Facebook 6.0 For IPhone: Everything You Need To Know

Android users are probably playing with the newly launched Facebook Home for Android users, but iOS users are not left out of a new Facebook update. There are a few interesting new features that make the Facebook experience on the iPhone fresh. Chatting and sharing are made easier and more livelier with a few additions and if you are an avid fan of sharing photos on Facebook, there’s something for you too.

Some of the features are useful, while the other new features make it fun. Here are 8 new features you are getting with the latest Facebook app update, Facebook 6.0.

1. Chat Heads

You can now chat to your Facebook friends within the Facebook app by swiping from left to right. When you start chatting with them, you’ll notice this new feature called Chat Heads which are these circles with your contact’s profile picture.

You can open multiple Chat Heads when chatting to many friends, tapping on it will open up the chat with that particular person.

These Chat Heads stay visible as you use the app. The cool thing is that you can tap and drag them around so it does not get in the way with tapping the Like button on your news feed. When you’ve finished chatting, all you have to do is drag the Chat Head to the lower part of your display to close it.

2. Send Stickers

Some messaging apps on smartphones have stickers which are like giant emoticons. Now Facebook has them too! You can access it by tapping on the Smiley icon on the text field. Your normal keyboard will then be replaced with these large emoticons.

To go back to your keyboard, tap on the Smiley icon on the text field again.

You can also download more stickers at the sticker store. Go to the store by tapping on thebasket icon at the bottom, and download the stickers you want to use.

3. Make Free Calls

You can also make free calls over Wi-Fi now to your Facebook friends who have the Facebook app installed on their smartphone. All you have to do is tap on the information icon when you start chatting with them and then press the Free Call button.

If some of your friends have the free Call button disabled, they have to first update the Facebook app on their device to the latest version. Also, Facebook free calls only supports voice (no video yet) at the moment.

4. Send Voice Message

Besides sharing photos with your Facebook friends via Facebook Message, you can also record your voice and send them short voice messages. All you have to do is tap on the Plus icon and then tap on Record Voice.

Tap and hold the record button while speaking; release your finger once you’re done. The short clip will then be sent to the other person to hear. Kind of reminds you of a walktie-talkie, doesn’t it?

5. Share Post To FB Pages, Groups, Message

Previously, sharing posts through the Facebook app only allowed you to share it to your own Facebook timeline. The updated app now allows you to share it to places other than your own timeline. All you have to do is tap on the Share button below a post on your news feed.

You get two options: Edit and Share the post or message it to a friend.

If you tap on ‘On your own timeline’, you can see the other options available i.e. share to yourfriend’s timeline, to a Facebook group you’re in or to a Facebook page that you manage.

6. Separate Feeds For Categories

Taking its cue from the desktop Facebook’s latest news feed design, the iPhone app also featuresdifferent feeds/categories you can opt to display. This can be feeds of groups you’re in or special groups of friends with a common theme, say the school you went to or friends from the same location.

7. Photo Filters In Messaging Section

There are also some editing features in the photos that you send to your Facebook friends. After choosing a picture, you are able to crop, brighten and choose from a few filters to add to your picture. This means you won’t have to download so many photo-editing apps for your iPhone if you are content with the limited features they have.

8 "Shared Photos" Album

After sharing photos with a friend, all your photos will be saved into a special Shared Photosalbum. This lets both of you easily track photos that have been sent. To access this, just tap on the information icon when chatting with someone.

Sources : facebook,hongkiat.com,cnet.

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iOS 6: everything you need to know

iOS 6, the latest generation of Apple's mobile software for iPod touch, iPhone and iPad, has finally been unveiled - and from what we've seen so far, it's going to delight an awful lot of iOS users.

From badly-kept secrets to things that have been on wishlists for what seems like forever, here are the highlights.

The iOS 6 release date is Autumn

iOS 6 was released as a beta today, but the final version will ship "this Fall".

iOS 6 introduces Passbook

Passbook is Apple's new e-tickets app, enabling you to carry electronic tickets for anything from sports events to plane travel, or to have a digital loyalty card. The tickets update too, so for example your airline ticket would send you a notification once your departure gate was announced or changed. Hopefully enough firms will support this one to make it work for all our everyday bits and bobs.

Update: It you fancy seeing PassBook in action on an iPod in Hong Kong airport, then you're in luck because the chaps over as PassK.it have given it a spin - shame the airport wasn't ready for it though! Check out the video below.

iOS 6 has an improved phone app

The revised phone app offers smart reminders, so for example you can reject a call with a message saying you're busy, on your way, lost in a forest... You can also be reminded to call someone back when you leave your current location.

