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?
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.
HotorNot.com, the infamous social rating site that made it through the dot-com bust has a new, and free iPhone app out. As you'd expect it lets you pass judgment on others by scoring them anywhere from 1 to 10. It also lets you tap into its "Meet Me" network where you can get in touch with other registered users to set up dates.
The software makes use of a few of the iPhone's hardware features, including GPS. This lets you hit a button to narrow down where the results are coming from. This works both for the meeting portion of the site as well as the rating. Likewise, registered users can take snapshots of themselves using the phone's camera and post it straight to the site.
Many of the application's features cannot be used without registration. For instance, you cannot bookmark favorite users, send them virtual gifts, or upload pictures without a log-in ID. My guess is that most people will download it if only to start viewing and rating photos, then feel the need to register to continue using the app to its full potential. Keeping many of the more interesting features under wraps until users register seems like the smart way to go.
HotorNot.com's iPhone app gives you most of the functionality found on its site, including 1-10 rating and inter-network messaging.
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Dong Ngo/CNET Networks)
With the holidays just around the corner, it's probably time you tried to figure out what to get your friends and family. How about you show them your wish list and they show you theirs?
That's the idea behind LivingSocial, a social Web site that on Monday announced its iPhone application. The social network allows users to access information on the interests of friends and family for gift ideas, as well as to publish photos and reviews. Its arrival on the iPhone could make for a handy on-the-go mobile resource for the holidays.
Just like using the Web site, the mobile application grants users participation in a community of almost 7 million people who have cataloged nearly 98 million of their favorite books, music, movies, games, restaurants, and, of course, beer. Unlike generic social networks such as Facebook or MySpace, LivingSocial is an interest-based online community. This means you will find what you want more easily, in less time.
I tried the app on my iPhone and it worked very well, better than that of Facebook, which crashed once in a while. The LivingSocial application is available now at the App Store and you can download it for free.
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Dong Ngo/CNET Networks)
One of the cool features of the iPhone is its ability to handle photos in a way that allows you to flip through the images very easily or view them as a simple slide show. However, after a while it gets mundane.
For this reason, I was excited that Moblyng announced on Thursday its slide show application for the Apple iPhone. Being an amateur photographer, I decided to try it out. And it delivered!
Almost immediately I appreciated its improvement over the phone's built-in photo-managing tool. It was very easy to pick either existing photos or take new ones with the phone's camera to make a new slide show or add to an existing one.
The app offers five ways (themes) for you to run a slide show. One of the themes is called "Antique" that makes all images appear in black and white, which is really cool. You can also change the speed and choose different skins.
I didn't try sharing my slide shows with any social networks, as I don't have an account with either Friendster or MySpace, the two networks the app supports. However, when I tried to share it with a different phone number, the app crashed. I hope this will be fixed with later updates of the app.
Nonetheless, Moblyng Slide Shows is a very fun app, and best of all, it can be downloaded from the App Store for free. It's definitely worth a try. Other smartphones users can also try a similar app at Moblyng's mobile site: m.moblyng.com.
Together with the application, Moblyng also announced today that it received more than 1 million monthly unique visitors to its mobile site in September. This number is rather significant as the site was launched just a month earlier, in August.
Facebook's iPhone app gives you access to Facebook Chat.
Viewing Facebook photos is really great in this app. They have implemented the same "flick" style of navigation that the iPhone uses and photos flip over to reveal comments. Overall, the UI is pretty intuitive and uses a lot of the same conventions that Apple does. Taking photos and uploading them to Facebook could not be simpler. Just tap the camera icon, take the picture, and tap to upload.
The installed application is a great improvement over the previously released web based version, which does not offer as high a level of functionality or as fluid of an interface. While I was initially skeptical as to the benefits to a standalone Facebook application, as opposed to just using the web based one, features like photo uploading and chat justify its existence.
