Facebook really have been busy lately. Not only are they planning to launch a Facebook app for the iPad, there are also rumours of an iPhone Facebook photo app in the pipeline too.
The app, said to be called “Hovertown” or “WithPeople” internally will possibly incorporate some of the functionality of other photo sharing apps such as Instagram, which Mark Zuckerberg is said to a current user of.
Whilst the app is currently being built for the IOS operating system, Facebook are hoping to develop it using HTML5 so that it can be ported to Android and other mobile systems. Whilst the app is very much in the development stage, images released suggest there will be functions including location, commenting, face tagging and multi-picture mode.
The current photo sharing offerings from Facebook are unsophisticated and difficult to manage resulting in many users turning to other photo apps. Despite this there are over a billion images hosted on Facebook. Images released suggest that the new app will allow for photos to be instantly taken and uploaded straight into a Facebook album. The Multi-Shot mode, will allow for multiple images to be taken before uploading into an album.
The rumoured functions are set to be a vast improvement on Facebook’s current photo sharing capabilities. With increasing numbers using photo sharing thanks to widespread camera use, Facebook really need to ensure that this app is well built. It is also possible that this new app will coincide with the launch of the new iPad Facebook app.
So Jack Dorseys new project finally has a website outlining what has been widely rumoured, the release of a payment mechanism that can be used in conjunction with a ‘mobile phone’ (all of the imagery so far is of the device being attached of an iPhone).
Born out of the frustration a glass artist had with trying to setup a mechanism by which he could take payments for his ornaments and trinkets
The device hardware is a small card reader that turns your phone into a mobile payment device. Presumably the idea is that anybody will be able to use the device to take payments once their account is setup.
It also performs a few neat tricks like displaying the customers’ image as a security check, and allowing the customer to sign for their purchase (you would hope that it will also work from a pin number).
The emergence of worms on the iPhone platform in the past months will surely cause rumblings about security on mobile platforms, especially as people are now accessing there bank accounts via apps such as the Nat West/RBS tools.
However that argument was won when on-line banking arrived (and all the banks shut) so really mobile banking maybe just another sign that convergence has happened, the mobile tipping point has been reached and your mobile device is finally taking over from your desktop PC.
Does that mean we can have proper desks like the old man used to have?
Or perhaps no desks at all, just floating transaction pods where we are all wear moon boots and jet packs.
On the moon.
For more ramblings (sometimes about jet packs, but not often) follow me on @RichStrachan
