Hands-on with the BlackBerry Facebook App

BlackBerry users, rejoice: now you can poke your Facebook buddies, write on walls, and upload photos at will thanks to the just-announced Facebook app for the ubiquitous smartphone. I visited the RIM booth here at CTIA for a quick look.

Available now as a free download (RIM tapped T-Mobile as the first official carrier for the app, but BlackBerry users on any carrier can download and install it), the new Facebook app boasts a ribbon of icons atop the main screen that lets you check your friends list, poke one of your pals, write on a wall, upload pictures, add a buddy, or compose messages. Unlike the on-the-Web version of Facebook for the iPhone, however, the BlackBerry app pushes Facebook notifications down to your device and displays an alert icon on your home screen (right next to the "new messages" icon). You can also compose, reply to, or otherwise manage your Facebook messages even when you're not in wireless range (good for checking your messages while, say, you're in the bowels of the subway). Even better is the app's ability to tag photos before uploading them to Facebook; you just aim the red crosshairs at the person/thing/place in your picture and tag away. The app itself looked pretty basic on the BlackBerry I tested, but options abound; plenty of contextual menu options are available by clicking the trackball, and names and/or tags are auto-completed as you type.

Overall, pretty nice—and the price is right. Head on over to the BlackBerry site for downloading instructions (you'll need a BlackBerry with at lest 64MB or memory and version 4.2 or later of the BlackBerry device software.

Related:
Press release [RIM]