FreshPhoneNews.com

All right Facebook junkies, it is now time to stack up on your good deeds and pray with all your might because the Facebook team has submitted version 3.0 of their legendary social networking app to the Apple App Store. The next few months will be filled with excruciating pain none have seen the likes of, at least not the Facebook crowd. The new Facebook 3.0 app brings 15 new mouth watering features including;

• The “new” News Feed
• Like
• Events (including the ability to RSVP)
• Notes
• Pages
• Create new photo albums
• Upload photos to any album
• Zoom into photos
• Easier photo tagging
• Profile Pictures albums
• A new home screen for easy access to all your stuff, search, and notifications
• Add your favorite profiles and pages to the home screen
• Better Notifications (they link to the comments so you can reply)
• Quickly call or text people right from the Friends page
• Messages you are typing will be restored if you quit or are interrupted by a phone call

Pretty cool right? So let’s not grumble about the absence of Push Notifications (Facebook 3.1 has got to have something right?) And of course the usual waiting for Apple to prove that it doesn’t hate everybody and will approve a Facebook app…

via

Curious about iTunes 9? You and everybody else. A little tip that comes from a reliable source has us believe that iTunes 9 will be a sure delight. Among the newly added features is Blu-ray support. This rumor is strengthened by an Apple Insider report earlier that stated that Apple would be integrating Blu-ray into the iMac line-up. There’s also the much longed for ability of visual app organization; iTunes 9 will finally include the ability to visually organize and arrange your iPhone and iPod touch applications. There’s also something like Twitter/Facebook/Last.fm integration, but that’s a fuzzy area…maybe you will be able to broadcast what song you’re listening to your friends. There isn’t a definite release date for iTunes 9, but the Apple iPod event scheduled for September seems like a good candidate.

via

Some leaks are more unwelcome than others, and while we really get a kick out leaked camera work done on the latest mobile handset, Skyfire was not too pleased when the closed Alpha version of BlackBerry Alpha was leaked to the world. According to BGR, Skyfire will be taking the servers offline for a few weeks and possibly adding some security protocol for their Alpha testers to pass through before they can get access to the newest Skyfire build for BlackBerry. According the official statement;

“Today our alpha application was leaked. We are temporarily halting our Alpha program. As you know, we were working with a small group of you under NDA and our intent was not to open the program beyond that small number right now

We appreciate your feedback on Alpha3, and in the next few weeks we’ll be sending you a new build to test. In the meantime, the servers will be down and you will not be able to use the application.”

via

Right so just about everyone who’s addicted to Twitter and has a BlackBerry is a pretty big fan of the Twitter client TweetGenius. The client was developed by Boy Genius of BGR and has gained a pretty steady fan following. BG is taking the client to the next level and partnering up with Beejive. What this means is that the client will be more powerful and useful than before, but also that for a while, it’s going back into closed beta. This doesn’t apply to those who’ve already bought a license, they will still be supported and get free upgrades, just the out crowd will stay out for a while. But BG promises that the fruits of patience will be sweet.

via

More Slacker news for all you BlackBerry owners with an affinity for Verizon Wireless. The hot internet radio provider is in the limelight and this time, Storm users need to get excited. It seems that Big Red has announced a new deal to get Slacker on your handset whether you like it or not. What’s not to like? Slacker streams custom genre or artist-based stations directly to your handset, computer or Slacker portable device and gives you a library of over 4 million songs. The free version of the service plays only an occasional ad or two but allows users to skip up to five songs per hour. The paid subscription option removes both annoyances and you get a few extra features too features. The app is being pushed out to VZW Storms OTA and unlike prior versions, the app will give users the option to purchase tracks they hear through the V CAST music store. Yay!

via

What do BlackBerry users need more than anything else? A decent browser. Very decent considering how long BlackBerry smartphones have been around. So with that we turn our attention back to Skyfire. The company that promised us a decent browser and we had some BlackBerry users test an alpha 2 version. Now it seems that, of this month, certified BlackBerry Skyfire testers have received a new version of the browser to manhandle.  The beta, version 1.0.0.12304, is said to be a pretty significant improvement over the alpha 2 version though there’s still plenty of work to be done. Now while you wait patiently for the final mass release like good Samaritans, here’s a list of bugs that the beta version fixes, obviously something to dream about at night;

