Hasta La Gadget!

“The [story behind the history of Home] was about making an experience that flows through friends and people. We saw three ways that we could do this. One, we could go and build an operating system. Second, we could dig into Android deeply in order to see how we could we fundamentally change / fork Android to make it different. Or, we could build an app to make it different.” Those were the words just spoken by Cory Ondrejka — the director of mobile engineering at Facebook — here at D: Dive Into Mobile in NYC. This, in fact, confirms that Facebook not only gave thought to actually crafting its own operating system in order to usher Facebook Home into the world, but moved forward with prototypes.

Host Kara Swisher asked the duo how far along things actually got, to which Ondrejka replied: “The OS path was the least fleshed-out of the paths. Mark [Zuckerberg] talked on launch day that he wanted to build something for everyone. It’s hard to get to the type of scale that’s necessary for us [when building an OS]. We wanted Home in front of hundreds of millions of people — even a successful OS would only give that experience to a few of them.”

The two continued to talk about Facebook’s internal shift into mobile. At this point, the company has broken down most every wall between desktop and mobile, and Home is the first major product to ship under this new scenario. “You can see the engines throttling up,” Schroepfer said, speaking of how fast updates will soon be coming to iOS, Android and beyond. In fact, he confirmed that the first major update to Home was coming “during the second week of May,” while international users will start to get Home access on select Android phones today. And, while Facebookers have been testing Home on tablets, it wants to truly nail the experience on phones first before pushing it elsewhere.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Facebook

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Facebook Home, for those unfamiliar, is a launcher for Android devices which basically deeply integrates Facebook into the phone, allowing users a more immerssive Facebook experience. The UI itself is pretty sleek and we have to say that it looks a lot better than what manufacturers out there are installing on their phones these days. However will Facebook Home be a pure Android experience? Will Facebook Home ever arrive on iOS devices or maybe even Windows Phone?

According to Facebook’s director of product, Adam Mosseri in an interview with Bloomberg, he has revealed that Facebook has been in talks with Apple and Microsoft about the possibility of somehow making Facebook Home part of their mobile platform as well. Mosseri claims that the talks are more about showing what Facebook has built and that nothing has been finalized just yet. Considering the rather closed nature of iOS and Windows Phone, allowing the entire OS to be replaced by Facebook might seem like quite a stretch, but what do you guys think about the possibility, yay or nay?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: iPhone 5S Rumored To Feature 12MP Camera, Dish Reportedly Interested In Sprint As Well, Makes Counter-Offer Of Their Own,

Facebook Home was recently released on the HTC First exclusively for about two or so hours, and then was released onto a select few of Android phones leaving many without an HTC One X, HTC One X+, Samsung Galaxy S3 or Galaxy Note 2 out of luck if they wanted to experience the app for themselves. You could wait until either Facebook or your Android device’s manufacturer announces your device now supports Facebook Home, or you could simply run a hack to get it on your Android device right now.

The XDA Developers have come up with a hack that modifies Facebook Home to remove its device-specific limitations, meaning you could run the service on any Android device. The process requires a bit of work on the users’ part, but if you really want to try Facebook Home, then you can do so by following these four steps: (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Verizon Extends Upgrade Eligibility Program To A Full Two Years, Dropbox Can Be Used To Find Your Stolen Computer,

HEach week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

Facebook’s management doesn’t see any dichotomy in the phrase, “Go big or go home,” at least as far as it might pertain to Facebook Home. After being dogged for years with questions about whether the Land o’ Likes would create its own smartphone despite consistent denials, the company explained that its own phone wouldn’t give it the reach it would need for its more than 1 billion members. With the exceptions of the iPhone and the Galaxy S series, a successful handset today might sell 20 million units. That’s a number that many services would dream of reaching, but it’s just one-fiftieth of Facebook’s user base.

And yet, Facebook Home will start out factory-installed on only one device: the HTC First, a mid-range Android device available exclusively from AT&T. Home is also available as a download from Google Play for a handful of other popular Android handsets, including the Galaxy S III.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Apple, Samsung, HTC, Blackberry, Facebook

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Facebook has revealed its next TV ad for Facebook Home, and this time, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is featured in it. In the video, Zuckerberg is making an announcement about the launch of Facebook Home, and how the app centers around the people, not the apps, and yadda yadda yadda. While he drones on and on, to the boredom of the employees, one employee takes to his HTC First, and scrolls around his Facebook Home interface.

This Facebook ad borrows the same concept as Facebook Home’s first television ad. As Joey, the other guy featured in the ad, flips through the contents of his Facebook, the news stories come to life. First, we have a goat that screams in Zuckerberg’s face while he’s giving his speech, followed by Joey’s friend asking him to play a game of racketball with him. The scene ends with the entire office transformed into a swimming pool, and Joey being submerged in water in real life.

Facebook Home launched yesterday, both through the AT&T exclusive HTC First, as well as through an Android app available only for select devices. Unfortunately, the app saw some pretty mediocre reviews on the Google Play store, but things are starting to look up for it. Right now, it’s at a 2.5 star rating in Google Play, with a total of 2,681 votes. However, the more recent reviews are much more accepting of the app. Along with Facebook Home, Facebook also updated its other Android app, as well as its Messenger app.

Facebook Home is a launcher that is supposed to center around people, rather than just apps. It has features like Cover Feed, which brings status updates from your favorite Facebook friends to your lockscreen, and Chat Heads, which shows a pop-up bubble on you screen when a friend messages you, that brings your friends at the forefront of your Android device. Be sure to check out our review of Facebook Home here.

New Facebook Home ad features Mark Zuckerberg and a screaming goat is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
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