Social Beat FAQ

1. What is Social Beat?
2. Which web services does Social Beat support?

1. What is Social Beat?
Social Beat is your new best friend — a FREE application for your Verizon phone that gives you Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Google Talk, up-to-the-minute news feeds and more in a single application. All the latest updates from all your favorite services are delivered into a bright, shiny window on your phone — plus you can respond instantly, just like you would from the web.

2. Which web services does Social Beat currently support?
Social Beat currently supports:

Facebook
Twitter
MySpace
Gmail*
Google Talk
News feeds
*Not available on BlackBerry

System Requirements

3. What kind of mobile phone do I need to use the Social Beat mobile app?
Social Beat is supported on a variety of devices — please check the supported devices page for the most up-to-date list of supported handsets.

4. Do I need WiFi access to use Social Beat?
Nope. Social Beat runs over your mobile data connection.

5. Do I need to have an account for every service?
No - you can activate and use only the services that you choose. Don’t have an account for a service, but want one? See question #6.

6. Can I create a new account for a web service (e.g. a new Facebook account) from Social Beat?
Not yet - the current version of Social Beat needs you to create these accounts from your PC. Once you’ve set them up, then you’re free to use them on Social Beat.

How to

7. How do I get Social Beat on my phone?
For BREW handsets:
a. From the Main menu on your Verizon phone, click on the icon labeled Media Center.
b. Select Browse & Download, and then Get New Applications.
c. Your phone will take a moment to power up the browser. Then, on the page that follows, select Community and Sharing. Find Social Beat in the list of Community and Sharing applications and click on it to begin the download process.
d. Once you’ve downloaded Social Beat, save the app to your phone’s “Browse and Downloads” folder.

For BlackBerry:
a. Open your Downloads Folder and click on Social Beat.
b. You’ll be directed to a Wap page where you can download and install the application. Follow the instructions on the page to download.
c. Social Beat will save in your Downloads folder.

8. How does the Social Beat log in work?
It’s simple: the first time you launch Social Beat, you’ll sign in to each of your services once. That’s it. After that, Social Beat will automatically sign you into your services every time you launch the app.

You can change this setting if you want, though. Just open Social Beat’s “More” menu and select “Social Beat Settings.” Uncheck the box labeled “Sign Me in Automatically” to set the application to manual login. You can choose whether or not you want Social Beat to save your user names by checking (or unchecking) “Remember Me.”

9. How do I navigate around Social Beat?
At the top of the screen, you’ll see a row of icons displaying all of Social Beat’s different services. This carousel is what you’ll use to navigate from service to service.
Using your phone’s five-way navigator, scroll to the top of the screen to activate the Carousel — the carousel’s gray background will appear in color to indicate that you have activated it. Scroll left and right through the icons. As you scroll, you will move through Social Beat’s different pages to view your services.

When you’re signed in to a service, you’ll notice a set of tabs underneath the carousel. The tabs are Social Beat’s way of organizing all the content within your services. Scroll down to the tabs, and then navigate left and right to access the tabs within that service.

To return to the carousel, scroll LEFT from the leftmost tab or RIGHT from the rightmost tab. You can also just scroll up to the top of the page.

10. Are there any shortcuts that make navigating around Social Beat easier?
YES!

For BREW phones with standard key pads:
“*” key - moves you up to the Carousel.
“0″ key - functions as a “page down” button.

For BREW phones with QWERTY key pads:
“*” key and q - moves you up to the Carousel.
“0″ key and space bar - function as a “page down” button.

For BlackBerry devices:
“T” key - returns you to the top of that page.
“B” key - takes you to the bottom of that page.
Space bar - functions as a “page down” button
Shift + space bar - functions as a “page up” button

11. Can I leave Social Beat running in the background while I use other features on my phone?
This capability varies by phone, but Social Beat will certainly run in the background if your device allows for it.

To minimize Social Beat (the app stays running in the background):
- Open the Options menu.
- Select Minimize Social Beat.
- You’ll see a screen confirming that you want to minimize the Social Beat application. Press Yes.

For BREW only:
To exit Social Beat with offline alerts enabled (the app will be inactive unless a one-to-one communication comes in):
- Open the Options menu.
- Select Exit Social Beat.
- You’ll see a screen confirming that you want to Exit out of the Social Beat application. *Press Yes.

Troubleshooting

12. Social Beat tells me my user name/password is incorrect when I try to log into my services, but I KNOW they’re right. What’s going on?
VERY important - ALL passwords are case-sensitive. Some phones will automatically capitalize the first letter in your password. Keep an eye out for that - and adjust the case as needed.

13. Sometimes when I’m using Social Beat I suddenly end up in my phone’s internet browser. What’s going on, and how can I get back?
Don’t worry, it’s supposed to work this way (and whenever Social Beat opens the browser, it asks your permission first). Some content requires that we go to the browser — For example, for News feeds, Social Beat shows you the news feed headlines and the first few lines of the story. To read the whole article, Social Beat will launch the webpage where the article lives.

It works similarly for some of the MySpace features. You can see status updates, comments and news feeds, but to view things like your blogs, bulletins and photo albums, Social Beat will launch the service in the phone’s web browser — and you may need to do a one-time sign in on the MySpace mobile website (again — another thing that you should only have to do once).

Once you’re done viewing the content, just close the browser (press your phone’s “back” key, red End key, or open the Options menu and select “Exit Browser”), and return to the Social Beat application in your phone’s Browse & Download folder.

14. The app just froze. Now what?
Hold down the “Back” or “End” key until you see an option to “End Application.” Exit out of the app and then restart. If that doesn’t work, then power your phone off and back on.

15. I’m seeing data usage and I want it to stop. What do I do?
Social Beat uses your data connection to keep your services updated. If you want to stop all Social Beat-related data usage on your phone:

For BREW:
a) Open the More menu and select Social Beat Settings.
b) Uncheck the box labeled Notify if Exit, then press Save.
c) Exit the Social Beat application by opening the More menu and selecting Exit.

For BlackBerry: Open the Options menu and select Exit.

Social Beat will cease all data usage until you manually relaunch the application.

16. I have a BlackBerry Curve 2 (8530). Why can’t I see Social Beat in my Applications folder?
Check with your service provider to determine if your service configuration is “Prosumer” or “Enterprise.” Social Beat is only available to Blackberry subscribers with the Prosumer service.

Security

17. What does Social Beat do to protect my log in credentials?
Your password is entered and stored on your phone. When your password is sent to our server, we use SSL encryption for transport and we never store the password on the server.

18. What happens if I lose my device?
Just to be safe, you should reset all the passwords for the services you were using in Social Beat.

Social Beat FAQ

System Requirements

How To

Troubleshooting

Security

System Requirements

How to

Troubleshooting

Security