1. 1. Some of the features we did add:
   1. New Keyboard Shortcuts: We mapped the keyboard shortcuts to be similar to the ones in the native BlackBerry browser to offer a more familiar user experience.
   2. Switch to Skyfire: Once Skyfire is installed, you’ll see a “Switch to Skyfire” option show up in the options menu of the original Blackberry browser. We added this feature to help when users click on links in email and SMS and end up launching the native browser instead of Skyfire or when you navigate to a web site that is better viewed in Skyfire.
   3. Text Entry in Thumbnail view: You now don’t have to zoom-in to enter text. We resolved that issue and now enter text directly in the thumbnail view of pages.
   4. Contextual zoom with camera corners: Similar to the other Skyfire platforms, we now support contextual zoom. Thus we detect areas of interest (say articles or images) and allow you to zoom-in to areas easily by fitting the area of interest to the screen dimensions.
   5. Faster zooming: You’ll see a great improvement in your ability to zoom. Unlike Alpha 2, the page displays text at all zoom levels, without any redrawing of the screen. Less checkerboards.

1. 2. Know Bugs In The Latest Build:
   1. You cannot connect to Skyfire: We still have limited capacity for this Alpha. Thus if enough testers are already browsing at the moment, you might not be able to connect. Simply try again in a few minutes. This is a good reminder as well to NOT share this alpha with anyone (as per NDA), since this would limit capacity even further. The next release will address this.
   2. General hiccups when entering and exiting streaming mode, including: “An error occurred while playing media” error message when flash object is detected and “streaming” mode activated.
   3. Slow performance on 2.5G networks. We are still optimizing. You will get the best experience on 3G or WiFi networks for now.
   4. “An error occurred while playing media” error message in streaming mode.
   5. Sometimes you cannot control volume while in stream mode. This is a known BlackBerry bug.
   6. Stale tiles from the previously visited pages show up when scrolling up or down. We’re working on fixes to reduce checkerboards.

via

Those of you who live for internet radio have some hope for life; Pandora has reportedly found a way to work around the royalty disputes that nearly ran the company into the ground. This workable solution will just keep them in business while they struggle to cope with the mess of paying the highest royalty rates in the radio business. So what does that mean for all you Pandora users? For one thing, you get to keep using Pandora. For about 90 percent users, there will be no change in how you get your service. For ten percent users, users who don’t pay for Pandora One but stream more than 40 hours of music per month, your free indulgent days are over to an extent. Any non-subscriber who goes over 40 hours in a month will have to cough up $0.99 in order to continue streaming during that month. And people $0.99 still means you get your music needs met for less than a dollar, give the company that, they give you 480+ hours of music throughout the year. A mere $36 per annum is humane. Congrats to Pandora on finding a way to stay afloat after a hard 2-years.

via

Okay, now as much as we all expected that the Dev Team would be out with the jailbreak of the iPhone 3GS, especially since the iPhone 3G jailbreak is out and about courtesy of project ultrasn0w, it seems that we’re going to have practice something called ‘patience’. Yeah, not my favorite word in the dictionary either. The Dev Team is generally known for both their skill and speed. But this time with the iPhone 3GS, they are sticking with the skill side. According to the Dev Team not enough people have the iPhone 3GS and the exploit that it has for to attack is volatile, meaning Apple could have it fixed in minutes. And since OS 3.0 has a bunch of issues, the Dev Team thinks that an OS 3.0.1 release is close by. So you’re all going to have to wait for the Dev Team to Apple-proof their work.

via

The name is Flash, Adobe Flash. Adobe is striving hard and fast to make flash content easily accessible for mobile devices and has upped its efforts on the Open Screen Project. It’s working ever diligently with both developers and manufacturers to make flash and mobile devices fit better. The first of its efforts will be previewed on the HTC Hero, the first to showcase what Adobe has been up to. So when it comes to flash embedded objects, the HTC Hero is your choice. It’s smooth and suave, and Adobe’s Adrian Ludwig proudly showed off the HTC’s ability to flawlessly feature Flash videos, Objects and even games. One very note worthy quote from the demo video is “This is one of the first devices out there that has really great flash capabilities.” Dissing the S60s? No hate there. Its HTC and Adobe becoming one in beautiful precision so lets just rejoice at a new Flash experience for mobile devices. It’s true. It’s true.

via

All you fans of Qik, jump for joy, as the Android version of the app is now all set to go. Hit the Android Market to get your hands on one of the most popular live video streaming in real time apps. Even if you don’t have an Android device on tour hands, this is a must-have for BlackBerrys, J2ME, WinMo or S60 devices.  Just remember this is the beta version, so some polishing will be lacking, but the core functions rock.