Tag: Sobees »

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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Why isn’t there a native Facebook app for iPad yet? It’s not like the company hasn’t had the time or lacks the resources to update its existing iPhone app. For the time being, iPad users have to choose between blowing up the iPhone app to almost unusable dimensions for the larger screen or use the web app which, to be fair, is acceptable.

That said, it does seem strange that such an obvious iPad app hasn’t yet made its way to the App Store. Thank heavens then for the guys at sobees who have taken it upon themselves to put together a Facebook client for the iPad and, from our initial inspection, have done a brilliant job!

Blurring the lines between an RSS reader and Twitter client, sobees for Facebook manages all of the most commonly used sections of a Facebook account such as Status updates, links, images and video.

The interface is mapped out like the newspaper apps we’ve become accustomed to on the iPad with each section dedicated its own scrollable space. One cool feature is the Breaking News section that grabs a recent wall post or status update and positions it as a breaking news headline for your friend group. The Latest Hot Images section shows recently posted images and lets you swipe through them direct from the front page of the app.

While it takes a little time to load, the People section serves as an attractive who’s who of your Facebook friends, using their profile images as a wall of pictures. The Photos section takes a cue from the iPad’s own Photos app, grouping albums into Event-like galleries. Sadly, the pinch features in Apple’s native Photos app doesn’t feature here.

Events is one of the most handy of sobees for Facebook’s features, a simple calendar interface with small icons on each day to denote a birthday or other event. In most instances throughout the app, clicking on a friend’s profile picture brings up a neat contextual menu that offers a route direct to their profile.

Of course, sobees for Facebook isn’t just for consumption, it also allows you to update your Status, comment on videos and images and post on your friends walls. At the moment it seems you have to manually update via a small refresh button with no obvious option we’ve found to auto-refresh. That, however, is a small price to pay for an excellent app that, for the time being, is free and provides a beautiful alternative to Facebook’s web app on your iPad.