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The New Facebook Desktop Client By Adobe And Why Should You Use it

Soumen Halder — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:00:32 +0000

If you are a Facebook fan then you must have used the official Facebook desktop application.The app is good but it’s not detailed and offers only limited features. You can’t see live notifications of new stories, can’t post a comment and if you need to upload a photo you have to open Facebook in the browser all the way.

If you are not quite satisfied with the official Facebook desktop application or other desktop clients have a look at Facebook –Photo uploader. It is a new desktop client for Facebook, released by Adobe with really useful features.

At first you need to download and install the application. You will also need Adobe Air, if you already don’t have it.

To get started with the app you have to enter you Facebook account information as a one time authentication process.

After that you have to grant permission to the application so that it can access your news feed and wall updates. Just click “Allow access” to grant the required permissions. The application will log you in. After you have logged in you will be presented with your Facebook timeline as shown below.

Updating Your status

Updating your status is easy enough. Just click on the last status message and you can edit it and share the new status with all your friends.

Comments

You can instantly comment on any link or story shared by your friends. But the downside is that you can neither see who else has commented in that story nor you can read the comments posted by others.

Facebook chat

This is what makes this app my favorite. You can chat with your Facebook friends from the desktop and without having to visit your Facebook profile in the browser. Just navigate to the chat tab and you can see which of your friends are online.

Mini Mode

If you feel bothered due to the fact that the high resolution mode is taking up much of the screen space, just switch to the mini mode with the touch of a button. Click the small arrow in the top right corner placed next to the minimize window.

Uploading photos

Uploading photos in your Facebook albums in also easily achieved. Just navigate to the “Upload” tab and the app asks you the name of the album where you wish to upload a photo. You can also create a new album and upload your photos to the new album straight away.

After selecting your album click “Add photo” or just drag and drop the image into the application. The photo will be uploaded and added instantly in your album. You can crop a photo, tag it and even rotate it from the application itself.

Apart from uploading photos you can also view the photos of your album with a complete full screen slideshow.

View a profile

Just click the name of any Facebook friend in your timeline and the profile opens up in the desktop client. You can see complete information of your friend including the pages he/she reads and the groups they have recently joined.

Apart from the above mentioned features you can also see the list of all your Facebook friends and various other event invitations that you have received recently.You can even browse to any Facebook profile and read his/her status updates, notes, pictures or other posted items. So if you are a Facebook addict and can’t imagine your life without it, then you must try this new desktop tool. This application runs on the Adobe Air platform so it will run in Windows, Linux and Mac.

Other Facebook desktop clients

Apart from Facebook photo uploader there are two other Facebook clients worth mentioning.

1. Tweetdeck: The popular desktop client for Twitter, Tweetdeck recently added Facebook and Myspace integration. Not as versatile as the Facebook photo uploader but you can read your status updates and the updates of your friends in much the same way you read your tweets. Again it’s very basic and you do not get “The Facebook feel” as they name it.

2. Seesmic: Another desktop application for Facebook lovers is Seesmic. Check them out if all you want is a very basic and compact Facebook lifestream on your desktop.

The New Facebook Desktop Client By Adobe And Why Should You Use it originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

How to Use Digikam to Export Photos to Flickr, PicasaWeb, and Facebook

Tavis J. Hampton — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:23:58 +0000

Digikam is a free and open source photo management software package for KDE. Many KDE-based Linux distributions either come with Digikam installed or have it available in their repositories. With Digikam, you can import photos from your digital camera or flash memory, organize and tag them, rate them, edit them, and export them to various services or custom galleries.

Three popular services that Digikam can handle are Flickr, PicasaWeb, and Facebook. The first two are social photo sites, and the last is a social networking site. All three support photo plugins used by Digikam. This makes uploading photos quick, easy, and painless.

I am operating under the assumption that you already have accounts on the services you want to use. If not, you will need to register and activate whichever accounts you want before you proceed.

