Like millions of other students (people!) I use Facebook. Lots.
Essentially, Facebook has become something I check more often than my Email accounts, Bloglines XML feeds and my AdSense account. Usually, it’s the first thing I turn on when I log in. Compulsively.
I have (luckily) a very capable mobile Internet-browsing phone and a nice amount of free mobile Internet (thank you Orange) each month, along with a fair amount of time to use up in lectures (etc.).
Mostly, this is where Facebook Mobile comes in.
It is, to say the least, lovely.
Over the past few weeks I’ve been watching it develop from a simple-minded quick representation of Facebook into a rather capable and mobile-oriented application which is tailored to what you might want while on the move. Perfect.
It lets you, for example, check new posts to your wall, check and return new pokes, see the latest status updates of your friends, respond to requests, search for and add new friends and even take a look at your friends’ photos.
They have, however, over the last week or two refined it superbly, to the point where it now works as well as I could ask it to.
It is brilliant, for example, to be able to be out and about in town and quickly research and add on Facebook someone you’ve just met. It’s just so useful to be able to do, because Facebook is (more or less) a definitive directory of everyone my age I could meet.
The stumbling block, in reality, is the mobile network operators who place a heavy premium on the light mobile data traffic which makes this all possible. Orange take the piss on this one if you’re on a PAYG plan.
One day hopefully GPRS network data will be a lot cheaper here in the UK. From that day forward, I’ll probably listen a lot less in the lecture theatre.