This afternoon, a video showing off the basics in the Motorola Moto X software experience have been leaked complete with several next-generation innovations for Android vanilla software builds. If you’re planning on picking the Motorola Moto X up inside Canada, it would appear that your only choice will be to jump onboard with Rogers. This video suggests that the smartphone will be a Rogers exclusive while we’re confident that here inside the USA, multiple carriers will be onboard with the machine.
This video suggests that the carrier will be bringing Moto X in August of this year in white or black, a likely indicator of availability at other carriers inside the USA, while Motorola handles the customization features we’ve heard so much about already. If this device does indeed come to Rogers by August, we can expect at least AT&T and/or T-Mobile to be onboard with the device by then as well. Meanwhile Verizon has been tipped to be launching the phone on August 23rd specifically.
In the demonstration you’re about to see here, Rogers representatives show the Moto X’s ability to work with Google Now as well as active voice recognition. While the user works on a PC, the smartphone is able to sit to the side and listen in for questions the user might have, actively answering in kind whenever needed.
You’ll also find this machine’s ability to launch it’s camera at a flick of the wrist. Taking the Moto X out of one’s pocket and flicking it twice launches the smartphone’s camera, while tapping its screen will take a photo. Holding a finger down on the display while the camera app is open will take several photos in quick succession.
This device also works with “Active Updates”, as they call them, showing what’s happening with notifications on-screen instead of with a notification light. You’ll find this particular model showing a message coming in from Facebook Messenger, disappearing after a few moments as the user decides they’ve heard enough for the day.
The Moto X here is shown in black and, in several close-ups, is proven to be working with black all around – back cover, bezel, edges and all. The white model seen last week was suggested as coming with black bezel and edges while its battery cover worked with a textured white. This machine also appears to be working without a removable back as indicated by the microSIM card slot on its side.
Don’t forget the pure Android experience from top to bottom, also – barely seen but quite apparent here in brief.
You’ll also see a light emitting from this device’s microUSB port – this could just be leaking from the device’s inner bits, but it’s just as likely there’s some use for this piece of flare than not. Keep tuned as we continue to run down the investigation!
If you’re waiting for a so-called “Retina” display on an iPad mini in the near future, you’ll be better off planning to wait it out for at least another season. While the iPad mini currently sits with the same display resolution as the iPad 2, the trend for best-of-the-best in all things display and specifications have suddenly proven to be topped out. While this isn’t the only indicator for the iPad mini staying with the display it’s got now, the trend has become rather apparent: the next waves of smartphones and tablets selling out of stores wont necessarily beat out the previous generation for high-end specs, they’ll be aimed at the everyman.
Suggestions from Economic Daily News Report lead the pack this week with suggestion that the second-generation iPad mini will either be pushed back to 2014 for a full launch OR will be appearing with an incremental update – not quite a full second generation, that is. Almost like an iPad mini S, as it were.
While we’ve seen the casings from the iPad 5 matching up quite well along the edges with that of the current-generation iPad mini, the iPad mini itself has had no such leaks. Only suggestions of Retina or non-Retina from sources close to the matter, analysts, and factory floor enthusiasts.
You’ll find a May 6th report from NPD DisplaySearch that suggests that the iPad mini with Retina display will be coming inside 2013, but without a boost to the machine’s processor. Similar reports suggest the opposite, with the processor (and perhaps the camera) getting a bump in an incremental update while the display would get its full-on retina upgrade in 2014.
The most recent update to iOS 7 – still in beta mode at the moment – suggests that the “x2″ mode included with all devices has been given a quality boost. This means that the applications made for smaller displays like the iPhone grow in size to meet the display they’re on, and with the iPad 2′s display size – it’s amount of pixels, that is – rolling strong with the iPad mini, the change will be welcome. Don’t be surprised if the iPad mini 2 continues to be called the iPad mini (without the 2) later this year, complete with upgrades to its insides, but not to its out.
Rumors of Motorola’s upcoming smartphone are heating up. Currently known as the Moto X, the device has been the victim of numerous leaks and speculation over the last several weeks, and today we’re seeing yet another addition. Google Chairman Eric Schmidt was spotted using a mysterious device that we can only suspect to be the Google-owned Moto X device.
