Facebook 3.1 update was just released yesterday.  Less than 24 hours later Facebook is able to release an emergency 3.1.1 update that fixes contact syncing bugs.  Great job to Apple for getting this important update out so fast.

The emergency update fixes the annoying problem of Facebook pictures replaced by your own contact’s pictures.  It also fixed a problem that caused other apps that access your iPhone’s address book to stop working.

However push notification is still crippled with no vibrate or sound alert as new notifications arrive.  Hopefully this issue will be addressed soon in the next update.

Although Facebook is able to get the bug fixing update out so fast, it still aggravates many for a company as big as Facebook to release a major update with so many problems. Perhaps the new iPhone Facebook App team that replaced the revolutionary Joe Hewitt, who quit iPhone app design due to dissatisfactions with App Store policies, is just not that good with mobile apps.

Hopefully future major Facebook app updates will arrive with less significant problems than the Facebook 3.1 update.  Otherwise folks will meet new facebook updates with distrust, unwilling to update it until everyone says the update is safe to install.

This is an article by The Apps Machine

facebook version 3.1

The Facebook app for the iPhone got a major update today to version 3.1, which is proving to be a major headache for some, while others are cheering it’s long awaited arrival.  Facebook 3.1 arrived in the app store and crackbook addicts jumped on it to see how it could feed their need for friends and networking.  Unfortunately it seems that the app has some strange quirks to it so make sure you know what you are doing before you update wholeheartedly.

This update first of all allows you to sync your Facebook contacts with your contacts on your iPhone.  For those who have put alot of effort into placing the perfect photo with each contact, DO NOT USE the Facebook sync as it will replace those with your Facebook’s friend photo!  This seems a bit extreme.  Now you are going to have your friends’ kids as your phone contact photo, since so many people seem to use their kids as their Facebook profile picture.  So while this concept seems good in theory, it is not so good in practice.  I would rather determine what photos are used as contact photos, rather than having my friend’s Facebook profile pic slapped up there.  You can edit them back to what they were but in some cases I am hearing that those photos were one offs and they had not saved them anywhere else.  Restore may work.  Unfortunately there does not appear to be anywhere you can change the settings to save some photos and nuke the others.  Hopefully there will be some refinements offered soon.  There are also reports that it is misidentifying people and not allowing you to comment on photos, etc. Needless to say, it needs work!

As far as the push notifications are concerned, this feature lets you know on your phone whenever you get a comment from a friend or when another friend comments on something you commented on.  The push notifications seem a little redundant given you could already get email notifications of such events, but the more the better for some it seems.  The notifications are silent however, and whether they are meant to be silent or not is anyone’s guess.  Perhaps this is another bug?

So generally speaking this update seems to be a bit of a dud.  Calls are already going out for 3.2 to fix some of the quirks in this latest update. Facebook is already on some people’s bad list for mucking about with their privacy.  They dropped the ball on this update and this is going to generate even more bad press.

This is an article by The Apps Machine.

Here is a good summary of findings:

Who knew the Facebook game and survey apps would be so popular?  Engagement leads as the top reason why either social or mobile apps are selected,  followed by sharing potential in the case of social apps and tied with audience targeting for mobile. Both rank high in branding potential, but persistence, creative control and reach may tip the balance. Unprecedented iPhone and other smartphone sales have apparently caught their attention as well.

Not surprisingly this survey shows data that indicates this market is maturing and we will soon be living in a world of mobile apps, especially iPhone mobile apps.

Clearly the iPhone Apps store is going to continue to be the place for developers/advertisers and publishers to seed their apps.  Interestingly more developers are Android fans and yet the following tidbit of info reveals overall suspicions that Android will not be able to catch iPhone’s big head start.

Publishers who have sat on the fence until now are waiting for their return on their investment to be better quantified (40%) and say money is tight (37%). Increase in mobile apps use by their target audience, more standardization among platforms, better tools to build apps and better distribution all lead the list of reasons impeding their mobile development.  However, for this group of nearly half of the 100 participating publishers,  65% say they intend to create an app in 2010. Of these, 91% will develop for the iPhone, 39% for Android and 33% for RIM.  This represents alot of business for both Quattro Wireless and DM2Pro who are salivating at all the potential app marketing there is to be done in 2010.

