Editor’s Note: Welcome to Yay or Nay, a feature for RCR Wireless News’ new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week we’ll review a new wireless application or service from the user’s point of view, with the goal of highlighting what works and what doesn’t in the mobile content industry. If you wish to submit your application or service for review, please contact us at rcrwebhelp@crain.com.
Application: Facebook for BlackBerry
Running on: BlackBerry 8800 and AT&T Mobility’s EDGE network
Yay: Facebook for BlackBerry delivers a no-frills way to update your status, check messages and perform other tasks on the go. And, like the increasingly popular Internet destination itself, the downloadable app is free.
Nay: Compulsive Facebook users may find the application a solid complement to the full Web site, but too limited to use for full-time updates. Also, the downloadable application is available only for BlackBerry devices-if you’re carrying any other kind of phone, the only alternative is Facebook’s mobile Web site.
We say: Hardcore Facebookers will love the ability to check in with their friends and update their profiles through a simple mobile application. But more casual members of the social networking site may have no problem with waiting until they can get to a computer to check in.
For a guy whose very sustenance hinges on the telecommunications space, I’m not so big on being connected. I ignore my mobile for days on end, check voicemails a few times a week, and-to the detriment of my career, surely-keep my profile as low as possible.
But Facebook users are different. A quick stroll around the site unveils an ocean of movers and shakers, almost all of whom seem to tweak their profiles in real time and make new friends every few minutes. They compare their tastes in films, write on each others’ walls, test their “traveler IQ” and engage in dozens of other social networking activities.
It is for these people that Facebook for BlackBerry was designed.
Downloading the application, which was introduced at CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2007 in San Francisco last month, is a snap. BlackBerry users can visit http://www.blackberry.com/facebook/mobiledownload and enter their e-mail address to receive a clickable link to receive the program, and are sent a confirmation note once the app has been successfully downloaded.
Facebook pages can be intimidating to the uninitiated-members can join a seemingly infinite number of networks and can trick out their pages with a vast array of applications and online services. But Facebook for BlackBerry offers a simple and welcoming home screen with a half-dozen icons across the top, enabling users to view friends’ status updates, upload photos, poke, write on walls or send messages.
The offering can be navigated through a trackball or keyboard shortcuts, and users are alerted to new occurrences-such as an incoming message-via a Facebook icon in the toolbar atop the screen. And the tasks are simple and intuitive: I was able to volley messages back and forth with my friends (all five of them!) much more easily than opening an e-mail application and typing out e-mail addresses. Also, changing my status was a snap.
Members looking for a full-blown, Web-like experience will be disappointed, however. While users can update their status or exchange messages on the go, they can only make limited changes to their profiles. Further, tangential applications such as Flixster and Neighborhoods are inaccessible from the handset.
That’s probably not a bad thing, though. Facebook offers some other features on its mobile site (m.facebook.com,) and feature-heavy mobile applications all too often make for a miserable user experience.
So while Facebook’s BlackBerry offering fails to knock you out with bells and whistles, it delivers the essence of the site. If you’re constantly updating your status and checking in with fellow Facebookers-and if you carry a BlackBerry-you may find the new application indispensable.