At the annual Allen & Co. business conference yesterday, Schmidt was seen using a mysterious device that looks a lot like Motorola’s Moto X handset, based on the handful of image leaks that we’ve seen so far. The photos of Schmidt using the phone are highly detailed, allowing us a good look at the device that he doesn’t appear to be keeping on the down-low.
The model that Schmidt is using appears to have a slightly glossy rear white shell with a curved shape. The camera module and LED flash are placed prominently in the center of the device toward the top, with what looks to be the speaker directly next to the camera. We also see that the headphone jack is dead center on the top edge of the device, rather than on one side or the other.
As for the front of the device, it appears to be a solid slate of all black, but we can’t get a good look, seeing as how Schmidt’s ear is enveloping most of the phone. The volume rocker and the power button appear to be situated on the right edge of the device with thin chrome buttons. The edges of the phone look really thin, while the center is a bit thicker with its curved look, which is a rather unique shape for a smartphone these days.
The photos of Schmidt using this phone match up almost perfectly with the latest image leak of the device that shows a black matte model. It has the same curved rear shell with the camera module mounted in the same location, as well as the centered headphone jack on the top edge. One thing’s for sure: this phone exists, but the only question is what will it be called officially? And when is it arriving?
The Oculus Rift team still intends to ignore the Xbox One and PS4 and focus on PC and Android, concerned that lengthening development cycles for consoles could see them left behind in virtual reality, even with the cloud’s help. “There’s no reason it can’t technically work,” Oculus Rift CEO Brendan Iribe conceded to OXM, but pointed out that “one of the concerns that we do generally have around consoles is that their life cycles are getting longer all the time.” While the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are considered powerful today, they could be seriously out-performed when it comes to VR in the next few years, Iribe argues.
“I think that you will see VR move fast – AR also, but especially VR” the chief exec suggested. “You’re going to see rapid innovation, and one of the concerns that we do generally have around consoles is that their life cycles are getting longer all the time – it’s a seven to eight year lifecycle, and in eight years, VR is going to be insane. Incredible.”
Instead, the headset – which uses a pair of head-mounted LCD displays to create a virtual gaming environment – will work initially with PCs and Android devices, as that “made more sense” according to Iribe. The fact that both platforms are liberal with hardware and software is key to that decision, the CEO explained.
Even Microsoft’s decision to harness the power of the cloud to bolster the Xbox One won’t be of much use to virtual reality, he says. Microsoft has said that each Xbox One will also have access to cloud-based processing equivalent to roughly three more consoles, which could be used for processing richer backgrounds in games, more realistic reflections and textures, and other detail.
The system has met with keen interest from game developers, but is unlikely to be of use to virtual reality systems like Oculus Rift, Iribe points out, because of the latency involved.
Virtual reality “wants a maximum latency of 20-30 milliseconds from your head moving to the headset updating your eye on screen – what we call motion-to-photon” he explains. “Right now it’s at 30-50 milliseconds in the current versions, but we do expect that to come down and reach that 15-20 millisecond ‘Holy Grail’ timing.”
However, while attention on Oculus Rift has been high since the start-up’s Kickstarter back in August 2012, the company doesn’t want to keep VR all to itself. In fact, Iribe is hopeful that Microsoft or Sony – preferably both – wade in themselves, seeing it as a net-benefit to Oculus Rift’s business overall.
“The more that they push into this space, even if it’s a different device, or their own device, a different experience, the more that they’re throwing into AR and VR, the better it is for everybody” he said.
Nokia has officially announced the Nokia Lumia 1020, the company’s latest Windows Phone 8 handset and the first to use a 41-megapixel PureView camera system. Building on the pixel-oversampling technology of the original Nokia 808 PureView, the Lumia 1020 squeezes the camera into a smaller – though still chunky – form-factor, complete with a Xenon flash and new Pro Camera app with more control over manual settings. It’s headed to AT&T later this month, for $300 on-contract.
On the phone side, there’s a 4.5-inch AMOLED HD+ 1280 x 768 display topped with Gorilla Glass 3 and packing a sunlight readability mode for easier outdoor use. Like the Lumia 925 and 920, it also supports gloved use, thanks to a high-sensitivity touchscreen.
inside, there’s a dualcore 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor paired with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. Connectivity includes LTE, HSPA+, and GSM/EDGE, along with WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, and NFC. The 2,000 mAh battery is non-user-accessible, and there’s no integrated wireless charging; instead, Nokia will offer snap-on wireless charging covers, similar to how it did with the Lumia 925, which can be used to add the ability to the high-resolution smartphone.
