The short explanation of the Facebook Cover Art is this: when you are out someplace and you take a really great picture, you can create a new Cover picture and upload it right to your Facebook Timeline. Below is the specifics of how it works.

Using Facebook Cover Art for Android

When you open the application, you will be prompted to grant access to your Facebook account. This is important to do because if you don’t grant access, you can’t upload the new Cover art.

Once you have granted access, you are ready to get to making your first Cover picture. To start, you will want to find a picture you have taken. There are a few places you can look for a picture. You can choose from images on your phone, in your Facebook news feed or pictures you have already uploaded in your Facebook albums. These choices are listed across the top of the application’s main screen.

When you have found a picture on your phone that you want to use, press Use Photo in the bottom right of that screen. You will be asked to choose what you want to do with the picture: use it as a profile picture, as cover art or seamless mode.

Using pinch to zoom, you will need to resize and move the picture so it fills the area and looks the way you’d like it to.

When you have the picture the way you want it to be, you will have a preview of how it should look. If all is well, then click on Upload and Share. You should see a popup telling you to head over to m.Facebook.com and select the new picture as your new Cover art.

Other options for Cover art

There is a bunch of pre-made Cover art packaged into Facebook Cover Art for Android. If you don’t have any interesting pictures to use, try one of these.

What works well and what didn’t

The process was pretty easy to figure out and complete but there were a couple things I couldn’t get to work. These issues may have been related to my device specifically so do not let these hinder you from trying out Facebook Cover Art for Android.

When choosing pictures from my device, there were a few pictures that didn’t want to work. I believe they were pictures from a home screen wallpaper application I previously used. The other problem I had was, the end result of the Cover I created was not 100% the same as the end result. It took a little playing around to get the picture in the preview (before uploading) to be centered and look the same as the end result on Facebook.

Conclusion

I really like this application. It makes using your pictures for a Cover really easy. For people who are on the go more than at a computer, this is a great way to change up your profile on the fly.

Share your tips for using Facebook while mobile in the comments below.

Some may see this as adding clutter, others may see it as way to add more personalization. Others yet will see it as another reason to make Facebook their main social hub. Whatever the reason, here is how to add Apps to your Facebook Timeline.

What Timeline apps are available?

For starters, there are about 80 apps at the time of this writing. You can check them out at the about apps page. Many of these you may already be using, either on your smart phone or a web app. Some examples of available apps are UrbanSpoon, Pinterest, TripAdvisor and Rhapsody.

How to add an app to your Timeline

You may already have some apps posting to your timeline. To see if you do, you can follow these steps:

At the top right corner of your Facebook admin page (the page where you can see the feed with all of your friend’s updates), click on the tiny arrow. Now Select Account Settings.

Select the Apps tab from the left sidebar.

These are the apps you have already granted access to post on your Timeline. This is also a good time to clear out any apps you do not want to have access to your Facebook account.

Add new apps to your Timeline

To add new apps, you can go to this page and click on services you already use or would like to use. When you click on the links you will be taken to that site and asked to sign in with your Facebook credentials.

Then you will be asked to grant access to post to your Timeline.

That’s about all there is to it. From that point on, when you use an app like Snooth, it will post to your timeline what wine you are tasting.

Timeline app settings

You can adjust the settings of the applications. If you don’t want the applications posting things on your Public Timeline, you can make the adjustments or even eliminate the app from posting to your Timeline. Here’s how:

In the apps tab, the one where you can see all of the applications you have granted access to, you can click on the application you want to limit. In this tab, you will see an drop down box to set the privacy limitations.

If you look just above the privacy drop down, you will see the option to remove the ability for the application to post to your Timeline.

Conclusion

There are certain things I would want on my Timeline. There are times when it is fun to go back and see what you were saying and interested in a year ago. There are also applications I would not want every single activity or song posted and etched into Facebook history.

Overall, I like how easy it is to add an application and how easy it is to limit who sees the updates from these 3rd party applications. Just remember to go back every so often and clean out unused applications.

Do you like the idea of applications posting to your Timeline or do you think it will cause clutter?

Activating Facebook Timeline

You can activate your Timeline by heading here:

Activate Facebook Timeline

You will need to click on the link in the bottom left of the page.

Once you activate the Timeline, your page will refresh. You will need to click on your profile to see the major changes.

Where to start

You may want to take the tour. It will give you a good run-through on the newest features. You will get an idea of how to add new pictures like a Cover.

