Facebook will be releasing version 3.0 of their iPhone application soon so I am excited to see what video posting features that app will have.

This created a new issue however. My Quawkle blog posts are automatically sent to Twitter as a link post and previously with the Twitter app in Facebook, those blog notifications would automatically appear on my  Facebook status updates. By switching to Selective Twitter, the only way to maintain Quawkle posts ending up in Facebook was to either appending my post titles with #fb (not a clean choice) or by searching for a new Wordpress plugin that would automatically publish notification of my blog posts to Facebook. For this purpose, I just installed Publish to Facebook, a Wordpress plugin for just that purpose. In fact this post will be the maiden voyage using the newly installed Wordpress plugin. Hopefully you will see this on my Facebook status if you are a Facebook friend. Fingers crossed!

As the title suggests, v0.24.1 includes the first elements of Facebook integration into TweetDeck. This integration consists of two elements.

Firstly you can click on the Facebook icon at the top and, once you have signed into Facebook and given TweetDeck authorisation, this will add a new column full of each of your friends most recent status update which updates automatically once a minute. From here you can email the update out to anyone, tweet it out over twitter, view the users online status and if they are online right now click on their name (or the green online status indicator) to open Facebook chat right within TweetDeck.

The author also notes regarding this release…

This release is not being pushed out to everyone right now since it is still being tested. Do feel free to install it directly from http://tweetdeck.com/beta/TweetDeck_0_24_1.air but be aware this is very beta software and is at your own risk. If you are not comfortable with this then please wait for the next major release where this functionality will be rolled up and better tested.

via TweetDeck v0.24.1 Pre-Release: Facebook Integration – TweetDeck’s posterous.

Jenny raised an important consideration in her comment. She raised the concept of “me time.” As Christians our lives are to be centered on bringing honor to the name of God in all that we do. (I Cor. 10:31; Col. 3:17, etc.) Our culture inundates us with the idea that our first need is to care for ourselves. Yes, God is important, but only as he or she meets our need for whatever spiritual vacuum we have that needs filling. From a cultural standpoint the idea of spirituality is just another part caring for myself first. Culturally, we are challenged every day to see life in terms of self-fulfillment—my needs, my space, my time, my life and, sadly, my god, whomever I deem her or him to be.

The Shepherd Press Blog: Facebook & Your Time.

Joe added you as a friend on Facebook. We need to confirm that you know Joe in order for you to be friends on Facebook.

This is the message one receives when someone requests to be added as a friend on Facebook. As I mentioned earlier, the average Facebook account about has 100 friends. Many have much higher friend totals. What is a friend? A Facebook friend is anyone whom you are willing to give permission to view your Facebook page, your “wall.” That is one way to define a friendship. Others, in pragmatic, informal ways define friendship according to life experience. So a friend could be someone who is always there for you. But what does “always there for you” mean? Does it mean someone who never criticizes or corrects you? Does it mean someone who only says good things about you? Does it means someone who will always listen? Or is a friend any casual acquaintance from a social networking site?

The Shepherd Press Blog: Facebook & Friends.

There is a tendency to follow the world’s lead and see life as a mixture of the profound and the mundane – to contrast the exciting, meaningful, fun parts of life with the normal, dull, daily grind parts of life. For many this is the contrast between “chilling” or “hanging out” and doing something that really matters. Facebook falls into the hanging out category. It’s no big deal, just something to do when there is nothing to do. With the advent of 3G phone networks, you can update your Facebook status anytime using your mobile phone. So, while you are standing in line at the store, you can let the rest of civilization know that you are standing in line at the store. In this context, Facebook becomes a way to make the mundane a little more tolerable, a little less boring. But is this the way that God wants you to think about life—that large chunks of life are meant to be trivial? Sadly, it is uncommon to think of hanging out in terms of glorifying God.

The Shepherd Press Blog: It’s Just Facebook.

Facebook, then, gives you these two options:  you can leave a trail of rotten communication that points directly back to you, or you can leave a trail of words, comments and thoughts that point directly to Christ and his mercy. Which trail would you like to create? This is a question that you may not ignore. God commands you to do all things for his glory, to add to his reputation.

So how, specifically, can your communication on Facebook be a benefit to others?

The Shepherd Press Blog: Post Only What is Helpful.

Now we have a biblical platform upon which to construct an understanding of Facebook and the other online social utilities. Let’s look at some specifics. The first thing one is asked when logging on to Facebook is what are you doing right now? You are supposed to tell all of the people in your social network what you are doing. The Facebook Factsheet says that the average user has 100 friends on the site. So, by answering this question, you are telling at least 100 people what you are doing. Often times, the question is answered with a description of one’s current emotional state–for example, Joe is sad or bummed. It is one thing to have a momentary private thought to yourself, it is quite another to express that thought to a hundred or more people without considering how your words will cause people to think about God.

The Shepherd Press Blog: Facebook and You.

Ever since Facebook dropped its student-only restriction and opened its doors in September 2007 to anyone, many student users have cried foul, saying the unrestricted access allows their parents to spy on them. Some 5,819 disgruntled high school and college-aged students have even joined a Facebook group entitled “For the love of god–don’t let parents join Facebook.”

link: WORLD Magazine | Community | Blog Archive | A parental invasion, of sorts

Jott also allows you to send jotts to your Google calendar, and a couple of other options. If you are willing to pony up for one of the two paid accounts, you can send jotts to the email addresses of others that you create in your Jott address book. You can also send jotts to other applications like Twitter, Facebook, and Remember the Milk. It was the last one of these that prompted me to subscribe to a paid account. I have started using Remember the Milk as my “to do” manager both online and particularly on my iPhone. It is the best to do tool I have found for my needs so far. I will write more about Remember the Milk another time.

The paid Jott account subscription also provides for faster transcription and more integration. I am using it regularly with Remember the Milk, but I have also used it with Twitter, Facebook, and even my Wordpress blog here at Quawkle.com. I have also emailed my wife using Jott. I am not sure I would trust using it with my work-related email needs for fear of erroneous transcriptions, but in testing it with personal emails, it has performed remarkably well. As long as you speak clearly and not too quickly, the transcription almost always is spot on. I like that you do not have to talk like a robot in order to be understood.