Facebook iPad App to be Announced Alongside Apple iPhone 5

It seems like Apple fans are getting even more reasons to get excited about the iPhone 5 announcement next Tuesday (Oct 4th), as rumour has it Facebook will also be taking the stage to make some announcements of its own.
According to Mashable, Facebook will be unveiling its long awaited iPad app to coincide with the latest release on iOS 5. As Ben Parr put it, the iPad app has been “in limbo” since it was leaked a few months ago.
It looked like the app was fully functional with a typical iOS design but for some reason it was immediately blocked and never heard of again after developers managed to hack Facebook for iPhone to use it.
Facebook have been much more tight-lipped about the new release with no recent screen shots or hacks being leaked. You can still see the old screenshots on Mashable if you want ideas of what the app will probably look like.
Parr also says that Facebook could be launching and improved iPhone app and even may unveil an HTML5-based mobile app marketplace. It’s uncertain whether Zuckerberg himself will make the announcements but we’re sure the combination of a new iPhone and the long awaited Facebook iPad app will be more than enough for attendees.

Spotify: 250,000 new users daily after Facebook deal

by Chris Davies
Spotify is reportedly seeing 250,000 new users join each day, in the aftermath of its deal with Facebook last week, with monthly active users leaping by 1m to 4.4m. The figures, shared by music industry consultancy MusicAlly, contrasts sharply with criticism of Spotify’s decision to tie new sign-ups up with the social network. Spotify currently offers six months of its unlimited access package free to new users.


However, to get that unlimited access package, you’ll need to have a Facebook account, since the company has merged its own login system and that of the social network. In a statement, also given to MusicAlly, Spotify described it as “like a virtual ‘passport’, designed to make the experience smoother and easier.”


Although that mandatory registration didn’t go down well with Facebook’s critics, the usage figures would suggest that people are quite content to register with the service if there’s free music to be had. After the initial six months of unlimited access, Spotify downgrades each account to 10hrs of access per month, obviously hoping users will stump up cash for what previously they got free.


“To us, this is all about creating an amazing new world of music discovery. As most of our users are already social and have already connected to Facebook, it seemed logical to integrate Spotify and Facebook logins. We already use Facebook as part of our backend to power our social features and by adopting Facebook’s login, we’ve created a simple and seamless social experience.


From today, all new Spotify users will need to have a Facebook account to join Spotify. Think of it as like a virtual ‘passport’, designed to make the experience smoother and easier, with one less username and password to remember. You don’t need to connect to Facebook and if you do decide to, you can always control what you share and don’t share by changing your Spotify settings at any time.


We’re constantly trying new things, always looking for feedback and we’re always going to listen to our users, making changes based on this feedback wherever we can.” Spotify statement

New Facebook information sharing features cause privacy concerns

Privacy watchdogs are urging the Federal Trade Commission to look into the social networking service's new features that they say push Facebook users to share more than they may feel comfortable sharing.

Facebook unveiled services last week that make it easier for its 800 million users to share more information about themselves and their lives online. Above, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks Thursday at its F8 developers conference in San Francisco. (David Paul Morris, Bloomberg /September 27, 2011)

By Jessica Guynn, Los Angeles Times

Reporting from San Francisco— 

Facebook Chief ExecutiveMark Zuckerberg said its new features create "frictionless sharing."

But they are causing friction with some users and consumer groups.

Facebook unveiled last week services that make it easier for its 800 million users to share more information about themselves and their lives online. The social networking service showed off a dramatic redesign of users' profiles, a timeline that charts in chronological order all the information users have shared in the past. Facebook also said that third-party applications would — with users' consent — automatically share every action users take, such as the songs they listen to or the videos they watch.

Privacy watchdogs are urging the Federal Trade Commission to look into the new features that they say push users to share more than they may feel comfortable sharing.

Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the watchdog group Electronic Privacy Information Center, which has criticized Facebook in the past, said he was sending a letter to the FTC pressing his organization's concerns, which he says the agency has so far failed to address.

"It's getting really difficult to evaluate the changes that Facebook makes, and I say that as a privacy professional. I can't imagine what the typical user goes through," Rotenberg said. "Users might opt in to what Facebook is planning to do, but Facebook never gives users that option. It just marches forward and users have to go along."

Facebook did not respond to a request for comment. An agency spokeswoman declined to say if the FTC is investigating Facebook. The FTC does not discuss investigations unless the subject of an inquiry discloses the investigation, she said.

Privacy watchdogs aren't the only ones who say Facebook is stripping away its users' privacy. Writer Ben Barr of technology blog Mashable in a blog post said, "We're at the point of no return."

"Facebook's passive sharing will change how we live our lives. More and more, the things we do in real life will end up as Facebook posts," Parr wrote. "And while we may be consoled by the fact that most of this stuff is being posted just to our friends, it only takes one friend to share that information with his or her friends to start a viral chain."

Facebook says it gives users the ability to control the privacy of their personal information. And it has taken recent steps to give users even greater control.

But it continues to be dogged by privacy concerns as it taps users' information to better target advertising. Advertising sales make up most of the income for Facebook, which is preparing for a highly anticipated initial public offering next year.

With Internet companies gathering huge volumes of personal information, lawmakers and regulators in the U.S. and Europe have stepped up scrutiny.

In March, Google settled with the FTC, which had accused the Internet search giant of engaging in deceptive practices with the rollout of the social networking service called Buzz. Google agreed to put in place a privacy program and to be audited by a third party every other year. Over the summer Google launched another social networking service, Google+, which is seen as a credible competitor to Facebook.

Spotify and other third-party applications are already being made available to Facebook users. The redesign of users' profiles will roll out in coming weeks.

As consumers tried to digest the latest Facebook changes, another concern emerged: Blogger Nik Cubrilovic accused Facebook of using cookies to track users when they are logged off from the service.

Facebook engineer Gregg Stefancik denied that the company tracked users in a comment on Cubrilovic's blog post. Stefancik said that Facebook alters — but does not delete — cookies when users log out. But he says Facebook does that as a safety measure and does not use the cookies to track users or sell their personal information.

In a statement, Facebook said the logged-out cookies are used to identify spammers and phishers and detect when an unauthorized person is trying to access a user's account, among other things.

Tim Whitlock, chief technology officer and co-founder of Brandfeed, a company that helps promote brands, said users should think through the consequences of sharing personal information on Facebook.

"Most people understand that sites like Facebook are free to use for a reason. It's not because Mark Zuckerberg loves you, it's because Facebook and its peers make money from your data and from your eyeballs," Whitlock wrote. "We need to start thinking beyond what our data is currently used for … and wonder what else the information we hand over today might be used for tomorrow."

jessica.guynn@latimes.com

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times