What is a Cover?

Think of a Cover like a background on Twitter or Myspace. The difference is, the Cover is the header for your page. Your profile picture will appear in the bottom left corner. There are some people who are already crafting some really creative Covers. Here are a couple sites you may want to look at to get you started.

• Facebook Profile Covers
• FB Cover Pix

Here is what a cover looks like pre-download.

Adding a Cover

Depending on if you are using a Cover from a site or your own picture, there may be different steps. In the end, you will just need to click on the Add a Cover link in the top right of your profile header.

You will just need to select a picture, either by uploading one from your computer or your already uploaded photo library.

Once you have the picture ready and selected, you will need to drag it into the correct location. If you are doing something a little more creative, this will make it a bit easier to make a fun Cover.

Using the Timeline

You have probably peeked at your profile page to see what the timeline looks like. It looks different, huh? Well you or your friends can skip through your past updates. Off to the right, you will see a little timeline. You can use this to skip through your Facebook past.

When you click on a month or year, you can see the highlights for that time.

You can also see all of the posts from your past by clicking the Highlights drop-down.

Promoting or hiding old posts

There are always pictures or things in your updates that you don’t want to relive or show off. If you want to hide these posts from the timeline, there is a pencil icon next to each post in your timeline. If you click it, you are given the option to hide it or even change the date.

If you would like to promote an update you are proud of, you can click the star. This will stretch the post across the full length of the timeline. If you click the star again, you will minimize again.

Privacy settings

There is an option in the privacy setting tab to limit what the public and friends of friends can see. You can change this if you are not comfortable with people Facebook stalking you.

Conclusion

Even though the cosmetics greatly changed with the addition of the timeline, the change also brings more usability and room for future improvements. I have to say I like looking back and see what kind of nonsense I posted in the past. Some of the past updates bring back some funny memories. I also thing I am going to have some fun with the Covers.

What do you think of the changes?

How To Activate Timeline Right Now

Facebook has stated that they intend to launch Timeline to the general public in a few weeks, however if you are eager, TechCrunch has outlined a (slightly complicated) method of activating Timeline right now. Although their method is not strictly a hack as it uses Facebook’s own developer tools, it is a risky process and bugs are expected. Having said that I have not experienced any issues after following their method.

Overview of Timeline – Top Half

Unlike the current profile, the Timeline view is separated into two distinct halves, top and bottom.

The top half features the following items:

1. Your current profile picture which does not change
2. A new “Cover image” which takes up the majority of the top half. This image is intended to serve as a sort of “cover” for the viewers of the your profile.
3. The Timeline scrollbar allows you to jump to any point since you started using Facebook. As my scrollbar indicates, my earliest contact with Facebook was in 2006.
4. The basic personal information remains the same.
5. A collage of all your friends
6. The most recent photo in which you have been tagged
7. Your current location
8. Your “likes”

The top half also features a customisable “favourite apps” section just below the items 5 to 8. Here you can dump whatever apps you wish to have quick access to.

Overview of Timeline – Bottom Half

The bottom half is a two-column interface dedicated to your activity on Facebook with top photos, status updates, wall posts from friends and basically everything you get up to on Facebook.

This half has the following sections:

1. The status update section has been revamped. In addition to adding a status, a photo, or a location, you can also identify the significance of the status itself by clicking on one of the five status indicators: work and education, family and relationships, living, health and wellness, and milestones and experiences. The idea is that in the future you can jump to significant milestones in your life if you indicate them. For example, when I originally set up my profile, I indicated that I had completed my high school in 2006. Scrolling down to 2006, there is a space for me to add a photo of my graduation.

Facebook has done a lot of work to ensure its algorithms pick up on these milestones. In fact, it looks like Facebook intends to become more like a scrapbook collecting your thoughts rather than simply a place for your friends to share wall posts and photos.

2. The recent activity feed shows what you have been up to by tracking everything that you do including the music you listen to, the articles you read, and the videos you watch.

3. Lastly, the main portion of your profile features all your status updates, your friends wall posts, links shared, and photos taken.

Timeline Views

In addition to displaying all the content mentioned above the Timeline also groups together your most important updates.

Events

Friends

Likes

Photo Album

Photos

Other Miscellaneous Features

In addition to the updated profile view, the new Timeline also brings with it a number of new features. These can all be accessed by clicking on one of the shortcuts (including items 5-8) in the top half of the page.

Activity Log

Clicking on the “View Activity” button on the main page takes you to the Activity Log page.

