It's Time for Facebook App Fall Cleaning

There has been a lot of news about the issue with Facebook applications sharing our data. Although I'm not shocked, it made me wonder how many apps I have. So I looked up how to delete them, how to find them, etc. When I took a look I had over 200 apps connected to my account and about 120 of them, I didn't need anymore and never heard of. Yikes! Time to do what I would like to call a "Fall Cleaning".

If you want to do the same here is how you do it, straight from the Facebook Help Desk.

You can manage your application settings from the Applications You Use page. To get to that page, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Privacy Settings page from the "Account" drop-down menu located at the top of any page on Facebook.
2. Click the "Edit your settings" link under the Applications and Websites section towards the bottom of the page.
3. Click on the application you'd like to remove. If you don’t see the application listed, you can find it by clicking the Edit Settings button towards the top right-hand side of the page.
4. You’ll then see an expanded view of your settings for that application. From here, you can click the "Remove application" link. Once you confirm you’d like to remove the application, it will no longer have access to your data and be removed from your profile, bookmarks, and your Applications and Games Dashboards.

From the Applications, Games, and Websites page, you can also:

• Remove unwanted or spammy applications
• Turn off all platform applications
• Control what information is open to your friends through applications and websites they're using
• Control who can see your recent activity on their Applications and Games Dashboard
• Edit your instant personalization and public search listing settings

It took a while and it was a pain but I would recommend doing it. I would love to know how many apps you removed.

Using Vlingo?? Speak fast!

Last week I saw a post on Mashable that the Vlingo iPhone App will now allow you to eMail & SMS. For a fee, of course.

Let me back up just a little bit. In December I started a new job. With the new job came an an entirely new commute. Driving to work... While working at my previous job I commuted to work via train and bus. This was great because it allowed me to listen to podcasts, catch up on my emails, etc. My new commute consists of driving 30-60 minutes (depending on traffic) each way. As you may know, using an iPhone while driving doesn't facilitate easy texting, emailing, etc. Nor is it safe. :)

So when I saw Mashable's post about email and text via voice I was wicked excited. Hastily I purchased the app to give it a try. Here are my findings.

Best Way to Use the App

• Speak fast


• Annunciate your words


• Use it often


• Have a sense of humor

^{*Regarding the last point, I found it very entertaining in the begining when it was making up words for me. I said some pretty funny stuff.}

The Drawbacks

• You can't speak to text in SMS. You have to do it in the Vlingo App then copy your text and paste into your SMS App.


• Same goes for email. (So it doesn't help the ability to do this while driving)


• Punctuation. I know I'm bad at it but forget writing a formal business email on here.

In conclusion, this app is not safe to use while driving. There are to many button's to press to do anything and you might drive off the side of the road with the entertaining phrases they come up with.
One recommendation I do have, is that they integrate it into email and SMS so if you are in your email client you can click a Vlingo button and it will allow you to speak to text right there.