iOS App Spotlight: Try This App – It’s A “Cinch”

Here’s a pretty cool app for iOS devices called Cinch. It’s a great app for sharing audio, text and photo updates via your iPhone or iPod Touch. You can easily broadcast your information via Twitter, Facebook, CinchCast.com and more! Pretty cool, eh? Current version is 1.6. Let’s take a look at Cinch.

You can either sign up at CinchCast.com or authorize your Facebook and/or Twitter account to post via the app. Just hit the “Record” button as shown above (you’ll have about 3 seconds before recording) and speak your peace. Once completed you’ll have the option to send to CinchCast.com, Facebook or to Twitter. You even have the option to post to your own personal blog if you have one.

You can see above that you can add pics to your recordings, tag your current location and announce what you are saying before sharing. Checking the CinchCast.com website you can find various people to follow and those will be synced to your app as well. I gave the app a good workout and I’m really pleased with it.

You can read much more at the CinchCast site here.

What’s New in Version 1.6
● Simplified recording, adding pictures and text, and publishing.
● iOS 4 support.
● Multitasking support (fast app switching and background completion of recording and publishing).
● Retina display support.

You can’t pass this up since it’s FREE!!! Doesn’t get any cheaper than that, eh? Here’s the iTunes App Store link.

Give it a shot…you’ll be glad you did. Hit us up with a comment if you give this app a go.

Facebook App For iOS Updated To Version 3.3.2 – Hit Your Update Button!

iPhone and iPod Touch users will see that Facebook for iPhone has been updated to version 3.3.2. Just go into the App Store on your device and “check for updates”. What’s new you may ask? See below…

What’s New in Version 3.3.2

– Access account settings, privacy settings and Help Center
– Fixed a bug that prevented users from uploading photos
to specific albums

You can get the updated app from the link below or by checking for updates in iTunes on your iOS device.

Download Facebook for iOS v3.3.2 [iTunes Link]

Source: Redmond Pie

Grab the update and give us a comment on how you’re liking the improvements.

Facebook For Android Updated To Version 1.4.1

Android folk out there who use the Facebook app will be glad to hear that Facebook for Android has been updated to version 1.4.1. I use this on a daily basis to keep up with my peeps. No Facebook chat yet but the update includes bringing higher resolution picture uploads, improved Places usage for non-English locales, and always welcomed bugfixes. You can grab the update in the Android Market. If you don’t have the app installed you can grab it at the followng:

Market Link
AppBrain Link

or scan the QR code below:

Source: Android Central

Let us know with a comment on how the update is working for you all.

Facebook for BlackBerry Updated to v1.9

UPDATE: For those having trouble with Facebook showing up on App World or the web, the great people at MyBBOTA (@MyBBOTA) and @Andres516 have an OTA for 96XX users!  Thanks MyBBOTA and Andres!

Well today’s the day!  Facebook v1.9 has been released to all comers in BlackBerry App World!  This has been in the Beta Zone for a little while now, but finally available to everyone with a BlackBerry smartphone.  Head on over to App World and upgrade your copy!

What’s new in v1.9

• Support for Facebook Places
• Dedicated Inbox
• Facebook Search (not just contact search in the past)
• Navigation updates
• Friends List page
• Bug fixes and more!

It should be noted that even I had trouble getting v1.9 as for some reason v1.8 still shows up sometimes when I click the link above.  I’m not sure what is going on, but expect RIM to resolve this shortly!  Also, I have included the QR Code below if you prefer the direct high-tech link!

Sources:  Crackberry and Research In Motion

Facebook Deals – Too Much Like Foursquare?

Facebook announced yesterday that a new feature was coming down the pike called “Deals.” In my opinion, this is the 2nd attempt by Facebook to ride the coattails of Foursquare. The first attempt was by launching “Places,” a service that allows users to “check in” and post their location on their wall via Facebook.

Deals is a feature that will allow merchants to offer deals, specials, and coupons to users who are using “Places” to check in to their locations.

Their are currently 22 merchants on board, including Gap, who is offering a free pair of jeans to the first 10,000 users who check into their local Gap store.

The plan is to have all companies with Facebook pages on board utilizing “Deals” – offering….. well…. deals…. to Facebook users and delivering them to their mobile devices.