The new Do Not Disturb mode is particularly nifty: when new messages arrive, they do so silently and without the screen lighting up. If you wish, you can also tell your iPhone not to silence calls from a list of favourite callers, or to automatically silent repeat calls from the same person.

iOS 6 has Facetime over 3G

To tell the truth, we're amazed it took so long. If this takes off, the mobile operators will be very sad. Unless we use it abroad, in which case they'll be dancing on great big piles of our money.

iOS 6 has a brand new Safari app

There are lots of useful improvements here: Instapaper-style offline reading, iCloud tab syncing and photo sharing website integration to make uploading less hassle. Less wonderfully, Smart App Banners enable websites to tell you about their sodding iOS apps more easily, which is just brilliant. Who among us hasn't thought, "man! I wish more websites told me about their iOS app on each visit!"?

iOS 6 Mail has VIPs and pull to refresh

Pull to refresh is here! Yay! You can also create a list of VIPs whose messages will appear on your device's lock screen and in a dedicated, separate mailbox. Sharing photos or videos from within Mail is finally here too, as are per-account signatures.

iOS 6 photo sharing is more selective

Instead of sharing everything with everyone, you can choose which photos should be shared with which people. We're not sure why you'd use this rather than, say, put a friends-only album on Facebook or Flickr. Anyone?

So how do the new iOS 6 features stand up against Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich? We compare maps, browsers and voice assistants:

iOS 6 makes Siri more serious, and puts it in cars

Siri is able to understand a wider range of questions than before - the demo showed it understanding questions about sports scores, statistics and trivia, booking restaurants and finding out what's worth seeing at the cinema - but as yet it's unclear which, if any, of these features will make it to the UK. Local search is being rolled out worldwide, however, and there's support for more languages.

Siri is also going mobile: the new Eyes Free feature will put a Siri button on the steering wheel of Jaguars, Land Robers, BMWs, Mercs, Toyotas, Chryslers, Hondas, Audis and GM cars. The manufacturers have promised to support the feature in the next 12 months.

iOS 6 brings Siri to the iPad

...but only the new iPad.

iOS 6 has Facebook integration

Apple promises "the best Facebook integration ever in a mobile device", and to our eyes it looks pretty much the same as iOS 5's Twitter integration: you can post photos, locations, URLs and so on to annoy your friends. The API is public, so non-Apple apps can share to Facebook too, and you'll be able to see your Facebook friends' App Store recommendations.

iOS 6 has guided access for children

The new Guided Access feature enables you to disable certain parts of the screen so that children can't accidentally hit the wrong buttons. We're going to use it on the in-app purchase icons in every kid-targeted iOS game. Hahah!

iOS 6 has a new Maps app

New York, London, Paris, Munich, everybody's talking about - iOS 6 maps! Well, maybe not, but Apple's much-rumoured mapping system finally breaks cover. It's pretty, will have traffic information, doubles as a sat-nav system with turn-by-turn navigation, can be controlled via Siri and will probably be rubbish outside major metropolitan areas in the UK. Still, the new Flyover 3D views of major cities are lovely.

Update: It's been confirmed that Yelp, a social networking, user review, and local search service, will be integrated into Apple's new mapping software - allowing you to check out restaurants, bars, clubs and cultural venues.

Update:Google is clearly concerned about loosing a huge percentage of the mapping market, as it's slashed the price of its Maps API by 88 percent following Apple's announcement of its own service.

Update: And Google isn't taking Apple's decision to dump it lightly, as it has rolled out its own 3D mapping update to the Google Earth iOS app - months before we'll see Apple launch its version. How do like them Apples?

Update: Apple is determined to dump Google Maps completely from iOS 6 - as it's been revealed that all third-party apps which previously used Google Maps will be redirected to Apple's new service.

iOS 6 dedicated Podcast app

A report from AllThingsD suggest that Apple may be about to givePodcasts their own application within the forthcoming iOS 6 software.

iOS 6 doesn't require password for free apps

With iOS 6, users won't be asked to enter their password every time they want to download a free application.

Once you have linked your iTunes account to your iOS 6 toting iPhone/iPad/iPod you won't need your login details again - unless you want to make a purchase, you know, with actual money. You also won't be asked for your password if you are re-downloading a previously purchased app.

iOS 6 has in-app purchase protection

In iOS 5.1 some naughty sods found a loophole which allowed them to steal in-app purchases, which may have cost some developers millions in lost revenue.

Apple has said that there will be no such problem in iOS 6 though, releasing a statement saying: "iOS 6 will address this vulnerability. If your app follows the best practices described below then it is not affected by this attack."

iOS 6 could sport Bluetooth 4.0 bridge

It's claimed Apple is working on a new feature in iOS 6 which will use Bluetooth 4.0 to act as a bridge between compatible devices, which could allow a future iPod to do a variety of tasks, such making calls via an iPhone running iOS 6.

iOS 6 should be adopted very quickly

Unlike other mobile operating systems, iOS isn't dependent on mobile operators approving updates: as a result 80% of Apple's 365 million iOS customers are using the latest iOS, compared to 7% of Android users. Once iOS ships, expect a similarly speedy take-up.

iOS 6 doesn't work on everything

iOS 6 supports iPhones from the 3GS onwards, the fourth generation iPod touch and the second and third generation iPad. Check our story for more on iOS 6 compatibility.

Update: Apple has now pushed out iOS 6 Beta 2 to developers, available on the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 and new iPad. Why is this exciting? Because the cogs in the settings icon now spin... oh yes!

Update: Version iOS 6 Beta 3 has now been released by Apple, sporting a variety of bug fixes, improved keyboard and navigation editing capabilities.

Update: However developers have already managed to Jailbreak iOS 6 beta 2, so if you're someone who likes tinkering with handsets you might me able to get it running on the earlier iPhones and iPads.

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