Preparing Digikam Photos

If you are preparing to use Digikam for the first time, you need to tell it where your photos are stored. When you first start it, it will pop up a window asking for your pictures directory. Once selected, it will remember that selection and always work within that directory until you change it.

Flickr

To export your photos to Flick, do the following:

1. Select the album and images you wish to upload.
2. Click “Export” in the menu
3. Click “Export to Flickr”
4. It will open your web browser and ask you to login to Flickr. If you are already logged in, you can skip this step.
5. After you are logged in, go back to Digikam and click “Yes”.
6. Under “Upload Options” you can select a PhotoSet or create a new one.
7. Create tags or check “Use Host Application Tags” to use your Digikam/KDE tags.
8. Select any other options you want and then click “Start Uploading”.

PicasaWeb

Google offers a Linux download for their Picasa software, but it is not native Linux software and does not integrate well into the rest of KDE like Digikam. Fortunately, you can still upload pictures to your PicasaWeb account without using Picasa desktop software. To export your photos to PicasaWeb, do the following:

1. Select the album and images you wish to upload.
2. Click “Export” in the menu
3. Click “Export to PicasaWeb”
4. It will open your web browser and ask for your Google login. If you are already logged in, go back to Digikam.
5. Click “Yes”.
6. Choose the album you want to use or create a new one.
7. Add tags for the images or click “Export Application Tags” to use Digikam’s.
8. Click “Start Uploading”

Facebook

People who use Facebook often want to share their photos, and Facebook has a complete photo album component with albums, tags, and other common features. By default it relies on a Java-based upload application that does run well on Linux from my experience. To use Digikam to upload Facebook photos, do the following:

1. Select the album and images you wish to upload.
2. Click “Export” in the menu
3. Click “Export to Facebook”
4. It will open your web browser and ask for your Facebook login. If you are already logged in, Facebook will tell you that you can close the window and return to Digikam.
5. Back in Digikam, click “Yes” in the dialog box.
6. Choose an album, select “auto create”, or click “New Album” to make a new one.
7. Click “Start Upload”.

There are other plugins for Gallery (free software that you can install on your own website), and SmugMug (which requires a paid account). You can also use Digikam to create a static HTML gallery for use online or offline.

Regardless of the service you choose, once you have it setup in Digikam, you can easily upload new photos whenever you take them. With KDE 4, tags and ratings carry over into other applications, integrating your user experience both locally and on the web.

How to Use Digikam to Export Photos to Flickr, PicasaWeb, and Facebook originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Four Sites to Promote Your Cause

Shevonne — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 12:28:51 +0000

The Internet provides charities a way to connect with people in all parts of the world. Charities are able to educate people about their cause and ways that they are able to help. Donations are important to a charity because it helps them get products, good, services, and money to aid them in their cause. What can you do on the Internet to make people aware of the cause you are passionate in helping? Here are four sites to use to help your charity of choice’s presence on the Internet:

1. Squidoo

Squidoo allows you to create pages, which are called lens, that you can use for making profit for yourself or donating it towards the charity of your choice. After a simple three-step process, your Squidoo lens is created. Squidoo provides various add-ons (e.g. Amazon, CafePress, Flickr, Youtube, etc.) to enhance your lens and make it appeal to viewers. This is a great site for charities because you don’t have to be a webmaster to create a functioning page that has all the information about your charity with tools to show images, videos, and even vanity items, like shirts with your charity’s logo on it. You can also join groups of similar charities, which provides a great way to network and share resources.

2. Facebook Pages

Facebook Pages combines the best of groups and profiles to create a way to interact with people interested in your charity. When creating your page, you choose a category (there is a “Non-Profit” choice), name, add a photo, and enter information about your charity. It’s a very simple way to get a web presence that will reach millions of people. You are able to promote the page on your own Facebook profile, web site, or blog. Just like Squidoo, you are able to add images, videos, events, etc.

