep Integration with iOS 5
If you’ve upgraded your iPhone or iPod touch to iOS 5, these features are included in your Banjo experience:

• Friend alerts show up in Notification Center – never miss another connection
• Save photos to iCloud – access pictures anywhere
• New facial recognition improves thumbnail quality
• Twitter single sign-on means no more re-entering login credentials

I hope you have fun with the new Banjo App. Activate your social superpowers!

- Damien, CEO & Founder

There is a lot of exciting stuff going on behind-the-scenes at the Banjo office, and unfortunately joining the Ruby community in Japan was not possible. As much as we’d like to be two places at once, we’ll have to rely on Banjo for that and follow the awards live there!

On behalf of Banjo, Damien took a moment to record a short thank you video for the My Fukuoka committee. Thank you, My Fukuoka for this great honor and opportunity. We think you’ll be impressed with what we’re doing next! Stay tuned…

Just when you thought you were dialed in to social media, you find out your favorite band was in town last night…and you missed them. “Fans will say: I didn’t even know you were there!” recalls Ryan Chisholm referring to the reactions of fans who learned of missed live events after the fact. This happens everyday – all over the world. This is one of the reasons some of the biggest entertainment powerhouses came together to discuss mobile social media as a means to fix the disconnect and bring bands closer to their fans. At SF MusicTech Summit, that’s exactly what Aaron Ray (The Collective), Jason Lekberg (Eleven Seven Music), and Ryan Chisholm (Bill Silva Entertainment) did at the “Future of Music – Mobile Social” panel, moderated by Banjo’s CEO Damien Patton.

“Forty percent of tickets (for concerts) go unsold,” shares Ryan. Even with all the promotion that’s done on the social media end of marketing for concerts, many fans still miss the memo. This poses a big problem for the music industry that relies on ticket and merchandise sales for revenue.

Jason explains that the faster the Wall and homepage on Twitter move, the less relevant they become. This is where Banjo’s real time location technology could fit. By using location and proximity as filters, fans would get alerts that are relevant to them at that very moment.

Aaron believes that in two years “everything (in music) is going to happen on a mobile phone.”

There is an untapped potential in using locational technology to enhance the fan experience in the mobile space. In the upcoming weeks, we’ll dive deeper into the discussion of SoLoMo (social local mobile) and the music industry. Here’s a sneak peek of what’s to come:

Ryan Chisholm, Manager at Bill Silva Entertainment for artists like Jason Mraz and Christina Perri, and named one of Billboard’s 2011 30 under 30.

Jason Lekberg, VP Digital Strategy and Marketing at Eleven Seven Music who handles Motley Crüe, Blondie and more.

Aaron Ray, Partner and Head of New Media at The Collective (Linkin Park, Counting Crows, Enrique Iglesias plus others).

It’s amazingly simple to connect to any event anywhere in the world and also in real time with Banjo’s location technology. You might even think of it as having your own personal event paparazzi with all the pictures people love sharing.

Do you find yourself attending lots of events? Or maybe you know what areas are happening. With the Instagram integration on Banjo, your pictures could end up giving people who are a world away a way into the moments they wish to be a part of.

Everyone has a little snapparazzi in them, here are some great shots from behind the scenes of David Guetta, Skrillex, Deadmau5 and Kelly Osbourne from Banjo!

Even if you can’t be there, you can get VIP access with Banjo and experience what people on-the-ground are seeing and interact with them. Ask them questions, maybe even request a specific shot?

Isn’t it time you stopped missing out on events and people that matter to you? With Banjo, you can!

With the introduction of social networks, the world has become smaller making it easier than ever to connect with friends and strangers – no matter where you are. We can get real time information and discover new things based on our common interests, social circles and location. The SoLoMo (social local mobile) movement has helped usher in the era of content discovery around specific locations. Ever since mobile technology enabled people to use social on-the-go, our online interactions have shaped your social graph and helped determine the content we consume. Social discovery is more than a chance encounter with online content.

