Friending Facebook

Emil Protalinski
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Apple’s OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion features Twitter, no Facebook

By | February 16, 2012, 10:04am PST

Summary: Apple is once again choosing to integrate Twitter into one of its operating systems. Facebook does not get a mention in OS X 10.8 Mountain. Does this mean it won’t make it into iOS either?

Apple today gave OS X Mountain Lion, version 10.8 of its desktop operating system, to developers. Like iOS, it includes Twitter integration, while Facebook is left out in the cold.

Here’s the relevant excerpt from the features section of Apple’s OS X Mountain Lion Sneak Peek:

Twitter
Tweet right from your apps. OS X Mountain Lion keeps you on top of all things Twitter. Sign in once and you’re all set to start tweeting — and you don’t have to leave the app you’re in. Tweet links and photos directly from Safari, iPhoto, or Photo Booth with the new Tweet Sheet. Tweet comments and add locations. And when someone mentions you in a tweet or sends you a direct message, you’ll get a Twitter notification right then and there.

There’s also the developer API, according to Mountain Lion for Developers:

Share Sheets
Share Sheets make it simple for users to share links, photos, and videos directly from your apps. Users can share content through Twitter, Flickr, Vimeo, Messages, Mail, AirDrop, or you can even add your own share destination.

Facebook was supposed to be integrated into iOS 4. Cupertino wanted to code its own Facebook features because it lacked confidence in Menlo Park’s ability to build a great app, so it built the social network into its mobile operating system. Facebook said no and negotiations broke down. Apple then went with Twitter in iOS 5.

Now, it looks like Apple has extended its relationship with Twitter to its desktop OS. Facebook, meanwhile, still isn’t part of iOS nor OS X.

The iOS-Facebook saga is one of three episodes which demonstrated a strained Apple-Facebook relationship (the other two are related to Ping and the HP TouchPad). The partnership between the two technology giants started to turn around last year, however, possibly because the duo shares a mutual enemy: Google.

Facebook gave Apple quite a boost in 2011, including an official iPad app and the Facebook Platform for Mobile. I’ve speculated before that 2012 might be the year Apple returns the favor with some iOS integration but this developer preview of OS X Mountain Lion makes that seem even less likely.

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Topics

Facebook, Twitter Inc., Apple Inc., Apple OS, OS X Mountain Lion, Apple iOS, Apple Mac OS X, Social Media, Mobile Operating Systems, Operating Systems, Software, Apple Mac OS, Emil Protalinski

Emil Protalinski has covered the tech industry for five years for multiple publications.

Disclosure

Emil Protalinski

Emil has nothing to disclose.

Biography

Emil Protalinski

Emil Protalinski has covered the tech industry for five years for multiple publications, including Neowin for two years and Ars Technica for three years. He has written 1,000s of articles for both, with a particular focus on scrutinizing Microsoft products and services. Recently, Emil has expanded his coverage to non-Microsoft technologies, including the social networking giant Facebook.

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RE: Apple's OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion features Twitter, no Facebook
Gisabun 17th Feb
@ccrockett@... : Maybe. Maybe not. MS offers OneNote free of charge to Mac an iPad users but not in Windows. MS hardware [mice, keyboards, ..] mostly still are supported on Macs. Do people really care about Facebook integration? How hard is it to use a decent web browser [Safari ain't] to open it and go to Facebook.
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RE: Apple's OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion features Twitter, no Facebook
ccrockett@... 16th Feb
I's suspect that Microsoft has a bit to do with the lack of Facebook intregration into iOS. And as long and the two are partnered up I do not suspect that will change. On the upside my WP7 is a Facebook powerhouse!
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RE: Apple's OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion features Twitter, no Facebook
Gisabun 17th Feb
@ccrockett@... : Maybe. Maybe not. MS offers OneNote free of charge to Mac an iPad users but not in Windows. MS hardware [mice, keyboards, ..] mostly still are supported on Macs. Do people really care about Facebook integration? How hard is it to use a decent web browser [Safari ain't] to open it and go to Facebook.

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