Facebook Home, the Trojan Horse

It's not a Trojan Horse. It is a parasite. A Trojan Horse is about secrecy. Here is no secret invasion happening. Facebook is openly doing what parasites do.

Google allows Samsung and HTC to add TouchWiz and Sense to their OS ... so why not Facebook? Facebook is doing what Google openly promoted. I honestly don't believe Google is too concerned here. They can very easily force Facebook into a fork if they want to. Thy can also allow their own Motorola to fork with a more evolved version of Android to differentiate and to create a vertical business model of their own where they control everything. Probably what Samsung is afraid of and why they are now working hard on creating an alternative with Tizen and Firefox.

Android created a core engine ... a great one actually ... and now things will evolve into interesting forks. I expect Facebook to end up like Amazon with a forked version. When things become too much for Google they will just force it into that direction.

We may well have very different Android derivatives two years from now with Nexus the only "pure" version. Motorola will either be the only Nexus platform, or it will get a special enhanced version to be different from Nexus. The rest will fork out. Called evolution. To be expected. No Trojan Horse here.
 
For a company with a billion customers, Facebook can be quite stealthy.
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Facebook does not have a billion customers; users are the product they sell to their customers/advertisers.
 
hawker said:
It's not that usable to be honest.
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I don't think it's designed for people who crave usability.

If Google forced ANYone to do ANYthing with Android that they didn't want to, Android would cease to be open. I doubt that they're elated over this.

Also... it is a trojan horse in a sense that I've got no doubt it's only a first shot fired into the mobile offensive. Apple did the same with the Razr iTunes phone... Then 18 months later, they were able to use that experience to bring the iPhone to market - from a dip in the water, to a neutron bomb in 18 months.
 
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when i'm at work or even when i'm not, i don't want to unlock my phone and have someone staring over my shoulder only seeing posts of cats and other rubbish that was circulated 10 years ago (i've started blocking irrelevant updates from people who see a picture and automatically share it).

facebook home is something i'll avoid. google controls what ads i see when i'm browsing amd i'm ok with that. facebook is going to show me the same irrelevant ads i've been seeing on facebook, and that too when i'm not browsing or anything? no thanks, take your "product" and shove it.
 
I've just deleted Facebook (the app). Even that was unnecessary to me.
 
cerebus said:
... it is a trojan horse in a sense that I've got no doubt it's only a first shot fired into the mobile offensive.
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To be a Trojan Horse code must be inserted that hides something sinister ... that secretly enters as something harmless and then execute when inside to take over. This is not what Facebook is doing here. They are not placing code inside Android that will do things behind Google's back. They are openly doing what others are also allowed to do. A Trojan would be an attack from within the code that will catch Google off guard. This is not like that. This is more like a parasite that lives off the host's code and takes over the host over time. Google can fend this off as it is openly done. A Trojan involves surprise and ... "Oh hell, it's too late, we've been fooled ... and we are f'd!" Not the case.
 
BeVonk!, you're applying way too narrow and technomologimical a definition to the term. It's a trojan horse purely in the sense that it is likely a fairly innocuous first move in a much larger planned offensive.
 
The future of these companies, facebook, google, microsoft (skype), and *apple to a lesser extent lies with unified messaging. The first company that can provide a seamless easy to use, cross platform unified messaging system will probably end up the winner. What I cant seem to understand is why google is so slow in implementing something, they have G+ hangouts, google talk, google voice (some countries), google sms in most countries on most networks, and of course gmail, which is huge. If they can somehow combine all these platforms into a single unified messaging system they would almost certainly be victorious.

Then add google glass to the mix, and you'd certainly become huge competition for even samsung and apple. Who would seriously carry a phone if nearly everthing can be accomplished by talking to your intelligent glasses - who knows, maybe even include a small bluetooth keypad / touchpad / touchscreen for controlling your glasses. It can even have gyro capability and anything else you would miss from your phone...or at least provide an app on any existing smartphones...

EDIT: *typo - added apple
 
HapticSimian said:
technomologimical
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Huh? Explain please. Term unknown to me.

Trojan Horse = deception

Not what Facebook is doing here. No deception whatsoever. They are actually quite brazen about what they are up to. If it is a Trojan Horse then it is one made of glass with a sign on that says "look inside". Facebook is not deceiving here. They don't need to. They just walked in through unprotected open gates and joined those inside the city. They then made it clear what they are doing. Why I maintain that a Trojan Horse by any definition is not appropriate here.
 
I can just imagine what your data bill will be if you let this app roam freely on your phone! :eek:

The Facebook app on my Galaxy S2 already sucks my battery dry in super quick time, so I can imagine this app will be the same.
 
Anyway ... a phone is about communications, which as we all here know, has evolved from voice to "data" in many forms. Unified communications is now the holy grail because of the various methods and tools/apps available. Facebook is going all guns blazing into this and wisely decided not to reinvent the frikken OS wheel AGAIN like some are stuck doing. Use the wheel most commonly available and move on. Others, like Microsoft, Nokia and BlackBerry should have done the same. Let Google worry about the OS and we focus on building stuff people crave on top of that. The OS is old hat. What sits on top of that is what matters. Focus there.

It took Facebook to expose the stupidity of old guard thinking. Use what is available for free. Why the heck waste money on developing yet another OS and only later get to the goodies on top of that? Just reskin Android. Best bang for your buck.

But as history in the tech industry has proven over and over those stuck in a rut will not get out and will be overtaken by young rebels with fresh ideas. It always happens. Some still believe building and owning an OS is everything. It's not.

I think Facebook taught many a lesson here. Nokia ... man, if only they had visionaries and young guns with fresh out of the box thinking like Facebook. But now Nokia is in the tiling business.
 
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I think this might be my last Android phone! I just can't stand facebook.
 
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