Platform Update: Facebook Lets Developers Ask a User for Their Address, Phone Number in the Graph API

In another part of its effort to become the main artery for social data, Facebook is now allowing developers to ask a given user for their physical address and phone number within the user object of the Graph API.


This information, announced as part of this week’s developer blog post update, helps anyone from game developers to mail and phone marketers reach directly to where users are at all times.

It’s especially valuable because it’s so sensitive, so Facebook requires developers to ask for a separate set of permissions within the main “Request for Permission” interface. Now developers can build applications that leverage this new access to user data, though note that developers can only be granted access to the address and mobile phone number of the user authenticating the application – not that user’s friends as well.

Given this new sharing option, users should be even more careful about what they see on the permissions page, rather than just clicking through. While quick sharing makes for a more seamless user experience, we could see Facebook itself providing an additional prompt asking users to confirm that they want to share this information, in order to help prevent accidental sharing.

Facebook also goes out of its way in the developer post to explain that users are only sharing information about themselves, not their friends.

The other piece of news from the post this week: Facebook has added a long-requested way to subscribe to the “edge.remove” to track when a user unlikes a page.
Via: insidefacebook.com

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Facebook Brings More Features to iPhone & Mobile Users

Almost over 200 million people use Facebook with a mobile device. Whether it's an iOS device or even a simple mobile device, Facebook is used so much to share photos, access apps, and connect and interact with friends. In October, Facebook has added a dashboard to the regular desktop website to see how applications are using your information.

Now, Facebook as released this same feature to the mobile devices. It will allow you to edit this information and stay updated off a mobile device now!

In the picture below, you can see the application Loopy. As you can see, this Loopy application is connected with Facebook, under it are options that you can toggle with a click and easy click of the remove button. This will allow you to control you settings on the go instead of off a computer. This is very useful for people that need to adjust their settings quickly.

You can also edit your basic information and who can see your profile. This is very important for anyone who wants to change anything at all. These features will be made possible by Facebook themselves! The features should roll out in the next few weeks to all mobile devices and we may see a new Facebook for iPhone app update soon. [via Facebook]

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How to Switch Back to Old Facebook Profile Page Layout

Facebook has introduced the new design for profile pages with prominent display of basic profile information, latest photos, friends list and more. However, some users may not like the new design and want to revert back to old Facebook profile page layout. Do you want really to switch back to old Facebook profile page layout design?

Well, technically you can't revert back to old Facebook profile layout as Facebook Help Center (http://facebook.com/help/?faq=19409) notes “You will not be able to switch back to the old design after upgrading”.

Though this, some users have reported that they have successfully switched back to the old layout by deactivating Facebook account for 10 - 15 minutes and then reactivate it again, you will get the old Facebook Profile Page back. I have just tried that way and it works for me. So, did it work with you?

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Facebook Launches New Profile Interface; Here's How to Get it !

We already broke the news and told you that Facebook is going to launch a new profile page design. As promised, Facebook has announced a new and improved profile page design and will be rolling out starting from tomorrow. In case you can't wait for Facebook to rollout the new design tomorrow, you can get it now easily!

All you have to do is to navigate to http://facebook.com/about/profile and click on the green button at the end of the page “Get the New Profile”. That's it! You will get the new interface as I got mine now.

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Facebook to Get a New Design Tomorrow [SCREENSHOT]

Mark ZuckerBerg, CEO of Facebook has given a show of an exclusive look at Facebook's new look. We have caught a new look of the profile page design changes a few seconds into this video. The glimpse can be seen in the video found here at the 10th second. The new look’s apparently going live tomorrow as reported by TNW.

As TNW notes, interviewer Lesley Stahl also sneaks in that no one will see this new design…until tomorrow. You can see photos are positioned directly under the profile name and basic info about the individual. Also take a look at Ellen's fan page, it's really interested and claims that a new thing is coming out.

