iPhone Atlas

Facebook for iPhone 3.1 allows users to add profile pictures and links from Facebook to their iPhone contacts.

(Credit: Screenshot by Harrison Hoffman/CNET)

Facebook's iPhone app is one of the most popular apps for the device. Version 3.1 brings some killer features to an already strong offering. Push notifications and address book sync, new in this version, are welcome additions.

Push notifications are a very logical addition. They have become Apple's compromise for not allowing apps to run in the background. Instead of having to fire up the Facebook app all the time to see if anything is new, you can now opt to get push notifications for new messages, wall posts, friend requests, friend confirmations, photo tags, events, and comments. This is way more efficient and allows you to only access the app when there is something new to check out, if you choose.

Facebook's new contact sync for the iPhone is particularly interesting. At first, I was a bit hesitant to try out the feature, worrying that it would overwrite the data that I had or add a lot of new friends on Facebook that I didn't really want as contacts on my phone. But it didn't cause any of the problems that I had imagined. Rather, it examines the contacts that you already have on your iPhone, trying to match it to a Facebook user. If it finds a match, it pulls down that person's profile picture, making it that his or her photo on your iPhone. It also adds other information, such as a link that takes you to that person's profile in Facebook's app. The feature doesn't seem to cause any data integrity issues, it just makes your iPhone contact information more robust. Even more interestingly, if one of your phone contacts is not your Facebook friend, it will (in most cases) still pull down their info from Facebook if it finds a match.

Version 3.0 was a big jump forward for Facebook's iPhone app. Even though its creator, Joe Hewitt, has since left the project and started boycotting iPhone app development, version 3.1 delivers some really cool features that round out Facebook's offering on the iPhone nicely.

An iPhone contact, post-Facebook sync, with profile picture and Facebook link added.

(Credit: Screenshot by Harrison Hoffman/CNET)

Facebook for iPhone 3.1's push notification options.

(Credit: Screenshot by Harrison Hoffman/CNET)

TweetDeck's new Facebook support.

(Credit: Screenshot by Harrison Hoffman/CNET)

TweetDeck, the popular Twitter app for the iPhone, was pulled from the Apple App Store on Monday due to a crippling crash bug. An update was quickly resubmitted to Apple and the new version (1.1.1) is now available for download (iTunes Link). The new version includes Facebook integration, video uploading, and support for Twitter trending topics.

The Facebook support in TweetDeck for iPhone works very well, allowing you to add columns from Facebook by either selecting a feed of all your friends or separating them into groups. The feed support is restricted to status updates, so you cannot see when new photos or events are posted, but comments and Likes on status updates are visible. It also allows users to comment or Like a post from the app as well as post a message on someone's wall. Of course, Facebook's own iPhone app is a much more robust offering, but it is nice to have data from Facebook and Twitter centralized in one app.

TweetDeck now also offers video recording and uploading for iPhone 3GS owners. This service is supported by 12seconds, which has an iPhone app of its own. This type of short-form video plays nicely with the overall concept of Twitter and should help to cut down on upload times when posting new updates.

Additional features included in this update are the inclusion of Twitter trending topics, the ability to cross-post updates to Twitter and Facebook, nearby tweets, bit.ly support, and landscape composing. These are all features that make a lot of sense for TweetDeck and were surely highly requested.

A nice video of the new features, put together by the TweetDeck team, is included below.

At one time or another, most of us have recommended an iPhone/iPod Touch app to friends or family members--usually by tweeting, e-mailing, or Facebooking about it.

Yappler Sync takes that concept to the next level, allowing you to build a custom list of the apps you like and then share that list via the social solution of your choice.

At the same time, Yappler Sync helps you discover more cool apps by perusing the lists built by others.

All you do is install the eponymous utility, which is available for Windows and Mac, then build your list and decide how to share it.

Unfortunately, I discovered a few irksome aspects of the service, starting with this: Yappler builds your list based on every app in your iTunes library, not just those currently in residence on your iPhone. Thus I ended up with some 270 apps to cull--and they weren't even listed alphabetically.

Meanwhile, it's not immediately clear how you're supposed to "discover" other users' lists (unless they're shared with you directly). The Yappler site catalogs all the apps in the App Store (84,000 and counting, in case you're wondering), with a handy advanced-search option that lets you specify criteria like price and rating.

But the only way to find other users and their lists is by perusing the reviews for any given app, then looking for clickable usernames. And once you do find another user's list, all you really get is a batch of icons. So JoeAppUser has Buzzingo on his iPhone--how does that really enlighten me?

