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

Oh dear, Google hasn’t submitted a Google Maps app to Apple yet

Despite rumors suggesting otherwise, Google hasn't submitted a standalone Google Maps to Apple for approval yet.

In a statement that’s sure to elicit sighs of disappointment from many iPhone users, Google’s Eric Schmidt has told reporters that the company has not submitted a standalone Google Maps app to Apple for approval, despite rumors to the contrary.

Google Maps was removed from Apple’s iOS 6 software along with the standard YouTube app, which Google has already replaced with one of its own, prompting hopes it would do the same with Maps. Apple Maps has come under fire since release for, amongst other things, errors, bugs, a lack of detail and no public transportation information.

Various sources indicated an iOS version of Google Maps was on its way, with The Guardian saying “a Google Maps app is being prepared for iOS 6, which will appear in time,” to Google themselves telling SearchEngineLand.com that its goal was to “make Google Maps available to everyone who wants to use it, regardless of device, browser or operating system.”

Schmidt was questioned over the situation during an event in Japan, where he was busy promoting the local launch of the Nexus 7 tablet, and replied “we haven’t done anything yet” when asked whether Apple was likely to accept a Google Maps app into the App Store.

He added “We think it would have been better if they had kept ours. But what do I know?” Later, as he demonstrated Google Maps on the Nexus 7, he quipped “take that Apple” while showing off the app’s capabilities. It appears The Guardian was right when it said Google was enjoying Apple’s suffering at the hands of the press and the public.

Naturally, Apple is defending its new Maps software, saying it’s “just getting started,” and welcomes all feedback in an effort to implement improvements as quickly as possible.

Without an official Google Maps app on the horizon, iPhone owners can access it using Safari, or try one of these alternative apps.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

DayZ hits 1 million players, evolves from mod to standalone game

Brian Hall's ArmA II mod DayZ has shambled its way into 1 million players hearts. Now it will be developed as a standalone game.

DayZ is what they call in the arts a phenomenon. Over the past 6 months, Dean Hall’s zombie apocalypse simulator has gathered itself 1 million players, a feat that many commercially released PC and console games can’t pull off. DayZ isn’t even its own game. It is a mod for Bohemia Interactive’s stringent military sim ArmA II, and an incomplete mod still in testing at that.

Like Minecraft in 2010, DayZ’s phenomenon status is propelling it to new heights even before it’s finished. Where the Minecraft beta put Mojang and Notch Pearson in the games industry spotlight, bringing them opportunities on platforms like Xbox Live that would have otherwise been inaccessible, DayZ is seeing Dean Hall becoming an integral part of Bohemia. The latest: DayZ will be a properly developed standalone game.

“That’s right, this is actually happening—DayZ will be developed as a standalone game, with me as project lead, by Bohemia Interactive,” reads the announcement on the official DayZ website, “This is the fairy-tale outcome for a mod that many would have said impossible four months ago.”

With 1 million players exploring the zombie-filled coast of Hall’s ArmA II mod, there’s no doubt some concern that this full version will halt the existing, evolving community. Development won’t interrupt the mod Hall assures. “Development and updates of the mod will continue in parallel with the development of the game, anyone who is playing the mod now will be able to continue to do so. The project will follow the Minecraft development model; fast iterations with the community alpha available for a heavily discounted price.”

DayZ’s success is another prominent sign of the PC game development industry’s health today. A game can, by merit of its good ideas alone, find an audience and become a success. The adoption of the mod by Bohemia for full development is more than just a sign of the business times in video games. This game, like Minecraft, represents a sea change in people’s tastes for massively multiplayer online games. MMOs like Star Wars: The Old Republic that mimic the model set by early MMO successes like Everquest and World of Warcraft gather together a strong following of players at the start but its difficult to retain their interests. The era of the quest-based MMO is coming to a close and games like DayZ are ushering in the future. Environments with clear cut rules where large groups of people—albeit not the thousands that populate MMORPG servers—create much of the “game” themselves through choice and behavior.

Cheers to Hall and Bohemia. May their game find all the success—and receive all the development time—it deserves.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com