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Everything You Need to Know About the New Facebook Messages

Mark Zuckerberg has announced at Facebook's press event today a new messaging system which sums up real-time chat, email, SMS, other chat clients. So get ready for your @facebook.com address.

Facebook Messages system is not a regular mail, there are no subject lines, no CC or BCC. You can send a message just by hitting the Enter key. It's going to feel like chat. A lot of times, it's going to be chat (ops!). It allows messages with more seamless, informal, immediate, personal, simple, minimal and short way, CEO & Founder Mark Zuckerburg said.

How to get it? You don't need to create a new account, Facebook mail will use your current public vanity URL. In case you have a username as mine http://facebook.com/username, you will be able to register with the same username as username@facebook.com. The revamped Facebook Messages will be rolled out to the social network’s 500+ million users over the next few months.

In case you don't like waiting, you can request an invite by navigating your browser to this link and simply hit Request and you will receive an invite soon. You can also try following @FBeMail on Twitter to score some invites.

And yes, as Zuckerberg quoted, This is a messaging experience that includes email as one part of it.

Another great thing I forgot to mention in my post that it almost comes to all the mobile platforms including the iPhone users. We expect an update soon for Facebook for iPhone app with the all new unified messaging system. But will you really give up your Hotmail, Gmail or Yahoo? Let us know!

We'll also post a quick walkthrough after getting the invitation. Stay tuned.

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Facebook to Introduce New Mobile Features this Wednesday

We are just in, Facebook is going to hold an event in their Palo Alto Headquarter, California on 3rd of November this Wednesday.This event is called as "Facebook Mobile Event". The name unveils lots of thing that Facebook may revile in their event. Facebook will have some major announcement in this event.

Lots of rumors surfaces on the web indicating that Facebook is going to announce some features regarding to Facebook and Mobile. Others showing that is getting famous about this event that Facebook is going to announce their long rumored Facebook phone that was denied by Facebook, and this won't be like google's Nexus one.

It's also expected that facebook is going to announce their own OS in this event. May be they are going to announce Facebook for iPad or for Windows Phone 7, who knows? There are lots and lots of rumor going on about this event, and no one knows what is going to be happen in this event. Until then we want your suggestions about what is facebook going to announce?

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Facebook Introudes New Groups, Download My Information Feature & 3rd Party Application Dashboard

Early this morning, we told you that Facebook is about to introduce major updates for a new Facebook, but not as we thought (the interface). Facebook just added a new features to Facebook and introduced "Groups", so we can say that "Groups" is the new Facebook (that's a fact). Here, we cover the New Groups, all the features & changes in this event with quick videos in action.

New Groups
First thing, you can't just join a group -- another member has to invite you. You can start a new group and a few people (not a lot) to join the group then those people can invite others to join. The group is now closed on the members only. New features include documents, photos and video sharing, also the ability to invite all members of a group to an event. Oh, forgot to say that you can now chat with all group member together using a small chat box (similar to the one with your friends)

Today we’re announcing a completely overhauled, brand new version of Groups. It’s a simple way to stay up to date with small groups of your friends and to share things with only them in a private space. The default setting is Closed, which means only members see what’s going on in a group.

From this space, you can quickly post photos, make plans and keep up with ongoing conversations. You can also group chat with members who are online right now. You can even use each group as an email list to quickly share things when you’re not on Facebook. The net effect is your whole experience is organized around spaces of the people you care most about.

Old Facebook groups still exists and can't be changed to new ones (that's not good). You can only start a whole over new group (there's no way to convert your old group to a new one).

Download My Information
Here's a great feature added to the "New Facebook". Now you can download all your information including photos, messages, posts, notes, comments, friend lists, videos, etc. (not including settings) as a .zip file.

First, we've built an easy way to quickly download to your computer everything you've ever posted on Facebook and all your correspondences with friends: your messages, Wall posts, photos, status updates and profile information.