Of course, Yappler Sync is more about the social aspect of app-sharing, hence the ties to Facebook, Twitter, and the like. And it's nice how it can automatically update your list when you install new apps. Plus, it's free, so I can complain only so much.

On the other hand, this isn't much different from posting, say, a list of books you've read. Without knowing more about each book and, more importantly, why you liked it, where's the value?

Last week when it first updated, we related our first impressions of Facebook for iPhone 3.0. Now that's we've spent some more quality time with it over the weekend, we can confirm that the 3.0 update is huge. Sure, it takes up more room on your iPhone or iPod Touch, but that's not what we meant.

The real growth spurt comes from the pile of new and improved features that Facebook has poured into the app. They range from the typical--support for landscape mode, capability to change your profile picture--to the powerful--such as creating photo albums and kicking off a text message or call from the Facebook interface.

That last point echoes a central thesis in a June 2009 Wired article ("The Great Wall of Facebook"): by storing intensely personal data about real people--their likes and dislikes, e-mail addresses, friends, activities, and even phone numbers--Facebook is creating a formidable "second Internet" to rival Google. Indeed, the SMS and phone call triggers on Facebook for iPhone 3.0 (and a similar feature on Facebook for BlackBerry that hooks into your address book) do influence, even facilitate, the way you contact friends in real life. Now you can rely on a Web-based network as a point of entry to your actual social life.

But that feature is just one of many. See the new Facebook for iPhone 3.0 in action in this First Look video. If you have used it, let us know how you like it.

Facebook 3.0 introduces new navigation, notifications, events, and more.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)

The third major edition of Facebook for iPhone has just crept into the iTunes App Store. It's a huge update, with numerous advanced features that make Facebook more interactive than before and which bring the app as close to the desktop experience as it's ever been.

Facebook for iPhone opens on your news feed as usual, but the upper left corner now sports a tiny grid icon that serves as the main organizing feature for this new build. Click it to see a screen equipped with a search bar on top, a notification alert area on the bottom, and a grid of nine activities you can perform in the middle. These include the news feed, your profile details, your message in-box, Facebook chat, friend requests, events, photo albums, and notes.

Those who use Facebook on the iPhone frequently will notice that quite a few of these actions are brand new, like viewing events and submitting an RSVP from your phone. You'll also be able to view friends' birthdays and upload photos to any album. Anyone sporting an iPhone 3GS gets the added bonus of uploading video.

Photos received a lot of attention in this update. You'll now be able to zoom into photos, create albums and delete them, as well as upload and delete photos and photo tags, all from the Facebook interface. In addition, you can upload a new profile picture.

Facebook has also poured energy into how it deals with friends. ... Read More

You don't need Twitter to keep tabs on the latest newly free iPhone applications.

To paraphrase the old Sara Lee commercial, nobody doesn't like free apps.

Good luck trying to find them, though. Sure, the App Store lists the top freebies in each software category, but what about the apps that have just been price-reduced to $0? iTunes offers no way to find them.

However, FreeAppAlert does find them for you. The site catalogs all iPhone apps that previously cost money but are now free (either temporarily or permanently).

If this sounds a bit familiar, it's because I recently wrote the 148Apps' Twitter feed that notifies you when an app's price drops to zero.

But what if you're not a Twitter user? Bookmark FreeAppAlert, which lists each newly free app along with its former price tag and one or more thumbnail screenshots.

What's great is that when you mouse over a thumbnail, the full-size version appears immediately. That beats clicking all the way through to the App Store just to see what an app looks like.

Likewise, you can show or hide an application's description by clicking View Description; no need to leave the page.

Like the aforementioned 148Apps service, FreeAppAlert has a Twitter feed. You can also become a fan on Facebook and subscribe to an RSS feed.

Bottom line: If you like free apps, you'll like FreeAppAlert. (Best newly free freebie I've scored lately: "multiplayer" doodle app Doodle Buddy.)

TuneWiki turns song lyrics into subtitles so you can read along while you listen.

Remember Lyrical, the free app that lets you look up lyrics for the currently playing song? TuneWiki does it one better, spooling out lyrics as the song plays. (All that's missing is the bouncing ball.)

If the name sounds familiar, it's because the TuneWiki social music site has been around for a while, and recently unveiled a TuneWiki plug-in for Windows Media Player.