It’s the camera we’re most excited about, unsurprisingly, and it’s there where Nokia has put in the most effort. The 41-megapixel sensor uses the same PureView system as the 808 did, clustering data from multiple proximate pixels together and producing normally-sized images with more accurate colors and brightness, and less noise.
There’s also optical image stabilization and a backside-illuminated sensor, Zeiss optics, and a new Pro Camera app which gives greater than usual manual control over settings like exposure, ISO, and more. Above the display there’s a 1.2-megapixel camera with a wide-angle lens.
However, unlike on the 808, the Lumia 1020 is able to simultaneously snap both a low- and a full-resolution image. That gives an instantly-sharable 5-megapixel picture at a cellular-data-reasonable resolution, as well as a full image at around 40-megapixels. With the latter, the Lumia 1020 can offer a lossless digital zoom after the still is taken: effectively, a crop is taken out of the full-resolution shot, with no need to artificially enlarge. Up to a 3x lossless digital zoom is supported.
As for video, the Lumia 1020 is capable of recording 720p HD footage while also offering 6x digital lossless zooming; the Windows Phone can also record 1080p Full HD video, though with less of a zooming range. There’s stereo audio recording, too, with Nokia promising better bass capture than rival phones thanks to its Rich Recording system.
Nokia hasn’t forgotten accessories, either, with the $79 Nokia Camera Grip PD-95G. That has an integrated 1,020 mAh battery, extending the Lumia 1020′s runtime – estimated at 13.3hrs of talktime, 16 days standby, 6.8hrs of video playback, or 63hrs of music – and a two-stage camera key. It also adds a tripod mount for more professional use. Without the case, the Lumia 1020 is 130.4 x 71.4 x 10.4 mm and 158g.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 will go on sale on July 26, priced at $299.99, as an AT&T exclusive in the US. Preorders – for the black, white, and yellow versions – will be offered from July 16.
Nokia’s big reveal for the Lumia 1020 PureView isn’t expected to take place for another few hours, but that hasn’t stopped full details of the Windows Phone 8 flagship from emerging beforehand. The Lumia 1020 will have a 4.5-inch AMOLED display on one side and a 41-megapixel PureView camera with an f/2.2 lens and optical image stabilization on the other, with a new “Pro Camera” app to give more access to manual settings and tweakable modes than on any Windows Phone before it.
According to The Verge‘s sources, that will include control over white balance, focus, ISO, shutter speed, and image ratio. There’ll be a new “radial” interface to scroll through the options, it’s said.
Nokia has even included the ability to take two photos simultaneously but at different resolution, presumably giving one low-res shot for instant and speedy sharing to social networks like Twitter and Facebook, and another full-res version for printing and archiving. It’s also likely to be the basis of the “Zoom, Reinvented” tagline Nokia has picked for the Lumia 1020′s launch: by cropping out portions of the full-res image, the user will be able to in effect take advantage of a lossless digital zoom even after the original frame has been captured.
The Lumia 1020 will have 32GB of internal storage to store all those shots, and a Xenon flash.
Other specifications supposedly include a wide-angle front facing camera lens, for fitting more people into the frame, and 2GB of RAM. Wireless charging won’t be integrated, though – like on the Lumia 925 – Nokia will supposedly offer a wireless charging cover that can be snapped on to enable the feature.
However, the Camera Grip shell we’ve already seen leaked is arguably a more interesting case to wrap up the Lumia 1020 in. That, as we’ve seen suggested before, has both a battery and a two-stage camera button, as well as a tripod mount for more professional use of the new PureView phone.
SlashGear will be at Nokia’s Lumia 1020 event later today in New York City to bring back all the details of the new Windows Phone’s launch. It kicks off at 11am ET (4pm London; 8am PT).
Update: Screenshots of the Pro Camera app have emerged, courtesy of Vizileaks, showing the radial layout for control over ISO, white balance, and other settings, as well as one of the settings pages for stills. That confirms the dual-capture feature, apparently grabbing up to a 40-megapixel still (along with what we’re guessing is a more regularly sized image). Vizileaks also has some sample shots from a prototype Lumia 1020 and an early version of the Pro Camera app.