Application Dashboard
Now, with the new Facebook, you will get all-new application "dashboard" for managing which applications you're connected to and which permissions you have been granted to them. There's also a log of what data has been accessed by each application.

Second, we're launching a new dashboard to give you visibility into how applications use your data to personalize your experience. As you start having more social and personalized experiences across the web, it's important that you can verify exactly how other sites are using your information to make your experience better.

Of course this all-new features are not rolling our for "all" members of Facebook now, but at least some users could get and some are still waiting (including me). We will update the post if we could get our hands on any new features, stay tuned!

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Facebook to Announce New Look Today?

As you’re probably aware by now, Facebook is holding an event at their headquarters in Palo Alto, CA. Facebook intend to surprise us today with a new redesigned website, just like Twitter did a few weeks ago. As noted by TechCrunch that some users are already reporting that they are seeing a new version of chat appear on the Facebook site.

If you are one of the lucky ones who saw the Facebook new look, you will note that the chat has been moved to the left side of the screen, big profile pictures has been added into the chat itself. But the major change in the Facebook redesign is that all profile pages and much of the rest of the site will be revamped to look like the places pages.

In addition you will note that apps will be moved below profile pictures as icons. The profile navigation will also moved to this area. We can say that we will not see the top tabs in profile pages any more. Of cource we will let you now once Facebook applied the new coat of the website. Stay tuned.

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Facebook Phone, the Facebook Confidential Project [Update 1x]

This is really big, according to TechCrunch, Facebook is said to be building its own mobile phone  which will run its own operating system. Or precisely, Facebook is building the software for the phone, and working with third party to build the hardware.  It seems likely, Facebook is going to make full integration with contacts list and other core functions, as this integration can be implemented only if it controls the operating system.

According to the source, there is two high level Facebook employees -Joel Hewitt and Matthew Papakipos - work in high secrecy in this project. as both of them have deep operating system experience.

Hewitt helped create the Firefox browser and was working on Parakey before it was acquired by Facebook in 2007. Parakey, which never launched, was described as a “Web-based operating system.” Hewitt also created all of Facebook’s iPhone web apps and then native apps, but finally quit building for the iPhone in disgust late last year. But he knows operating systems and he knows mobile.

Papakipos also has a perfect background for this project. He was leading the Google Chrome OS project until June. He then quit and went to Facebook. Papakipos is considered a rockstar developer, and there are any number of jobs he’d be able to do at Facebook.

We would speculate that Facebook phone will be sold with  low prices as Facebook aims to get into as many hans as possible. Till now we don't have any idea around its announcing date or even its look. but I would imagine that it will be a big milestone in the Facebook history. What do you think?

Update 1: Facebook spokesman has just confirmed to Mashable that Facebook is not building a mobile phone, here's the full statement:

The story, which originated in Techcrunch, is not accurate. Facebook is not building a phone. Our approach has always been to make phones and apps more social. Current projects include include everything from an HTML5 version of the site to apps on major platforms to full Connect support with SDKs to deeper integrations with some manufacturers. Our view is that almost all experiences would be better if they were social, so integrating deeply into existing platforms and operating systems is a good way to enable this. For an example, check out Connect for iPhone and the integration we have with contact syncing through our iPhone app. Another example is the INQ1 phone with Facebook integration (the first so-called ‘Facebook Phone’). The people mentioned in the story are working on these projects. The bottom line is that whenever we work on a deep integration, people want to call it a ‘Facebook Phone’ because that’s such an attractive soundbite, but building phones is just not what we do.

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Facebook Testing New “Subscribe To” User Feature

According to AllFacebook, Facebook is currently testing a new “Subcribe to” all the actions of a specific user feature. In fact, it may be a Twitter-like “Follow” feature which Facebook will introduce soon. You will receive notifications anytime the user takes an action on Facebook. In other words, “By subscribing you don’t miss any updates from people you subscribe to.”

