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Facebook Lets You Communicate with Apps via Email

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Facebook has just announced a new way of letting your stay connected with your favorite Facebook apps. It’s really just a matter of applying the same email notifications that you receive whenever you are tagged on a photo or receive a message from your Facebook friends. And like other Facebook add-ons that requires access to your email account, this new Facebook feature will never receive your email address unless grant application developers the right to email you.

So, how does this new feature work? Starting probably today, you will start seeing dialog boxes on your application pages containing a question from app developers whether you want to receive notifications about their apps, coursed through your email address, of course.

And why would you want to receive email notifications from Facebook app developers? Honestly, I don’t see any good reason why. But the Facebook blog said that it will give you more detailed and interesting information from developers about your favorite Facebook applications. These information include – receipts of purchases, newsletters as well as notification of actions with their apps.

Of course, like any other email notification set-up, Facebook apps notification feature can be easily cancelled anytime. All you need to do is to hit the “unsubscribe” button located at the bottom of the email notifications that you received.

This new feature is just one of the many new features that Facebook is planning to  launch this year.

Whitehouse.gov Goes Mobile with iPhone/iPod App

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President Obama’s administration continues to take full advantage of technology in reaching out to millions of Americans who by now are getting into the mobile phone syndrome. The latest of the administration’s foray into technology is by way of an iPhone/iPod Touch app that debuted recently at the iTunes store. The Whitehouse iPhone App (iTunes Link) promises to connect with Americans by delivering real-time content from Whitehouse.gov to American iPhone users.

One outstanding feature of the Whitehouse iPhone/iPod Touch app is the streaming of videos coming from the White House itself. It allows you to watch President Obama’s attendance to public events at the White House, web chats with members of the Administration as well.

It’s a pretty cool app, if I may say so. As an opening salvo to the launch of this app, The Whitehouse.gov iPhone will be streaming Pres. Obama’s State of the Union address happening next week.

In addition to its iPhone/iPod app, Whitehouse.gov is also planning to launch a new mobile-friendly version of its website. It would be interesting to note whether the introduction of a new mobile internet access will be as successful as other top iPhone apps or give Whitehouse.gov more users.

Mobile Location-Sharing Service Foursquare Goes Global

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Screen shot 2010-01-06 at 5.11.02 AMI’ve been reading some coverages about mobile location-sharing service Foursquare for quite some time now and was really curious about  it. But unfortunately, the service was used to be restricted North American and European cities, until now.

Foursquare has just gone global, lifting its geographical limitation. So, if you’re located anywhere outside the U.S. and Europe, you can now join in the fun and start using Foursquare. In case you’re wondering how, Foursquare has various applications for iPhone, Palm Pre and Google Android. For Blackberry uses, a native app is currently under development.

As the international version is currently in test mode, Foursquare is relying on users to build its local directory. So, Foursquare as it is for non-US and European country won’t be much of good use if it will not gain grounds in the local scene.

And if you don’t know what I am talking about, here’s a brief overview of what Foursquare does.

First, you need to get the Foursquare app running on your mobile phone. Then you need to “check-in”, which in other words is just registering your whereabouts on Foursquare. Foursquare will use this information to tell your friends who are also using Foursquare so that they can recommend places to go and things to do near where you are located right now. The process goes on and on and lets you learn about the places that your friends frequently visit hereby letting you discover new places to visit as well.

In addition, you can also create badges representing the places you’ve visited, and the number of checkins you’ve made. And the more you use Foursquare, time will come when you can become the “mayor” of most visited site. You can retain that position, until someone comes along to steal it away from you.

Sounds fun? Go check out Foursquare and see whether it fits your needs.

Top 100 Social Brands of 2009, iPhone Tops Again

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Vitrue, a social media management company has just released their Top 100 Social Brands of 2009. For the second time, iPhone is again at the number 1. Following the iPhone are Disney, CNN, MTV, MTV and NBA.

Aside from iPhone other social brands that show significant trend in 2009 are game consoles with Nintendo Wii at #7, PlayStation at #13, and Nintendo at #21. Adidas also made it to the top of the list among the sports apparel brands.  For Sports, NBA and MLB are among the most talked about brands.

For the fashion circuit, Louis Vuitton, Prada and Burberry made it to the top of the list while media brands such as CNN, MTV, ESPN, CBS among others also made some noise in 2009.

Incidentally, don’t be surprised if you can’t find Google, Facebok and Twitter on the list. According to Vitrue, they omitted these companies from the list since they are only measuring those that use social technology and not the companies who are the technology themselves.

Vitrue’s analysis comprised on over 2,000 popular brands on the social web.

Here’s the Top 100 Social Brands of 2009 according to Vitrue. [Read more…] about Top 100 Social Brands of 2009, iPhone Tops Again

Facebook Had a Better Christmas than Google

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For the first time in its history, Facebook has become the most visited website in the United States on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. According to Experian Hitwise via a Twitter post, Facebook which was number two most visited website on the same day last year has dislodged Google which was now at the no. 2 spot.

Of course this is not surprising since Facebook users have probably used the site to communicate with their family and friends through the site, exchanging Holiday greetings and sharing photos of their celebration. And this might seem that email has become a thing of the past during this time of the year.

Interestingly, all through out 2009, Facebook has been running third behind Google and Yahoo! Mail despite being the most popular search query from all major search engines, as noted by Hitwise.

That’s worth noting. HitWise reported last year that Facebook was number two behind Google on Christmas. People say that Facebook vs. Google will be the Web’s biggest battle in coming years – but it looks like Facebook has already won the battle for Christmas.

Another interesting point to mention is the fact that the surge of site visits on Facebook happened amidst controversial privacy issues hurled at Facebook this year. Either users no longer mind these issues or they just couldn’t find a better and faster way to communicate with their friends and family during the Holiday Season.

With 2010 just a few days away, it would be interesting to see whether Facebook can sustain this trend and how Google will possibly react.

Cool Weather App for Star Wars Fans

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Screen shot 2009-12-28 at 6.12.16 AM

There are many great weather apps out there but nothing comes close to the coolness factor of Tom Scott’s weather app which was made for Star Wars fan. You see, apart from telling you the weather in a particular place which you enter on the site’s search box, the site also gives you different backgrounds and commentaries mentioning the different locations in the Star Wars universe.

So depending on which city you’re from, you will get weather commentaries such as:

“Oh, 9C Fair. It’s like Naboo out there. Temperate, dry and fairly pleasant.”

“Hmm, 9C, Partly Cloudy?, It’s like Endor out there. Temperate but grey and cloudy”

Well, of course aside from the commentaries, the weather report is actually pretty accurate because the site fetches weather data from Yahoo Weather.

And while you’re at it, you might want to check out Tom Scott’s other creation which includes – Two Drums and Cymbal Fall Off a Cliff, The Corruscant Juggling Club and more. They are pretty cool stuff and makes you think that this guy is really enjoying his work.

Who is Tom Scott? Here’s a short bio:

Tom Scott is a geek comedian. He won the 2008 Kevin Greening Award for Creativity at the Student Radio Awards, once got in trouble with the Cabinet Officefor his version of their Preparing for Emergencies site, and has been described as a”sometime internet funny man” by The Register.

He runs the British part of International Talk Like A Pirate Day, and accidentally got elected as president of his students’ union after running as “Mad Cap’n Tom”.

His work has been shown on BBC One, Channel 4, and at the paraflows net-art exhibition in Vienna.

He also once got five gold runs on ‘Blockbusters’.

So, go check out the the Star Wars Weather app and tell us, how’s the weather out there?

Via Download Squad