Hi, readers! Now, I want to talk about Payless Shoe Source offers a nationwide foursquare special for first-timers. Please feel free to read and enjoy it!

I’ve had a hard time convincing my wife to sign up for foursquare, but this might be the deal that actually makes it happen. Payless Shoe Source is now offering $5 off a $25 purchase for your first checkin at any of their stores.

Like many of the recent specials, this deal includes a coupon code directly in the text to help prevent cashier confusion, but this coupon code goes one step further: it can be used on payless.com as well.

Search for Payless on foursquare to find a store offering the deal in your area.

Hi, readers! Now, I want to talk about Australia’s Coke Machine Fairy is on foursquare. Please feel free to read and enjoy it!

Coke machines throughout Sydney will soon be dispensing more than Cokes — and they’ll be getting a little help from a special fairy. This September the Coke Machine Fairy will be checking in at special Coke machines and awarding a prize to the first user to find a special bottle.

Users who friend the Coke Machine Fairy will get notifications when she checks in at a machine that’s been loaded with a special bottle. The first person to get to the machine, press the marked button and retrieve the bottle then needs to shout on foursquare that they’ve retrieved the bottle. The Fairy will arrive to award their prize.

There are 10 prizes available through the promotion, including gift certificates, concert tickets, flight vouchers, chauffeur services, a helicopter ride and a private movie screening.

They’ve added Coke machines around the city as foursquare venues, complete with their own special so you’ll know which ones will be participating.

This sounds like a fun promotion reminiscent of the Barbie and Jimmy Choo chases that have recently been run using foursquare. Apparently Australian fairies are a little larger than those in the US, though, since Coke here was able to get one inside the machine:

/Thanks to Joel Baldwin for the tip!

Hi, readers! Now, I want to talk about Vlingo for Android adds voice checkins. Please feel free to read and enjoy it!

Vlingo today announced that their voice recognition app for Android phones now integrates with foursquare. Users can check in, find their friends and shout just by using their voice.

Vlingo understands the following commands:

• Check in  to locations
  • Check in Hong Kong Express
  • Check into Logan Airport
• Locate friends
  • Where are my friends?
  • Who’s nearby
• Send shout outs
  • Shout headed to Fenway for the Sox game
  • foursquare shout at Starbucks grabbing a latte

You can also shout to foursquare while simultaneously updating your Facebook and Twitter statuses by saying “update social status.”

“Location and social networking have become an integral part of consumers’ everyday lives—so having a strategic alliance with foursquare to provide users with a simple, easy way to connect with their friends is a natural fit for Vlingo,” said Hadley Harris, VP of Marketing at Vlingo.

Do you think Vlingo’s foursquare integration will make it easier to check in?

This video from Vlingo shows the service in action:

Hi, readers! Now, I want to talk about Foursquare lights up Broadway…figuratively this time. Please feel free to read and enjoy it!

On Saturday night, foursquare literally lit up Broadway. Today they’re doing it in a more figurative way. Variety reports that several of Broadway’s most popular theaters are now offering discounts to foursquare users.

Several theaters working with Broadway marketing firm Situation Interactive are launching foursquare specials for their visitors. They’re hoping to capitalize on the viral nature of foursquare checkins that are posted to Twitter and Facebook.

The shows planning to participate are “Mamma Mia,” “Billy Elliot,” “The Addams Family,” “Next to Normal,” “Lion King,” and “Mary Poppins.” The two Disney productions were the first to launch their specials. Users can check in to receive 20% off a purchase of $25 or more at the souvenir stands for “Lion King” or “Mary Poppins.”

What do you think of these new Broadway specials?

Hi, readers! Now, I want to talk about Get out into the great outdoors for foursquare’s latest badge. Please feel free to read and enjoy it!

Foursquare badges are starting to look even more like the Boy Scout badges I remember. Earlier today we saw one that was reminiscent of the Swimming merit badge and now we have one that immediately reminds me of the Camping merit badge. It’s called Great Outdoors and started appearing this afternoon.

The unlock text reads:

Welcome to the Great Outdoors! Behold Mother Nature’s true beauty. Now if only she’d throw a double rainbow up in this piece.

Of course, when I earned the Camping merit badge, they didn’t mention anything about the infamous double rainbow video, but I think the concept is basically the same.

Stand by for gratuitous use of said double rainbow video:

/Thanks to Byron Brewer for the tip!