Tag: Social Media »

Fans of Mashable can now take the megasite with them wherever they go via the new Mashable for iPad app. The app features the site's full feed of blog stories and news posts, all optimized for viewing on your tablet. Furthermore, posts are also divided into categories, so you can easily sort all the tech articles, business posts, and so on with a simple tap. Furthermore, the app features robust social media options, allowing users to quickly share via Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and the app displays how many times each story has been shared so you can see at a glance what's making waves on any given day. Last but not least, swiping left or right on an article drills down and provides more specific content, while swiping up or down loads more stories.

Even though Mashable previously launched an iPhone app with somewhat similar features, this new creation is made especially for the iPad and seems to be more feature-rich than its handheld cousin. The interface has also been revamped to appear more attractive and easier to navigate, which users always appreciate. The total package is very nice, and we're excited to see what new bells and whistles are added in future updates.

A new challenger has entered the news aggregation realm, as Streamglider+ has officially launched and is taking aim at the likes of Flipboard. The app seeks to aggregate everything that's important to you, allowing you to mix in RSS feeds, YouTube channels, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and more into one centralized app.

Streamglider+ boasts three different modes; lean-forward scrolls news and headlines across the screen, lean-back presents photos or news stories in a slideshow format and magazine mode presents fully stories just as they'd be found in a periodical, with no need to jump in and out of a browser. It's all very slick, and the pro version is currently free so there's really no reason not to check it out.

Of course the big question is can Streamglider+ dethrone the likes of Flipboard? It's a very cool app, but when you come late to the game into a space dominated by a rival what are your odds of success? We'll be interested to see how this slugfest plays out over the coming months.

Jack in the Box (the social media blog, not the blacklisted burger joint) has released their own iPhone app, designed to cram everything from the website into a more iOS-friendly package, even including their Facebook and Youtube feeds. Ten of the tech industry's biggest websites are featured, and funneling their news feeds through the tiny clown head in a box is as simple as a few quick taps. Setting it all up takes a minute, at most.

From there it's a simple matter of checking-in with Jack every once in a while. The two newest articles appear in a speech bubble over the tiny toy's head, and once something good pops up a tap is all that's needed to check it out. Of course, the tiny bubble can also be expanded to make browsing the list easier. Searching through the plethora of news stories is all done using an in-app browser with a handy "tab left/right" function that makes jumping from news item to news item a breeze. Simply tap the right arrow and it loads the next news item.

And what if it's a slow news day? Well then there's an entire history of social media to read up on, of course. Hidden under the not-so-hidden Evolution tab is a tree that chronicles the growth of digital and social media, which itself contains a fairly extensive encyclopedia of terminology to help out the less tech-savvy. Not sure what the word "aggregator" means? Tap it and get the definition. It doesn't do much to help with news-gathering, but it's still a nice feature to have for anyone who isn't entirely up to date on networking sites such as Twitter and the like.

Sure, information-gathering isn't a new concept for the App Store., but that doesn't make AppJack any less handy to have around. It puts the content of ten major tech sites in one convenient place, and does so for the low low price of absolutely nothing. Not a bad deal, eh?

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Social media users have a lot to keep track of these days with the likes of Facebook, Twitter, RSS feeds, links to keep track of as well as other socially slanted sites such as Digg. It can get pretty overwhelming for users wanting to get the most out of each service.

RockMelt is an app that aims to solve that problem by essentially putting everything together in one place. It's an idea that was originally released solely as a web browser at the end of last year but it's now extended to an iOS app that fortunately can be linked to the desktop equivalent.

The app notifies the user whenever their Facebook or Twitter account has a new update. There's also the ability to add numerous other sites according to the owner's needs ranging from news sources to humor and sports. Flexibility is clearly the key here as while RockMelt might initially sound like something that any Twitter or Facebook app can do before it, the difference here is that users can do it all through the one RockMelt app. Being able to view such updates at the tap of one button rather than opening up numerous apps is a great timesaver.

As well as the social networking side of things, RockMelt enables users to browse and search across the net. They can sync their favorite sites and bookmarks with their PC account as well as view all of these links through the app. There's a Save to read later function too so that such things ca be consulted at a later date.

The functionality within RockMelt looks pretty promising indeed. Being able to keep track of a plethora of sites, each revelant to the user's need is certainly the way forward and should ensure that plenty of time can be saved. The only catch here is that you need to have a Facebook account to set up RockMelt but considering the huge popularity of the service, this should be a minor quibble.

RockMelt is available now on the app store for the price of a few seconds time. Yes it's a free download.