Do I see Facebook “patches” in the near future? If not….maybe Zuckerberg will read this and a light will go off in his brain. Hey Mark…. call me!

What do you think? Are you using Places now? Looking forward to Deals? Let us know in the comments below!

 

Source – LA Times

Facebook Version 1.9 Now Available In Blackberry Beta Zone

RIM has just released Facebook For Blackberry Version 1.9 into the Blackberry Beta Zone. Here’s the scoop:

Today, a new version of Facebook for BlackBerry is available in BlackBerry Beta Zone. Facebook for BlackBerry v1.9 offers exciting features, making it the most convenient mobile Facebook experience yet.

Key new features of Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v1.9 include:

· Dedicated Inbox – View your Facebook messages in one separate inbox or within your BlackBerry messages inbox. The app pre-fetches 30 of your existing messages, and will then continue to sync messages on your BlackBerry smartphone with your Facebook inbox.

· Facebook Search – Search for individuals and pages, making it easy to find mutual friends, add friends and “like” pages. For BlackBerry 6 users, Universal Search will pull Facebook results too!

· Enhanced Friends List and Page List – View Friends profile photos and pages in list form

· Redesigned Navigation Bar – View your own profile and click on the Search and Message icons with the new navigation bar

You must be a BlackBerry Beta Zone member to try out the new Facebook for BlackBerry app. There are a limited number of spots for the beta, so don’t wait to catch the next social networking trend!

Find out more about Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v1.9 at http://blogs.blackberry.com/2010/10/facebook-for-blackberry-v1-9-now-in-beta-zone/

I’m checking this out asap! Give it a go if you’re a BBBZ member and let us know how you’re liking the improvements.

Thanks

BigTechTony

You Can Now “Like” Us On Facebook

Come LIKE Us On Facebook!

That’s right…… TSR is now on Facebook! In the attempt to take over the world, brick by brick, we have created a Facebook Fan Page for you to “LIKE” on Facebook. Through this page you can connect with other TSR readers and keep up to speed on any TSR posts that you may have missed throughout your busy day.

Head on over HERE to “LIKE” us. We may bring exclusive contests to just Facebook Fans so be sure to sign up now to stay “in the know”!

Thank you for your never ending support and we hope we keep you entertained as well as informed!

- Kelly, Tony & Grant (Team TSR)

HootSuite For Blackberry – A Quick Peek

The cool cats over at Crackberry posted an article on the development of Hootsuite for Blackberry. Here’s what the folks over at HootSuite had to say:

Blackberry fans are adamantly vocal about their desire to Hoot from their beloved ‘berrys — and the wait is almost over! Soon fans everywhere will have a ‘berry-ready Owl with Facebook and Twitter in your hand — just don’t squish it!

To quench your desire, here are the first screenshots of HootSuite for Blackberry to share with your colleagues. The pilot batch of HootSuite for Blackberry beta users are testing the first iteration with more invites going out soon (we haven’t forgotten about the thousands of you who signed up to test already).

As you Blackberry fanatics already know…there are several high-quality Twitter clients available for your devices such as the native Twitter client, UberTwiter, SocialScope, Seesmic, Tweetissimo, etc. I’m very anxious to see what HootSuite brings to the table to separate itself from the pack. Quick note…also very excited to see what Blaq has in store for us as well.

You can sign up for beta testing at this link. Excited to see this Twitter client come out of the woodwork? Let us know in the comments.

Source: Crackberry

Thanks…

Tony

TweetDeck for Android; the first day

Well folks, I had promised myself I’d wait to write-up a full review, but I can’t help it. I’ve been waiting for TweetDeck to release an Android version for too bloody long, and oh, about eighteen hours later I can say I’m pleased with this beta. Now, before I go any further,  please, do remember, this IS a beta, so lets keep that in mind as you provide your own thoughts and feedback.

First of course is setup. I’m not sure how nicely it plays if you’re using it to initially set up a TweetDeck account, I’ve been using it on my other devices for ages. I will say it imported smoothly, with no noticeable glitches or interruption. I never added foursquare or Google Buzz to my account before, so I imported them right away to see how well that played. I was impressed to see foursquare set up instantly with no troubles at all. Unfortunately I cannot say the same for Buzz. Setting it up took me to the authorization page, and Google’s splash pop up. This is where I encountered a problem, as I could not get the pop up to close after repeated attempts. After five attempts on three occasions I finally just added Buzz using a computer and then went back to my phone.

