facebookapps posts

Civilization is coming to Facebook

by Sebastian Anthony Oct 23rd 2009

Well, that's that then.

Gone are the days when you actually did stuff.

Forget actually getting work done in the office.

You've turned your last steak in CafeWorld and milked your last cow in FarmVille -- because ladies and gentlemen, Sid Meier's Civilization will soon be available on the world's largest social network: Facebook. (In fact there's already a Facebook group that you can join for up-to-date news!)

I don't expect this to appeal to all of you -- in fact, those of you under 20 probably haven't even heard of the Civ franchise, but for those of you that have played it, you'll understand the awesomeness of this release.

I leave you with Overlord Meier's own words:
"Civilization Network will allow you to join together with your friends to create the world's most powerful, richest, smartest, or just plain coolest civilization."

[via CNET and Gamasutra]

Tags: casual games, CasualGames, civilization, facebook, facebook apps, FacebookApps, games, gaming, sid meier, SidMeier

Filed under: Security, Social Software, web 2.0

Bad guys now launching attacks through hacked Facebook apps

by Lee Mathews Oct 19th 2009

Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook can already be dangerous places. Things like short links and bogus messages from friends with compromised accounts put unsuspecting and under-prepared users at risk.

Now, AVG's security researchers have discovered a new threat on Facebook. For the first time, they've found hacked Facebook apps. According to AVG, the apps are being used to launch drive-by attacks which target vulnerabilities in Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash. AVG reports finding seven hacked apps, but they admit there could well be more.

First things first: if you're not running up to date versions of either of those, download them right now. Here's the link to Flash and here's one for Reader. Using anything but the most current version could leave you open to attack.

The attack works like this. Visit the Facebook page for any of the hacked apps and click to install. Instead of the normal process, the page will try to push a poisoned PDF document to your machine. Once open, the infected PDF infects your system with a bogus antivirus application - which are often notoriously difficult to remove.

I've mentioned fake antivirus programs like these before on Download Squad. If you've been infected, you can try the tools listed on this post to clean up your system.

To keep from getting infected in the first place, make sure you:

have a good antivirus program installed and that it is fully updated
update browser plugins like Java, Flash, and Adobe Reader as soon as you are prompted to do so
install any critical Windows updates that are available
check comments on new apps before you install - others may have already been infected and left a post on the wall!

Tags: adobe, avg, facebook, facebookapps, flash, hack, hacked, pdf

Filed under: Features, Social Software, Education

Back to school with Facebook: 5 apps to make your classes easier

by Jay Hathaway Aug 31st 2009

Some of you are headed back to school this week, and I want to let you know that we at Download Squad feel your pain. We've all been there at one time or another, and it's not always easy. While I'm not volunteering to do your homework (don't want to get you in trouble, you know), the least I can do is offer some helpful applications for everyone's favorite (formerly) collegiate website, Facebook. I hope these five apps make your school year a little bit easier. Good luck in the new school year, DLS readers!

Notely

Notely is a comprehensive system for to-do list, homework planning and events. The Facebook app is just one way to keep track of that: there's also a web version of Notely, and an iPhone app. It's all available with a free account at Notely.net.

Courses

Courses is a beefed-up version of a feature you might remember if you're a long-time Facebook user. It lets you list your current course list on your profile and find other people in your classes. What's more, it works as a class discussion board, video chat, place to put your weekly assignment schedule, and place to store files.

Tags: b2s, back to school, BackToSchool, facebook, facebook apps, FacebookApps

Filed under: Fun, Photo, Social Software

Download all your tagged Facebook pics with a new app

by Jay Hathaway Sep 15th 2008

Alana Taylor is probably best known for writing a song about Twitter, but maybe not for long. She's also just released a Facebook app that you might find handy. If you go to a lot of tech-savvy social events, like Alana, or if you just have friends who like to play Facebook paparazzi, you've probably wished you could grab all the tagged pictures of you in one fell swoop.

That's what this new app, the accurately-named Get My Tagged Pics, can do for you. It displays all your tagged pics in rows of 10, and lets you download each row as a zip. This is good, because it's halfway between the one-at-a-time method and the other extreme of grabbing hundreds (or maybe thousands!) of pics in one huge file. Sure, it could let you select 10 at a time, but clicking to select wouldn't be any faster than clicking to download. One click is all you need, here.

Tags: Alana-Taylor, AlanaTaylor, facebook, facebookapps, photos, tagged pics, TaggedPics

Filed under: Utilities, Macintosh, Social Software

Facebook on your Mac desktop? It's Facile

by Jay Hathaway Jul 8th 2008

Facile is a Facebook desktop app for Mac, modestly described by the developer as "like Twitterrific for Facebook, but uglier." We don't think it's particularly ugly, actually, and it's a neat way to track friends' status updates. It even supports Growl notifications.