Banjo takes social discovery to a whole new level by bringing you information beyond the social networks and location you belong to. We send friend alerts to help you discover friends you didn’t know where nearby. We make it easier to discover and connect with people, turning online interaction into an offline connection. We provide a real time view of what people are sharing at places that are important to you. By sharing what you find on Banjo, you are amplifying the reach of the content — transforming word-of-mouth into world-of-mouth.

Stats from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBXOjEZUIm8

The star-studded performance during the halftime show was an amazing eye spectacle and we were able to catch a few snaps from fans at the stadium from various angles.

The NFL can rest easy for a bit as their final act has come to a close…until the next season that is. Those feisty Giants put up a good show against the Pats yesterday but we know the 2012 NFL season will be one to look forward to (and maybe there will be another showdown)! In the meantime, it’s time for the winners to take a breather for a job well done and soak in the victory! Congrats Giants!

All images were discovered on Banjo! Imagine what you could find at the next big event!

With everyone’s need to be constantly connected anywhere, anytime, Banjo’s mobile app comes in handy to provide a real-time view of social activity for discovering things – like pop-up stores, meet-your-favorite-band opportunities – they would otherwise miss. Banjo has teamed up with Rock and Roll Hall of Famerslike Blondie and Indie break-out artists like Mandy Rain to use social media and location-based services to create new opportunities for them to connect with fans on a deeper level.

Banjo CEO Damien Patton is moderating a panel at the upcoming SF Music Tech on February 13th to examine how social media enhances the fan experience and increases ticket, album and merch sales. Expect to see influential figures from entertainment powerhouses like Aaron Ray (The Collective), Jason Lekberg (Eleven Seven Music), and Ryan Chisholm (Bill Silva Entertainment) chime in on how technology will drive and influence the music industry in the digital era.

Follower the conversation on Twitter with #SFMusicTech.

We update our social “lives” on-the-go and mayorships and badges have enticed us to reveal our location through gamification. Now, the role of location-based apps, like Banjo, has expanded and evolved beyond that to include proximity, relevance and context. The mobile space is constantly reinventing itself and the idea of a “place” is changing too — no longer being tied to just a physical location. Incorporating location into your social activity has become the backdrop to what you have to say or share. It used to be a key element that was leveraged to discover relevant information such as nearby restaurant recommendations, weather, directions, or local news. So what’s changed?

The value of location and social media isn’t in the location-based technology, but more with how we’ve used it. We used to passively learn of our friends’ updates about the coffee shop or gym that they were at after the fact. All too often we’ve missed out on opportunities to connect. With Banjo’s real-time location updates on our social mobile app, you receive notifications of connections nearby and gain awareness of the people and places you would otherwise miss. With this hypertargeted information at your fingertips, you can choose to join friends on their coffee break or buddy up and tackle a crossfit class together.

Location has made it possible for us to be more proactive with our social circles and go one step further in adding context to our activities. On-the-go social means increased immediacy and faster decision making. Pretty soon you’ll wonder how you ever managed without location to help bridge the disconnect of your mobile social experience.

When breaking news happens, we often get alerted through social media. It seems we no longer have to search for news because the news finds us. When the tsunami hit in Japan, photos and content spread across social media like wildfire. The Gulf oil spill was a trending topic for months. But what is more relevant?  Someone tweeting about the spill while standing knee deep in oil or someone posting from their office chair in New York City? This is just one example of how location adds relevance and context to the social space.

With the increased use of mobile devices and apps, location is becoming more prominent in our daily lives. Many people associate location with a check-in but the truth is, location is much more. We are using location when we look up weather, movie show times and directions. Ninety-five percent of smartphone users use their phones to find local information, such as restaurant recommendations based on their location, and 88% act on that information the same day. The combination of social, local and mobile demonstrates the shift in how people interact with each other and consume information. SoLoMo is making it easier for people to make faster and more informed decisions; and with the on-the-ground local content Banjo provides, it’s helping bring it to the next level.

What’s next? The future of search just might give preference to content with location. With so much information being shared, it’s impossible to sort through the social firehose; but when location is added, it can provide relevance. Time will tell of the effects location will have in the mobile space, but in the meantime the SoLoMo movement is off to a great start.