Video application start-up Color is promoting its new iPhone and Android apps — which allow users to substitute 30-second, audio-free video clips, which it calls “visits,” for Facebook status updates — with one hell of a pool party.

Read the rest of this entry »

Virtually every Facebook user is familiar with applications that allow users to send their friends virtual gifts, including drinks, smiles, and whatnot. If you still find a use for these apps, you may be attracted to The Mural.

Read the rest of this entry »

Virtually raising money requires contributors and Facebook keeps it real… easy.

Read the rest of this entry »

meditation is coming to Facebook thanks to Wild Divine, which announced the release of its iOM Online group cyber-meditation system.

Read the rest of this entry »

Say goodbye to Facebook application profile pages, as page managers are seeing notifications stating that they will be removed by February.

Read the rest of this entry »

Two of the most common New Year’s resolutions, losing weight and and quitting smoking, are more easily kept through using Facebook applications that tap into positive peer pressure.

However, a number of apps in the category with decent monthly user totals aren’t available, making us wonder whether these tools are undergoing upgrades to leverage Facebook’s improved open graph as announced this September.

On the diet and exercise front, MyFitnessPal, with 9,000 monthly users, did not offer a description on its page, and the app was misconfigured.

MyDiet, with 600 monthly users, provided a lengthy description, but trying to load the app resulted in an error message.

Even more surprising, industry kingpin Weight Watchers, with 20,000 monthly users, claimed to have an app, but clicking on the button brings users to the company’s website.

Turning to smoking, Livestrong MyQuit Coach: Dare to Quit Smoking, with 400 monthly users, resulted in the same lack of content or app as MyFitnessPal.

As for apps that did actually work, in the diet and exercise category:

• LilySlim Weight Loss Tickers, with 500 monthly users, uses hand-drawn graphics to display users’ achievements in weight loss, exercise, and diet.

• Fit-ify! Exercise Tracker allows users to track running, cycling, swimming, aerobics, and other exercise activities, giving out awards for reaching milestones. Unfortunately, the app does not yet support secure browsing (via a https://).
• Perhaps the most interesting app we found, DietVille — which is not from Zynga, but resembles the Facebook game giant’s offerings, such as FarmVille and CityVille — brings a social gaming aspect to the process, pushing users within game play to lose weight and meet their goals.

And to aid Facebook users in the quest to quit smoking, there’s:

• QuitNow, with 2,000 monthly users, actually directs users to an app for iPhone and Android devices that tracks information such as day of a user’s last cigarette, days without smoking, cigarettes not smoked, money saved, time saved, and the ability to share results via Facebook and Twitter.
• QuitometeR, which boasts 1,000 monthly users, describes itself as “a community of ex-smokers and smokers who want to quit smoking,” and it displays time since quitting and money saved on users’ Facebook profiles.

• Stop Smoking Counter, with just 200 monthly users thus far, provides similar statistics to QuitNow and QuitometeR, but unfortunately, it also does not yet support secure browsing (via an address beginning with https://).

Readers: Are you using any Facebook apps to help yourselves lose weight, quit smoking or meet other goals?

Look for Facebook to play a major role in what promises to an exciting year in politics. With the presidential race and congressional elections — not to mention state and local races — heating up in 2012, candidates and campaigns will be using Facebook in new and innovative ways.

Read the rest of this entry »

Not too fond of the real you? Feel like you have a split personality? Perhaps a Facebook virtual world would be the best solution. Enter Dot Friends.

Read the rest of this entry »

Facebook released a ranking of its most popular games for 2011,  and among other surprises, Playdom’s Gardens of Time topped the list.

Read the rest of this entry »

Nielsen compiled lists of the most popular Android apps in three age groups, and the only non-Google app to crack the top five on all three lists was Facebook, which placed second among users 18 to 24, 25 to 34, and 35 to 44.

Read the rest of this entry »