WordPress and Facebook App For iPhone and iPod Touch
With the launch of Apple App Store, new iPhone applications are popping up everywhere. WordPress and Facebook has released their official apps for iPhone and iPod Touch.
New Facebook Profile Design Launching Next Week
Finally Facebook is going to roll out their new layout and profile design next week for all its users. July 14 onwards, users will be able to explore the new design and see the new site (how to view the new design) as beta. Several changes have been made in it since I last reviewed it.
Now you can also add custom tabs for your favourite and most used applications. This ajaxified Facebook design is much more faster, less-cluttered, clear, and easier to use. According to Facebook Developer’s Blog:
Facebook Adds Comment Option For Mini-Feeds
Today, when I logged on to my Facebook account, I saw a new feature added to my Profile page. You can now leave comments on mini-feed items on anyone’s profile. Facebook is already rolling out new features for its upcoming new profile design and to increase its usability. Users have been given more features to play with, and developers are provided with more opportunities to put forward newer applications.
Facebook For China Launched
Facebook for China has finally been launched today! It was in news for sometime now, but the exact date of its launch wasn’t known or announced. Mark Zuckerberg was planning this, because last year they registered Facebook.cn which redirected to Facebook.com. Xiaonei, a China-based Facebook rip-off, is already one of the most popular social networks in China, but looks like their good times are now about to end with Facebook launching there.
Mini-Feed Expanded To Include More Social Data
Facebook has again expanded Mini-Feed, and this time it’s not that they have disabled the collapse feature, but have added features to include more social data from other sites. Now you can add your profile links from YouTube, StumbleUpon, Hulu, Pandora, Last.fm, Google Reader, and your personal blog to the list of sites that can share data to Facebook. Facebook’s import feature already had Flickr, Picasa, Digg, Yelp and del.icio.us.
Since this is all part of their upcoming profile design, we could expect to see more sites being added. The mini-feed is also part of it, because it is now non-collapsible, and as you have seen it in their upcoming profile design, mini-feed will use almost the whole of front page. This will help your profile visitors (friends, family etc.) to see all your updates on other sites from one place.
How To Try Out New Facebook Design
Earlier today, I wrote about the new Facebook profile design which is slated to release for everyone this Spring. Currently, it’s only open for Facebook developers and normal users can not try it. I have found a way by which even regular members can use and try the new upcoming Facebook design.
As I said before, it’s only open for developers, so for this you’ll have to become a developer yourself! No, I’m not going to ask you to make a Facebook application. Just by adding the Developer application can count you in their developers. That means then you can also try out the new design.
Sneak Peak At The New Facebook Profile Design
Facebook is planning to roll out the new, redesigned profile this Spring. Their aim is to make things simpler, cleaner and more relevant for the users, without stripping them off with their control over their profile and privacy. And as for developers, they can create more meaningful engagement with users, offer new integration points in profiles, and provide distribution for engaging applications.
Developers have been given a beta period to test out their applications with the redesigned Facebook. The new design uses tabs to split up different types of information, still keeping it simple and easy-to-use. Being a developer myself, I was very excited to try out my Facebook application with the new profile. And to my surprise, it worked like a charm :)
Try It Out!
If you would like to try out the new Facebook profile design, click here. Remember, many features might won’t work as its only open for developers to test their applications.
Now even non-developers can use the new design. For more information on how to, click here!
Let’s take a look at the drop down menus in the top menu bar.
User Menu
From this menu, you can view or edit your Profile, edit and privacy and account settings. Or if you need to, you can also log out from here.
Friends Menu
Friends menu allow you to view your friends list, recently updated profiles, online friends and allows to further invite or find friends using your email address book.
Applications Menu
Add, remove or manage Facebook applications added in your profile.
Inbox Menu
Here you can manage your private messages, view your Inbox, sent messages, notifications and fan page updates, or compose a new private message.
Let’s move on to the tabs now.
Tabs
- Feed: Shows your mini-feed updates
- Info: Shows your basic, contact, personal, education, work and custom application information.
- Wall: All the wall posts
- Photos: View and manage your albums, add, edit or view photos.
- Boxes: Here everyone can see all the applications added.
Overall, I feel the new design is way better than the current one. It’s more easy to use, and I like the idea that all the applications are in a separate tab and won’t load if we try to open our Profile page. There was one missing thing that I hope to see in the final release of this layout, the Social-Feed. It helped me lot to catch up what’s going in my friends profiles.
Facebook Preview
To preview the upcoming improvements to Facebook, be a fan of the official Facebook Previews page.
Do let me know what you think of this design, and did you like it or not? I’ll be looking forward to know your views.
Facebook Links
Facebook Themes For Download
by Haris on May 21, 2008
in Firefox, Internet, Social Networks, Tips and Tricks
I hope you all enjoyed the second wave of Orkut themes. If Orkut users can get third-party themes, then why can’t Facebook users? I’ve compiled a list of the best Facebook themes currently available for download on the Internet. The life-span of these themes is not much as Facebook keeps changing their code. The themes given below have been hand-picked by me and were all working fine. They are also being regularly updated by the original designers.
Requirements
There are two basic requirements before you can use the themes.
- Mozilla Firefox (Download it from here!)
- Greasemonkey/Stylish add-on for Firefox
Free Facebook Themes
If you already meet all the requirements, then let the themes begin!
Spring Theme
Download this from here.
Summer Theme
Download this from here
Black, Grey Theme
Download this from here.
Glossy Header Theme
Download this from here.
Facebook Black
Download this from here.
Pink Theme
Download this from here.
If you missed the second wave of Orkut themes, you can catch it right here!
Come, Let’s Be Friends
by Haris on May 20, 2008
in Announcements, Internet, Personal
Recently I saw a similar post on TechZilo, one of the blogs I regularly read, and thought is a very nice idea to socialize with our readers. I’ve always been active on Facebook, Orkut, StumbleUpon, Digg etc.
I’ve never been active on Twitter, but since many people are ‘following’ more and more people on Twitter and it has been one of the fastest growing social networks, I’ve also started using it. I’m looking forward to expanding my friends network, and know my readers better.
