Tech tutorials, howtos and walkthroughs

“Our vision is to make Paper the best way to experience stories from friends and the world on Facebook. We’ve been working hard to tackle your top requests and suggestions, and we hope you enjoy the latest additions to the App.”

Blog post by the Paper App Team on the improvements to Facebook Paper

Apple fans great News! If you’ve downloaded the Apple iOS Facebook Paper 1.1 App from Apple iTunes which went Live in February 2014, you’d realize it has some minor tweaks since Saturday April 19th 2014:

Birthdays and Events are listed in Notifications rather than in the main Newsfeed Photo comments have been enabled inside Facebook Paper

I’d hoped Facebook Paper, Facebook’s redefining of how we Social Network Citizens consume News, would have been also a featured service for Facebook users on Desktop when it launched as described in Facebook adds Trending Topics with Paper coming to make reading the News easier. But alas, that wasn’t the case and now that we’re in April, the App for Apple iPhones has been updated to version 1.1 with nary a nudge in the Facebook World.

Facebook paper

Then again it’s a paid service, as Facebook Paper collates News from various official sources that I normally Track using SMM (Social Media Management) tool Hootsuite as described in Social Media Management Tools help you to manage your Social Networks all at once.

So ok, that’s cool; I’ll just subscribe to the entire set of official Facebook Profiles and group them into a list. Personally still, I’d have preferred Facebook would have made a whole Tab on the Right Hand Corner just for them, as they’re hard to find. Just a though, Facebook, just a thought!

Facebook Friends Nearby – Stalkers on Facebook just got a new GPS tool to track their Sweet Baboo

In more crazy News from Big Blue, FB’s launched a new LBS (Location Based Services) that’s sure to make Foursquare stand up and say “wait….what!?”. Nearby Friends, which made its debut on Thursday April 17th, 2014 is the name of this new Feature that allows you to, as the name suggests, locate Friend Nearby!

Powered by Tech Facebook gobbled up from the acquisition Friends discovery App maker Glancee in May 2012, Nearby Friends is run by Nearby Friends Project Manager Andrea Vacarri, who was the founder of  Glancee but stayed on to work with Facebook.

more on Geezam.com:  Samsung at CES 2022 – Customized Seamless Connectivity for a Better Planet

So how does this latest Stalker’s tool for Facebook Mobile Work?

Nearby Friends is a feature for Facebook Mobile apps that alerts you of friends nearby within reasonable walking Distance. To enable this, your BFF will have to enable this feature on each other’s smartphones for it to work.

The level of Granularity of the controls means that you determine who can see you based on your friend’s lists in your Facebook Mobile App. However, the level of accuracy of the GPS position displayed on the map in the Nearby Friends feature depends on the degree of openness and sharing that exists between you and the friend.

Thus if you opt to share your exact GPS location instead of an approximate one, you’ll get the same level of information, once the friend themselves approves of sharing on that level. Basically it’s Tit for Tat, as this level of sharing of your location indicates that you and the persons in question are really friends, as only your true friends would be willing to openly share their exact location with you!

So albeit a stalkers delight, it’s not exactly GPS Tracking! True Friends really stick together like peas in a pod!

But this may return the gleam in the eye of many a would-be male girlfriend stalker or man-watching girlfriend is short lived; Nearby Friends allows you to alert you to find your friend’s location, sorta like the Command Prompt DOS (Disk Operating System) command Ping in Windows. However, it doesn’t tell you their location, but alerts them, Poke App style, via notification that you are nearby, giving them a chance to run….or welcome you by telling you to come on over!

But what if your friends off the island? Friends Nearby can determine if your friend is on the move or outside of the country, making a romantic rendezvous point or stalking…whichever way you wanna spin it….a lot easier.

Paper for all Facebook Users – Friends Nearby coming to a Facebook App Near You

Apparently Facebook managers hadn’t taken a whiff of Pew Research published survey that indicates that 30% of Facebook users get their News via Facebook, be it Mobile or Desktop. News was important to all Facebook users, not just Facebook Mobile users, so much so that it makes sense to have purchased Oculus Rift and their VR (Virtual Reality) Gaming-centric Goggles.

more on Geezam.com:  IDC and Schneider predicts IaaS and EDGE Computing expansion in 2025

Being as they’re not functional and would put anyone in risk of being stopped by the Fashion Police, Facebook’s purchase is one for the future. Their intention is to refashion the Oculus Rift VR Goggles into a pair of prêt-a-porter fashionable Glasses akin to Luxottica styled Google Glass to deliver the News as opined in my prediction Pew Research posits 3 in 10 get their News via Facebook as Paper set to go live.

And now that we have Friends Nearby, the Art of GPS Rendezvous is now marketable, something which Foursquare hasn’t been able to do since they’d launched. Facebook is mum on when they’ll start sharing LBS Data with Advertisers, but be prepared to be bombarded with offers and coupons whenever you pass by a Haagen Daaz, Burger King or KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken).

With Facebook’s global Reach and its near ubiquitous nature if done right to protect personal privacy from stalkers, Nearby Friends will be a potential goldmine that’ll make Foursquare start worrying about Big Blue coming into their Territory!

Nearby Friends isn’t yet in the Facebook Paper App but it’s coming to other Facebook Apps like Facebook Messenger, Poke and possibly even Facebook owned WhatsApp. But Facebook Paper has the power to redefine the Future of Newspapers in Tandem with the soon-to-be-fashionable-enough-to-be-worn-by-normal-people Oculus Rift VR Glasses!

Throw in LBS based Nearby Friends, and your smartglasses and smartwatch from Facebook in the future can send you News of the latest coupons or offers whenever you’re out with Nearby Friends! Newspaper will live on as if Facebook succeeds with the Facebook Paper App, then Tomorrow Never Dies for the Humble Newspaper!

Here’s the link:

Facebook Paper on Apple iTunes

Facebook on Apple iTunes

Facebook Messenger on Apple iTunes

 

About the Author

Read more on Geezam.com

One response to “Facebook launches Nearby Friends and improve on Apple iOS App Paper 1.1”

  1. My brother proposed I’d personally like that weblog. They was once 100 % right. This particular organize absolutely made my time. You are unable to contemplate exactly how a whole lot period I’d spent with this information! Appreciate it!