facebook - 6/13 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Sep

Hootsuite Acquires Seesmic, Has Big Plans For Business Customers

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

In the mad scramble to keep up with all the major social networks, a number of third-party clients have popped up over the years to help you manage everything. Not that Twitter takes too kindly to these sorts of shenanigans. Still, services like Seesmic tried to replicate the native Twitter experience while augmenting it with Facebook integration in one app. When Twitter gutted third-party APIs for consumer-facing apps, Seesmic likely faced some trouble. What's a struggling independent developer to do? Team up with an even bigger one!

HootSuite is another popular social network management app, though it seems to have a more broad range of services, including integration with Google+ pages.

Aug

Facedroid Updated To Version 2.0 – Gets Visual Overhaul, Groups, "Heaps" Of Bug Fixes

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

Facedroid, Platinum Apps' tablet-centric Facebook client, got a major update today, bringing the app up to version 2.0.

For those who aren't familiar, Facedroid, which was released back in December of 2011, is a powerful Facebook client that looks to replace – and improve upon – Facebook's own mobile experience. The app does everything you'd expect and more, allowing for quick browsing, sharing, and updating, and its 2.0 update brings even more functionality, along with a guidelines-inspired redesign.

Besides the visual overhaul, the 2.0 update adds the ability to view and manage friend "Groups," improved optimization for 7" devices, performance improvements, a new Settings section, and "heaps" of bug fixes.

Aug

Facebook's Director Of Mobile Engineering Discusses Android And Answers Questions On Reddit

Posted by John Thompson in Applications, News

Whenever you hear someone talking about Facebook's mobile app, the most common complaint is always how slow it is. Even your news feed can take what feels like an age to load, and that's before you've started navigating through your events and photos of friends.

The reason for this is that the Facebook app uses HTML5, so it doesn't perform as well as other apps which are written natively for a particular platform. HTML5 offers Facebook great flexibility, as the development team can alter and push new code at their will without being restricted by the app approval process of whatever platform they may develop for.

Aug

Facebook Is Making Its Employees Use Android Phones To See Just How Awful Its Mobile App Is

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

I'd be lying if I said this story didn't just make my day. According to Business Insider, Facebook employees are being strongly urged and in some cases required to use Android phones instead of their smartphone platform of choice. Why? Because the Facebook for Android app sucks. Of course, this doesn't come as a surprise to anyone who's ever used it. Despite a string of tiny, incremental, minor updates—or worse updates that add features nobody wants only to remove them almost immediately—the app has remained largely the same for the last six months at least.

^{If you had to stare at this everyday, wouldn't you wish you could fix it?}

Aug

Facebook Gets Updated To Version 1.9.8 With Event Creation, Revamped Photo Upload Flow, And More

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

Facebook's official app for Android got a nice update today, bringing with it just a few changes, though the enhancements it does bring do make the app just a tad more intuitive and functional.

The update includes a new event creation interface that allows users schedule events of all types in a snap, choosing locations, times, and privacy settings all from one screen. Also included is a "new upload flow" for sharing photos. This may sound vague but the idea is that, with the new update, Facebook's "photo" action (when you check in or simply choose to upload a photo from the main screen) will dump you into a list of all the photos on your device, allowing you to tap as many as you like for upload at once.

Jul

LG Optimus 2X Might Not Receive An Upgrade To ICS After All, Says LG Canada

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News, Optimus 2X (Star, p990)

Way back in November, LG took to Facebook to announce that its high-end handsets would be receiving an upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich. Of course, that was eight months ago. A lot can change in that time. Now, LG Canada's twitter account is saying that the Optimus 2X will not be upgraded, and that LG's previous comment on the subject was a "general statement issued from HQ."

Of course, it's a little hard to understand how "the LG Optimus 2X will receive an upgrade to ICS" could be interpreted as a "general statement". We've reached out to LG for comment and will update as soon as we hear more.

Jul

Facebook Updated To v1.9.7, Brings Bug Fixes But Requires Froyo And Up

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Applications, News

Another update to Facebook for Android has rolled around, and even though it doesn't bring the complete overhaul so many people desire, it does bring some helpful changes. In addition to the usual bug fixes, version 1.9.7 speeds up the login process as well as navigating through the app, and front-facing camera support has been added.

Unfortunately for some, the update requires your device to be on Android 2.2 or above, meaning that the < 6% of users on Android 2.1 and below are stuck on the current version.

It is a manual update to the fact that it now requires the (unexplained) "Read phone state and identity" permission.

Jun

[Editorial] Welcome To Google+: Your Social Network Is Finally Ready, So What Are You Waiting On?

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Editorials, Google

Google I/O isn't even finished yet, and everyone's favorite search company has already shaken things up quite a bit. One of the biggest things Google announced was Google Events. Google said that this new feature would allow users to coordinate events and share them with others. What Google didn't say was that with the addition of this feature, Google+ is ready. Cooked until golden brown and ready to be served. And, guys? It's time to dig in.

By Your Powers Combined

Social networks will continue to evolve as long as people do, but today marked a subtle, yet important transition for Google: the day that the biggest majority of its key features finally became unified in a meaningful, social way.

Jun

Facebook Messenger Updated To Version 1.8 – Add Friends Of Friends To Messages, Switch Conversations With In-App Notifications, And More

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

Facebook Messenger, an app the social giant says provides "a faster way to message," got a significant update today, bringing it up to version 1.8. The update, besides promising to speed up app loading, navigating (by way of some small UI tweaks), and message sending, contains several new features that are worth mentioning.

Among these new features is the ability to switch between conversations using handy (dismissible) in-app notification bars which appear any time a friend sends you a message in another conversation. Facebook has also added the option to bring friends of friends into your existing conversation, using the same interface you'd use to add any of your friends to the message.