With Facebook Chat being integrated into more desktop apps, there seems to be a demand for access to Facebook features without the website (and the ads). Facile makes Facebook status updates more meaningful and useful, because you can get them as they happen. If apps like this are widely adopted, we'll definitely think of keeping our Facebook status more current. Heck, with Twitter's current API limitations, maybe we'll just feed our tweets into Facebook and let Facile do the work.

Tags: desktop, facebook, facebook status, facebookapps, FacebookStatus, Facile

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Social Software, web 2.0

Zembly - Helping you widgetize, one app at a time

by Drew Olanoff Jun 6th 2008

Do you have an idea for a widget or Facebook app? Maybe you either don't have the time or the full knowledge to actually make it?

You reallllly want to make Wolverines vs. Dracula Part 8 for Facebook, and it frustrates you. Well be frustrated no more, in steps Zembly.

As you know, companies have been formed around building Facebook apps, some of them have become wildly successful AND profitable. Now it's our turn.

Zembly is funded by Sun Microsystems and targets easy creation of applications for Facebook, OpenSocial, meebo, and other social platforms. Not to mention, they're blowing open the barrier to entry on creating these things, and starting a community around doing just that.

Today, Zembly has opened a private beta of their site which lets you very easily create widgets and apps in your browser. Check out their blog for more details.

Tags: facebook, facebook apps, FacebookApps, meebo, opensocial, zembly

Filed under: Productivity, Web services

Students take heed, Blackboard is now on Facebook

by Jay Hathaway May 14th 2008

If you've been to college sometime in the past decade, you might have run up against Blackboard. It's an online assignment system that students generally dread logging into, because it usually means new work or more brown-nosing questions from that showoff in your class. That's not Blackboard's fault, though. To show they want to make things easier on their user base, the students, Blackboard is now on Facebook with an app called Blackboard Sync.

A quick Google search shows that some colleges have been hacking together their own mashups of Blackboard and Facebook, which suggests to us that there's already a demand for this product. Granted, the move could have come sooner: now that Facebook is increasingly used by middle-aged PR officers who want to network -- heard of LinkedIn, guys? -- a lot of users are going to pass this by. For the college kids who still log into Facebook every day and use it as a primary mode of communication with friends, this is great. While you're making plans to go out drinking at the nearest fraternity, take a quick look at the Blackboard app to make sure you won't wake up with a last-minute assignment to finish.

The business of Facebook application development has been dying off because nobody wants to lace their profile with annoying pirates, ninjas, mummies, or whatever the latest trend is. Applications that actually have value to Facebook's natural demographic are scarce, so we hope Blackboard will turn out to be useful for students and set an example of what Facebook apps could be doing.

Tags: blackboard, college, facebook, facebookapps

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Web services, web 2.0

Phreetings: Facebook app to send photos and greetings

by Simon Kerbel Apr 18th 2008

Have you always thought that Hallmark greeting cards are too cheesy? Have you wanted to follow in the steps of Mr. Deeds (at least, the Adam Sandler version of Mr. Deeds) and write your own cards? Well, now is your chance...sort of.

Phreetings is a Facebook app that allows you to send a photo and a short greeting to a Facebook friend, a la greeting card style.

As far as Facebook apps go, Phreetings couldn't get any simpler. Type in a keyword at the top of the page to search for photos, and Phreetings displays the results (all photos are from Flickr, and licensed by the Creative Commons license).

Drag the photo you want to send over to the section on the right hand side of the page, then type in a short message below. You can choose an optional color scheme for your greeting as well. When your greeting is ready, hit the send button, enter in the name of the recipient, and your greeting is sent.

All in all, a simple application that helps spread your web 2.0 greetings both near and abroad.

Thanks for the tip, Augustine!

Tags: facebook, facebook apps, FacebookApps, flickr, greetings, phreetings

Filed under: Audio, Blogging, Web services, Social Software

Last.fm offers Facebook app so your friends can stalk what you're listening to

by Grant Robertson Jul 27th 2007

If you feel like you're not putting quite enough information on your Facebook, and want to let everyone see just that much more of the real you, Last.fm's new Facebook application is just the ticket.

"What I'm Listening To" shows your friends just that, what you're currently enjoying. You can even add notes of explanation to your tracks, so that everyone knows you really didn't mean to cue up Ace of Base.

It's a well integrated Facebook app, that should be a hit with LAst.fm lovers.

Tags: facebook, facebook apps, FacebookApps, Last.fm

Official Wordpress Facebook application released

by Grant Robertson Jul 19th 2007

Got a Wordpress blog and a Facebook page? Why not hook the two up for some ultimate Facebook blogging bliss? The official WordPress Facebook plugin has recently been released. Currently it appears to only work with Wordpress blogs hosted at Wordpress.com, but that still covers quite a large number of users.

Feedback on the application seems mixed so far, but if you're adventurous and willing to give it a shot, take a peek and see what you can do.

Tags: facebook, facebook apps, FacebookApps, wordpress

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With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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