Instantly I was caught off guard, both by easy TweetDeck was on the eyes, and how intuitive the ui was. I will admit, I’m normally one of those people who needs to tweak each and every setting in an app before being happy with it, but TweetDeck was an exception. This is undoubtably for the best considering that the current beta offers no user customizable settings at all.  The theme is going to be dark for some people’s tastes I’m sure anyone that has used either their desktop or iDevice apps will be perfectly comfortable with it. The font is bright and large enough to be easily readable, but isn’t grating, a fact that I was quite grateful for when I opened the app en route to the coffee maker this morning. I will say that the yellow dots for column notifications seem to be a bit small for me but it is something that I’ve noticed myself getting used to. Speaking of the columns the transition between them is smooth, although it seems almost a bit to easy as I often find myself starting to switch while trying to scroll through my timeline. (And yes there are two new ones which I’ll get into more later) I also find myself wishing you were able to add columns, though this functionality may be coming down the road. Also, a nice touch is the different background colors for various services, although I’m hoping that in future releases they’ll extend this to setting different background colors for different twitter accounts.

The last thing that I feel truly needs to be addressed is the two new columns, both of which are an interesting idea in their own right. The first would be the “Home” column which is an idea that I’ve heard some TweetDeck users clamor for in the past. In short its simply all of your feeds tied together in one column. I’m still not sure how I feel about it to be honest, I can see a lot of potential in the idea, but I know some people could find themselves overwhelmed by the sea of information.  The other column is simply entitled “Me”. This displays anything that directly references you (e.g. Twitter mentions), and seems like a fairly simple way to keep tabs on who is tossing your name around.

Overall, I love TweetDeck on my Evo and think it may be the single app social networking hub I’ve been hoping it would be. It certainly isn’t perfect yet, but for a first release in an open beta, it’s quite nice start. I’ll be sure to post an update after I’ve played around with it a bit more and at that time I’ll do some side by side comparison with some other apps to see how they all stack up.

Facebook for Android gets updated to v1.3

Most Android owners are well aware that an updated version of the Facebook app has launched. The newest version to hit the streets is v1.3. Not everyone was notified that there was an update, so some had to go fishin’ for it. I was one of those people. I found out via Twitter that the newest version was available, so I hit the Market to find NO updates available. Hm, curious. Well, after a simple search I found that it had in fact been updated and was available to me.

Overall, the new UI looks great, a big jump from what it was. Here are the icons that are listed across the app:

* News Feed

* Profile

* Friends

* Photos

* Events

* Messages

* Requests (friend requests will show up here, making it easier than ever to accept or deny)

There seems to be some extra space for two more icons along the bottom, so I’m not sure if that’s on purpose (user defined at some point?) or if they have plans in the works for adding more icon support there (static, Facebook defined icons). Time will tell. The Android owner in me wants to put some icons there, but I cannot! Patience, Kelly!

Cool thing about this update is featured below the icons. It’s a scrolling photo/video bar. If your friends have added photos or videos recently, you will see them appear in this section. Two thumbs up for that addition. I don’t check Facebook alot at work and tend to miss pictures being added, so I’m pretty happy about this new feature.

Below the photo/video bar, you now see your Notifications. It works just like you would expect it to, click on the Notifications notification bar (tongue twister!) and it will open up to all of your recent notification. Hit that notification bar again and it’ll retract back down to a mini-bar (not the kind in hotels, don’t get excited).

One thing that I do not like is that when you click on one of your notifications, it brings you to the mobile site to read them. I’d rather them have the ability to open up right inside the app itself. Oh well, something I will get used to in time, I’m sure.

You can easily perform a search or update your status by hitting one of the two icons at the very top of the app.

This update has taken the app to the next level. It’s much more user friendly and easy on the eyes. They did a great job with it and it gets the official TSR two thumbs up!

Have you updated yet? Let us know what you think in the comments below!

Photo credit – Android and Me