Facebook 1.1.0 Update For webOS Looks Gorgeous, Brings Enhanced Inbox and Photo Albums

Ooh la la! You can now update to version 1.1.0 of the Facebook app for webOS. It looks great and it brings an enhanced inbox, photo album access, more profile viewing options, events, and search. Finally!

According to Palm, this is the breakdown of the new features:

• Enhanced Inbox – Now, your inbox lets you compose, send, and reply, so you can always access your Facebook messages.
• Photo albums – Now you can view photo albums from all your friends, not just the photos in their news feeds. Uploading photos is easier as well, and includes the ability to add captions.
• Profiles – The new app lets you view users' profiles, whether they are your friends or not. View and post to their walls, view their information, and see their photo albums (subject to privacy settings, of course).
• Events and birthdays – Now you can see upcoming birthdays from your friend list as well as upcoming events.
• Friend search – Easily find your friends using the Friend Search feature. This takes you to their profile, where you can see and post to their wall, view their information, and look at their photos.

Anyone tried the update yet? How do you like it? [Palm via Engadget]

Source: Lifehacker.Com

Scammers use Twitter, Facebook for $150k bridal show scam

Scammers took advantage of brides-to-be and exhibitors last week when they set up a Twitter account to promote a nonexistent bridal show. The scammers had set up the Twitter account as if they were representing The Boston 411, a legit community info site for Bostonites, and promoted preregistration for the bogus show to both attendees and exhibitors. Needless to say, the Twitter account, the site, and the bridal show were all scams, and police are on the hunt for those behind the charade.

According to the Boston Globe, police began their investigation into the scam last week but held a press conference Monday to alert victims of the scam. Some 5,000 people paid for $15 tickets to the show, while 200 businesses shelled out $350 to $4,000 in hopes of exhibiting. Because the show was promoted to be taking place between March 5 through 7 (next weekend), police wanted to give victims the chance to cancel any travel plans they might have made.

The Twitter account in question has been promoting the show since September of 2009 and has somehow gotten 185 followers, despite the fact that nothing but that has been tweeted in the history of the account. Still, word of the show apparently reached far and wide, with interested parties getting out their wallets for nothing more than a (no longer available) Facebook page and a PayPal account. According to the Globe, scammers also managed to pull in at least one radio producer who had created ads for the show in exchange for a discounted booth rental.

On the one hand, it's hard to say what victims should have done differently to avoid this kind of scam. The promotion looked like it came through legitimate channels and it's not uncommon for bridal shows to sell preregistration tickets at a discount. A hundred people see it on Twitter, register, tell their friends, and boom. On the other hand, looking at that Twitter timeline sets off our spam radar.

If you or anyone you know has any information on what happened, the Boston police would like to hear from you at victims.bpd@cityofboston.gov.

Source: Arstechnica.com

Don't drink, drive, kill someone, drink, post on Facebook

As we continue our collective foray into the brave new world of social networking, we keep learning the same lesson over and over again: don't post photos of yourself doing stupid things. This is doubly true if said stupid thing is illegal, as yet another intellectually challenged Facebook user has discovered.

17-year-old Ashley Sullivan had been driving with her boyfriend in Tonawanda, a town in New York State near Niagara Falls, when she crashed into a brick pillar at 56 mph in a golf course. Her boyfriend did not survive the accident, and in November of 2009, Sullivan pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide and driving while intoxicated.

That didn't stop Sullivan from posting a photo a month later to her Facebook page with the caption of "Drunk in Florida." It just so happens that she had just gone to Florida on a trip, and the judge in her case took notice. Judge Matthew J. Murphy III denied Sullivan youthful offender status, noting that she hasn't "earned it," and sentenced her to six months in jail with five years probation. "I'm troubled by your conduct since the crash, and that's the reason for the jail sentence," Judge Murphy III told her, according to the Buffalo News (via SAI).

This is just one of (what's now becoming) a pattern of stories about people making poor Facebook decisions, especially when it comes to posting pictures. Employers don't like to see you partying at the club, insurance companies don't like to see you dancing at your birthday party when you're missing work due to depression, and judges most certainly don't like to see you posting pics of you drinking after you killed someone in a drunk driving accident.

Source: Arstechnica.com

Nokia Brings Location-Sharing to Facebook

As predicted, 2010 is shaping up to be the year of location. An unlikely entrant has just thrown its hat into the location-based social networking ring. Nokia, by way of Ovi Maps, has just introduced location-sharing to their smartphone users.

The new Ovi Maps, which you may recall just gifted users with free turn-by-turn directions, also supports a “share location” feature that equips people with the ability to select where they are on the map and share their locations — street addresses, nearby points of interest or favorite places (as saved to their Maps) — and to post a status update and photo on Facebook.

Nokia’s approach to location-sharing is incredibly simple and practical, which means unlike Google and its Latitude product, users can share their locations on Facebook directly from the Maps application. No additional applications required. Essentially, location-sharing is now built into Nokia’s default mapping application, which exposes the relatively niche activity to a more mainstream audience instantly.

That fact alone makes this maneuver especially interesting. Although lacking the social gaming features of Foursquare, or a check-in model like Loopt and Yelp, Nokia has given its users the ability to share their locations with their friends on the world’s most popular social network without any additional legwork.