If you head over to DiscoverBlackBerry.com, the main BlackBerry site for individual consumers, you will see that the homepage, at the time of this post, is dominated by Facebook for BlackBerry.
The application has been out for a few months now. Are BlackBerry users really using it? Although I have an account, I really don’t use Facebook. A Linked In client for BlackBerry would be much more useful to me, but, I digress.
Does Facebook for BlackBerry deserve all the hype it’s getting?
Yup, I use it and it’s a lot more convenient than the mobile Facebook Web site. While the mobile application is missing some features offered by the full blown Web site, or even the mobile version, the application hooks into key Blackberry software pretty well. On the Curve, I can use the media viewer to upload directly to Facebook, and I get built in notification (vibrate and tone) of events (friend request, wall posts, messages, invites, etc.)
I’m sure they working to include other features in future revisions, and I happily await them. It may not appeal to everyone, but RIM is trying to capture more of the consumer market, and college kids / people who use Facebook represent a large number of that group.
Not sure, I should give it a try I guess. I’m a linkedin person myself.
I actually called Rogers yesterday to complain that they ‘pushed’ this application to my Pearl without my consent. I was trying to make a point that you can’t push an application to my phone and not tell me that I have to pay exorbitant rates for data to use it. I argued that this was misleading and FB usage shouldn’t come out of my data pool if I use an app. that they push to my phone. He explicitly stated this is not the case and I would be paying to use this.
The CSR actually said that RIM can push applications to Rogers Handsets without corporate consent (of that of Rogers customers as it would appear) and they can’t do anything about it. He then went on to equate this to HP installing software on a PC when you buy it; a parallel that still escapes logic but I didn’t feel like arguing with him.
Bluehorseshoe,
You need to give facebook a try as it is CLEARLY better than Linkedin. I know without question because Hellno said so 😉
Absolutely its worth the hype. I’m from the UK where more people use Facebook than ‘MySpace’. Its huge over here.
I think it was an excellent move as what I’d found was that lots of my friends had stopped checking their emails cos of the amount of spam these days, yet they checked their Facebook every few hours. So its just like having another intergrated inbox on your BlackBerry®.
I use it constantly and its made lots of people I know but a BlackBerry® purely for the Facebook app!! I don’t know of many manufacturers who customers will but just because of an application!!!
It is a great start. Much easier to push photos and messages.
@ jhp2
That was funny. 🙂
I use the facebook app all the time and I think the way it integrates into the blackberry Is an example for all devs of how it should be done, it really is seamless and the way it allows you to upload photos and tag them st the same time is seriously impressive, it also intercepts emails from facebook and displays thrm directly in the app so that you don’t have to deal with them twice, brilliant!
James Hugh Potts?
I have a Blackberry Pearl (8130) and I think it’s a waste of memory. Saved up 10Mb’s by deleting the facebook application(?! kinda big for a small app.). Who really needs to be on facebook 24/7? Come on.
It’s called crackbook for a reason Alex.
Crackbook on my crackberry.
I like the application. Very pretty and functional.
I like using the mobile uploader to push my pictures into my mobile upload folder, saving room on my memory card for videos & the most popular ringtone raps -as dictated by Clear Channel, charted by Billboard and accepted by society.
While it does integrate into the regular Blackberry software well, it does not do as well as the m.facebook.com website that I use to use to get on Facebook. In fact, I usually still use that instead of the built in software. There are certain function which can not be performed through Facebook for Blackberry, which could be done on the Facebook mobile site. Overall, a nice idea, and a fun application, but pretty useless.
I’ll gladly use 10 MB for this application.
Thanks for sharing