If you’re like me, the Facebook iPhone app just doesn’t cut it for you anymore. Quite simply, the current app is too basic, not taking full advantage of the capabilities of the incredible device running it and sometimes flat-out failing at merely allowing users to do things they can do on Facebook through regular browser access.
Well, the fix for (most of) our Facebook app woes should be coming any day now.
Hopefully we won’t have very much longer to wait, as the new app specifically designed for iPhone OS 3.0 has just been submitted to Apple for approval, according to the Facebook for iPhone fan page and also Facebook engineer and lead Facebook iPhone developer Joe Hewitt’s Twitter page.
Announced over the weekend, completion of the app arrives over a month after the first splurge of details about the much-needed update came at the beginning of July, when Hewitt listed every
thing new in the update:
1. The “new” News Feed
2. Like
3. Events (including the ability to RSVP)
4. Notes
5. Pages
6. Create new photo albums
7. Upload photos to any album
8. Zoom into photos
9. Easier photo tagging
10. Profile Pictures albums
11. A new home screen for easy access to all your stuff, search, and notifications
12. Add your favorite profiles and pages to the home screen
13. Better Notifications (they link to the comments so you can reply)
14. Quickly call or text people right from the Friends page
15. Messages you are typing will be restored if you quit or are interrupted by a phone call
The few screenshots we’ve seen of the update look like a tremendous improvement over the previous iteration, in terms of both aesthetic appeal and refined functionality, and iPhone users should be very excited about the list of additions above.
Additionally, for users who newly purchased the iPhone 3G S, which just came out in June, the updated Facebook app will enable video uploads.
This piece of news, it seems, will come just on time, for Qik just announced late last week the release of a free app exactly for that same purpose. Boasting of automatic uploading of videos and location sharing, Qik may have quickly drawn attention from Facebook to speed up release of its own app with video uploading capabilities.
Unfortunately, the one feature that this update won’t take advantage of yet is Push Notification, newly made possible by Apple’s 3.0 OS update to the iPhone in June. Hewitt says it will be implemented when his development team updates the app to version 3.1, an update that will undoubtedly be completed much faster than this epic 3.0 upgrade.
Now all we can do is wait for Apple to say the magic word (approve!)
