Social Networking -- Engadget Mobile

social networking posts

Facebook for Android hits the Market, still playing a bit of catch up

by Donald Melanson posted Sep 8th 2009 @ 6:47PM

Well, it's taken a little while, but it looks like Android users now have a Facebook app to call their own. As you might expect from an initial release, however, the app is a bit less full featured than some of its counterparts and, judging from the few initial comments, a bit buggy. The good news is that you'll be able to do all the basics like share status updates, check your news feed, look at your friends' walls, and even check up to 125 of your friends' phone numbers straight from the home screen. You won't, however, get things like messaging or chat and, at least at the moment, it appears to have some particular problems with the HTC Hero and HTC Magic (although those reports are obviously still preliminary). On the upside, the app is completely free, and available to download from Android Market right now.

[Thanks, SliestDragon]

@iPhoneHater INQ Mini 3G and Chat are now posing for photographs, lol #hands-on

by Darren Murph posted Aug 5th 2009 @ 12:59AM

While you'd expect the first hands-on shots of INQ's new sociable Mini 3G and Chat to emerge on Twitpic, it's TechRadar doing the honors. Both of these featurephones are fairly attractive in their own right, with each being suitably slim and chock full of status updating power. In fact, we'd say the Mini 3G's red and black QWERTY keypad is amongst the sexiest we've seen. Why not ~~judge~~ Like™ for yourself by giving those read links below a look?

Read - INQ Mini 3G hands-on
Read - INQ Chat hands-on

Video: TAT's augmented reality concept unveiled

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Jul 9th 2009 @ 1:55PM

You remember TAT, right? Amongst other things The Astonishing Tribe has done some bang-up work with the user interface for the G1, unveiled a pretty impressive 3D eye-tracking concept, and now they're hard at work developing something called Augmented ID, an augmented reality concept that uses facial recognition software to attach your visage to a profile. When someone views you through their handset's camera, pre-selected info and social networking links appear to hover around you, letting your new found friend in on more than just your pretty smile. Of course, this is only a concept at the present moment, but when it does become real, make sure you remember to remove those links to JDate and the Cracked Magazine forums before that important corporate presentation. Trust us -- you don't want those worlds colliding. Hit up that read link for the latest from the Swedish design team, but not before you peep this stellar video after the break.

Read - TAT Showroom

Continue reading Video: TAT's augmented reality concept unveiled

Mobile technology even makes 20-somethings shudder... sometimes

by Darren Murph posted Mar 26th 2009 @ 9:33PM

We'll go ahead and warn you that a lot has changed since 2007, but if anything, the surge in Twitter users and the overwhelming growth in social networking would likely strengthen these findings. The Pew Internet and American Life Project has just revealed some rather interesting stats from its study of age groups and their connection to mobile technology, particularly when looking at the "Ambivalent Networkers" group. Said clump is comprised mostly of males in their late 20s, which are stereotypically connected to their handsets at all times with a smile to go with it. According to the research, however, the majority of this group agreed that "taking a break is definitely a good idea," which was around ten percentage points above the average in the other four groups. We know you're about to tweet this to your 27 year old brother-in-law, but think twice before you knowingly hurt his soul like that.

[Via ArsTechnica]

Sonar hopes to power social featurephones, we get a demo

by Chris Ziegler posted Feb 19th 2009 @ 1:59PM

As with any trade show, flashy, high-end products have a tendency to steal the lion's share of the spotlight at MWC -- but the fact is, featurephones still outsell traditional smartphones by an order of magnitude. Companies like INQ are betting the farm on the belief that today's ultra-connected generation of Twitter, Myspace, and Facebook users are ultimately going to pick fashionable, cheap, easy-to-use handsets over the complexity of an iPhone, G1, or Omnia. There's something to be said for that -- most people don't know the model of their own phone, after all, and have no interest in learning how to download and install an app, let alone learn an entire mobile operating system. Plus, for the youngest members of this profitable group, there's a lot of price sensitivity -- smartphones are typically out of reach.

If startup Sonar has its way, that's where its new platform comes in. The idea was to fundamentally rethink the way average consumers -- you know, the ones who are plugged into three, four, or fourteen social networks and don't know a G1 from a P1i -- use a phone to communicate, and they're ready to show off their efforts for the first time here at MWC. We had an opportunity to sit down with Sonar's founders this week for a tour of the system, and we're pretty stoked about what we saw. Read on.

