Whether you love the device or hate it, stories about the iPhone are going to be hard to escape for a few weeks. Google and Facebook appear to fall into that first category, and have added to the hubbub by releasing iPhone-specific applications.
iPhones are able to browse the Web, of course, so at first glance, these apps look a little bit redundant. Their existence speaks to the popularity of the iPhone, though, along with corporate desires to please the device’s user base. And the apps do offer a few new tricks.
Facebook’s Application For The iPhone
A post on the Official Google Blog Announces, “Google Mobile App starts working as soon as you type. Smart features mean you’ll get what you’re looking for in fewer key presses than before. For instance, we’ve added the power of suggest (type ‘lost in’ and one touch completes ‘lost in translation’) and My Location (type ‘coffee’ and one touch shows cafes right where you are on a map) to help you search.” There’s a search offering for the address book, as well.
Then, on the Facebook side of things, “The bottom line is that applications built for the iPhone have access to more technology than websites,” according to a blog post. “For example, with the native application you can take photos with the iPhone’s camera and upload them instantly to your Mobile Uploads album on Facebook. You’ll also find the native application is much faster than the website, giving you more reliable access to your Friends, Photos, and Inbox.”
So it’s more a matter of “icing on the cake” than “revolutionary creations.” Yet since it’s a rare person who doesn’t like icing, we don’t expect to hear many complaints.
