Although I'm a frequent user of Facebook, I was never a fan of their iPhone app. I don't know how else to say it, but the previous version sucked. There, I got that out! The app worked, but it was very limited. It didn't support many of the new features of Facebook and in most cases I ended up just doing things either on my computer in Safari or using the mobile version of Facebook in Safari on my iPhone.
3.0 changes all of that
The highly anticipated 3.0 release is finally here. There were pictures of the new interface and teasers for months, but a couple of weeks ago while checking the App Store for updates, it was there! I couldn't click the update button fast enough.
The Newly designed Facebook home screen has nice easy to read/identify icons navigate your way around.
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Although I love having lots of Friends on Facebook, I can't really keep up with (nor do I care to) the status of everyone. Now the app lets you choose which list of Friends you want to see the News Feed for. I have a list affectionately know as "People I actually know". 
You can also not only comment on someone's status, but you can also simply say you "Like" it. These are all simple things that are possible on the website, but are just now coming to the iPhone app.
You now have easy access not only to your wall, but your info and photos.
Facebook photos also got a lot of new features in this app. I can now Like a photo, tag it, make it a profile picture or delete it. Of course you can also comment on them too.
Not only can you access your Friends, but if they have their phone number in their profile you can actually call them by tapping the phone icon. Wow! Yes, you can actually use your iPhone to call your friends! Amazing!
Not only can you now access "Pages" (fan pages, groups, etc.), but you can have quick access to them by adding them to the second home screen page in the app.
Complete List of What's New
- See your upcoming Events and RSVP
- See your friends' birthdays
- See Pages and post updates and photos to Pages you administer
- Write Notes and read your friends' Notes
- Upload videos from an iPhone 3GS
- Upload photos to any album
- Complete photo management (create albums, delete albums, delete photos, delete photo tags)
- Change your Profile Picture
- Zoom into photos
- Like posts and photos
- See the same News Feed as the Facebook website
- Visit links in a built-in web browser
- See all of your friends' friends and Pages
- See mutual friends
- Easily search for people and Pages
- Make friend requests
- Become a fan of Pages
- Quickly call or text your friends
- Create shortcuts to your favorite friends and Pages
- Friends sorted by first or last name according to your settings
- Chat friends sorted alphabetically
The Bottom Line
If you're a Facebook user, you no longer have to feel ashamed of your iPhone app. This version steps up to the plate and adds a lot of the missing features that I've wanted for a long time. There is still room to go. For example, you still can't view Facebook videos.
Although you can easily access Fan Pages now, as far as I can tell there doesn't seem to be any way to access Group Pages, let alone manage them. Also the Push Notification feature won't make it until later this summer when 3.1 is released. Probably the biggest feature that's missing for me still is that although I can accept friend requests with the app, I still can't accept those requests and put them on the appropriate List(s) at the same time. Whenever I accept a friend request, that friend goes on one or more lists. So I still have to go to the website to accept friend requests to keep them organized the way I like.
For now, I welcome this update with open arms. It's light years ahead of the last version. I'm hoping that 3.1 will bring us some of these remaining missing features.
You can download the Facebook app from the App Store here 
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About Terry White
Terry is the co-author of The Best Selling "The iPhone Book" 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th editions. He has been active in the industry for over 25 years and is the founder and president of MacGroup-Detroit, Inc., Michigan's largest Macintosh Users Group, host of the Adobe Creative Suite Podcast and a technology writer - Terry White Tech Blog.
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