Gallery: Sonar hopes to power social featurephones, we get a demo

Continue reading Sonar hopes to power social featurephones, we get a demo

INQ's next handset will get further up in your social networks

by Tim Stevens posted Feb 6th 2009 @ 10:05AM

INQ's first handset, the INQ1, got cozy with your friends on Facebook, letting you check their updates and let them all know what's happening in your 'hood while making Skype calls and checking your e-mail. The company's coming back for more with the ingeniously named INQ2, pledging to add Twitter support into the mix in a move to get more social network-agnostic. No further details are available at this point on what (if any) other services the upcoming handset will interact with, or whether it'll have a somewhat more original name, but you can be sure we'll keep you updated.

kwiry adds TiVo scheduling, social networking support

by Darren Murph posted Jan 14th 2009 @ 2:20PM

kwiry's been helping texters remember things for well over a year, and now it's about to help them schedule TiVo recordings and update their Facebook / Twitter statuses. A few new kwiry shortcuts have been announced to make the lives of text messaging fiends more enjoyable, with a one-time account link between your handset and your TiVo Series2 / Series3 enabling a "tivo 30 Rock" SMS to trigger that very action. Additionally, users can now tap into Yelp and email contact information on the go, and as always, the service is completely free to end users. Hear that? Free.

[Via CNET]

Nokia's Friend View keeps you and your posse well connected

by Darren Murph posted Nov 6th 2008 @ 5:03PM

If your crew is just too occupied to keep tabs on your every move via Qik, you should probably give Friend View a spin. Fresh out of the Nokia Beta Labs comes this application, which queues up your location and then enables you to socially network with other online buddies in order to plan a meetup, just say hello or engage in acts of stalking. The app has been tested to function on the 5320 XpressMusic, 6110 Navigator, 6210 Navigator, N95, N95 8GB, N82, N96, E71, E90, N80 and E61, though it should do just fine on any device running S60 3rd Edition. Hop on past the break for a riveting demonstration, or tap the read link to get straight to the download.

[Via Beta Labs]

Continue reading Nokia's Friend View keeps you and your posse well connected

Motorola throws out "social networking" catchphrase to describe Android phone

by Chris Ziegler posted Oct 15th 2008 @ 4:02AM

Looks like it's been pulled, but AndroidGuys claims that job site Coroflot had been listing a "career opportunity" over at good ol' Moto for a Senior Staff Interaction Designer. What does that mean in layman's terms? Beyond fiddling with UIs, we can't say for sure -- but the listing goes on to mention that the lucky hire will working on (among other things) "new Android Social Networking SmartPhone." It's no secret that Motorola's beefing up its Android staff in preparation to launch some actual hardware, but it is kinda interesting to hear them phrase it as a "social networking" device. In all likelihood, that's little more than a catchphrase for a hip-looking QWERTY device these days, but if that means they're funneling tens upon tens of people into the best mobile MySpace app the world has ever seen, we're going to lose our sanity.

[Via IntoMobile]

LocaModa lets cellphones interact with jukeboxes

by Darren Murph posted Apr 12th 2008 @ 10:56AM

Trust us, this isn't the first time LocaModa's dabbled in the cellphone-controlled gadgetry game, but it's never been more friendly than it's being with the Social Jukebox. The aforesaid company has teamed up with TouchTunes in order to give patrons the ability to interact with flat-panels on TouchTunes jukeboxes. On-screen applications will include information about the song currently playing, elusive "user generated content" and even "patron photos" from their social networking profiles (scary?). For those completely absorbed in this stuff, you can even keep tabs on the interactions via data feeds from your favorite network. Twitter fights over which song ushers the drinking crowd out in a bar 1,500 miles away? What is the world coming to?

[Via textually, image courtesy of LocaModa]

Nokia and Facebook talking partnership?

by Darren Murph posted Jan 29th 2008 @ 7:02AM

It seems talks are in their earliest stages at the moment, but according to mocoNews, Nokia and Facebook reps are mulling a potential partnership, and there has even been whispers of dollars changing hands in the process. Apparently, the deal could involve making the Facebook icon a prominent fixture on Nokia handsets and product displays, and while it's far from confirmed, it could also involve Nokia "purchasing a stake in [Facebook]." An unspecific senior Nokia executive was quoted as saying that there was "talk of a partnership in the works," and he / she continued by stating that it would be "safe to say that [they were] testing the waters." For now, it seems we'll have to wait things out before we know if there's anything more than friendly chatter going on, but don't be shocked if Nokia suddenly drops a few stacks o' bills to get what it wants.

Nokia acquires Twango, gets deeper into media sharing

by Brian White posted Jul 28th 2007 @ 11:44AM

Nokia is once again shouting that it wants to be a major player in the mobile media sharing arena by acquiring Twango. If you're big into sharing pictures, video and other digital garb, you may know Twango (founded by former Microsoft employees). And since Nokia sold over 140 million connected digicams (almost all cellphone-based) in 2006, it makes sense for the company to ensure customers are, you know, using all that mobile multimedia goodness as much as possible. Nokia's Multimedia division head puts it great: "the Twango acquisition is a concrete step towards our Internet services vision of providing seamless access to information, entertainment, and social networks - at anytime, anywhere, from any connected device, in any way that you choose."