Facebook Update 3.1 & 3.1.1 Adds Push Notifications, Contact Syncing & Lots of Bugs

FacebookA recent update (3.1) to the Facebook app was not so great for many. Personally mine would freeze after about 10 seconds of using the app. I removed the app and reinstalled and that seems to have fixed it. The new features in this update are push notifications and contact syncing. I seemed to get push notifications fine but contact syncing failed on the first try as did for some other friends. They too had issues with the app. One person couldn’t even get the app to open but again, reinstalling the app fixed the problem. Here are some other problems people were having that I found in the App Store reviews:

aclevelandjr: Awesome app but it erased my entire Google contacts list and I can’t get them to sync back… Beware!!!!!

DMB Fan 36: I’m happy to see a walk into new frontiers, but this address book sync thing seems to miss the mark in two basic places:

1) Facebook Links are sent over the contacts labeled as the default “Homepage” not a URL field called something more user friendly like “Facebook”. (the API let’s you do this easily)

2) Contact pictures are sent in a very small resolution! A picture with a quality of at least the iPhone screen res should be used instead. Most facebook contact photos have a nice higher res picture behind them. When a phone call comes in or goes out you get a silly little postage stamp instead of a nice full screen image like pictures chosen on the phone itself.

Tigger H.: Great concept, poor execution. The new “sync” feature decided to sync random facebook users I am not even friends with to difference phone contacts of mine.. Some profile pictures are on more then one contact.. Many contacts facebooks are not even remotely close to being theirs… I just wish i did not touch that sync button….

D4VIDS: I just updated my facebook and hit the sync friends button…big mistake!!! Now my fb won’t even load and it keeps crashing. Not a very good update

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eBay Updated with Push Notifications

Available In: App Store       Price: Free  

eBayeBay has recently update their iPhone app to include push notifications for outbid events and watched items. There’s are a lot more great features ability to pay with PayPal, search for completed items and search in description. The completed items thing is sweet ’cause now you can go to garage sales and search for an item to see what’s it’s really worth by seeing what it sold for as a completed item, not just current live items.

ScreenShots

Push Notifications SBSettings Toggle

Available In: Cydia       Price: Free  

Push Notifications SBSettings Toggle Push Notifications SBSettings Toggle allows you to quickly and easily toggle on/off your Push Notifications via SBSettings.

If you toggle Push Notifications off in SBSettings, it will turn off all Push Notifications. It would be like going into your stock Settings application the Notifications option and turning it off. [Read more…]

BNO News Releases Push Notification App *UPDATED*

Available In: App Store       Price: $1.99 & $0.99 per month  

BNO NewsWe’ve been testing this app for a few weeks and it has finally hit the App Store. Breaking News Twitter account has almost 1 million followers. But if you don’t have Twitter, you can still get breaking news alerts to your iPhone via push notifications. The app is designed to push only major news but you can turn on low priority notifications to see all updates. Another great feature is you can select a time to ignore notifications. ALL PUSH NOTIFICATIONS APPS NEED THIS!!!

I have noticed that the push update gets to me a little sooner than my text alert from Twitter does. It seems to be about 30-60 seconds. When you open the app, you see a list of recent updates and you can tap on them for more info. When a link is posted, you can view it via the built in browser so you don’t have to leave the app. [Read more…]