Facebook introduced a status tagging function on the 14th of September competing more directly with Twitter.  Since Facebook acquired Friendfeed they have been competing with Twitter more aggressively in certain areas.  Recently Facebook added real-time search to its functionality providing Facebook users with the option of searching through results of photos, videos, notes, links, groups and pages from the past 30 days related to their search query.

Unlike the Twitter “@” function you don’t have to remember the name of the person you want to tag as Facebook auto-suggest names in a drop-down box.  The status tagging is not limited to only friends and can also be used to tag groups, pages or events.  At this stage the status tagging functionality only works in your status updates and not when commenting on a friend’s status.  According to Facebook they ‘might’ consider adding the tagging functionality to other areas of Facebook.

To tag someone, enter the “@” symbol and type the name of the friend, page, group or event you want to tag.  The “@” symbol will disappear and the tagged name will remain with a link to the actual page you are tagging.  When you are tagged you will receive a notification and a post will appear on your wall linking back to the original page where you were tagged along with an option to remove the tag like Facebook photos.

When buying a phone not only does the phone’s appearance influence your buying decision but also what the phone can do for you.  The first thing we do when we get a new phone is customise the wallpaper, ringtones and install our favourite applications.  I compiled a list with some of the most popular and useful applications:

Opera Mini is a free mobile web browser that compresses data before it is sent to your phone, enhancing your browsing experience.

Fring is a mobile platform that allows users to chat with friends via instant messengers like Skype, Google Talk and MSN to name a few.

If you are one of those people that gets withdrawal symptoms when not connected to the Internet, Pooosh is the application for you.  Pooosh allows you to chat with your IM friends and access Twitter and Facebook.  This is a great application especially when are stuck in traffic.

Gmail on your mobile is a handy application that allows you to access your email on the go, access and save drafts as well as view attachments like images, PDF files and Microsoft Word documents.

Pocit is a useful South African payment management application that is secure and cost-effective to use.  It allows you to make payments from your accounts, manage payment requests and transfer POCitMoney to any cellphone number.  POCitMoney acts like a prepaid debit or credit card and the money is available immediately.

amAze is a free GPS navigation tool on which you can search any location by address.  Other helpful features include vocal guiding through your phone, weather reports for your searched location or address, detailed maps and satellite images.

Put Things Off for iPhone is a paid-for application for those of us that like our to-do lists.  Users can create notes and lists and if a task is not done for three days the application moves it back to the Today tray.  Very nifty!

Which mobile applications do you prefer to use and do you / would you pay to use your favourite applications?

For the last two weeks I have been having major issues with my Telkom line, and not knowing what to do about it, until know…

I stick with Telkom because I’ve signed a contract, but I voice my utter disgust at the service delivery while singing the praises of an age old method of getting a message, and now data, from one point to another via the wings of a carrier pigeon.

Winston the Pigeon, owned by The Unlimited,  has gained overnight fame on all  social and media fronts with over 2600 Facebook fans, nearly 400 followers on Twitter and mentions across many news channels.The idea for Winston was born from the concept that a pigeon could do a better job transferring large data files than a Telkom landline. And who did a better job? Well, Winston was able to get a 4Gig card from Howick to Hillcrest in an hour and 8 minutes according to Kevin Rolfe of Unlimited, this excludes the download and short travel by car. This added to the total “data transfer” time which took it to two hours, six minutes and 57 seconds, giving Winston an upload/download speed of about 525kbps. The Telkom line was at 4% complete by the time Winston was picking at seeds and being admired by many, for his awesomeness.

So with the arrival of Seacom and now Winston, at R1 per day, it seems that Telkom might have a bit more competition than it had initially expected.