Why Apple's iOS6 has so much love for Facebook

Apple has announced its new operating system the iOS6 for iPhones, iPad, plus the newer iPod Touch devices. The one feature of the iOS6 that has sparked off a bunch of posts online is the OS’s integration with Facebook. Yes, Facebook will be now be ever more deeply ingrained in your iPhones, iPads and those using the new Mac OS, which is Mountain Lion. According to this feature, Facebook will now appear by default in iPhone apps such as calendar, contacts and the App Store itself.  Users will be able to post locations to Facebook directly from the maps app and post photos to Facebook directly from the photos app. A Tap to post button is also being added to iOS notifications, which means users can post their status updates directly without clicking on the Facebook app. [caption id=“attachment_340391” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption="  Apple Senior VP of iPhone Software Scott Forstall announces better Facebook integration as part the new iOS 6 operating system for iPhone and iPad during the keynote address at the Apple 2012 World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC). Getty Images"]  [/caption] Apple’s App store will also be giving some serious love to Facebook. When your friends like an app you’ll be able to see that on the app store itself. Also the Facebook friend list integration and iPhone contact book will get deeper, with email addresses on Facebook appearing in the iPhone contact list. Users can dictate their Facebook posts via Siri, reports Mashable. So does this integration necessarily mean good news for users? CNET’s Larry Dignan thinks this will be one over-sharing nightmare. He says,

“Facebook. Integrated throughout iOS. You’ll definitely Like it.” I already unlike it.

Here’s the new world order: Unless you manage Facebook closely, you’ll wind up sharing more than you want. Aside from the obvious battery life issues, the integration may encourage people to stay logged out of Facebook. The reality is that most of us will forget we’re logged into Facebook and burden ourselves and our friends with oversharing. TechCrunch’s Josh Constine is a bit more pessimistic about the seamless integration which he thinks could destroy social-networking as we know it. He writes:

Beyond being bad for our souls, one-way streets from Apple products into Facebook and Twitter could reduce the average Likes, comments, replies, and retweets our posts get. That means fewer re-engagement notifications. In Apple’s unending quest to bring us convenience, it might have sucked some of the soul out of social networking. 900 million people yelling and no one listening doesn’t sound like a very friendly place to hang out.

While the whole posting-alone argument might seem a little unfair to Apple, there’s no doubt that  Facebook’s ‘seamless’ integration into iOS6 could cause a lot of privacy concerns for users. It certainly won’t seem fair to those who don’t like to share everything on Facebook. The Facebook plus Apple integration only means that users will really have to spruce up their privacy settings so as to ensure that not everything they do gets posted on their timelines or turns into likes. But in terms of instant photo shares, post shares, etc, this  is a great move. So was the Facebook+iOS integration surprising? Not really, as Facebook revealed last week that it was pretty much driving traffic to Apple’s app store. The numbers look like this: More than 230 million people play games on Facebook every month. More than 130 games on Facebook have more than 1 million monthly active users. More than 4,500 timeline apps have launched since f8 in September 2011. Apple and Facebook have a tough relationship in the past. In the past, when Steve Jobs was  CEO, a deal for Facebook integration in Apple’s Ping music social network didn’t go through. But with iOS6 the Apple-Facebook relationship is going to change drastically. Apple has not yet announced the date as to when the iOS6 update will released. Last year, it took place in October. This year too, the iOS6 update could be released around the time of the launch of the new iPhone, the iPhone 5.