Sony’s Xperia Z has been a sleeper agent of sorts: launched to great fanfare at CES in January, overshadowed by the Galaxy S 4 and HTC One at launch, and yet grabbing upgrade sales from under Samsung’s nose in Europe. Not bad for a company once written off in smartphones, and now Sony is hoping to repeat that success in the US, with a launch on T-Mobile USA. Does the waterproof Xperia Z do enough to distract from the heated US mobile market? Read on for the full SlashGear review.
Hardware
We’ve already reviewed the original European version of the Xperia Z, and so we’d recommend reading that beforehand. The phone borrows plenty from Sony’s Japanese handsets, with a beautiful 5-inch, LCD TFT 1920 x 1080 display powered by the company’s Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2, a slimline waterproof case with inset toughened glass panels, and a 13-megapixel camera with an Exmor RS Mobile sensor.
It’s a discrete design compared to the HTC One and iPhone 5′s metal chassis, but the plastics (actually glass-fiber polyamide) and glass feel far less like a compromise than Samsung’s plastics on the Galaxy S 4. On the Xperia Z, there’s the feeling that Sony actively selected them, rather than just going for what would be easiest to push off the manufacturing lines. The black version is a fingerprint and lint magnet, while the purple does a better job of hiding them, albeit while also being more distinctive overall.
Physical controls are limited to a volume rocker on the side and a strikingly oversized, somewhat over-engineered power/lock button. At first glance the attention Sony paid to the button seems somehow questionable, but it makes more and more sense the more you use the Xperia Z. For a start, it’s perfectly placed: it falls under a finger no matter whether you’re holding the phone in your right or left hand, and it feels tough enough to outlive Android 4.1.2 as comes preloaded (not, sadly, Android 4.2).
Inside the 139 x 71 x 7.9 mm, 146g chassis there’s Qualcomm’s 1.5GHz S4 Pro quadcore, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage (11.73GB of which is user-available). Connectivity includes LTE and HSPA+ for T-Mobile USA’s networks, along with quadband GSM/EDGE; there’s also WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, Miracast support, and MHL-HDMI output from the microUSB port, with the right adapter. A 2-megapixel front-facing camera is above the display.
For the waterproofing to work, you’ll need to make sure all the ports and flaps are closed. The Xperia Z covers its microSD, microUSB, and microSIM slots with flaps, as well as the headphone socket; we wish Sony had done what Samsung did, and use gaskets to leave the headphone jack flap-free. Once they’re all tightly closed, the Xperia Z meets IP55 and IP57 standards for dust and water resistance.
It’s no gimmick, either. On paper, the Sony can handle a dip in up to 1m of water, or alternatively being sprayed with pressurized water jets, or being dumped in dust or sand. That means you can use it in the pool, at the beach, in the shower, or just reach for it without concern when the phone rings while you’re washing dishes, or have your kids in the tub, or are caught out in the rain. The touchscreen gets glitchy under running water, but works properly underwater, unlike the Galaxy S4 Active.
What’s interesting is how quickly you get used to it. In the pool, we were able to keep an eye on children playing while also maintaining an IM conversation on Google Hangouts, for instance. The resilience came into its own when babysitting, leaving us unconcerned if the Xperia Z got knocked off the table or dunked in a cereal bowl. The fact it does it without even the minimal extra bulk that Samsung applied to the Galaxy S4 Active is impressive.
Software and Performance
Android 4.1.2 is a minor disappointment, given how long Android 4.2 has been around, though Sony hides the older OS version under its own skin. It’s a tasteful UI that has much improved in its latter iterations, reminiscent at times of Sense but without some of the bloat that HTC’s interface can suffer from in places.
The on-screen home, back, and task-switcher keys help, fitting in with Google’s own approach on the Nexus 4, and you access Google Now in the same way, with a swipe up from the home icon. Although our preference is usually for pure Android, Sony’s skin does have its advantages, such as in how it can fit a lot of apps onto one screen rather than demanding you scroll around. It’s a good compromise between stock and a carrier skin.
Xperia Z Walkthrough:
A 1.5GHz quadcore seemed excessive when Sony announced the Xperia Z in January, but it’s no longer enough to make the new T-Mobile phone the fastest. Still, it puts in a solid – if not outstanding – showing in the benchmarks.
In Quadrant, the Xperia Z scores 8,008, while in Qualcomm’s own Vellamo, it manages 2,182 in the HTML5 test and 645 in the Metal test. AnTuTu comes in with a score of 20,826, while the Sony completes the SunSpider browser test of JavaScript performance in a laggardly 2,096.3ms.
