Facebook is the world’s largest social network with over 700 million users.

Facebook launched its long anticipated iPad application.

The app was notable for two reasons: first, it was the first time the social network offered an official app for Apple’s tablet and second because it included an overhauled UI for Facebook’s immensely popular iPhone app as well.

Now Facebook appears to have brought the same improvements to its Android application, with an update that will soon be rolling out.

The update isn’t showing up for me on Android Market yet.

Based on screenshots in Facebook’s announcement it strongly resembles the iOS applications.

Improvements include persistent messages and notifications on the top of the screen and a nav bar that’s accessible from nearly anywhere within the app.

Facebook’s blog post also says that photos are up to twice as fast in the new version of the Android app.

Siri’s voice has become so well known that comics have been able to get laughs from imitating the application.

Siri has become one of the most well known features on the new Apple iPhone 4S.

Android owners have scoured the Android Market, looking for an app that can duplicate Siri’s functionality and now, it appears that Cluzee is the answer.

Ask Cluzee when your next appointment is and the app will tell you when it is, where it is and the time of the appointment.

It will also give you what time you need to leave in order to make the appointment and which streets and highways you need to take.

Cluzee can also send out email or text messages to those people on your contact list that are involved in the appointment.

While Siri can handle more commands now than Cluzee can at this point.

There is nothing that stops future updates from taking the app past Siri.

And while the latter is basically locked into the iOS platform.

Cluzee will be available on all platforms thanks to HTML5.

For those Android users longing for something similar to Siri.

We will soon have a full breakdown of all options available on the Android Market.

With all of the battles that go on between Apple users and Android users.

We can just imagine a battle brewing in the future between Siri and Cluzee over which personal assistant is better.

Cluzee will have to improve however, as early reports say that the program is quite buggy.

Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich update is tightly integrated with Google+ and Google accounts, which may play a role in helping the young social network grow.

Having a Google+ profile allows users to take advantage of new features like the People app in ICS.

The app takes users’ contacts and links them to their Google+ photos, providing a list of friends and family members and giving quick access to their status updates and posts on the social network.

Because ICS makes signing up for a Google+ profile easy, and being a member of the social network allows Android users to take advantage of new features, it’s likely the updated platform will lead to substantial growth for the site.

Google+ has grown faster than several of its competitors, even while interest in the site has faded of late.

ICS also prompts its users to sign up for a regular Google account in order to register their credit card to make purchases in the Android Market.

Past versions of Android did not ask users to make an account until they tried to buy something in the store, making it easy for them to back out of the mobile store and ignore it.

Now, new customers will likely be more inclined to sign up for an account during the set up, making all future purchases through the Android devices easier for Google to initiate.

The primary reason users give for Google+’s lack of appeal has been that their friends are not on the site, so they report having little reason to make frequent visits.

However, ICS will likely give millions of users a reason to sign up on the site, leading to more traffic and fueling further growth.

Google announced it has activated 200 million Android devices to date.

Not all of them will run ICS, but all future devices will likely run the OS and millions more are expected to receive the update, giving the company’s social network tremendous reach.

Gaining more user accounts with credit cards will increase Google’s revenues and help the company create an ecosystem of products, but ICS still provides the biggest boost to Google+.

Since the ticker a light weight news feed seen on the upper right hand part of Facebook.com was launched in August.

The social context ads had been running only via the app ticker for Facebook games.

Facebook will increase the distribution for Sponsored Stories by allowing them to run in the ticker across the site.

We are continuing to slowly roll out Sponsored Stories in ticker across Facebook.

Facebook spokesperson, said, “Starting on Monday.

The Palo Alto, CA-based digital giant launched Sponsored Stories during January.

The ad units have become an important focus of Facebook’s pitch to agencies, brands, and political marketers.

Sponsored Stories help people see more relevant marketing on Facebook and they can be twice as engaging as ads on Facebook.

NOKIA has launched its long-awaited first Windows 7 smartphones, hoping to claw back market share it has lost in the smartphone race to chief rivals, Apple, Samsung and Google.

With price tags of $560 and $360, the Lumia 800 and 710 are based on Microsoft’s operating system and come eight months after Nokia and the computing giant said they were hitching up.

Lumia 800, with Carl Zeiss optics and 16GB of internal memory, will be available in selected European countries in November, including France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and Britain.

It will be sold in Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan before the year end.

Lumia 710, with a 1.4 GHz processor, navigational applications and Nokia Music a free, mobile music streaming app will first be available in Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan toward the end of the year.

The company’s share price jumped almost 3 per cent in an otherwise depressed market on the Helsinki Stock Exchange but settled, closing almost unchanged at ($6.68).

Nokia, which claims 1.3 billion daily users, has been the world’s biggest handset maker since 1998, selling 432 million devices last year – more than its three closest rivals combined.

Worse still, Nokia’s sales in the more lucrative smartphone market crashed 39 per cent in the third quarter as it continued to be squeezed in the low end by Asian manufacturers like ZTE and in the high end by the iPhone, Research in Motion’s Blackberry, Korea’s Samsung Electronics and Taiwan-based HTC Corp.

The iPhone has set the standard for smartphones among many design-conscious consumers and the Blackberry has been the favourite of the corporate set.

Google’s Android software has emerged as the choice for phone makers that want to challenge the iPhone.

