Facebook for iPhone 3.0 – Full Tour & First Impressions (w/ Screenshots)

Facebook for iPhone 3.0 – Full Tour & First Impressions (w/ Screenshots): "

Facebook for iPhone 3.0 has been submitted to Apple and is awaiting approval any minute now, but we have an advance copy and have been testing it this morning.

Version 3.0, which has been in development for months, adds a number of new features and improvements to what has become one of the most heavily used iPhone applications ever – nearly 12 million people around the world use Facebook for iPhone each month. But without further ado, let’s take a look at all the new features:

1. Full News Feed Interaction, with Likes and Comments

Facebook for iPhone includes the “new” News Feed that’s been live on Facebook for a few months, including comments and likes.

You can easily comment or like on feed items in the stream as well.

Checking out comments and likes in detail is also easy:

2. Full Support for Facebook Pages

One major improvement in Facebook for iPhone 3.0 is the new full support for Pages. Now, you can check out any Page just like you can any personal profile, and Page owners can post status updates or Photos directly from the iPhone. You can also become a fan of a Page.

3. New Home Page Navigation

Perhaps the biggest navigational change to Facebook for iPhone is the new home page. Users are given the following buttons by default, but you can add your own friends and Pages starting on the second page. The new “button array” is a really helpful way to get around the app, and these may be made fully editable in future versions.

4. See Upcoming Events and RSVP

Several new features around Facebook events were added in Facebook for iPhone 3.0. Now, you can view upcoming events, check out details for a specific event, and RSVP.

5. Video Uploading

Of course, many users and application developers will be excited to hear that video uploading is now also included for iPhone 3GS owners. It’s really easy – and behaves just like photo uploading. You can do it right from your profile Page on the iPhone. Here’s how it looks – once uploaded, videos go directly onto your Facebook profile.

6. Complete Photo Management

Now, users can create and delete albums, upload photos to any album, delete photos, and delete photo tags. It’s a big improvement over Facebook for iPhone 2.0, which had pretty limited photo management capabilities. You can also now change your profile picture and zoom into photos.

7. Write Notes and Read Your Friends’ Notes

That about says it all. The interface is simple and there’s no tagging, but you can now post Notes.

8. And More

In addition, Facebook for iPhone 3.0 also adds the ability to:

• View friends’ birthdays
• Visit links in a built-in web browser
• See all of your friends’ friends and Pages
• See mutual friends
• Easily search for people and Pages

What’s Missing

While Facebook for iPhone includes many major new features, some things aren’t yet included in the new version:

• Push Notifications – Lead developer Joe Hewitt says full push support will be included in version 3.1.
• Hiding people from the News Feed – While you can do this on Facebook.com, you can’t yet do it on 3.0.
• Event Walls are not yet accessible – Although you can RSVP, you can’t write on event walls.
• Videos are not yet playable inside 3.0
• The app can only be used in Portrait mode – though Hewitt says Landscape mode is coming soon
• Application Integration – While application notifications are accessible, clicking them takes you into full browser mode inside the new Facebook app. Applications invitations are not accessible.

Conclusion

All in all, 3.0 is a major improvement that makes it easier to interact with friends in the feed, post rich content to profiles and Pages, and navigate Facebook more easily. Facebook for iPhone is a very meaty application – for instance, it also includes full Facebook Chat integration – and there are a lot of valuable little features under the hood.

When version 3.0 goes live, we’re likely to see many more Facebook Page administrators updating their Pages through their iPhones, many more mobile videos posted to user profiles, and much more feed interaction (comments and likes) happening while users are on the go. It’s a great step forward for users and businesses, and many people are already clamoring for more features for version 3.1

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