If the raw numbers prove anything, though, it’s how little benchmarking actually translates to real-world performance. Although on paper the Xperia Z should be a sluggish mess in comparison to its Samsung and HTC rivals, in the hand we had no issues whatsoever with speed. In fact, the phone feels just as spritely – or at times even swifter – than the Galaxy S 4 and HTC One, and we had no complaints about performance.
Camera
Sony is proud of its 13-megapixel camera on the Xperia Z, the first Exmor R Mobile sensor to show up on one of the company’s smartphones. We’ve seen a few different approaches to mobile photography in the past six months – including oversized pixels at lower overall resolutions, balancing more average megapixel counts with physical stabilization, and chasing an ever-increasing top end of resolution – and Sony ostensibly falls into the latter category.
In our general experience with high-resolution phone cameras, they’ve been great with detail when lighting conditions are ideal, but quickly suffer when it gets darker. Happily, the Xperia Z doesn’t fall into the same trap.
The camera app itself feels more like a Sony Cyber-shot than a phone’s app, with no less than 36 modes – including sports, portrait, and HDR – which can be manually selected or left up to Superior Auto to pick between. There’s also panorama support and the choice of up to 12-megapixel 4:3 aspect images or 9-megapixel 16:9 images; you can also fire off 1-megapixel stills while simultaneously recording up to Full HD video.
The results are impressive. Superior Auto actually does a surprisingly good job of picking the same mode for each scene as we’d choose manually, and the result is clear and accurate colors, good contrast, and minimal noise. Even in low-light situations, where phones like the Galaxy S 4 began to stumble, noise is kept down and the quality is admirable.
Video, too, looks great, especially when you mix the Xperia Z with water. Colors and contrast are again accurate, though a little muted than, say, Samsung’s defaults. The HDR mode – which works for both stills and video – leans more toward boosting the visibility of darker areas, rather than playing up the color saturation. Both of the following demo videos were filmed on the Xperia Z:
Phone and Battery
Voice call performance on T-Mobile’s network was solid, and we didn’t experience any dropped calls. The carrier’s gradually spreading LTE network is also worth hunting out: we saw peak downloads of over 53 Mbps and uploads of over 18 Mbps during our testing. Still, you’re more likely to encounter HSPA+ for the moment, while T-Mobile continues to roll out LTE.
Below: our speed test ran especially quick at the NYC special event for this device and T-Mobile’s new collection of 4G LTE announcements.
Battery life has been good, with the Xperia Z lasting for more than 17hrs of mixed use, with push-email turned on, around an hour of voice calls, photography, multimedia use – including streaming music for an hour over Bluetooth – and internet access (though not with the screen turned on for that entire period). Sony also includes its Battery STAMINA mode, which selectively powers off background data use from most apps while the phone is in standby, only allowing those you’ve whitelisted to go online.
For the most part, it works well, though we did have issues with the length of time it estimated it would extend the Xperia Z’s power for on occasion. Of course, you can always turn it off.
Wrap-Up
The Xperia Z is a surprise. From our original review, we knew it was a solid performer, but even with the Galaxy S 4 and the HTC One on the scene, it’s impressive how well it holds up to – and, in some cases, out-performs – its newer rivals. In fact, with all three flagships having shown their best side, we’re leaning toward judging the Xperia Z as the best all-round Android phone of the moment.
At $99.99 down and then $20 per month – on top of service charges – for the duration of a two-year agreement, the Xperia Z is well priced, too. Great battery life, a highly capable camera, usable durability without the normal addition of heft, and sophisticated, discrete styling add up to a smartphone that rightly deserves the attention Samsung and HTC have been getting.
Apple has been found guilty of ebook price fixing, with a New York federal judge ruling today that the Cupertino firm conspired with publishers to drive up the cost in its iBookstore. The ruling will now be followed by a trial for damages, Reuters reports, which will decide how much Apple must pay the US government and several states.
The non-jury trial began in early June, with Apple defending itself against the Department of Justice over claims it worked with publishers to move the digital book market to the so-called “agency model.” Whereas previously, retailers such as Amazon had been setting their own prices for ebooks for Kindle, and similar, Apple and the publishers preferred the greater margins available through themselves setting the sticker price.