Samsung and HTC – snapping at Nokia’s heels for third place in topend smartphones behind the iPhone and Samsung – are the biggest users of the Android platform.

Nokia is still operating Symbian software, older than Apple’s software and considered clumsy by many, although it has been upgraded.

Nokia also introduced the MeeGo platform in its flagship N9 model launched last month.

Apple’s latest smartphone free software update launch  Friday 14 October.

The iPhone 4S, which will also run on the next generation OS.

The iPhone 4S has been packed with improvements such as an eight-megapixel camera with a backside illuminated CMOS sensor for better low light performance.

Eight hours of 3G talktime, six hours of browsing, nine hours of Wi-Fi, 10 hours of video, and 40 hours of music.

iPhone 3GS and above, iPad and iPod touch will be able download the new software and upgrade their OS to iOS 5 and benefit from the 200 or so new features added.

New features include a BlackBerry Messenger-rivaling free messaging app, iMessage, a location-aware Reminders app, Notification Centre, Newsstand and wireless synching.

Karen Yeates, Vice President of Technology, said. We’re so excited to announce the release of this new innovative tool, Pocket Travel Consultant.

The Pocket Travel Consultant will be simultaneously released in both Apple and Android application formats on November 21, 2011.

This user-friendly app has been designed to meet the needs of our members’ clients in this increasingly mobile world.

Indicative of its name, members’ clients will travel as if they have their travel professional at their side, on demand, 24/7, even while traveling internationally.

The Pocket Travel Consultant will be available to Signature member agencies’ clients for use during both the planning stages and while traveling.

The thousands of pages of content will include detailed destination information accommodations, dining, history, entertainment, fun facts, maps, etc.

plus customized trip planning resources for Signature members to utilize with their clients.

Agents will have the opportunity to create a trip itinerary and send it to their clients via the app.

Clients will be prompted to download the trip plan that will include selected cities and other customized suggestions prior to departure.

Signature Travel Network provided a preview to individuals at the Owners’ Meeting.

And will provide full training and implementation at the Signature Sales Meeting in November and the Regional Council Meetings next spring.

The app is fully customized with member branding and consultant call to action.

It will require a login from clients in order to reinforce the relationship between travel consultant and client.

Plus, all content is available off-line so that clients don’t have to be concerned about expensive cell phone access charges while abroad.

iOS 5-compatible apps in the Apple App Store has already started to grow. How do we know? Well, at least several apps have been spotted there with iOS 5 compatibility mentioned among their features.

That includes the Mashable! app, which has it clearly written in its description and the Camera+ app, which cleverly makes a reference to “that upcoming OS That Must Not Be Named.”

Apple is already approving iOS 5 apps, does that mean that the new firmware is launching alongside the iPhone 5? Although it does not quite guarantee that, seeing the next iPhone iteration launching with iOS 5 on board now sounds a bit more plausible.

The majority of rumors indicate the the iPhone 5 will be launching as soon as next month.

The BBC has confirmed plans to bring its popular iPlayer TV service globally to Apple’s [AAPL] iPhone and Apple TV in a move sure to please international audiences and one which potentially suggests future support for apps on the set-top box.

The Corporation revealed late on Wednesday that the iPlayer’s long-awaited international expansionwill arrive exclusively via the iPad in 11 European countries on Today.

Following the one year iPad trial, Auntie will set its sights on other Apple devices and appears to be focused on partnering only with the Cupertino-based giant for the time being.

iPlayer is the BBC’s service for on-demand TV show delivery. In the UK we enjoy a rich archive of content, including radio shows, recently-screened shows and older material. On an iPlayer it’s the best way to watch Torchwood when and where you want it, for example.

Until today, the BBC has been testing the iPlayer app exclusively on UK iPads. Now it intends widening its offering to more territories and, in future,more iOS devices on a global basis.

“This is a pilot – we want to learn more about on-demand behaviour … We think the next phase will be on iPhones and Apple TV,” said the BBC’s president of worldwide networks Jana Bennett.

The admission also offers a hint for the UK-based iPlayer’s future. Apple TV compatibility isn’t something us Brits have at our disposal, nor is it something that has yet been heavily mooted.

The international version of iPlayer won’t offer the same breadth of content — that’s because of copyright and licensing problems. Users will get access to a rich archive of shows, including recently-screened shows, for a fee of approximately $10 per month.

Customers can download shows for offline viewing within iPlayer. In order to achieve this the BBC had to override a system-level iPad setting, which it managed in partnership with Apple.

The interesting thing to note here is that iPlayer on iPad is an app, and runs like any other app. So, how might the BBC/Apple team bring iPlayer to the Apple TV, a device which doesn’t currently run apps?

Apple has reached a deal with the BBC under which the iPlayer app will be offered pre-loaded on Apple TV devices, as Netflix movie rentals currently are, pending a Hulu acquisition. This feature will be offered to the existing 1.5 million Apple TV owners as a software update.

A third scenario: Apple is preparing to flick the switch to begin making further use of the A4 processor inside existing models of Apple TV, enabling selected apps to be run on the device. Though this poses some remote control issues, which perhaps have also been surmounted.

“This feels like a soft launch of the global iPlayer, with the bigger long-term opportunities for BBC Worldwide lying in the US market. It remains to be seen what appetite there is for a service based largely around on-demand archive content.“