Social Networking

Reviews / Social Networking
CoverPhotoMakerforFB

Cover Photo Maker for Facebook Pro+

When Facebook rolled out their Timeline feature one of the things they implemented was a new “Cover Photo”. This “wide” image covers the top of your Timeline. While Facebook does allow you to choose any photo you want, most people don’t have a photo that is the exact measurements of 851×315 pixels as most digital camera images don’t have that aspect ratio. As a Photoshop user you can create a photo that matches those dimensions perfectly. However, what if you’re not a Photoshop user or don’t know how to combine multiple photos together? That’s where Cover Photo Maker for Facebook Pro+ comes in.

Cover Photo Maker for Facebook Pro+ (CPMFB) is a Universal App that lets you select a template layout and then simply fill in the images squares with images from your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. You add a text layer and choose from multiple built in fonts as well as color, size and opacity.  Each image can be scaled or repositioned in its square.  After you complete your masterpiece you can save it, email it or upload it directly to Facebook.

The Bottom Line

While CPMFB can upload directly to Facebook you’ll still have to set the image as your Cover Photo via the Facebook App or website. Also in working with text and sizing it down I ran into a couple of instances where I couldn’t see/grab the text again because it was off screen. I’d also like to see some more variety in layouts where the images could overlap each other. While this App probably has limited appeal to a Photoshop user it’s perfect for novices or every day Facebook users.

You can get Cover Photo Maker for Facebook Pro+ for 2.99 for iPad, iPhone or iPod touch here from the iTunes

Reviews / Social Networking
Social

Social – Native iPad Facebook App Does it All

Yesterday I wrote about how great it was to finally have the Official Twitter App for iPad. However, when it comes to Facebook the wait continues. Unlike Twitter (they acquired a great 3rd party App and made it their own), Facebook has developed their own App for iPhone and iPod touch, but it's not yet a native iPad App. Although there is an official Facebook App for iPhone, it doesn't support all of the features of Facebook and that really bugs me considering that it comes directly from Facebook. Luckily when it comes to the iPad, Facebook works pretty good in Safari. It's not perfect, but it works. Last week Jason reviewed his favorite iPad 3rd party Facebook App, Friendly. Today, I'm reviewing a competitor to that App called Social. I was hesitant at first because usually 3rd party Apps just don't have the level of access to the service they are designed to support. This is why I want a native Netflix App with full queue and account management. 3rd Party Apps just can't access those features and the currently implementation of the "official" Netflix App for iPhone doesn't have them at all. 

Social seems to have all of the features of Facebook

Wow! I was blown away by the level of Facebook feature support in this App. It supports the usual stuff like Friend, Photos, Chat and News feeds, but it also has support for Pages and Groups (the latter isn't even in the Facebook App for iPhone). The information is presented in easy to navigate (customizable) tabs. Sadly the only feature that it doesn't seem to have and it's one I use extensively is Lists. Again, this is not too surprising since the Official Facebook App doesn't have it either, but it's the only thing that I can see that's missing. 

 

OK, sounds great what's wrong with it

Other than the missing Lists support the biggest problem with this App is that it's buggy. It quits on a regular basis and often times when I tap on something it takes me to my News feed instead of the item I tapped on. For example, I added three pages to the Favorites tab. When I go to the Favorites tab they are listed there. However, when I tap on any of them the Page never comes up, instead it goes straight to my own news feed. I can access those three pages no problem from the Pages tab. There are also some glitches playing Facebook videos.

 

UPDATE

Of course as soon as I wrote this review yesterday, he releases an update last night! I could have simply changed the review, but I thought it would be more interesting to see point by point what got fixed vs. what I had complained about. Also there was no time to thoroughly test the update, but the Favorites bug is fixed and although I see the lists feature via the News feed i don't see any way to actually manage the Lists via the App. Otherwise this looks very promising. Here's what the update addresses:

UPDATE #2

I just got a friend request and decided to process/accept in Social to see if the List support was there and I'm happy to say that it is! Although I can't manage the Lists themselves in the App, I'm very happy that I can add new Friends to Lists upon acceptance right in the App.

 

The Bottom Line

This is by far the best Facebook App I've seen to date on the iPad from a feature support standpoint. If the developer just works out the bugs, it would easily be a 4-5 star App. I'm looking forward to those updates.

You can get Social here from the Social

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News
twitter

Official Twitter App Now for iPad Too

My favorite Twitter app on iPhone was Tweetie 2. Then Twitter acquired Tweetie 2 and it became their official Twitter App for iPhone and iPod touch. This was great because Tweetie 2 was a paid App and now Twitter is FREE. However, the one thing that I was waiting for was a native App for the iPad. Of course there are other native iPad Apps for Twitter users. The thing is, I've tried a couple of them and although I had settled in on Twitterrific for iPad. I always looked at Twitterrfic as being a good App, but I really wanted the Twitter app that I was used to on the iPhone. So for me Twitterrific was a temporary solution. Now my wait is over and I gotta say that it was worth the wait. The New Twitter App is a universal binary for all iOS devices and not only does it take advantage of the iPad's larger display size, it does so in a beautiful way. Of course you can use the App in portrait or landscape orientation. What's cool is the concept of sliding panels. When you tap on a tweet, a panel slides over to expose more about that person and the tweet itself including the ability to preview any compatible content (such as web pages and images) contained in the tweet. Being the "official" Twitter App also means that it supports all of the features of Twitter right in the App. That's one of the things that bugs me about the official Facebook App in that it doesn't support all of the features of Facebook. The Twitter App also does a great job of supporting multiple accounts, retweets, lists, mentions, messages, Searching, trending news and more. Best of all, it's FREE!

Although this App is great, there is one small request I would have for an update. Whenever I launch the App it takes me to my Timeline by default. I would like it to take me to where I left off like a list or mentions. Otherwise I'm completely happy!

You can get the Twitter here from the Twitter

Don't forget to follow me on Twitter here.