According to the DOJ, that counted as manipulating the market, and it threatened to haul five of the big publishers – Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and The Penguin Group – into court as well as Apple. Over time, each publisher settled – though admitted no wrongdoing in the process – so as to escape greater censure, but Apple insisted on taking the case all the way to the courtroom.
“The plaintiffs have shown that the publisher defendants conspired with each other to eliminate retail price competition in order to raise e-book prices, and that Apple played a central role in facilitating and executing that conspiracy,” US District Judge Denise Cote wrote in a 160-page ruling on the case. “Without Apple’s orchestration of this conspiracy,” she said, “it would not have succeeded as it did in the Spring of 2010.”
It’s unclear to what extent the damages could run, though we’d guess Apple will be doing everything in its power to appeal the decision. The exact details of the settlements each of the five publishers eventually agreed with the DOJ have not been revealed, but Penguin is known to have coughed up $75m plus costs to settle the claims across 33 US states, along with a class-action lawsuit.
What this could mean for ebook prices from iBooks, Kindle, NOOK, and other stores also remains to be seen; Amazon is eager to return to the days where a new ebook would be $9.99, rather than the $12.99-15.99 that the agency model has settled on today.
Apple is yet to comment on the decision; we’ve reached out to the company, and will update when we have more. Update: Apple has commented on the ruling, and will fight it in appeal.
Google has officially released a new version of Google Maps for Android and, soon, iPhone and iPad, complete with a new design and the retirement of Latitude among other changes. The new app, which already began rolling out as v.7 to Android users a few hours ago, includes dedicated tablet designs for Android and iPad for the first time, but users may end up confused by the missing “offline maps” feature which is now no longer accessed in the same way.
Instead, to access maps offline, users must enter “OK Maps” into the search box when the area they wish to later see without a data connection is on-screen. It’s an odd decision for the company, and arguably will see offline use decline. My Maps support is also missing from the new apps, though Google says it will be added in later.
Meanwhile, Latitude and check-ins have been retired from the app, and Google says they’ll disappear from older versions on August 9. Location sharing will instead be handled through Google+, though currently only the Android version supports that.
It’s the new navigation features that many users will be pleased to see, however. The Google Maps app can now show not only current traffic conditions, but pull up exact incident details; during navigation, Google will also notify users if there’s a faster route available, and refresh the directions accordingly. Again, it’s an Android-only feature to begin with, though iOS will get it in time.
Explore has been boosted in the new app, too, with search results in Google Now-style cards as you type. Locations for food, hotels, and shopping will all pop up, Google says, and there’s a new rating system that works alongside the Zagat reviews. Offers, from stores like Macy’s and Toys “R” Us, are also embedded straight into the maps too.
Google Maps for Android is already out, working with Ice Cream Sandwich and above. Google Maps for iPhone and iPad will require iOS 6 or above when it’s released.
Facebook Graph Search will begin rolling out to US users from today, offering complex filtering and search features that will allow users to hunt through their friends based on combinations of location, interests, Likes, and more. Announced back in January, Graph Search attempts to let Facebook users pare through their friends lists using complex queries, such as “people who like football and live in Miami”, with results coming up based on where users have checked into, what they’ve liked, where they are, and more.
Initial reactions to the Graph Search system were mixed. On the one hand, there’s an obvious technological and social advantage to being able to use more complex, natural-language queries to hunt through the ever-increasing amount of information Facebook users are sharing. The social site argued that it would help users make more meaningful connections by highlighting overlapping interests that might not have been normally recognized, for instance.
However, privacy advocates proved unsurprisingly wary of the amount of information – and the ease of its discovery – that Graph Search would unearth. Facebook responded by arguing that the same privacy tools and settings that had always been in place would continue to protect private data from Graph Search, however.
Facebook Graph Search privacy:
For Facebook, the goal is to better shape advertising so that users are more likely to click, as well as drive adoption of its various features with members hopefully wanting to increase the amount of information about themselves available so that they show up more accurately in search results. Initially, Graph Search only works on the desktop, rather than mobile, but Facebook tells the NYTimes that it intends to address that this year.
Also on track to be added is better data mining of status updates, picking out keywords rather than relying on explicit Likes and other indicators of interests. Facebook will also use third-party app data – not currently integrated in Graph Search – and is working on predictions.
That could end up promoting movies, books, places to eat, and other suggestions based on similar interests from other friends, something Facebook believes will increase the success rate since users are more likely to trust the data.
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