Facebook has built an extremely slick iPhone application. My first impressions are extremely positive and Facebook has definitely earned a spot on my first page of icons. Its navigation is very fluid and the feature set is complete and easy to use. It was important for Facebook to have an application at launch for the iPhone App Store, with competition coming from a variety of other social networks, MySpace included, so it's good to see them bring such a solid offering to the table.
Unless you're in Korea, the MySpace experience hasn't evolved much visually. Mobile users have it even worse with a stripped-down version that cuts out a few features in the name of being quick to load and working better on small screens.
However, developer Jake Marsh isn't willing to give up the latest and greatest features in the name of mobility, and has nearly completed a mobile port of MySpace for the iPhone that does a great job of copying the brilliant user interface of Facebook's iPhone app in the name of making MySpace more accessible to iPhone users.
While it lacks points for originality in the looks department, it makes up for it in functionality that's far easier to use than some of the solutions currently available in MySpace's official mobile version, and the one found on Helio's phones. One of its greatest feats is taking music, the centerpiece of MySpace, and letting you run the tracks right on your device, something you can't do because of the lack of Flash. It's also made it easier to subscribe to people's newsfeeds, something introduced this year with the apps platform that's not the central focus of the mobile app like it is for Facebook. Marsh has also implemented a photo viewer just like the one found on Facebook's app, letting you browse photos in album form instead of one at a time.
Update: Marsh got in contact with me to let me know it's slated for release in late summer (August-ish). He also gave me the link to play around with the development version (linked to his account), which doesn't yet work with 100 percent of MySpace's features, but works as advertised for going to band pages and listening to their tracks, which is about the coolest thing since sliced bread.
To see it in action, check out the preview video below.
[via Digg]
Facebook had done a really commendable job making the site easy to use from a range of mobile phones. The truest experience belongs to the iPhone, which makes tattooing friends' Walls, updating your status, and viewing photos intuitive and visually satisfying. There are some limitations with Facebook for iPhone, but overall it's richer to use than Facebook's standard mobile site and will result in more streamlined social networking than pointing the iPhone's Safari browser to Facebook.com.
There's been a lot of buzz over the iPhone optimized version of Facebook in the past couple of days, and with good reason--it rocks. It does nearly everything the full version of Facebook can do, sans apps from the Facebook apps platform, which I assume are on their way later this year. Everything is rolled up into a tight little package using a simplistic set of two rows of tabs to cover core navigation, and a sliding interface that mimics the iPhone's signature UI. To get there, just point your iPhone (or browser) to http://iPhone.facebook.com.
If your friend's listed their phone number, you'll be able to call them with the touch of a button.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Like the full version of Facebook, the iPhone iteration centers around your profile, friends, messages, and the home tab, which contains the Facebook news feed, along with any upcoming events and notifications. You can browse profiles and check out your friend's links (which open up in new Safari windows). The real killer app though is the call option, which will pop up assuming your friend has made their phone number available. This works with e-mail addresses too, but the phone numbers basically turn Facebook into one big mobile phonebook for your friends.
There are a few things missing from the iPhone version of Facebook that I'd like to see added. The first is groups, which are mysteriously absent. Poking is also missing in action, which is unfortunate because poking on the mobile version of Facebook results in setting your friends on fire--a small but very amusing perk. There's also no way to edit your profile without logging into to the regular Web site. Lastly, the included photo galleries are really well done, but don't let you zoom in and out, nor save them to your device.
This app is a great example of what can be done to work around some of the limitations of the iPhone not having an SDK. If this were a bonafide app, things like notifications and an integrated mailbox would make great additions to the iPhone's current lineup of Web services turned apps. In the meantime, if you've got an iPhone and use Facebook, this is definitely worth bookmarking.
For a mobile app, the iPhone version of Facebook is very good looking. Seen here are photo galleries, and a list of friends who are active on the service. Everything you see here is very finger friendly, right down to the tabbed interface up top.
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