If this feature extends to Pages, this would be powerful. As AllFacebook mentioned, Facebook fan page could get fans count and subscribers count with this new feature. The screenshots below illustrates how this feature works

If you have noticed this feature, hope you let us know by commenting in the comment section below.

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Facebook Says, There are Only 44 Million Active Monthly iOS Users, not 104 Million

It was just a week ago when Facebook posted that there's over 150 million active monthly users on mobile platforms, 104 million of them were browsing Facebook on the service’s popular iPhone app. This was a rather false figure, Engadget got in touch with Facebook and has updated its figures saying that there are only 44 million active monthly iOS users not 104 million. Here's what they say,

There are currently 44 million monthly active users of the Facebook for iPhone app. We recently changed the definition of mobile active users to exclude those who have only liked or commented on stream stories. Instead we are counting “active” users as people who have taken explicit actions within an application. This practice is more aligned with how we count overall active users for the site.

Well, it still an impressive figure. In my opinion, the 44 Million active monthly users are using iPhone and iPod touch not iPad, as the Facebook app bugs a lot on the iPad.

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Facebook Improves Chat, Means no More IE6 Support

Facebook Introduces new Chat with no more interruptions that improves Chat's stability, speed and reliability Facebook engineer Rodrigo Schmidt says that Chat will not be supported on older browsers, particularly on IE6. Whatever, IE6 will be completely disabled by the launch of IE9 beta on September 15th.

Facebook says that Facebook's Chat is now one of the most widely used communication features on the network which was launched two years ago! 

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Facebook For iOS Exceeded 100 Million Active Monthly Users

Yesterday Facebook announced that the "Facebook for iPhone" has passed a staggering 100 million users per month, which indicates that about the same number of devices currently sold by Apple, but an important note to clarify that the Facebook application doesn't support native iPad interface.

The development task of the Facebook was complicated, Jow Hewitt, who headed the Facebook development project, leaved the project due to the restrictive policies in Apple. He spoke to TechCrunch:

My decision to stop iPhone development has had everything to do with Apple’s policies. I respect their right to manage their platform however they want, however I am philosophically opposed to the existence of their review process. I am very concerned that they are setting a horrible precedent for other software platforms, and soon gatekeepers will start infesting the lives of every software developer.

The web is still unrestricted and free, and so I am returning to my roots as a web developer. In the long term, I would like to be able to say that I helped to make the web the best mobile platform available, rather than being part of the transition to a world where every developer must go through a middleman to get their software in the hands of users.

[via ispazio]

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Facebook Places In UK and Japan, Soon in Europe [Updated]

Facebook, the official application of the famous social network for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, has just been updated to version 3.2.2, introducing some new features and some bug fixes. With this update in particular is introduced support for Places,Places is the most amazing feature of the new Facebook version, places feature allows you to see where are our friends and share our position, a little.

What's new in Version 3.2:
- Places. Use Places to see where your friends are and share where you are.
- You can set the privacy of individual status updates.
- See all recipients of inbox messages.
- (iOS 4) Upload photos and videos in the background.

Bug fixes:
- Fixed a delay when commenting on a post or posting a status update.
- Fixed some Notes display bugs.
- Fixed some reliability bugs in News Feed.

NOTE: Places is only available for US users at the moment and will be rolled out gradually. Facebook is working on launching other regions soon.

Download Facebook 3.2.1 for iPhone / iPod Touch / iPad
Download Facebook 3.2.2 for iPhone / iPod Touch / iPad

Update 1: Few days Facebook places landed on Japan, and now Facebook is rolling out the feature for UK users gradually, as usual it may not be available for everyone immediately. You can check if you from those lucky guys, try tapping on the Facebook Places option on your Facebook for iPhone app, the service will be available soon in rest of Europe.

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Facebook DisLike Button is not Real!

