The world as frankps sees it!
Posts tagged Facebook
HaxSync – Android Facebook Sync
3 weeks ago
People in Android
With Android 4.0 Google is taking a step in the right direction updating the contact manager into the new and improved “People” app. The biggest change is a set of APIs that integrates Android with social networks. This is important as you can then let your contacts maintain their own contact information, and you will then always have updated information available on your phone.
The second change is the most visuale one, as the user interface has also been completely revamped and viewing contacts has now become a much more visual experience. The People app will pull high resolution images of all your contacts straight from their Google+ account and display them in the contact list and in the in-call background. It seems that there is now yet another incentive to move your social circle over to Google+.
According to the API Overview of ICS when a new photo is pushed to a contact, “the system processes it into both a 96×96 thumbnail (as it has previously) and a 256×256 “display photo” that’s stored in a new file-based photo store”. Your contacts information is now also available to you no matter which app you are in. So, if you are in Gmail, viewing an email from your contact, you can click on their image to reply to the contact through any available channel, including through SMS, social networks and IM.
The first time I saw the new app demoed I went WOW, but when I got the Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone in my hands I went BAH! It is great to get your contacts to update information about themselves through their social profiles. But, why did Google have to limit the pull of high resolution images from Google+. Why doesn’t Google Contacts (the address book for Gmail) support high resolution images? Do you have friends actively using Google+? I don’t… So untill yesterday I had blurry pictures covering half of the screen when I ever was using People on my phone. A 96x96px thumbnail for incoming calls wasn’t pretty on incoming calls, and reminded me more of a C64 game.
A third improvement in People is that you can see your contact’s last updates on social networks, both Google+ and Twitter are supported out of the box. So what about Facebook, Google’s biggest competitor? Luckily, Google has made a plugin architecture available and there is already a third party solution available for you!
HaxSync – The Missing Facebook Integration
I have found an application that more or less solve my problem. HaxSync allows you to sync your Facebook friends with your Android 4.0 device. The sync is complete, with both status-updates and high resolution contact images in the People App! I bought the app within seconds and most of my contacts are now shown with beautiful high resolution images. But Google should integrate their services better ways…
How to configure HaxSync
- Install the official Facebook App.
- Go to System Settings → Accounts & Sync (Android Settings, not Facebook App Settings).
- Click “Add Account” → HaxSync.
- Click “Authorize HaxSync”.
- Confirm Authorization
- Wait for HaxSync to finish syncing.
- You should now see your Facebook contacts in the Android People app.
Facebook Cards
Tired of dull business cards? Thought so! MOO is a great company specializing in doing great looking business cards. A friend of mine has already gotten her personally designed cards from them and they are looking smashing. In fact, they have the best prints I’ve ever seen for business cards.
Now MOO has come up with the great idea of doing Facebook cards. Well, they are just business cards pulling information from your Facebook page, but to get these cards you must have activated the new Timeline functionality (a blog entry I did in Norwegian).
To get the Facebook cards business started MOO is doing a promotion of 200,000 free packs of 50 cards is on a first come, first served basis. However the offer is capped at 5,000 orders per day (that’s 250,000 cards per day) in order, Moo says, to ensure a “strong ethos of customer service and to make it fair.” They even pay for postal fees. After the promotion the cards will cost £10/€15. Yesterday I managed to order my free pack:
I’ll be getting the set of cards beginning of February.
Facebook snart med nytt utseende
1I går skrev jeg om at Facebook de siste dagene hadde lansert både et nytt utseende og noen nye tjenester. Facebook har imidlertid en større endring i utseende på trappene. Et utseende basert på en tidslinje er under utvikling, og dette utseendet er foreløpig kun tilgjengelig for utviklere.
Jeg brukte et par minutter i helga på å få aktivert dette nye utseendet, og synes det er strålende! Med den nye oppbygningen får man lettere tilgang til vennelisten, bilder og hva en person liker.
Du finner en veiledning for hvordan du kan aktivere tidslinje-grensesnittet på det amerikanske nettstedet TechCrunch. Men det bør sies at grunnen til at dette grensesnittet bare er tilgjengelig for utviklere, er at det er uferdig og at det derfor fremdeles kan ha noen feil. Det nye grensensittet introduserer også et cover-bilde på toppen, og jeg fant ut at best passende bildestørrelse er 815×315 piksler.
Merk også at det kanskje bare er du som ser din presentasjonsside med tidslinje de første dagene, før Facebook gjør visningen tilgjengelig for alle dine kontakter. Men det er også mulig å sette at din nye presentasjonsside skal være offentlig med en gang.
Spotify og Facebook
0De siste dagene har Facebook lansert et nytt utseende og noen nye tjenester. Ikke alle har fått dem enda, men alle vil fortløpende bli oppdatert.
I går annonserte Facebook sitt samarbeid med Spotify, og allerede i dag fikk jeg aktivert funksjonaliteten. Spotify publiserer lenker til all musikken jeg spiller på min Wall i Facebook. Nyttig? Eller vil de fleste av mine venner skjule min “musikkprofil”, akkurat som de har gjort med min “treningsprofil” fra Endomondo?
Tanken er god, jeg får se hva mine venner lytter på og får impulser til ny musikk jeg kanskje liker. Allikevel tror jeg personlig at Facebook er inne på et feilspor når de prøver å høste all data om oss ute på de forskjellige tjenestene på Internett. Dette gjør Facebook for at brukerne skal tilbringe mer tid inne på nettstedet og eksponeres for mer av deres reklame. Jeg liker ikke tanken på at de samler inn så mye data om meg, men samtidig har min musikkprofil vært offentlig tilgjengelig gjennom Last.fm i årevis allerede. Kanskje deaktiverer jeg snart igjen den nye sammenkoblingen mellom Facebook og Spotify, men foreløpig er den på. Sammenkoblingen kan du enkelt skru av, altså at Spotify skal publisere hver eneste sang du hører på. Du skal jo kunne høre på Justin Bieber i skjul! I Spotify gå til Edit →Preferences, under Facebook, deaktiver valget Get personal recommendations by sending music you play to Facebook’s Open Graph.
