Since a lot of social media users are using Smartphones – and the iPhone in particular – to keep in touch with their social circles and network contacts, we thought it would be useful for people to have a list of the new and upgraded features in the newest version of the iPhone operating system: iPhone OS4.

In addition to some eagerly-anticipated features like multi-tasking, home screen wallpaper and folders for organizing app icons, there are a host of other changes that aim to make iPhone more user-friendly.

Here’s a list of changes/additions copied from the installation screen when upgrading to OS4:

This update contains over 100 new features, including the following:

• Multitasking support for third-party apps*
- Multitasking user interface to quickly move between apps
- Support for audio apps to play in the background
- VoIP apps can receive and maintain calls in the background or when device is asleep
- Apps can monitor location and take action while running in the background
- Alerts and messages can be pushed to apps using push and local notifications
- Apps can complete tasks in the background

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Always wanted to know what people are saying about you when you’re not around? Then, this is the site for you – or at least for your web site. BackTweets lets you enter a URL and see the mentions other people have made for that site. Vewwwy interesting!

Click here to visit the BackTweets site.

I was at a presentation on Thursday at the Yaletown Rotary Club being given by Kemp Edmonds (@KempEdmonds), a social media educator at BCIT. One of the topics he discussed was cross-posting on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networking web sites. Cross-posting – posting the same information on multiple sites at once – makes it easier to keep all your social media profile up to date, but there are also potential downfalls.

Kemp discussed the idea that using tags and symbols in your messages – particularly those employed by seasoned Twitter users – on sites where they’re not typically used can result in alienation of the audience on other sites. In this case, cross-posting would negate your efforts to reach more audience in less time.

Have you ever seen an @ or # symbol in someone’s Facebook or LinkedIn status? What does RT mean anyway? Kemp had a great point in stating that not everyone is familiar with these symbols and abbreviations. Furthermore, no one likes to feel like they’re out of the loop. So, in the interest of education, let’s examine what these cryptic Twitter symbols and terms mean:

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