The potential introduction of the iSlate will only drive this app-etite feeding into a frenzy.  Full size and full colour mobile app platforms will surely entice more and more publishers, developers and advertisers to jump into the app pond.  If their return on investment is not quantified and proven profitable, the mobile app experiment may not flourish.  Apparently the keys to success are  “turning impressions into revenue (and/or) building a brand through engagement”.  Watch out for weird and wonderful ways for you and your money and attention to be grabbed by these companies as they try to monetize and outflank each other during the Invasion of the Mobile Apps, coming soon to an iPhone near you!

This is an Mobile App Trend Article by The Apps Machine

Once you download this 99 cent app, the iPhone opens with a video feed from the iPhones camera.  The screen has a transparent text box in the top third.  At the top are two boxes for phone number and email address.  You can also access your contact list using the blue plus sign.  At the bottom of the screen are icons:  settings which gives you an about for Text Vision with a brief how-to,  a manage accounts which allows you to log in to Facebook and Twitter (which you will have to do in advance if you want to post your text as a status message on either utility).

TextVision screen capture

There is a camera icon which gives you the option to take a picture or choose a picture from your camera roll to add to your post.  Once you have chosen or taken your picture it shows up in a tiny thumbnail at the bottom of your text input window.  You have the option to removed the picture and take another before sending.  There is another camera icon on the bottom of the text input box as well as a character counter.  Tweets cannot exceed 140 characters and the Facebook status is a bit longer but not much.

text vision facebook twitter interface

Returning to the bottom icons, you can bring up options to post to Facebook or Twitter or both.  The remaining icon gives you the option to send your post as a text or to send as email.  However these options are NOT seamless.  They will turn off the Text Vision camera and  go into your SMS and you will have to restart Text Vision to get back into it.  Sending email from the text box is a bit faster as it copies the text and will allow you to move back and forth quickly.  You can even send photos quickly via email with this method.  Apparently no app on the App Store will allow you to send a text directly from the app itself, because it not allowed by Apple yet. Any app that does send texts from the app is sending it from their own server.

The downside of this application obviously then is that it cannot seamlessly text and view where you are going at the same time.  It does however give you the capabilities to seamlessly Facebook and Twitter while walking, and almost email too.  Rather ironic considering the app is called Text Vision.

Rating 4/5

Text Vision (iTunes Link) is available in the App Store for $0.99 as of this writing.

This is an app review article by The Apps Machine

10. Bump

With Bump, there’s no need to exchange business cards any longer.  Just bump each other’s fist with iPhones in hand and your contact information will be swapped to both iPhones.  It is great app for meeting new friends with iPhones. The new version even let you know if you have mutual friends with the person you bump via contact information and Facebook integration.

9.  Dragon Dictation

Nuance’s popular Dragon Naturally Speaking comes to the iPhone for free.  Users can now use Nuance’s speech-to-text technology to “speak” their SMS or email contents.  Its a great app for those times that you just don’t feel like typing on your iPhone. Texting n’ driving, anyone?

8.  Bing

Perhaps it’s the marketing. May be it is the background images.  But the Bing app has consistently been on the App Store’s top 25 free app list since its launch.  It looks like iPhone users really like Bing app’s image search along with a speech enabled search functionality.  But will it help Mircrosoft beat Google in mobile search?

7. Tap Tap Revenge series

Tap Tap Revenge 2 continued the music tapping sensation this year. It is estimated that more than 20 million iPhones or iPod Touches have installed them, bringing its developer of 20 employees, $1 million a month. Now, Tap Tap Revenge 3 has gone free with a new user interface and new songs.  It is definitely one of the best apps of 2009.

6. Dropbox

Dropbox is an extremely useful app to help you manage your files.  You are give 2 gigabytes of free space online to upload your files.    Upload your iPhone pictures and videos easily with a push of a button.  You can also upload documents such as PDF to your dropbox webspace and read it on you iPhone.  You can even mail a link for that PDF document to share with friends.  It closes the gap of file management between desktop computers and the iPhone.

5.  Photoshop.com

Adobe hit us by surprise with its own free Photoshop app.   Cropping, image rotation, color controls, and simple one-touch filter effects can all be performed on this app and uploaded to photoshop.com.

