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April 24, 2009 3:20 PM PDT

Facebook for BlackBerry 1.5: Update and video

by Jessica Dolcourt

The latest version of Facebook for BlackBerry released earlier this week with a handful of practical, if not flashy, feature enhancements to partially merge your Facebook profile pictures with your BlackBerry address book, and to add your Facebook events to your native BlackBerry calendar.

Turns out, many users experienced calendar screw-ups that caused Facebook's calendar to cannibalize the native one. In addition, the contact-syncing feature, while handy, irritatingly was sending a phone number request to those Facebook buddies you have manually associated with a BlackBerry contact. For the record, the calendar syncing issue didn't affect our Curves tied into a corporate policy.

RIM has been quick to reissue the app with fixes. The calendar feature should play nicer with merging now if you're installing Facebook for BlackBerry fresh, but those whose calendars have already been thrown out of whack will need to manually reset it using the BlackBerry's advanced options (Default Services-->Reset Calendar.)

In the meantime, take a look at the app's new features in our First Look video. Despite the initial hiccups, we recommend the update for existing Facebook for BlackBerry users, as well as for new BlackBerry owners.

(Source: CrackBerry)

Jessica Dolcourt reviews the latest and greatest smartphone apps, in addition to a healthy dose of Windows software. E-mail Jessica and follow her on Twitter.
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by shahamee April 24, 2009 3:59 PM PDT
What? You mean there are other phones out there that have apps that can do cool stuff? This update is pretty awesome. I downloaded it the first day, and it updated all my contacts with pics from facebook within 15 minutes. Not to mention the ability to do a lot more through the app than the earlier version, like commenting on statuses, etc. instead of being directed to the mobile site. Also, you can do a lot through your address book, and image viewing is better. Download it now if you like facebooking via your blackberry... It's now my FACEBERRY!
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by loverofmankind April 24, 2009 5:21 PM PDT
OH wow.. this is cool. I got tired of the redirects to the mobile site as well. Now, if only the myspace app catch up a bit, I'll be all good.
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by paul.saulnier April 24, 2009 7:55 PM PDT
It's still lacking some features. IM still isn't present, and I can't understand why the poking feature is given such prime real estate on the limited toolbar of commands.
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by loverofmankind April 25, 2009 7:04 AM PDT
I believe the chat client would still need to be a separate app. It would be cool it our BB Pin#'s could sync with facebook, then we could chat using our BB msgr instead of a separate app. But most universal IM apps like jabber, or jivetalk added facebook chat to it last year.
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