Ever since Apple integrated Twitter into iOS 5, many have been clamoring to also have Facebook integration for posting status updates and photos anywhere in the OS. There was reportedly some drama between Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs over the Ping debacle and iOS 5 integration. The two companies just can’t seem to get along.
Whether Facebook ever makes its way to iOS or not, a new jailbreak tweak brings integration with the social network giant right now. Fusion lets you simultaneously post to Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, and even MySpace.
Developed by @HomeSchoolDev, Fusion was made available on Cydia late last night in the BigBoss repo. Not only does it integrate multiple social networks into iOS 5, but it also lets you post updates to multiple networks with Siri.
Fusion doesn’t add a new interface to iOS 5, but there are some things to configure in Settings. Namely, Fusion comes with plugins for Facebook, Foursquare, MySpace, and Twitter. Since Twitter is already integrated into iOS 5 by default and you’ve presumably given the OS your password, you won’t have to set anything up for Twitter in Fusion. A bug I noticed is that you need to reboot your iPhone to have the Fusion plugins displayed in Settings. If you install Fusion and don’t see any plugins, respring your iPhone and everything should work fine.
For each social network, you can log into your account, give it access to your GPS location (that’s key for Foursquare, obviously), and enable Auto-Selection. When you post an update in the Twitter compose window, enabling Auto-Selection means that those networks will automatically be checked to also update. You can uncheck individual networks before posting a status update, so you’re never locked into a certain way of doing things.
Set an Activator action for Quick Compose to post an update anywhere in iOS 5. I set mine to a triple Home button tap for testing. The window you’ll use for posting is simply a slightly tweaked version of Apple’s dialog for posting to Twitter.
The little arrow next to the character limit triggers your 4 network icons for selecting where your status update will go. Check each box to send to Facebook, Foursquare, and so on. There’s also the option to send your location data with your status. The experience is pretty seamless because it integrates so tightly with what Apple has already put in place.
Fusion also lets you post updates with Siri. The tweak installs AssistantExtensions from Cydia if you don’t have it already, and from there it’s as simple as opening Siri and speaking. Something like “Post status to Facebook saying what a beautiful day!” will cause Siri to trigger the Quick Compose window and fill in “What a beautiful day!” with the Facebook icon checked.
For a tweak that brings this type of functionality, Fusion is worth the $2 price tag in Cydia. If you want Facebook integration in iOS 5, this is as good as it gets.
[via iDB]