4.  ESPN Score Center

Live scores and stats for the games you care.  With its new push notification feature, sport fans who are away from live TV broadcasting won’t have to glue their eyes to their iPhone for score update every second.

3.  Textplus

Apps like Textplus makes us wonder why we are still paying AT&T up to $20 per month for unlimited text messages and $0.20 per text without a text plan.  Textplus allows its users to send  and receive unlimited text messages for free in the US.

The only inconvenience about this service is how your friends send SMS messages to you. Your friend send you SMS by sending to the phone number 60611 (GOGII) with the message content as your textplus username.  Your friend will then be prompted to enter their text message.   Hopefully your friends realize that you are out to save some money and will text you back with this method.

The alternative is Textfree Lite which sends text messages with your phone number as an username@textfree.us.  But with its 15 text daily limit, it may not really replace your SMS package unless you buy its paid version.

2. Twitbird

Do you need a great twitter app that doesn’t cost a dime?  Twitbird offers loads of features and a great UI that rivals even the popular Tweetie 2.  And it is free.  Its only drawback is that it only allows for 1 twitter account on the app and push notifications will cost you extra.

If you don’t mind the ads, you can also add Echofon as your other free twitter iPhone client.  It will send you push notifications of mentions and direct messages free of charge.  Echofon has some drawbacks. It doesn’t have all features such as geotags and lists that are available in Twitbird.

1.  Facebook 3.0

Every iPhone user who is also on Facebook probably have Facebook 3.0 installed. It has a brand new user friendly interface and new features including fast loading, more contact capacity, and easier video upload for iPhone 3GS user. It all adds up to a better Facebook experience on the iPhone.

For all those rebels out there running jailbroken iPhones along comes an app called Proswitcher that makes your iPhone multitask like a Palm Pre.  Surprisingly this is a big deal to those of us who are trying to do a million things at once.  Even my kids were upset to find that their  iPhone won’t multitask like the Palm Pre TV ads gleefully demonstrated.

9to5mac.com is reporting this app gives the iPhone the flickable cards and  “allows you to finely customize the way you want to multitask apps. You can trigger the cards view by opening the application from home-screen, touching the status bar, or by double clicking the home button. To add an application to the Cards view, you simple have to launch the app, then hold down the home button for about one to two seconds. To remove an app from the “Cards” view click the close button on the top left of the card, to swipe the card up the screen.”

This app is for the more experienced jailbreakers.  It will be interesting to see how hard this is on the phone’s battery, which is why Apple precluded multitasking.  If this app does not unduly suck battery power they just might consider including this functionality on a future generation of iPhone.

Let the power of Proswitcher multitasking set you and your jailbroken iPhones free!  Get even more facebooking done all the while completing that term paper and reading up on the latest TSA regulations!

After many news, previews, and reviews on Facebook version 3.0, the actual app finally appeared in the App Store. If you still haven’t downloadeded the most popular iPhone App of All Times, get it here.

When the news for Facebook 3.0’s release first broke at around mid-afternoon today, there were some confusion as the version number at the app store was still at version 2.5. There weren’t any updates available to be updated to version 3.0. Instead some people had to delete the old version on the iPhone, then download the entire app again through the App Store. But now these bugs at the Apps Store seemed fixed. Folks can now update their facebook to version 3.0 without deleting the old version. If you are to install the Facebook 3.0 app after deleting the prior version, the App Store now displays the correct version to be downloaded.

After downloading the new version, iPhone users are treated to a new user interface. Gone are the awkward looking sliding categories on the main News Feed page. Instead, new UI changes include a rotating category button on the top right of the main News Feed page. When the user touch the news feed category button, a large slider appears to allow users to pick their categories.

To use Facebook’s other functions such as Requests, Chat, Inbox, Friends Profile, and Your Profile. They now appear the the facebook app’s new home screen as individual icons. Like the iPhone’s homescreen, users can move these icons around when holding them for a few seconds. There are also multiple pages available to place these icons. Multiple pages are needed as users can now make new icons as shortcuts to their favorite friends. Simply touch the + button at the top left of the facebook home screen and pick your favorite friend to join your home screen. Adding friends can also be done on Friend’s page.

Facebook 3.0 have added many other interesting features as well. For a complete list of this version’s newest changes and additions, click here.