No Facebook option here …
WhenApple took the wraps off iOS 5 in June 2011 , one of the marquee features the company announced was systemwide Twitter consolidation : Take a photo , see an interesting web page in Safari , or arrive across a great video recording in YouTube , and iOS 5 lets you speedily apportion it with Twitter through the built - in Tweet Sheet .
WhenMountain Lionarrives later this summer , Twitter sharing will occur to the Mac , too . Apple annunciate systemwide consolidation as part of the lineament to be included in the next major edition of OS X.
No Facebook option here…
But what about Facebook ? In December 2011 , the social internet reported that it had 845 million active drug user . And 425 million of those active monthly exploiter at some item accessed Facebook from a mobile equipment . ( Analysts estimatethat Twitter will achieve a comparatively paltry 250 million active users only by the remainder of 2012 . )
Why do n’t Apple and Facebook cater to the nearly one billion users of Mark Zuckerberg ’s social net with deep , systemwide integration ?
What Facebook sharing could offer
… and none here , either .
Anywhere Io can squeeze today , and anywhere Apple says that Mountain Lion will propose Twitter desegregation , Facebook integration would on the face of it work swimmingly , too . Today , iPhone photographer who want to partake their exposure via Facebook generally crack the photos in the Camera app , then flip over to Facebook , beg the button to post a picture , tap the clitoris to pick out a pic from the photo library , tap the photo , and then eventually can tapdance to station the photograph . To nip a photo from the Camera app , of grade , you take the photograph , knock the Share icon , choose Tweet , and then exploit to send your Wiley Post . That ’s a batch less tapping .
Because Facebook offer so many more kinds of data point than Twitter , Facebook iOS ( and Mac ) integration could in reality appear in more place . For good example , including an pick to share an event in Calendar as a Facebook event could make dependable sense .
…and none here, either.
Apple ’s iPhoto background software already offers first-class Facebook integration — and no Twitter desegregation at all . This is distinctly not a technical limitation ; Apple could integrate with Facebook if it want to . So what ’s the handle - up ?
Did Facebook reject Apple’s friend request?
A Facebook interpreter toldMacworld : “ iOS is an important platform for Facebook and we have a expert relationship with Apple , working closely with their developer relations squad on our Facebook and Messenger apps . ”
So , does that “ upright relationship with Apple ” mean Facebook desegregation may well make out to Apple ’s two major operating system before long ? “ As you jazz , we do n’t annotate on what we might or might not do in the future tense , ” the Facebook representative say .
Apple , for its part , indicated that it would have no commentary for this history . But the ship’s company did speak on the book about its relationship with Facebook back in September 2010 , fence in the launch of its still unpopular euphony - pore social electronic web , Ping .
When Ping launched , it offer hookup with Facebook Connect , which think of you could find your Facebook - using friend on Ping . Then , Facebook Connect fly from Ping .
Steve Jobs was Apple ’s CEO at the prison term . He told All affair D ’s Kara Swisherthat Ping would n’t integrate with Facebook , because the latter internet demanded “ taxing terms that we could not agree to . ” Now , prior to Jobs ’s affirmation , Apple had publicly mentioned Ping ’s Facebook connection , but something intelligibly changed within hours of Ping ’s launching .
In her report back then , Swisher mentioned that some Facebook executives were irk by design law of similarity they noted between Ping and Facebook . Apple ’s posture , as express by Jobs , was that Facebook wanted more personal data about Ping users than Apple was willing to partake in .
But how much protection is too much auspices ?
I tweet . I twitch too much . But my married woman , parents , mother - in - natural law , and most of my local friends either create and abandoned their Twitter account , or never visited the service at all . But theyallhave Facebook accounts — and use them .
If Apple ’s client want and could do good from Facebook desegregation — and I think they do and would — perhaps Apple should follow in the footsteps of a company that want to protect its users privacy , but finally decided to put the decision in its customer hands . That fellowship ? Apple .
When it launched in - app subscriptions for the iOS App Store , Apple ab initio told publishers that Apple would own all the customer data and not share it . Apple finally loosened up a bit , offering customers the alternative to choose - in to sharing their data with publisher . It ’s a o.k. solution , in that it ( mostly ) appeases publishers , and sure as shooting prevent customer privacy paramount .
That ’s the same approach Apple should take with Facebook integration : If users are unforced to share with Facebook , Apple should put up them a systemwide means to do so .
[ Lex Friedman is a Macworld stave author . ]
