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TomTom iPhone and iPad apps to get more sociable with Facebook-powered directions

Forthcoming updates for the TomTom iPhone and iPad apps will see the sat-nav service pulling contact information in from Facebook and Twitter. The idea is that you’d be able to check ‘Attending’ on Dave’s Big Housewarming Party on Facebook, power up the app and then let TomTom get the co-ordinates for you.

You can also use the app to announce your current location and ETA via Facebook and Twitter, email or SMS through the app. So you can easily and accurately let people waiting at a #tweetup your current position and how long you’ll be.

The app will also automatically update if there’s been a change of plan made on the Facebook page, so if the party is moved elsewhere at the last minute, TomTom will process the new coordinates straight away.

Though you’ll be able to tweet and email your impending arrival, the focus of the social integration seems to be all about the Facebook.

“According to recent studies, the vast majority of iPhone users use Facebook on their iPhone” says Corinne Vigreux, Managing Director Consumer at TomTom. “By integrating Facebook features into our TomTom App we make navigating to places, events and seeing friends even easier.”

If friends and Facebook contacts have published their home addresses on their pages then you should be able to use this information to power directions as well. All sounds pretty neat to us and clever use of the information that’s available on Facebook.

Of course it’ll hinge on how privacy-conscious your Facebook friends are – or even if they’re on Facebook at all. The new version of the app will be rolling out over the next few months. We’ll let you know as soon as we hear exactly when.

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