Facebook Reborn

How many of you out there are on Facebook? I am and I think it’s a nice way to kill time and stay in touch with folks. I’ve reconnected with old friends from college and high school, even elementary school. I’ve also found a way to keep tabs on my siblings even though we’re spread out and all in different phases of life. The Facebook app on my iPhone has been one of my favorite ways to kill time when I’m waiting somewhere in the car. Waiting for soccer practice to be over? Let’s see what my brother’s got going on. Oooh, he just got the new Rock Band so I know his evening will be more exciting than mine. I need a life, I know. I didn’t have a problem with the old Facebook app. It functioned. But I’d heard all the hype and Twitter chatter about the new Facebook 3.0 so I was curious to give it a try. It’s almost like an entirely new app. Still Facebook for the iPhone/iPod Touch but much cooler. Here are the things I like about the new Facebook 3.0

1. The ability to “like” someone’s status or photo or wall post. You could “like” all of this on the website but not on the old Facebook app. Sometimes I appreciate someone’s clever status but I have nothing witty to add as a comment. That’s when I use the “like” choice. I can like what you have to say without saying anything in return. Now I can do that from my iPhone.

2. Favorites – Now I can select friends who are my “Favorites”. They’ll show up on a screen of their own and I can tap the one I want to peek in on. I don’t have to search through all my friends to find these lucky folks.

3.Notifications show up on the main screen and they’re easy to see. Tap it and I see a list of my most recent notifications. If that elementary school friend left me a warm and fuzzy comment earlier in the day and I need a pick me up, I can tap on that notification and read it all over again. Easily.

4. The news feed is cleaner. Underneath posts you can clearly see how many comments or “likes” there are. All I have to do to add my two cents is tap the plus sign next to a post. Then I have the choice to like or comment.

5. On the Friends screen I can see my list of friends and the list of pages that I’ve joined. I am a fan of Mr. Darcy and now I can visit his fan page while I’m on the go and read what’s going on with that group. Did you know that women regularly comment about Mr. Darcy, as if he is a real person? Which he is to many of us, whether we want to admit it or not.

6. Now I can see and write notes in the app. All those silly tags and did you know such and such about me are there.

7. On the news feed I can easily sort what I want to see. If I tap the button in the top right corner of the screen I’ll get some choices. I can roll through and choose to see only updates from pages, status updates, photos, etc. I make my selection and get the filtered list.

8. I can zoom into photos. Not always a good thing to do but I can do it.

9. It works in landscape mode.

10. You can visit links in a window that opens up within the app. So if you click a link it’s not going to take you out of Facebook. When you’re done with the link it’s easy to get back. No more pressing the home button and starting over.

11. It just looks sharper all around.

I’m sure there’s much more that I haven’t discovered about this app. I don’t go for all the games or trading goodies back and forth. I have no idea what Farmville is. I use Facebook to communicate with my friends and family and the Facebook 3.0 app has made that an easier and slicker experience.

If you haven’t updated to the new version click here and get on it!