August 23, 2012 archive

Aug 23

Yea! Facebook’s iPhone/iPad App Finally Stops Sucking!

Hooray! With an update today Facebook's iOS app for the iPhone and iPad finally stops being so terrible! Lately using the application on my iPad was an exercise in futility outside of just simple likes or comments. If I ever tried to follow a link, this was what usually greeted me:

Facebook ipad before

It would sit there and sit there and sit there... and often what I would do was hit the arrow in the upper right to open the link up in Safari on the iPad. The link would typically load almost immediately in Safari and I'd be reading the page. Then when I flipped back to the Facebook app I would just hit the back arrow to go back to reading the stream.

The ONLY reason I really continued to use the Facebook app at all was because it was easier to use than the straight Facebook website when it came to liking posts. In using the website on the iPad I often found I had to tap the "Like" link twice to make it work - or not. It was inconsistent, where the app generally always worked.

I just dreaded having to open a link in the app.

And then today with little fanfare outside of an update from Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook released version "5.0" of the iOS app through the AppStore:

Facebook update

Upon learning about the new release from my own Facebook stream of updates (thanks, Dameon!), I updated the app on both my iPhone and iPad and was immediately pleased by the performance improvement.

MUCH faster! Kudos to the Facebook team for making the application actually pleasant to use!

In a quick bit of usage there seem to be many other tweaks to the UI. One I found particularly pleasing was a numerical notification of new updates since the last time you refreshed the feed:

Facebook ipad new stories

I haven't yet used it enough to find new changes I dislike... I'm sure there may be a few... but at least the application now is much faster and more responsive.

Thanks, Facebook team, for getting this new release out!

And if you have the FB app installed on your iOS device, head on over to the AppStore to get the update!

What do you think? Are there still parts of the mobile experience that are broken? Will this new release make you want to use the app again? Or will you stick to the website?

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Aug 23

SIP Forum Formally Launches “SIP Over IPv6″ Task Group

SIP ForumWant to help make sure that the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) can work well over IPv6?  Want to help move the Voice-over-IP (VoIP) industry forward into the world of IPv6?

If so, you can join the newly created “SIP Over IPv6 Task Group” within the SIP Forum. Yesterday in a message to the SIP Forum’s IPv6 mailing list, John Berg, one of the co-chairs of the new effort, announced the formal creation of the task group and put out a call for participants in the groups first teleconference on Thursday, September 13, 2012, at 11:00am US Eastern time.

The charter for the SIP over IPv6 Task Group identifies seven tasks:

  1. Evaluate the current status of SIP over IPv6 based on standardization work in the IETF and other standard’s bodies or industry forums.
  2. Evaluate current technologies and strategies for IPv4/IPv6 co-existence and identify impacts of these technologies on SIP-based networks and the user experience.
  3. Review the work of technical entities, e.g. IPv6 Forum, UCIF, CEA IPv6 Working Group, UPnP, etc. to evaluate progress on adopting IPv6 within the industry, and where necessary develop formal liaisons with them to help coordinate efforts and avoid duplication of efforts.
  4. Function as a resource for SIP Forum members for technical information and advice on matters related to SIP over IPv6 and SIP in Dual IP networks, as well as infrastructure issues, such as stateful/stateless address auto configuration, security and others.
  5. Identify areas where existing standards for SIP over IPv6 and dual stack are inadequate or non-existent. This can be in technical documents, network architectures, standards, etc.
  6. Provide direction and technical leadership in resolving problems related to SIP when using IPv6, or co-existence technologies.
  7. Develop recommendations to standards organizations based on research, discoveries and suggested courses of action to remedy deficiencies uncovered by the SIP over IPv6 task group.

The work will take place using the public SIP Forum IPv6 mailing list (open to anyone to join) as well as periodic conference calls.

On a personal level, I’m delighted to see this IPv6 Task Group emerge. At SIPNOC 2012, I gave a presentation on SIP and IPv6 (slides available) and facilitated the BOF session where we discussed creating this task group within the SIP Forum. I was thrilled that John Berg of Cable Labs and Andy Hutton of Siemens Enterprise Communications stepped forward to lead the effort and it’s outstanding to see it launch.  I’m looking forward to participating in the discussions and to seeing these tasks accomplished.

If you want to help move real-time communications into the IPv6 world, please join the mailing list and help the SIP Forum move this work forward!