Facebook Phone

"By the way, Home will be available for download on the HTC One X, HTC One X+, Samsung GALAXY S III and Samsung GALAXY Note II."
 
"Q: You're starting out on Android. Other OSes? Is it coming to iOS? A: We have a great relationship with Apple. The way you work on different OSes is different. They're much more closed. Anything that happens with Apple will happen in partnership with them. Fundamentally, Android is more open so we don't have to work directly with them."
 
"Q: How good this will be for Android's ecosystem? A: Mark says that this should be great for Android because more people will be encouraged to bring their products to Android first, rather than iOS. More features will be coming down the road, but they wanted to focus on just a few basic features at the beginning to make sure the experience was as good as possible at launch."
 
They are going deep ...

"Mark: we're going to try to work with OEMs going forward to expose different hooks that aren't normally available to Android without OEM support."
 
I wonder what Google has to say about this "hostile takeover" of Android ...

It obviously - as Mark said - will have benefits for Android ... and seeing that Google is about selling ads this may well be done with their full blessing.
 
Good for Android ecosystem? When Facebook is going to be front and centre and pushing any other app into the background? Good for Google? When Facebook's own advertising is going to be ramping up to fit in every possible second of eyeball time? I think they hit it on the head - we don't 'have' to work with them.
 
Those early investors in Facebook are still going to be raking it in soon. Personally, I could imagine my wife wanting me to get an Android phone ONLY IF it meant I could put the Facebook Home on it.
 
HTC First specs:

While this smartphone isn’t top-tier, it still has a powerful dual-core, 720p HD display, and is well designed. It appears to take some strong cues from the iPhone as well as HTC’s newly announced and exciting HTC One smartphone. To round out the specs we have a mediocre 5 megapixel rear camera, followed by a 1.6 MP front shooter for those video chats.

• HTC first on AT&T with 4G LTE
• 4.3-inch 720p HD display
• Dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 series processor
• 1GB RAM
• 5 megapixel rear, 1.6 front camera
• Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean covered in Facebook Home
• WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, etc.
• $99 on April 12th
• and more
 
I love the design of the phone ... but I'm not into Facebook so it won't work for me. But I know many that will jump at this like crazy. I've never understood the whole Facebook need to advertise oneself all the time ... but for many it is a way of life now. My wife will stick to her iPhone, but the kids will most definitely want this. This is soooo going to kill BlackBerry and BBM.
 
HTC thrown a massive lifeline here. They must be very happy. They have managed to wiggle their way into a very lucrative arrangement with Facebook.

Samsung on the other hand seems to work towards an OS of their own to become more vertically integrated.
 
That HTC First looks much like the more affordable iPad Touch phone Cerebus and I are after. Even in red ... my favourite colour!
 
I kind of think...yeah... if my contract came up and the First was a choice... I'd take it. I like the 4.3' size, that works for me.
 
cerebus said:
I kind of think...yeah... if my contract came up and the First was a choice... I'd take it. I like the 4.3' size, that works for me.
Click to expand...

You mean your wife will take it ... LOL! You will get to play with it for one hour.
 
BeVonk! said:
You mean your wife will take it ... LOL! You will get to play with it for one hour.
Click to expand...

:/ truer words...


It's an interesting conceptualisation of a mobile OS. They basically dispensed with the icons altogether and made everything about the conversations and photos. Because I guess who needs icons when EVERYTHING IS FACEBOOK? It allowed them to craft quite a beautiful set of images and text parts. Feels like they're finally getting to grips with design.
 
My next upgrade is in Sept only and by then these specs will be way off ... especially after the release of the next iPhone (which may, according to some rumours, be oval shaped, with curved glass). Problem is just when such a new iPhone gets announced in July we only get it here by the end of the year.
 
cerebus said:
:/ truer words...


It's an interesting conceptualisation of a mobile OS. They basically dispensed with the icons altogether and made everything about the conversations and photos. Because I guess who needs icons when EVERYTHING IS FACEBOOK? It allowed them to craft quite a beautiful set of images and text parts. Feels like they're finally getting to grips with design.
Click to expand...

Well, Facebook is about communication ... and that is at the end of the day what a phone is all about ... so it is a perfect match. Facebook was very very smart here. Why invent something new when you can just ride on someone else's free offering. Parasite approach happening here.
 
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