Most press releases are pretty dull. But not the latest from Pelago, which is looking to supplant Foursquare and Gowalla with its latest iPhone application Whrrl 3. In promoting the free app, the Seattle startup essentially tells Facebook fiends to get a life and break out of the "dreaded social rut."

"We'll save you from Farmville," notes the headline of the press release, referring to the wildly popular Facebook game in which players tend to virtual farms. The point that Pelago is trying to make -- and the core focus of Whrrl 3 -- is that real world interaction with people still matters in this day and age.

Whrrl 3 was released Wednesday night in the Apple App Store and will formally debut at SXSW Thursday. The offering encourages people to meet at local clubs, parks, sporting arenas and other places in the real world.

Of course, a number of other location-based services are attacking this problem as well, from Foursquare to Gowalla. And like those services, Whrrl 3 allows users to check into the places they go in the real world and earn points based on frequency or recommendations.

The Whrrl service allows the users to control privacy settings about their locations, and share locations via Twitter and Facebook.

Once checked in at a specific location, users have the option to find like-minded people who may be part of what Pelago is dubbing "societies." These are essentially small clubs built around topics like "Night Owls," "Pinball Wizards" and "Foodies." (Looks to me like high school clique reborn).

Pelago hinted that these services were coming when we chatted with them earlier this month about their new offering that allows rock and roll fans to join the societies of like-minded fans as they visit historical music landmarks in various cities.

Pelago is giving Whrrl 3 a trial run at SXSW in Austin, Texas, launching what it has dubbed the Austin Underground Society. Those who join the club will receive information about parties, events and conference tidbits. And they can earn exclusive deals from about 50 participating Austin merchants, including Cool River Cafe, Outback Steakhouse, Four Seasons and Red Fez.

Pelago has raised more than $20 million from the likes of Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, T-Mobile, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and others. But is Whrrl 3 really enough of a game changer?

Foursquare and Gowalla are already in the lead when it comes to location-based "check in" services, while other big brands such as Facebook and Yelp are also mounting an attack.

TechCrunch's MG Siegler noted the competitive threat as well in his post this evening, pointing out that it may be tough to convince iPhone users at SXSW to drop Foursquare or Gowalla for Whrrl. After all, once a critical mass of friends adopt one service it is tough to make the switch. Furthermore, Siegler writes that he's started to suffer from check-in "fatigue" as he tries to notify his contacts of his whereabouts through the various services.

"I’m not saying there can be only one. But one would sure be nice," he writes.