Everything iPad

The first question you’re probably asking yourself at this point, is why we’re talking about Facebook. Let alone why we’d be talking about how it relates to iPhone OS 4. Then again, you might’ve already figured it out on your own, just from the way that title so cleverly all puts it together. Sure enough, courtesy of a new report coming out of Silicon Valley, Apple could be experimenting with some heavy social network integration.

Smartphones of pretty much every shape and size already do this. Palm/HP’s webOS does it. Google’s Android does it now, well after HTC’s Sense User Interface (UI) did it. So, no surprise that Apple wants to get in on the action, too. Especially when you consider how important social networking is to pretty much everyone out there. And, well, it’s Facebook.

Silicon Alley Insider is citing a “plugged-in source in the mobile industry,” when they say that Apple is hard at work at incorporating Facebook into the iPhone OS 4’s contacts list. But, in addition, the report suggests that chatting via Facebook Chat could be somehow integrated into the messaging features of the next iPhone OS. We certainly hope that last part really, really gets figured out, because if you’re been unlucky to use Facebook Chat, then you know how crazy unreliable it is. Now, the big question is: what does all of this mean for iPhone OS 4.x when it hits the iPad later this year? Ah, let the speculation begin!

[via Silicon Alley Insider]