Official Facebook and Kindle apps for Windows Phone get small updates

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

As many of you may have noticed, two somewhat major apps for Windows Phone received updates in the last 24 hours, so we’ll pass on the news in case you missed it.

First up is Facebook, which has been receiving quite a few updates lately, generally a good sign…unless you consider everything so broke that it needs even more fixing. The last update was just a week ago for version 2.6 and now version 2.7  has landed in the Marketplace bringing with it some new fixes though no new features:

  • Notifications now show updated time instead of created time
  • Corrected thumbnail display on likes
  • Now respecting except clause on posts with custom privacy settings

That’s nothing terribly exciting though if you were experiencing any of those issues, hopefully you’ll be a bit pleased with the update.

Next up is Amazon’s Kindle ebook app. That app is now on version 1.2 which shows you how often that one gets updated (seriously, it has had one update in the last year). The good news here is this update is more significant:

  • Mango compliant including fast app switching, multi-tasking
  • Available in more regions, including Japan, Portugal, Brazil, Poland, Sweden and presumably other areas too [Forum]
  • Books are pinnable to start screen with 2 sided Live Tile

That’s some pretty cool stuff by Amazon and we’re hear they’re being quite proactive with customer support, see this post about a personal phone call from the company.

Should you wish to grab either app, you can pick up the official Facebook app here and the Amazon Kindle app here in the Windows Phone Marketplace. Thanks, everyone, for the tips and sab742 for the images

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.

43 Comments
  • Got my Facebook update last night. Its nice to know when I get a notification almost right away.
  • Notifications stop working all together with Facebook on my phone.This app gets worse with every update.
  • I got plenty of notifications today. Stop trolling
  • Facebook app sucks that's my opinion and I can voice that opinion on here.The baked in version is way better and Facebook needs to step it up.
  • Have you checked within Facebook settings that notifications have been enabled? If you have already checked this try going to phone settings, swipe to the right to Applications and select background tasks. Try removing facebook, then reboot the phone, reload Facebook and set the push notifications to on again.
  • You don't necessarily need to reboot, but if it helps, go for it.
  • Amazon Kindle is now available in Brazil.
  • Added, thanks
  • Hey Daniel, what is that WiFi shortcut app you are using? Please answer, I like how it looks.
  • It's an app called Network Dashboard.
  • Thanks man!
  • It's my start screen actually ;p The shortcut tiles you see there were all made using "Supreme Shortcuts", which is a homebrew app. AFAIK no app in the marketplace can create links to battery saver or internet sharing
  • Aaaw dammit! Was just about to ask 'cause I cant get those and I have Dashboard.
  • Is the Battery Saver-icon also from Network Dashboard? I have ND but I cant find the Battery Saver. :(
  • It's probably this one: http://www.wpcentral.com/battery-meter-live-tile-life-saver-homebrew
  • there also an app called Connection Tiles to get wifi shortcut app.
  • And Poland too.
  • Beautiful now I can pin my Books
  • Facebook 2.6 (maybe since 2.5) sometimes shows the wrong comments and likes under posted photos. It's like they're a photo off or something. Is this widespread? And/or does this update fix that?
  • +1, I wonder if it's comments on the album being posted on individual photos.
  • Kindle available in Sweden.
    I have mailed them so many times about getting this app to Sweden. Finally I can access my kindle books on the phone again.
  • Norway too, have been very disappointed, and halted all book purchases. Good to be able to read with kindle again.
  • I am waiting for a Facebook application to manage fan pages ... But no news about it. I guess it's was released few weeks ago on other platforms but I didn't read any announcement for WP.
  • I wish they would let me click on links either on my wall or on a comment or in a private message. In the latter the link doesn't even show up. *lame*
    Also.... I wish they'd let me add photos into an album or even let me post a photograph on to friends wall
  • WHAT IS WRONG WITH FACEBOOK MOBILE!? EVERY WINDOWS PHONE GET "CONNECTION ERROR"
  • What is wrong with your caps-lock key and general knowledge of posting etiquette?
  • Well..I've posted this twice and everyone seems to ignore it, smartass.
  • It's not a widely reported problem and we have had very few complaints about it.
  • I had this with the mobile webstie last week, it seems to have correct itself now though.
  • No my phone..
  • I too am having this problem. Its very annoying as I know it's not a problem with my connection since every other site works fine.
  • Still waiting for the Facebook app to give me the Timeline and ability to share posts.
  • My notifications been working excellent. Love windows phone. Also live tiles been working excellent has well.
  • Even with the update the kindle app is crap. It force closes after trying to register. How is that still an issue? Do they even care about their product?
  • Still no rotation lock in Kindle despite the fact that this has been requested by many users. Thanks Amazon.
  • Kindle was very good, great it's still improving. Amazon's IT people seems to be very competent.
  • Yeeeaaah...I'm going to have to go ahead...and...disagree with that.
    I contacted Amazon technical support about the WP7 app crashing on book load recently. I quickly got back a canned response with instructions about how to deal with the problem: in WebOS.
    I read it anyway and the take away was to uninstall and re-install. Made no difference.
    Look at the reviews in the last 3-4 weeks. Most of them are 1 stars complaining about force close/dump to app list. Books that were working fine a month ago now mysteriously stopped displaying. So basically half my books are readable at the moment.
  • That sucks, though my opinion on both Kindle and store apps are the best, they're very well designed and never gave me problems.
  • I wonder if the update had anything to do with the Email Problems others are experiencing on other platforms.
  • I just received the latest Kindle update. It wouldn't open the recently read books until I reset my Nokia Lumia 800.
  • The app still sucks
  • The Kindle app is working magnificently for me, but I'm having one issue -- clicking on "Shop the Kindle store" links to a page in my browser that gives me an Amazon error message. Is this just because I'm in Canada? I can still read my books fine, but now I can't buy any new ones (at least, not through the app). What gives!?
  • I'm in Canada and just tried the "shop the kindle store" feature - worked fine for me. For reference, the URL used to the store was https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/kindle/storefront/ref=kin_wp_str. Maybe it's another reset of the phone issue? Try that and see if it fixes this quirk.