Apple to take on Facebook with new Photo Streaming

By Elias Samuel | January 20 2011 4:23 AM

Apple seems to be on a roll, the multinational corporation and tech giant that markets consumer electronics, computer software and personal computers, already brimming with sales of iPhone and tablet PCs, is now aiming to take on the social networking giant Facebook with its new photo streaming feature.

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The Apple logo shines inside of an Apple Store in New York July 19, 2010.

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According to 9to5mac, the Mac Website, the Apple’s 'Media Stream' folder hidden in iOS 4.3 file system has a feature known as 'Photo Streaming'. Using Photo Streaming, the iPhone users will be able to set up Photo Streams where other users can be invited to view the pictures as one takes them and upload them to a service. The service is expected to be connected to MobileMe, which is a subscription-based collection of online services and software offered by Apple Inc.

A report on Gizmodo confirmed the availability of Photo Streaming while testing the new iOS version stating, “While testing iOS 4.3 Beta 2, I came across a mysterious error message proclaiming PHOTOSTREAM_NO_NETWORK_WIFI. It may be referencing Apple's new media streaming service.”

The 'Media Stream' is also expected to be connected to 'Find my Friends', a feature added to its MobileMe service as part of Apple’s social network where users can choose to view their friends on the same map. The 'Find my Friends' feature was pictured by Engadget, which also listed many other new devices and functionality including in-app AirPlay video support, a carrier-dependent personal Wi-Fi hotspot.

Facebook, on the other hand, has feature known as Dyyno, where it “lets you share your LIVE/On-Demand Videos as well as Photo Streams right on your Facebook News Feed; Your Friends & Fans can watch your videos on their Wall. Additionally, you can watch your Friends' Videos and Featured Videos.”

These new features are basical focus on social networking and content sharing. As reports suggest, we can see that Apple is trying to imitate the basic functionality provided by networks like Facebook, Google Latitude, Flickr, Kin Studio and many others. Now, we can only wait and watch to see if Apple can really match up to Facebook's functionality which even streams videos.

With these files hidden, there are questions if it may be possible that Apple is not yet ready to launch the social networking feature through iOS 4.3 update or may be will have to wait until iOS 5.0.

Meanwhile, another report based one release documents suggest that, the iOS 4.3 will not contain multitasking feature which was shown to the developers. The multitasking gestures are still in planning stage where Apple plans to refine it further.