Some Facebook users should seen a message spread this morning telling users that there's an official Facebook DisLike button but that's not true, there's no official dislike button, it's possible that Facebook announce with such a feature!

If you got this message “I just got the Dislike button, so now I can dislike all of your dumb posts lol!!” or “Get the official DISLIKE button now” and a link at the end of the message then this means that link is a fake and don't try to click on it!

For your information, if you clicked on the link you will be redirected on a "Dislike" install page, after following the instructions in the page, you will need to give the permission to run on your account (that's dangerous), at last the app will install a Firefox add-on called FaceMod which is writtern "FaceMod - Facebook Dislike Button (The Original)".

We still don't know if it's working or not, Whatever it works or not, we advice you to stay away from any scams like this and just wait for an official button! [via Mashable]

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Facebook Stories Started, Start Telling your Tale!

Well, minutes ago Mark Zuckerberg announced that they Got 500 Million Active Users on Facebook, So they Celeberate for this Event by Launching Facebook Stories to let you tell other friends your Stories and Tales, Here's Mark Zukerberg explains it in a video!

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Facebook Got 500 Million Active Users!!

Facebook has announced that Today's Morning they got 500 Million Stories, Yes Facebook hits 500 Million Active Users connected with their families and friends over the world, To Celeberate by this Amazing event (for them), Facebook is Launching a mini-application called Facebook Stories for users to upload and share their personal Stories with others!

Here's the Post by Mark Zuckerberg:

As of this morning, 500 million people all around the world are actively using Facebook to stay connected with their friends and the people around them.
This is an important milestone for all of you who have helped spread Facebook around the world. Now a lot more people have the opportunity to stay connected with the people they care about.
To celebrate, we’ve put together a collection of stories you’ve shared with us about the impact Facebook and your friends have had on your lives.

We’re launching a new application called Facebook Stories where you can share your own story and read hundreds of others, categorized by themes and locations around the world. These stories include:

• Ben Saylor, a 17-year-old high school student, who turned to Facebook to organize a community effort to rebuild the Pioneer Playhouse, the oldest outdoor theater in Kentucky, after it was damaged by floods in May.
• Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who, during his time in office, would go jogging with 100 of his fans from Facebook.
• Holly Rose, a mother in Phoenix, who credits a friend’s status message telling women to check for breast cancer with her being diagnosed in time to treat the disease. She used Facebook for support during treatment and became a prevention advocate herself.

Our mission at Facebook is to help make the world more open and connected. Stories like these are examples of that mission and are both humbling and inspiring. I could have never imagined all of the ways people would use Facebook when we were getting started 6 years ago. I want to thank you for being part of making Facebook what it is today and for spreading it around the world.
To show our appreciation, all of us at Facebook have put together a photo album with our messages of thanks. I hope you enjoy it, and please keep sharing your stories with us.

Well Facebook Survive a lot with the Bad Privacy Policy and in the Competition with Twitter?

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Facebook Changed Notifications preview?

Today, one of our member has sent us that Facebook has just changed the way you preview notifications, I also noticed that. Yesterday the notifications was appeared as old, when someone comment on a video, the video icon appears beside the notifications then the name of the person who commented and etc.. Today, it's cooler and more excited

Notifications,Yestarday:

Notifications, Today:

If you watched the two screenshots above, you may notice the new Notifications, the person who comment on the video, it's profile image appear! more funny!

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Facebook is working on Making Photos Better

Facebook has just published a post on it's blog announcing that they working to improve Facebook and making it better. They are working on Making Photos better as responds for people who asking to improve photos and images especially while tagging!
Check this part about tagging photos:

People love tagging their friends and family in photos, but we've heard that it can be a tedious process. You now can add tags with just a couple of clicks directly from your home page and other sections of the site, using the same face detection technology that cameras have used for years. We're running a limited test of this technology so you may not see it yet. If you do, you'll see the following box while browsing Facebook

Read More about this topic on Facebook Blog --> Check Here.

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