Facebook Camera, Messenger, Gifts added to main iOS app in 5.1 update

Facebook has pushed a major update to its main iOS app, porting the best elements of its standalone Messenger and Camera apps, as well as adding Facebook Gifts.

Facebook has pushed some major updates to its iOS app: In the latest version, the best elements of Facebook Messenger and Camera make an appearance in the native iOS app, and for those of you that are lucky enough to have early access to Facebook Gifts, sending gifts to friends can now be done through the mobile app.

Facebook Camera and Messenger were formerly standalone apps, coexisting with the Facebook app but accessible on their own only. Now, the main iOS app offers a healthy dose of the best of both of these apps.

The update that adds Facebook Camera’s features is comparably minor to the other changes. The photo icon at the very top of your Facebook News Feed, which opens up your device’s camera roll, now enables you to select and share multiple photos to your Facebook page. Previously, Facebook only supported sharing one photo at a time. Sharing an album to Facebook was, to be blunt, a huge inconvenience. 

You’ll find the Messenger integration with Facebook’s main iOS app to be convenient for frequent users. It’s now significantly more efficient to instantly message your Facebook friends since online friends are listed on the app. Sliding your News Feed to the left reveals a “Favorites” and “Active Now” list, where you can see all of your Facebook friends that are online at the moment. “Favorites” surfaces the friends that you most interact with, but you can edit the friends that appear on your list. Unfortunately video chatting is a feature supported via desktop only. In 5.0, messages were initiated through the messaging icon, which felt more like we were sending an email than an instant message, and 5.1 makes this much more instant chat-friendly. 

The major news in the 5.1 mobile update is addition of the e-commerce platform that the social networking company calls Facebook Gifts. The platform was launched in September and rolled out slowly to the United States user base. With Facebook Gifts, users can send gifts selected from an assortment of third-party product partners to Facebook friends and family on special occasions like holidays and birthdays. And since launching Gifts, you’re not relegated to sending gifts to just your friends and family anymore. Charity partners are accepting charitable Facebook gifts including the American Red Cross, St. Jude Children’s Hospital, and Water.org.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Finally, you can now search the Facebook App Center

Facebook added a few updates today: The social network has added search and sponsored results to its App Center, and announced 11 partners to its Facebook Gifts program.

Among other announcements today, Facebook finally introduced a search function to its App Center to aid in discovering new Facebook apps. Sponsored Results will also now start showing up when you search the Facebook App Center. Lastly, with the Facebook Gifts event in New York City having been canceled altogether due to Hurricane Sandy, Facebook made the intended announcement anyway to reveal that 11 new charity partners have been added to its Facebook Gifts program. Facebook users can now make charitable contributions on Facebook Gifts to these select charities. Let’s take a closer look at the three announcements. 

Facebook App Center search 

Just as its important for developers to get their apps visible real estate in the Apple App Store and for SEO marketers to get their sites to the top of Google’s search engine, it’s vital for developers to climb to the top of Facebook’s App Center — search and discovery for new apps is incredibly important to their success. Facebook announced today on its developer blog that the social network is finally rolling out a keyword search engine to help with the discovery of published apps within Facebook’s App Center.

“All listed app detail pages will be included in our search index, and no changes are necessary for developers,” Zhen Fang a manager at Facebook, writes in the blog post. Developers won’t be required to make any updates to apps for Facebook to start indexing them. It should help developers get their apps discovered amid the sea of apps offered to attract some of the 220 million monthly users that visit the App Center.

Of course, it also means it will be easier for user to find apps in the first place. At the moment, the only way to view official Timeline Apps is to sort through this page. And if you want to see all the available apps, you’re left to scroll endlessly. This is a much-needed, update to make the App Center a legitimate platform. 

Sponsored Results available in App Center

Facebook made a brief splash with Sponsored Results, which the social network introduced in August. The new advertising product promoted search results in its search engine based on targeted keywords. It enabled third party related apps to be listed, for instance, when you searched Instagram. Today, Facebook announced that Sponsored Results would be coming to the App Center. Developers can, beginning today, promote their apps in the App Center by “targeting Facebook entities, including Facebook Pages, Places, Apps and subscribe-enabled users.” One thing to note about this feature is that it only works on Facebook’s desktop app, and not on its mobile apps.

Gifting charities on Facebook

Facebook’s Gift announcement set to take place at FAO Schwarz in New York City today was canceled due to Hurricane Sandy. It was rumored that Facebook was simply announcing more partners to its program, and for the most part that hunch was correct. Conicidentally enough, the announcement set weeks in advance comes in the aftermath of a devastating hurricane, which Facebook has taken note of:

“We are especially pleased to be launching this test now – when so many people are looking for new ways to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy, or assist those most in need around the holidays,” Facebook product design engineer, Jared Morgenstern, writes in a blog post.

Now you can make charitable contributions using Facebook Gifts to 11 charity partners that Facebook unveiled today. It’s the first expansion of its Gifting platform that now can be used not only for sending gifts for your friend’s special occasions, whether it’s a birthday or an anniversary, but for donations as well. 

