Facebook (News - Alert) has been making big headlines the past few weeks, as the 175-million user social networking site has been talking integration with the world’s largest maker of cell phones, adds real-time, Twitter-like functionality and debuts on TMCnet’s Web site.
We thought it would be a good time to take a closer look at the free Facebook for Apple iPhone (News - Alert), iPod Touch application, which was released last July and has seen a steady stream of improvements based on consumer feedback and developing technologies.
Facebook long has offered mobile device functionality, which allows users to update their status through text messaging from a cell phone, and to choose what kinds of “news” will trigger a text-message from Facebook back to their cell phone.
And of course more and more cellular devices have mobile Internet access, so – depending on the platform – users may have a better or worse integration with a smaller version of their Facebook account.
The free application (pictured below), available through the iTunes App Store, is designed specifically for Apple’s (News - Alert) two popular touch screen devices, and so it’s clean and easy to use.
It alerts users of notifications with a similar red mark that a full-screen, PC version of Facebook pops up when something new happens. It allows users to switch easily among their “home” news page, personal profile page, inbox and friends list, and there’s an icon, clearly visible at the top of the screen, that users can click on to update their status.
But it doesn’t have what you’d call “full functionality” – though that may not be Facebook’s fault.
For example, some of my own most frequent uses of Facebook are game applications – chess, WordTwist, Scrabble.
However, with chess, for example – a game that has some great applications for the Apple devices, such as “tChess Lite” from Tom Kerrigan – if I get a notification that my brother-in-law has made a move in our current game – “Bill has made his move – it’s your turn in this game, and maybe others too. Click here to play!” – I can’t actually click there to play. If I click there, I just get routed to Bill’s profile page.
Of course, that’s not Facebook’s fault. The chess application – from Chess.com – simply doesn’t have full integration yet with the iPhone, iPod Touch application for Facebook.
Still, for many of its most popular features, the mobile application for Facebook works wonderfully well.
With instant-messaging, for example, users have access to a full QWERTY keyboard and their back-and-forth with friends show up on the screen as dialogue bubbles beside their profile pictures.
With everything that Facebook has been doing to ensure that it alone emerges as the mobile social networking tool of choice, we expect the application’s shortcomings to be addressed swiftly and elegantly.
Don’t forget to check out TMCnet’s White Paper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP Communications industry. The library offers white papers, case studies and other documents which are free to registered users.
Michael Dinan is a contributing editor for TMCnet, covering news in the IP communications, call center and customer relationship management industries. To read more of Michael's articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Michael Dinan
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