The latest version of Facebook has been out over the weekend and there are some great updates.
The first thing you’ll notice is the navigation experience is much more fluid. The homescreen and subsequent pages have been updated so everything is just a click away. All of your friends’ recent status updates are located on the first screen, and you can click into each profile to see pics uploaded and tagged, calendar events as well as interact with your friend via comments, pokes, messages and a phone call option.
The photo viewing experience has been great improved as well. As you browse a friend’s photos, you get a nice slideshow of the album pics. You can scroll easily through the pictures which are displayed in full at the top, and thumbnail preview at the bottom. To comment on a photo, just click the picture and select the comment option.
There’s some additional language support that will be of great interest to the international user. The app now supports:
Your BlackBerry can be used in a wide variety of ways for interacting with social media and networks. One of these ways is via email. There are several sites out there that allow you to send media to them via email, and have that media pushed to your facebook and social networks. I’ve taken the time to roundup 5 of these sites; my favorite being Posterous.
Posterous allows you to publish anything online via email and their facebook integration is terrific. I have it set so that every time I upload 3 or more photos, a new album is created in facebook. When there is less than three, they get published in a ‘Posterous’ album. In one particular album, I have over 250 pics!
vPost has been working hard at updating their product for both consumer and enterprise. The foundations of this application are very robust and the potential for it includes almost every industry, which is why the app has gone through so many updates. As the app evolves to provide consumers with new features and better functionality, the number of enterprise uses grows.
The most recent update to vPost, which is called version 2.2 tentatively, includes the ability to use your vPost app as an “email messenger.” The application lets you add a list of contacts to the app, where you can share a variety of rich media with the user in a few simple clicks.
What’s new in the next version of vPost:
Unlimited favorites (add pictures to contacts then from address book hit menu -> ‘vpost favourite’). This is the feature that can turn vPost into an ‘email messenger.’
The ability to move around and delete widgets.
Take screenshots. Once vPost is launched, an option to take ‘vPost screenshot’ will show up in the menu.
Full thumbnail view mode for attaching existing media.
Scribble mode. This will enable users to mark-up pictures with text, lines, and objects.
Restaurant review widget. Prepare your post and use this new widget to easily rate and review your dining experience.
PhoneFace is a speed dialing app that shows full-color photos of your contacts – so you can call them quickly and easily. If you are a Facebook or Twitter user, PhoneFace will go online and find your friends profile picture.
Electric Pocket just released an update to its PhoneFace speed-dial app for BlackBerry. The newest feature includes a more friendly search tool, so you can just type as much of the person’s name as you want and it’ll find matches based on what you’ve typed. This makes it far faster to find people if you have a bunch of contacts in PhoneFace.
The mobile social network GyPSii, has launched a service called CONNECT, which allows users to automatically update and share their status across Twitter and Facebook as well as its own network. The social network supports BlackBerry, meaning you can update your accounts directly from your device.
The cornerstone of this social network is its PlaceMe feature. The feature lets users record a moment or an experience using photos or videos, geotag it and share it with others by publishing it on GyPSii or Facebook and also sending it as a Twitter message.
Xobni has partnerships with Facebook, LinkedIn and a host of other social networks to complement your Outlook experience. Click an email and watch all the personal data for this individual come alive. You can also get statistics such as when and how often this individual emails you.
The app will make you BlackBerry device’s address book even better. Xobni users will soon be able to have access to many of the relationship management features they already love on their desktop from their BlackBerry as well.
Viigo is going to eventually become the only app that many people have on their BlackBerry. The feature rich RSS reader can bring in an wide variety of aspects of your mobile life to one central location. On Tuesday, May 5th, Viigo will be adding multiple new enterprise-oriented features, as well as Facebook and Twitter functionality and streaming audio.
Viigo’s CEO Mark Ruddock and CTO Jay Steele will be on hand at RIM’s Wireless Enterprise Symposium (WES) in early May, where they will announce and demonstrate the new Viigo functionality and hold an attendee question-and-answer session.
The latest enterprise upgrade will include enhanced corporate contacts functionality and new budgeting and finance utilities, along with company calendar, training and performance reporting tools. There will also be a free version too. The free version will include new Twitter and Facebook features, as well as the ability to stream audio, though it’s unclear where such audio will come from at this point.
Facebook is now available for download in version 1.5. The problem I have with this is that you can’t use Facebook for the one purpose that I use it for: the events. The mobile version is still stuck in just status updates which is a good step for the site, but it is not fully functional.
Palringo instant messaging application is now available in a gold edition for BlackBerry. The application has walkie-talkie style voice (vocal instant messaging), real-time text chat and the ability to share pictures and location. The gold edition now includes support for Facebook, iChat and QQ.
Check out screenshots of their latest build on Flickr.
Palringo has made an effort to update their app based on feedback from the BETA. In particular, the connection issues identified in the BETA version have been resolved.
We love our BlackBerrys. We love them because they are our communicators—they connect us to the world through phone, email, SMS, IM, Facebook, and just about any other way that technology lets us get in touch with one another. But one of the great flaws of the BlackBerry OS is the way it notifies us of incoming messages. The blinking red-LED is great, but it doesn’t tell us anything about the nature of the communication. Did I get an email? An SMS? A missed call?
That’s where BerryBuzz comes in. Compatible with just about every BlackBerry you could throw at it, BerryBuzz lets you customize that LED. Want a turquoise LED for new Email, and a yellow one for missed calls? You got it. With BerryBuzz, you can tell what type of communication your BlackBerry is telling you about—just from a glance at the LED.