If you're anything like me, you're probably attached at the hip to your social networks. However, I know I'm not the only one who has many that I've abandoned simply out of frustration of having to constantly check and update different pages or apps for each one. With this in mind I've put together a Favorite Four that the update-aholics can appreciate. Here are a few of my favorite iPhone apps to update multiple sites at once.

Tweetdeck
I put this one here first not because it's necessarily the best, but it is definitely one of the more well-known. Tweetdeck is what I personally use most often since I've cut down my addiction to just the essentials, Twitter and Facebook, which is exactly just what Tweetdeck works with. It's a great app for both reading and updating. While it hasn't been updated in many months, it is still very useful and you can't argue with free!

Sociable
The definition of simplicity. A newer app that simply allows you to post to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and/or Myspace. While as of now there isn't the option to post photos with your status messages, it's one of the most cleanly designed apps I've seen that handles multiple accounts. For the newer user this is a fantastic place to start and hopefully in future updates they'll add more features without cluttering it up.

Pingle
If you looking for the simplicity offered with something like Sociable, but you're looking to update up to 40 Social Networking sites at once, you'll want to get your hands on Pingle. It uses your ping.fm account (which you do have to set up separately on the site) to post to all of your subscribed networks. Unfortunately it hasn't been updated in over a year, and probably won't work with some of the newer iOS functions like multitasking. Still one of the best (and only) Ping.fm apps available.

Pixelpipe
I should start by saying this is probably for Advanced Users Only, not a beginners app. Like ping.fm Pixelpipe offers uploading to 75 Social Networking and Blogging sites. One of the best and most unique abilities of this app is the option to batch-send photos to Facebook, which is something most apps lack, and a feature I think most people would love. You'll have to understand the settings and how to post to each type of feed, but once you do it's simply one of the best multiple-site apps available.

So, you've one one of the best devices for taking photos, videos, saving, sending and sharing whatever you want with the world, but there's just one tricky problem: uploading them. I think we can all agree that iTunes syncing is just about everybody's least favorite way to get media off of an iOS device. After that, uploading everything individually to each site you use can be a pain in the neck.

When you're just sending one pic or video to Twitter or Facebook it's pretty easy, sure. What about when you want to send a lot? Or want to send to multiple sites? Most of us have several online depositories for our stuff (Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, need I go on?) that it's sometimes more difficult to upload than is worth the trouble.

Enter Pixelpipe - my new favourite uploader, which takes away the annoyance of using multiple site-specific apps. One of the major drawbacks I've found with 99% of apps that upload to Dropbox, Flickr or even Facebook is the tedium of having to add an individual photo or file, one at a time, to each site.

This alone makes me loathe having to update my Flickr account (as I usually have 25+ pics to upload). Pixelpipe is the first app that I've used that successfully allows me to select multiple photos or videos from my iPhone with one tap, to upload all at once. If this were its only feature, I'd still recommend it, but that's not all it does.

Created to be the one Go-To tool for all social networking, this app can send information to 75+ sites, like Blogger, LiveJournal, Wordpress.com, Tumblr & more for your blogs. Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook for your statuses. Or Dropbox, Evernote, and FTP for your storage. The list of sites goes on and on. Uploading your 720p HD videos over Wifi or Data is also included, although there is a 100Mb limit to prevent crashes, so watch out for that.

Flipboard is already considered a must-have iPad app, but now it's even more irresistible thanks to a massive update. The social media app is now capable of including Google Reader, Flickr and live article previews. Really, what more could you ask for?

First up, those using Google Reader will find it to be nearly identical to what their familiar with on their desktop, but with a few minor concessions. You won't be able to share items with a note, run a search or manage subscriptions, though those features may become available down the road. For now though you can still read through items, star items, share without notes and most of the other familiar Reader features. It's not an exact duplication of the true experience, but it's pretty close.

Flipboard now also finally supports Flickr, one of the web's biggest photo hubs. Now you can easily view photos, mark favorites and leave comments, as well as thumb through Flickr groups and daily albums. Finally, you can leave snarky comments about your friends' drunken shenanigans right from your iPad. How did we live without this?

Another nice feature is that Flipboard will now let you preview articles before opening them, so if you just want to get the headline and a paragraph or two you won't have to wait for the whole piece to load. Also, the websites on which articles appear now pop up below whatever story you're reading, so if you want to see more stuff from the same outlet all you need to do is drag the screen up and surf the site as you normally would. Congratulations, it's now easier to be distracted than ever before!

This is just the tip of the iceberg of what the new Flipboard has to offer, but we don't want to spoil the fun of discovery. Check out the video of the new features and then start digging into them for yourself. And if you don't yet have Flipboard then what sort of crazy person are you?

Let's face it, there are entirely too many social networks out there. In fact, there is a whole cottage industry of companies who try and help keep your online presence in check by organizing all your networks and presenting information in an easily-digestible manner. A leader in this arena on the iPhone is HootSuite, and as of today the service is now available on the iPad.

