Facebook Adds App/Games Dashboard

Facebook has announced that it is to add a new dashboard feature to allow users to more easily interact with their apps and games, presumably without them cluttering up their feed.

The change has been announced on the Facebook Blog, with the Facebook’s own Jordan Alperin explaining that the intention is to make it easier for users to interact directly with applications and to open “new communication channels accessible to all users from the home page.” It also has the pleasant side effect of giving apps somewhere to live that’s a little bit better separated from the main bulk of Facebook itself – the more social side of things.

Rickets Returns – Gaming Blamed

It seems that incidences of rickets are on the rise, and with many sitting indoors over the long winter, the popularity of videogames is being blamed.

Just sitting around playing Halo and then BAM! Rickets!

TechRadar is carrying word from the British Medical Journal of a rise in the number of cases of rickets being recorded, pointing a solemn finger at videogames for the fact that they encourage a sedentary, indoor lifestyle, conducive to illnesses like rickets. It’s an interesting argument, to be sure, but it’s also one that’s just a little misleading.

Facebook in Talks About Virtual Currency

Facebook may well not be something too many of us consider actually spending money on, but the company has had its own virtual currency in place for quite some time. Now though, it’s talking to developers about how they can use the “credits” system themselves.

At the moment, credits on Facebook are bought and used to buy gifts, whether Facebook-based cards to celebrate birthdays or songs made available thanks to Facebook’s team-up with popular US only music service Lala.com. Until now though, third party developers had been left out of the loop when it came to people actually coughing up their own cash for Facebook.

Social Networking Games Scam Players

It turns out that well known, and often trusted, games like Farmville, Mobsters and Mafia Wars actually often make money through what amounts to a kind of competent sleight of hand, scamming their own users.

While we’ve long wondered just how games set up on social networking platforms make enough money to make the investment in development time worthwhile, the folks over at TechCrunch have a very interesting look at just how some of these apps manage to eke the most out of every user… in the words of TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington, “Those that scam the most, win.”

Facebook to Make Apps More Annoying

Facebook is getting in touch with app developers about changes in its app policy. Some of it is good news, but it looks like Facebook apps could get far more annoying in the not too distant future.

The good news is that, early reports seem to indicate that Facebook will no longer allow apps a user has subscribed to to publish notifications (that is, the little pip on the bottom right that turns red whenever something of interest happens). Of course, with the move away from the clearly fairly lucrative notification space, most will realise that those Apps that really do make a nuisance of themselves (we’re looking at you Mafia Wars and Farmville) should become less annoying. That’s not the end though…