I have a huge work load at the moment so I’ve had to put all this on hold. The moment I get some free time I’ll be back!
Ok, so lets face it, this is probably one the most used apps across any mobile OS. Quite frankly, I’d put money on the fact that its one the most used websites! So you would think that from that information, we can expect a “top-notch” standard of mobile app. Well if you ask me; after all the recent updates, I think they’ve done it, because frankly, I love it!
General Layout
From your standard “News Feed” page, you’ve got your typical Facebook nav bar across the top of the screen allowing you to access the menu, see notifications on friend adds, private messages and general notifications on status’ etc. Also you now have the chat bar which can be accessed by the button in the top right corner of the screen. This for me is my favorite update Facebook has made to the app as I’m starting to feel like everything I can do on a desktop web browser, I can now do from within the app; which is something all developers should be aiming for with web-based mobile applications.
The main menu bar itself (accessed top left) represents the bar we see on the left side of our news feed allowing access to messages, events, groups and pages etc. and also to search for friends by name. For me, this part of the app is quite laggy in the opening/closing of the menu and also scrolling up and down it too; however, I have a feeling this is more than probably due to my phone becoming more and more out of date by the day (HTC Desire S).
Integration
This is and always has been my favorite part about the Facebook app (or maybe just Android OS, either way, Facebook adds to this a hell of a lot more than most other apps do). Going to an event? …stored in your calendar. Added a new friend? …all their Facebook details are stored in your phone book.
For some people, I imagine this will not be that big of a deal, but for someone who runs a university society, it is absolutely perfect!
Media
The only downside that I think they may need to work on over at Facebook, is how the new software handles images and other media. I always used to find that images loaded very quickly when I wanted to view them full-sized, but now its very slow (even over Wi_Fi). Not that this is a big deal, just something I noticed over the last couple of updates.
Conclusion
Overall this is my most used app and probably would be no matter how slow it was. However, based on the expectations from a company of its stature. It hasn’t fully lived up to expectations, but it’s still really useful and very user-friendly.
4 out of 5
I’m going to be giving my views etc on the latest update to the beloved (for some) Facebook app!
Just thought it might be of interest to some people.
If you leave a room with a light on, unless you’re only out of that room for 1.2 seconds or less, its more energy-efficient to turn the light off.
Bit of bill saving tips.
For all you Chrome users out there, this is the perfect app for you…for all you non-chrome users out there (me included) this is the perfect time to stop using anything but Chrome…and get this app too.
This is one of the simplest of ideas I have ever seen in an app, yet it works brilliantly! All you need is to download the app, download the client for your desktop and sign in with your Google account; from this point, the magic begins.
Ever been browsing a site on your desktop, but then realised what time it was and had to sprint out the door and then thought “Where the hell was that site?” Well this app is for you!
Essentially here’s what it does:
- On a website > press the button in the top right > that page is loaded onto your default browser on your phone
- Looking at a route on Google Maps > press the button > the maps app is loaded with your route on-screen
- Watching a video on YouTube > Press the Button > Video loads in the YouTube app on your phone
Also, this app isn’t constantly running, it is only activated when a link/map/video is sent, meaning that you’re not wasting your precious battery life. All you need to do is link the desktop version to your google account and you’re away.
A simple but amazing app, my only grudge is that it has been made for Chrome and not FireFox, but since when was everything perefct…5 out of 5!
5 out of 5
So I was sat thinking about what could be a good app to review next and thought it would be a great idea to review WordPress on WordPress!
WordPress is a well established blogging tool used predominantly by professionals. Although tumblr has significantly more numbers, making it the biggest blogging site at this time, WordPress is still doing ver well for itself.
The best thing about the app for WordPress, is its very clean and you don’t really have to go through loads of stuff to get where you want. There is very little (if anything) that you can do on a desktop that you cannot do on the app. This is exactly what we expect from an app.
I honestly have very little to say about this app, simply because the only problem I can pick with it is sometimes the reader loads very slowly, but it’s pulling from different sites so that’s understandable.
WordPress App 5
All in all, straight up 5 out of 5
5 out of 5
I know this is off topic, but does anybody know what IE9 is like? I know its got a bad rep and quite frankly it deserves it, but there’s been reviews from companies and people that say its basically a whole new thing.
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