3. SocialVibe

SocialVibe is unique because it partners with charities and other organizations, and then people are the way to make others aware of the cause, and ways for them to help. It is versatile because it interacts with FaceBook, different blogging platforms, and MySpace, so people who join the cause are able to promote it in whatever way they want. If you are a charity, you work alongside SocialVibe to be listed on the site. It would be nice if there was a way to do it online without having to contact them, but the versatility of the site makes you forget that little annoyance.

4. Kiva

Kiva provides a way for normal people to donate money to people all over the world who need money to finance their dreams. It uses PayPal or credit cards to receive the funds from lenders to give to entrepreneurs, people needing the money, to start their business. This is a great service for people who are weary of big charities and want to cut out the middle man. You are able to use and promote Kiva in various ways – iPhone app, WordPress widget, and analysis sites. Kiva allows you to create or join teams that are interested in the same types of things. Additionally, there is a section where entrepreneurs can write journal entries, and lenders can comment. It’s a great way to interact and learn more about the people you are trying to help before any money is exchanged. Kiva is a wonderful site that will help you feel like you helped a person with a face and name to him/her, which is sometimes missing with big charities.

Which sites do you go to promote your cause?

Image credit: Swamibu

Four Sites to Promote Your Cause originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Easy Twittering and Facebook(ing) with Seesmic

Trevor Dobrygoski — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 12:00:20 +0000

In the battle of the social media sites, the two that seem to be everywhere these days are Facebook and Twitter. The hardest part of immersing yourself in any type of social media, be it for fun or for business, is managing it well. With all of the web based options available, most are geared towards managing a single site or account; it’s great to see Seesmic stepping up and making a very user friendly solution to manage multiple accounts for Facebook and/or Twitter.

The Seesmic desktop app is a free cross platform Adobe Air based application. This very usable Adobe Air based desktop application was designed by the same folks that made Twhirl. If you have used the Twhirl app before, you should definitely give the Seesmic app a try. It is a happy medium between having too many features which can make it hard to use, and too little features which would make it not very helpful.

In a nutshell, the Seesmic desktop application allows you to save searches, post to multiple accounts, make user lists and see one or many streams of updates through multiple columns. I know this may sound a little too simple, but that is kind of the point. Other desktop or web based apps out there might have more features or a shinier packaging, but do you really need the extras? The main reason why people dread social media is the time that it takes to keep up with it; having a simple set up with pretty much everything you need and nothing you don’t is a good thing, isn’t it?

Here are some of the features:

While looking at the column of tweets and Facebook updates, if you see something that interests you, you can open another column. This is done by selecting a person, doing a search for a keyword or looking at a userlist, then clicking on the detach column button at the top. You can open several of these columns side by side, usually two or three in addition to the main column will probably fill the screen left to right.

If you have an account for a specific URL shrinking site, Bit.ly for example, Seesmic lets you log in and use your own account. Some of the URL shrinking sites give you stats on the links you post.

Notifications come via a Growl-like pop up window at the bottom of the screen. In the settings menu, you have the option for the duration the window stays on the screen and whether or not it makes a sound each time it pops up.

Much like on the Twitter site, you have a search option. Unlike the Twitter site, you can save searches. This gives you a list of of past searches right in the side bar. Having selections in plain view makes it easy to compare keyword searches to a new topic or hashtag.

Adding media to a post is drag and drop simple. Much like the URL shrinking sites, you can choose what image sharing service to use.

Like most things these days, there is an iPhone app in the works. There wasn’t any information on the Seesmic site about what you would be able to do from your iPhone, but I would venture a guess to say it will have pretty much the same functionality as the desktop application.

The folks at Seesmic are also working on a web based version. I like the way they decided to do the desktop version before the web version. It makes more sense based on the intended use to have a desktop application. Being able to log in while your at a different computer and manage your accounts is a good back up option.

How do you keep track of your Facebook and Twitter updates?

Easy Twittering and Facebook(ing) with Seesmic originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)