HootSuite allows users to keep track of Twitter updates, Facebook and Foursquare check-ins without having to constantly jump between apps or visit multiple websites. The service fully integrates almost all of the features of each network without the extra hassle of using their "official" apps. Also, the extra real estate afforded by the iPad creates room for more columns, so prepare for absolute information overload.

HootSuite has been available on the iPhone for over a year so it's great to see the app finally available for Apple's tablet. Nearly all those who have tried out HootSuite have loved it, as it does a great deal to help sort out and categorize what could otherwise be an overwhelming amount of Tweets, status updates and check-ins. If you can't keep things straight now then maybe it would be wise to unfollow a few people and trim down your Facebook friends list. Come on, you never talk to half those people anymore anyway, are they really still your friends?

The larger question raised by the need for services such as HootSuite is have we taken the social networking phenomenon too far? HootSuite only currently supports three social media sites, but there are plenty more where that came from. We're nearing the point where we all spend so much time cultivating our online image that we have to wonder what sort of hit our actual social skills are taking. Are we just creating a new way to communicate, or have we forgotten how to actually talk to one another? I don't have time to answer that right now, I just got an @reply and need to follow-up.

As if it weren't hard enough to stay off Twitter in the first place, the newly updated Twitter app is about to make it tougher than ever to deny the popular social networking service. The latest Twitter update is now live, and it includes the long-sought option to turn on push notifications for @mentions and direct messages. Depending on how popular you are, you may never get anything (other than Tweeting) accomplished ever again.

We're unsure why it took Twitter so long to integrate such a highly-desired feature into the service, as this is the sort of thing people have been clamoring for ever since the Twitter app launched. After all, what's the point in having a mostly narcissistic social media service if you can't get instant gratification whenever someone mentions you or sends you a message? We may as well be living in the Stone Age!

Furthermore, this feature has been available for Blackberry for quite some time now, but it is just now appearing on the iPhone. That's a bit strnge since normally iPhone apps are the first to be updated and then Blackberry and others follow along behind. Oh well, at least iOS users can feel superior to Android consumers, who still don't have the feature available on their device.

Now the question becomes, do we want Twitter to start sending pushes every time someone we follow sends out a Tweet, or is that too much? Computer-based clients such as TweetDeck already offer such a feature, and while it can border on annoying at times, it's also easy to keep track of when a new Tweet lands so you can stay up to date on the latest happenings. I suppose it depends on how many people you follow, as those with smaller social circles would likely enjoy reading what their friends have to say as they say it, whereas power users would be drowned under the constant tidal wave of pushes. Truly you'd have a hard time getting anything else accomplished. Still, this is a nice first step and one which many users are sure to cheer. If you haven't updated your iPhone Twitter app then go ahead and do so, then promptly send out a Tweet telling everyone what you just did; because trust me, we all really care.

[via Twitter]

Between Twitter's one hundred and ninety million users and Facebook's five hundred million users, it is safe to assume that you may know a person or two that is a member of either service.  Who knows, maybe even you might be a member of either one or both of the extremely popular social networking hubs.  Odds are, if you have accounts through both sites, you spend time monitoring both feeds intently.  The problem is that with two completely different websites and their respective iOS applications, it can make for an inconvenient process switching between the two.

Sobees is a developer that already has a PC application which currently integrates Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn into a series of conveniently laid out feeds.  Originally channeling their expertise into an iPad Facebook Client, Sobees Lite (which 148apps originally profiled back in May), they have since set their sights on bringing the world of Facebook and Twitter together into one convenient app.  As unfathomable as it is for me to imagine, there hasn't yet been an app available for the device that combines the functionality of both services into a single app.  At least that was the case until Sobees Social Media hit the App Store late last week.

As I have come to find on numerous occasions, while rotating through social messaging clients, not all applications are created equally.  So what are the key features of the application?

• View Twitter and Facebook feeds


• Read comments posted on Facebook


• Comment and like Facebook items


• Reply/DM/Retweet/Quote/Favorite a Tweet


• Manage Twitter lists


• Get quick facts on any link thanks to Factery labs data.


• Post something on both services simultaneously


• Upload pictures


• Search Twitter

Just looking at the list offhand, I can't think of any functionality that might be considered missing.  Not only is it extremely useful, but if you check out the screenshots below you can see that it looks sexy too.  I am curious if they plan on adding in MySpace and LinkedIn functionality, much like their software on the PC.  Sure, it isn't exactly a deal breaker, but it sure would make for a nice free update at some point down the road.  All of your digital worlds have collided in one place; it is only a matter of time before you get on board as well.

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