With TuneWiki for iPhone (and iPod Touch), you choose a song from your library (using the TuneWiki interface, not the standard iPod menus), then watch the lyrics scroll past as it plays.

That's assuming, of course, the song has already been "time-synced" by another user. If not, you'll have the option of advancing the lyrics yourself so the app will know the sync points in the future.

TuneWiki also lets you stream music from countless Shoutcast radio stations, and works the same lyric-subtitling magic with most songs.

The app includes a YouTube video search option and supports both Twitter and Facebook: it can automatically update your status to show what song you're playing. It even emulates the TuneWiki site's mapping option to show you who's listening to what in various parts of the world--including yours.

In other words, it's a pretty cool app--or would be, if not for the generally atrocious interface. Browsing your song library is a slow, awkward process, in part because TuneWiki lacks the alphabet-shortcut menu on the right edge of the screen.

Meanwhile, menu options and icons aren't logically designed or organized. Most buttons don't look like buttons; it's too easy to get bounced out of the app by, say, the YouTube or download buttons because you didn't know their functions.

On the other hand, once you learn your way around, it's pretty cool--especially if you like to read lyrics while you're listening to music. The subtitling works pretty well, and it's hard to complain too much about an app that costs nothing to use.

(Credit: CNET)

It seems like just about everyone has a Twitter or Facebook account these days and I find myself checking the so called "status updates" for my friends and family more than I'd like to admit. I never thought when these services launched that a status update could become anything more than a simple yawn-worthy report of personal activity. But as we've seen with these services' growing popularity, and the recent explosion of activity during the aftermath of Iran's election, the idea of a status update has morphed into something much bigger. A simple sentence or two can now be broadcast for thousands or even millions of people as a sort of window into the lives of those we know and to the lives people around the world.

Invite friends, read other people's stories, or create your own story.

(Credit: CNET)

A recent addition to my iPhone app library takes this concept a step further. After an easy sign-up process, Whrrl (free) lets you post both pictures and words to create a narrative in a neat package for others to see and comment on. You start by creating your story: let's say you're planning a trip to a public market. As you make your way to the market, you might take a picture of traffic and caption the photo with "There's always market traffic on Saturday morning." Later you might take a picture of the throngs of people with its own caption or maybe a photo of some of the fresh ingredients you find at the many stands. Finally, you can end your story with a picture of the dinner you made using the ingredients found at the public market. Your story can be public for all on the Web or you can allow permission to only specific people. Either way, you've created a narrative with a combination of pictures and captions that anyone can follow, and you give people the opportunity to comment on the complete story.

Whrrl lets you post your creations to both Facebook and Twitter (adding a URL to your status), and you can view your stories on the iPhone app or on the Whrrl Web site. If you use Twitter or Facebook, but would like to a create something that's more than just a status update, check out this free app.

Track and update all your social networks under Zensify's single roof

"All your networks are belong to us." That could be the tagline for Zensify, a new iPhone app that lets you view, update, and share content from multiple social networks.

In other words, Zensify aims to take the place of standalone apps for the likes of Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr--or at least to save you the time of bopping from one to another just to read and post updates.

In addition to those three popular networks, Zensify can connect you with 12seconds, Delicious, Digg, Photobucket, and YouTube. (Support for more services is in the works, according to the developer.)

After you sign into your various accounts (a slow but one-time procedure), Zensify lists all your friends' updates in a single, scrolling timeline. It also presents a scrolling tag bar (this one along the top) so you can quickly filter the timeline based on current trends.

Then there's also the Tag Cloud view, which displays the aforementioned "trendy tags" in a word cloud. I've never been a fan, but it's definitely a neat way to sift through updates.

Zensify's Track tool lets you search all your networks, complete with modifiers for things like tags, usernames, and types of content. It also provides a handy batch of saved searches so you can quickly look for updates that have, say, photos or links, or that come from Flickr or Facebook.

Want to keep an update for future reference? Tap the star icon to mark it as a favorite. Want to post an update or photo to one or more of your own networks? Tap the Post icon. (Finally, an easy way to update Facebook and Twitter simultaneously!)

Unfortunately, while Zensify lets you share or reply to others' Twitter posts, there's no easy way to do likewise with Facebook entries. You can "tap through" to the friend's Facebook page using Zensify's integrated browser, but that's a slow and awkward process. The app really needs to add a low-level reply option.

Of course, it's technically called Zensify Preview, so a few rough edges are to be expected. As it stands, Zensify looks very promising, and I suspect avid social-networkers will like it a lot.