This week, the coffee giant started dispensing gift cards good for the free apps in stores, according to various reports. Starbucks has been offering free songs from iTunes since 2007, but the apps appear to be something new. Reps from Starbucks could not be reached for comment.
The first app to be offered under the plan is Shazam Encore, a music-identifying app that sells for $5.99 on iTunes.
Image courtesy of Flickr,
The mobile app, which is now available in the Android Marketplace and iOS App Store, is the direct result of its March acquisition of group messaging app Beluga. Facebook Messenger is the first mobile application the company has developed and released outside of its official Facebook app.
“It’s a mobile app about real-time communication,” Beluga co-founder and Facebook engineer Ben Davenport told Mashable. All messages are sent and received in real time — no refreshing required.
The app, much like Beluga, is simple and straightforward. Once users log into Messenger with their Facebook credentials, they’re taken to a screen with all of their recent Facebook chats and messages. Users can jump into any of their past conversations or create a new one. Messages can either be sent via Facebook Messenger or via SMS.
Users can also send photos to their friends with the app. It also lets you give message threads a name, for easier organization.
One of the key elements of Messenger is its alert system. Users can choose to receive alerts for new messages, or they can turn them off. They can also delay alerts for an hour or until 8:00 a.m. the next day. The alert settings can be tailored for individual message threads or for all messages through Messenger.
Facebook admits its official mobile app will eventually have all of Messenger’s functionality, but the company believes that having an app dedicated to quick messaging on the Facebook platform is something that will benefit its millions of mobile users. And it could give other group messaging apps like GroupMe a run for their money.
Check out the screenshots of the iOS and Android apps below, and let us know what you think of Messenger.
This is the Messenger login screen for the iPhone App.
This is the Messenger login screen for the Android App.
The Facebook Messenger app finds your friends as you type.
It's much like tagging friends on Facebook.
The interface is much like the texting interface on the iPhone.
Even the Android app sports the iOS-like interface.
Users can send photos in their messages. They will appear threaded within the conversation.
They will appear threaded within the conversation.
The Map View lets you see where everybody in a message is located.
You can choose not to attach a location to your messages if you wish, though.
If you go to a user's single message, you can see exactly where he or she is located.
Both the iOS and Android version integrate with Google Maps.
Since the app is integrated with Facebook, all of your messages will appear in this view, regardless of where the messages originated.
The blue dot indicates that you have an unread message.
Late last week, iOS 5 Beta 5 was seeded to eager Apple developers. As always, many are asked the million-dollar question: can it be jailbroken? As with all previous builds, the answer is yes, with the latest version of Redsn0w which was just released, as long as you don’t mind plugging your device into your computer every time you power it on.
From iPhone-Dev Team Blog:
redsn0w has been updated to 0.9.8b5, adding support for Apple’s new iOS5 beta5 (point it directly at the beta5 IPSW). Please use this only if you’re a jailbreak app developer with a legit Apple dev account, and remember it’s a tethered jailbreak for now!
Redsn0w is able to apply a standard tethered jailbreak on almost any iOS device, except for the iPad 2. Since this is an experimental build of iOS 5, iOS jailbreakers will likely be reluctant to disclose vulnerabilities for it yet, making an untethered jailbreak highly unlikely at this point, meaning that the jailbroken device will have to be plugged into a computer running Redsn0w every time it’s powered on, or else it won’t boot into a jailbroken state and won’t be able to run unofficial apps or tweaks.
Redsn0w is incredibly easy to use considering that all the instructions are presented in a relatively well-built user interface. In order to jailbreak your device using Redsn0w, all you’ll need is a copy of the iOS 5 Beta 5 firmware file and iTunes 10.5 Beta 5, which can be both obtained from Apple’s developer website. Some addition iOS skills are recommended, such as switching your device into DFU mode and restoring it with iTunes in case the process somehow fails. You can read our full guide on how to perform this jailbreak here.
It should be noted however that if you jailbreak your device on iOS 5, you wont get future OTA updates from Apple, until and unless you restore your iOS to stock state.
iOS 5 is the upcoming major release of operating system that runs on iPhones, iPod touches and iPads. First unveiled at this year’s WWDC, after months of rumors and speculation, iOS 5 includes several new features that had long been wished for by iOS fans. Among those, there’s a new notification system known as Notification Center which unobtrusively queues up all the notifications issued by apps and services; enhancements to Mobile Safari, especially the iPad version; Newsstand, a special folder on the iOS Home Screen that organizes all magazine apps; and system-wide Twitter integration.
It’s important to stress once again that it’s currently impossible to jailbreak iPad 2(s) on anything above iOS 4.3.3. Redsn0w only works with any iPod touch, iPhone and the first-generation iPad.
Download Redsn0w 0.9.8b5 for Windows
Download Redsn0w 0.9.8b5 for Mac