This page features a comprehensive list of everything you have done on Facebook. This list is completely private and not visible to the public or your Friends.

The main feature of the Activity Log, aside from being able to view all your activity, is the ability to tweak whether a particular item is viewable on the Timeline or not. To make this change simply select the drop-down arrow on the right of the corresponding activity.

You can either hide or allow the item or you can “feature” the item on the Timeline. When you “feature” an item on the Timeline it takes prominence by removing the two-column view and displaying only that item.

Update Info

To change your personal information, simply hit “Update Info” on the main page.

Your information stays the same, however it is much easier to amend it as it is all viewable on one single page.

Friends’ List

The friends’ list has been completely revamped to display a never-ending scrollable list of all your friends.

Photos and Videos

The photos and videos page functions the same as before but looks completely different. The extraneous whitespace from the earlier profile view has been removed and it is now much faster to scroll through all your photos and videos as it is all on one page.

Map

The map is an interesting feature that displays a geographical history of all the places you have visited. So, whenever you tag a status or photo with a geographical indicator, it will show up on the map. If you use this feature a lot, the map will eventually fill up and show you all the places you have visited throughout your life (or at least since you started using Facebook).

Notes

Like the other updated pages, the new notes page is a single scrollable list of notes with an index of all your notes on the right side.

Likes

The “Likes” page displays icons of all the different pages you like, categorised according to the type of things they are (e.g. music, books, movies, television, games, etc).

The “Likes” page also displays the pages you have liked on a yearly basis:

Subscribers

The new Facebook subscribe feature allows an asynchronous method of following users who do not “friend you”. Essentially, your public posts are viewable by anyone who “subscribes” to them, there is no need for you to approve these subscribers.

Conclusion

Facebook has updated a lot of its features but two things really stand out. Firstly, the Timeline view is probably the biggest change to the profile since Facebook originally launched. The view is much more dynamic and it acts like a time capsule all the way back to when you first joined. The second major change is that a lot of the pages which were cumbersome to navigate have been streamlined into long scrollable lists making it much easier to view your content.

What’s your views on the Facebook’s Timeline?

Many are in their Labs stage of development. A lot of the sites you have grown to love have been in Google Labs at some point. Google Maps, Reader, Docs and Alerts are just a few. Here are a few cool sites you may not be aware Google has in the lab.

Trends

Trends is a very handy research and comparison tool. Typing something like [VW, Ford, Fiat] into the search bar results in graphs, location of searches and related news displayed. By comparing multiple search terms simultaneously, time is saved importing the data into spreadsheets or a graph. All of the information is right at your finger tips.

I have also used Trends when quickly comparing keywords (although much better tools are available) to get a general idea for the popularity of the search term.

Specialized Search

To help narrow your search, Google offers specialized search engines for different topics. An example might be if you are looking for Linux how-to information. You could go to the Linux search and type in your search term there. This will filter out all of the Windows server information, in-turn cutting down on the amount of sites you might have to look through.

The current specialized searches are: Mac, Windows, Linux, BSD, US Government and University Search lets you to search to a specific school website for things like enrollment info or course schedules.

News Timeline

Search a date in the past to find out what happened. The advanced search allows different criteria to be set up such as a specific newspaper, magazine, blog or baseball scores.

While using Google News Timeline, I did come across some issues. One problem is the magazine or newspaper must have a digital version available in Google’s Book Search or the News Archive. This may be a little bit of a snag if you are trying to do an in depth search for something.

Google Moderator

Moderator is a really simple idea. Create a “series” and invite general public to ask questions, give tips, make suggestions or just about any thing else you can think of. It is kind of a mashup of a forum and crowd-sourcing. Your audience will ask questions, then the same people will vote on the question letting you know how many people agree or disagree with what was asked. With some creativity, this could be a great proving ground for products, ideas or services.

Fast Flip

A quick way to scan through different news sources at the same time. The news feeds can be narrowed by a topic, source, most viewed and several other options. Fast Flip shows a small screenshot of the page usually just big enough to see the major headlines. When you spot something, just click on it to make the page large enough to read. If you could customize the sites and save your choices, it would be pretty cool RSS reader.

City Tours

Offers a variety of attractions mapped out using Google Maps. Directions, approximate time to see the attraction, walking times to the next destination, ratings and hours of operation. It pretty much takes the guess work out of planning a touristy trip.

What kind of app or site would you like to see Google make next?