Your Face, getting bigger. Facebook ads Bigger Photos – Finally!
In a new post on the Facebook blog, Facebook have announced they will be rolling out a new updated photo size for ‘better viewing’.
Old photo size (left) compared to the new size. (Note that actual photos are larger; this shows scale only.)
There is a caveat for external applications that upload photos to Facebook (i.e. Windows Live Photo Grallery, iPhoto etc).
All uploads on Facebook.com will support the new photo size, but uploads made from some external applications may continue to use the previous size.
This will likely be remedied with an update to the application or plugin.
Ultimately this is a good thing, the limited photo size has been a contentious issue for many, particularly photographers eager to show off their work. Sites like Flickr allow photos to be uploaded and viewed in a variety of sizes including full resolution.
Facebook hits 400 Million active users
Well you sure like your facebook don’t you. After the launch of their (first) 2010 UI redesign, Facebook has just made the announcement they have reached 400 Million Active Users. A phenomenal number, and phenomenal growth, with the 350 million announcement only a few months back.
The next milestone is surely the big half a billion users, could it happen in 2010 ?
More @ Facebook.
Facebook launches new UI
Continuing along the never-ending quest for perfection, the Facebook UI has been changed again. The main change is a restructuring of the top navigation bar. Yes people it’s a change, so grab your pitchforks and scream to the hills, but spend some time with it, you’ll find just like last time, you can actually adjust pretty quickly.
Here’s a handy guide as to what’s new in the update. 
Learn more about it @ Facebook
Facebook iPhone app pushes to 3.1
Overnight one of the most heavily used iPhone apps – Facebook was updated. Version 3.1 now includes push notifications and contact sync.
Push Notifications – This solves the annoying problem of having to launch the app just to see if there are any new updates. Those popular people who get tonnes of updates may wanna turn this off, it’ll get annoying pretty quickly. But if your one of those ADD kids who have to stay on top of everything at every second, then this is a great new feature.
Contact Sync – Like many people I sync my iPhone’s contacts with gmail. There’s a lot of crossover between that list of contacts and my friends on Facebook. The new Facebook contact sync, works as you’d expect. Combining data from fracebook into your contact list. If you don’t have a picture for your contact, it’ll pull from your friend’s current Facebook profile photo, it’ll also add a website link into your contact which works in a unique way. The link is a specially formatted URL e.g. fb://profile/profilenumber – Pressing on this link doesn’t launch Safari, but rather the Facebook app, directly to the profile page of the associated friend. Very cool indeed.
Facebook v3.1 iPhone app is available from the app store now. Note: I didn’t see listed as an update, had to search Facebook in the App Store.
It’s raining awesome Windows apps – Fishbowl for Facebook
2 days ago we got the latest twitter client – Seesmic for Windows, today we get Fishbowl for Facebook. This is yet another awesome WPF-based windows application. Can I just say, it’s about time we got some apps that take advantage of the beautiful native UI that Windows Vista / 7 offers.
Rather than write a thousand words about the app, it’s much more impressive just to show you in screen shots.
News Feed 
Friends
Search 
Photos 
Mini-view 
Windows 7 support 
Actually what you can’t see from the screen shots is the sweet transition animations between screens.
Get it yourself at – http://www.fishbowlclient.com/
Review: Xbox Live Update Preview: Zune, Facebook, Twitter
Yesterday was a big day for the Xbox, the arrival of one of the best (if not the best) racing game available – Forza 3, as well as the launch of the Xbox Live Update Preview Program.
If you applied, like me, then you may have received an email acceptance into the preview program.
Available in the update for Australia is Facebook and Twitter integration as well as the brand new Zune Video Marketplace.
Xbox Live Update – Zune Marketplace
Other than the Zune desktop software, this is Zune’s official introduction into Australia. The Zune Video Marketplace offers movies in 1080p that start streaming instantly. It’s recommended you have least 4mbps to get HD, given how Australia’s broadband speeds are tiered, 1.5Mb will be too slow, so your going to want at least an 8Mb connection.
Quality
I hired the movie Uninvited in HD to review the quality and was very happy. Let me precursor this with the fact I’m on an ADSL2+ connection. The movie did in fact start straight away, with lower quality, then after about 30 seconds, the quality kicked in and the video was indeed great quality high definition. Now this is still obvious a lower quality bitrate than Blu-ray, so for those HD purists out there, this may not be for you. But for me this is a great service.
With HD using a large amount of data, you may be concerned about your download quota being chewed up by renting movies. A number of ISPs will offer Zune Video Marketplace content unmetered. An official list has not yet been released, but expect most to do this, it’s the only feasible way this service will work for Australian consumers.
Catalogue
Lets make no questions about this, the current movie selection is horrible. It is important to keep in mind this isn’t a product that’s officially launched, so by the time this goes public, I’d hope the catalogue of movies to choose from is dramatically improved.
Australian Pricing
New titles
Old titles
Rent HD – 420 Microsoft Points (A$6.93)
Rent SD – 360 Microsoft Points (A$5.94) Rent SD – 300 Microsoft Points (A$4.95)
Xbox Live Update – Facebook
Xbox Live Update – Twitter
Overall
In terms of updates, this is a good one that actually ads a lot of functionality. As for Last.fm, there’s no sign of it.
The new Zune Video Marketplace with a better catalogue will become my movie rental service of choice. Compared to Blockbuster On Demand available through the TiVo, the Zune rentals are in HD and millions of Australians already have their credit card with Microsoft, lowering the barrier to entry. SD videos on Zune are 4 cents cheaper at $5.94 compared to $4.95 on Blockbuster or iTunes.
The social features are nice, but without the messenger kit add-on, i don’t see people contributing content via the Xbox much. It’s $29.99, will this be the new must-have accessory ?
Facebook now alive, with Live Feed
This morning I was greeted with a new option inside Facebook – Live Feed. This turns your news feed into an auto-update stream. This is a great addition, something I’ve wanted for a long time. I often run multiple browser windows across multiple monitors which let me get updated information at a glance. Now I can add Facebook to that list.
If you want to keep exercising your clicking finger, then there’s still the option to view the News Feed in it’s traditional fashion, and let you click refresh when your ready.
My only wish now is that Google Reader would follow suit.