Some of you may yet have Facebook Gifts, but don’t fret. Facebook is rolling out the feature gradually and Morgenstern assures us that it’s “coming to you very soon.”

You can check out the list of charity launch partners below:

• American Red Cross
• Blue Star Families
• Boys & Girls Clubs of America
• DonorsChoose.org
• Girls Inc.
• Kiva
• LIVESTRONG
• Oxfam America
• RAINN
• St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital
• Water.org

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Facebook reportedly launching second social gifting attempt with Facebook Gifts

Post-Karma's acquisition, Facebook is gearing up to launch Facebook Gifts, its second attempt at a gifting app in an effort to bolster its mobile revenue.

Facebook’s first post-IPO acqusition was the social gifting app, Karma, and the social network insisted that the app was not to be picked apart as an acqui-hire of its founders and team. True to its word, TheNextWeb reports that the social gifting app’s technology will be integrated into Facebook’s own social gifting platform set to be launched soon.

Karma is an iOS and Android app that works by offering platform for users to purchase in-app gifts curated by Karma staff. The company gift wraps the ordered products and ships them to the recipient.

The indication that Facebook was making a move first appeared through a job listing that InsideFacebook had noticed for a “merchant operations analyst.” The job posting initially published to Facebook’s Careers site and LinkedIn both have been taken down. ““We are looking for an individual with strong communication, organizational, and problem-solving skills to help us launch our Facebook Gifts product,” the post stated.

It’s also expected that Facebook will be rolling the site into Facebook Gifts altogether and shutting down the main hub altogether.

According to TheNextWeb’s insider, Facebook’s social gifting platform will be launched in the U.S. within a few weeks times. The acquisition and launch is of course motivated by Facebook’s struggle to improve its mobile monetization strategy. According to our earlier report on eMarketer’s United States net mobile advertising revenues, Facebook was projected to make just $72.7 million in advertising revenue in 2012 and lags behind competitors including Pandora, Twitter, Google Apple and Millennial Media. Come 2013, Facebook’s mobile mobile revenue is projected to skyrocket and earn $387 million, following behind Google.

We reached out to Facebook, but the spokesperson declined to provide any comment on the matter. So for now, TheNextWeb’s reports are left up to speculation and educated guesses.

Facebook conceded its foray into social gifting after the company built out the unsuccessful Facebook Gift Shop, which exclusively offered virtual goods like “Happy Birthday” virtual cards purchased using Facebook credits. Facebook even at one point was testing out a feature for third-party developers to integrate their own virtual and even physical gifts that users could purchase within the Gift Shop. Then social gifting was a feature that was scrubbed and taken over by third-party developers that integrated their technology into Facebook as a Facebook App.

With this in mind, existing developers in the social gifting space like Give.it and Wrapp may have something to worry about with the launch of Facebook’s own social gifting app. And what we would like to learn is whether gifts will include physical goods, virtual items, or a combination of both. By looking at the job listing we can expect at the least that products will purchased by Facebook and be housed by the company in a manner similar to the inner workings of Karma.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

The Ridiculously Early Holiday Gift Guide!

The holiday shopping season will be here before you know it. The Giz Wiz, Dick DeBartolo (@TheGizWiz), stopped by to show off what will be the big holiday gifts of 2012.

Party Animals, about $25. Enjoy your favorite tunes with these soft plush Party Animals. Each one has a built-in speaker and will swivel, twist and gyrate to the beat of your favorite music. Just plug them into the headphone jack of your MP3, smart phone, radio, etc. and let them dance.

DJ Rock Dock, under $20.  This SmartLab Kit lets kids eight and up build a mini working speaker dock for an iPod, iTouch, or MP3 player. Pre-printed foldable paper housing and circuit board. No tools required. A unique kit to teach kids basic electronics while creating a usable gadget!

ClipSYNC, under $20. Great stocking stuffer. It comes with a full-sized charge and Sync Cable small enough to clip onto your belt or keychain. Available in both iPod/iPhone and Micro & Mini USB models. This new models are made from rugged aluminum to withstand wear and tear on the run better.

Log Pillow Price, under $19. Now anyone can sleep like a log – on a log! This micro bead cushion – looks exactly like a chunk of log! The pillow is super light weight so you can even pop it into the car for traveling.

Belkin @TV Plus, under $170. Watch video from your home DVR/cable box on your tablet, smart phone, or laptop over Wi-Fi or via a 3G/4G cellular connection. (Yep, like the old Slingbox, but at a much lower price). It can also record directly to a mobile device. Watch @ABC anywhere you go!

Pivothead, under $350. Expensive but maybe the whole family can chip in and give someone Pivothead. They look like ordinary eyeglasses, but they shoot 1080p HD video! They’re also available as trendy sunglasses.

Boost, under $40. Lay your smart phone on Boost and it magically amplifies the sound. No wires. No Bluetooth. No synching. No problem. An auxiliary line-in jack is provided for devices without external speakers.

RC Heated Insoles, under $100. Sure the country is suffering from a heat wave right now, but come the holidays, anyone who goes outside will suffer from cold feet. These insoles are wireless and rechargeable, and operate via remote control! They off up to five hours of warm comfort!

More info:  www.gizwiz.biz

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com