Once a week we round up some of the great tips that flow into the HTG tips box and share them with the greater readership. This week we’re talking about downloading your Facebook data for easy wall searching, packing lots of apps into iOS folders, and keeping tabs on web apps that can access your private data.
Download All Your Facebook Data The Easy Way
Even with the advent of the Facebook Timeline, it’s still a huge pain to effectively search your own Facebook history. Unbeknownst to most Facebook users… you can ask Facebook to bundle up all your user data and share it with you as a file dump. It’s super easy! Go to your Account Settings page, click Download Data, and then wait for an email. In an hour or two you’ll get an email from Facebook. Click the link and verify the download with your Facebook password… ta-dah! You get a .ZIP file with all the data you’ve ever shared with Facebook. In that .ZIP file is wall.html. Load that file up in your web browser and you can instantly search every single wall post you’ve ever made. No more clicking around from page to page or year to year (if you’re using the Timeline). Everything is in one extremely long HTML document!
We tried it out, Michelle. Pretty neat—the downloaded version lacks the flourishes and clean formatting of your actual Facebook wall, but it does, as you promised, display nearly a decades worth of Facebook status updates. Nice find!
Enable Infinite Folders on Your iOS Device
Brad writes in with the following tip for iOS users:
I have an iPad and an iPhone, and I really love the folder features Apple introduced in iOS 4.2. The only problem is that the folder sizes are limited! It’s so stupid. I like putting apps into folders (like all my RPG games in one folder, all my board games in another, all my utility apps I use for network testing in a third, etc.) The 12 (on the iPhone/iPod Touch) and 20 (on the iPad) item folder limit is ridiculous. I don’t want folders like Board Games I, Board Games II, etc. I want all the shortcuts in one place!The solution is a jailbreak app by the name of Infinifolders. It’s a simple tweak, all it does is extend the limit of the folders. I can now put as many apps as I want in a single folder without any practical limitations. The app costs $1.99 and it’s worth every penny. Search for it in the Cydia store.
We’re off to do a little tidying on our iPad!
Check The File Permissions for Your Web-Based Applications
Nate writes in with a tip about keeping an eye on your virtual privacy:
I saw your coverage of NotificationControl last week and wanted to give a shout out to a similar service, MyPermissions. Like NotificationControl helps you quickly check the email notifications for services, MyPermissions helps you quickly check permissions for web-apps. If you try out a lot of add-on services for Facebook, Flickr, and Dropbox, for example, its real easy to lose track of which companies you’ve given access to your accounts. Visit MyPermissions and just work your way through the relevant services to double check and make sure you’re not sharing your Facebook profile with some shady game company.
Posts
Download All Your Facebook Data, Inifinite Apps in iOS Folders, and Checking Web-App Permissions