Facebook Home Reviews Arrive 70
Last week Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook Home, a bit of software that aims to transform a smartphone's homescreen into a Facebook feed. Now, its release date has arrived, as has the earliest device to house Home: the HTC First. Reviews for phone and software have begun to appear, too. The Verge calls the device itself "a mid-range phone, through-and-through." Its hardware is capable but not impressive, and it's slow enough to be noticed, but not to annoy. What interested them the most was that by turning off Facebook Home, you get an operating system that's very close to an unpolluted, stock Android 4.1.2. Ars generally agrees, pointing out its solid feel, the trade-off of a less-readable but more-holdable 4.3" screen compared to the trend toward 4.8" displays, and an awkwardly placed micro-USB port. As for the Facebook Home Software: "Home takes status updates out of the Facebook app and slaps them right on your homescreen. Instead of little boxes scrolling vertically, however, each update from your News Feed becomes a full-screen photo with small bits of text at the top," says the Verge, adding that having Facebook updates located between you and whatever you picked up your phone to do can be awfully distracting. Ars says, "What we've seen is an application focused solely on making the Facebook experience the hub for all of your social correspondence, but that can be extremely limiting for those who use a number of other social networks." Both publications praise 'Chat Heads,' Facebook's way of surfacing messages without having to dig through a messaging app.
Finally! (Score:2, Funny)
Saves me tons of clicks to see meemaw's and peepaw's cat pictures and I don't have to click to notice that one of my Chinese 'friends' is on the crapper again.
Re:Finally! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Finally! (Score:5, Insightful)
I especially like how half of the review is about the user experience when Home is turned off.
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App? (Score:1)
I keep hearing about Facebook Home like it is a physical entity and like it is some complex software suite. The reality is that this is a smart phone app. BFD! Why does Facebook's smart phone app deserve so much press?
Re:App? (Score:5, Insightful)
Because they're paying for it?
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Because they're paying for it?
That's a very interesting comment ... how much are they paying to get onto these phones? Since the 'FB Home app' can be turned "off", is it OK to remove it? Does the phone contract (at least here in the US) have a clause prohibiting the removal? And what does the app do (as far as selling you out to FB) when it's been turned "off"?
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Context: I replied to this:
'Why does Facebook's smart phone app deserve so much press?'
with:
'Because they're paying for it'
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My review of Facebook OS: (Score:1)
"Why?"
Home screen (Score:5, Insightful)
I cannot think of anyone who is so dominated by Facebook that they would want it on their home screen. My experience is that text messaging is the dominant use and that does not need a Facebook account.
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The thing is, even if they do want it on their home screen there are these things called "gadgets."
This is obviously for someone who wants their life dominated by Facebook...
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Mom is having her period, don't mind her.
-Your dad
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A lot of people I know use facebook messaging as their primary messaging. (phone & browser)
Don't forget text's aren't the only way to send messages... whatsapp, imessage, google chat, email... They all have plus points (often to utilitise wifi, or if you're in a different country texting is too expensive)
Heck, most of my phone's usage is probably on facebook, if this was on IOS I'd probably use it.
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(He said without reading the reviews...)
Re:Home screen (Score:5, Insightful)
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But can't you just use a normal app on a phone to do the same thing? Even if you never do anything but Facebook you could get the phone you want first and then put facebook app on that and be done with it.
Facebook would be a lot more valuable as a service (Score:1, Interesting)
rather than a media company.
Right now no one trusts them because they're based on advertising.
They would have to change their business model, from advertising-based media to some sort of paid service for people that need it to gain user trust. Facebook Home is a start. They could also pull an Apple and actually be a hardware company, with revenues derived from hardware sales.
Facebook just can't compete in the media space. They have a billion viewers, but they ONLY make $4-5 billion a year. For compariso
Re:Facebook would be a lot more valuable as a serv (Score:5, Insightful)
I hate to break this to you, but if FB charged everyone for their service they would still sell your information to anyone and everyone because more money is more money.
Right now they'd face a huge backlash from the FB faithful if they started to charge for basic service (they already want $$$ to get your posts to all your friends, or to let you send messages to Señor Zuckerberg or celebrities). Losing a major chunk of their "product" would adversely affect their revenue stream enough to derail them. Had they started charging a low fee (say, $10 a year) early in their history then most FB users wouldn't think twice about it (though they would have significantly less users).
The words "Facebook" and "trustworthy" can never be used together in a positive way (except for "I'm positive Facebook isn't trustworthy").
All I can say is (Score:4, Informative)
Re:All I can say is (Score:4, Informative)
Let me add to this: No, thanks. I already have *email* and *telephone*, which provide enough of a "social hub".
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I love that this is modded 'Informative'--like we really needed to know that email and telephone are the best way to get ahold of 'aaaaaaargh!'
But this also marks you as OLD. Email is not the primary way to get ahold of younger people today. Messaging apps and SMS (though that's trailing off) are what's being used. Just search for 'teenagers email' on google. The first 5 or 6 stories are just about how teenagers don't use email at all.
For myself (I'm in my mid-30s, now) I hardly ever use the phone. Talking
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ugh....no thanks.
I don't know... it sounds like this might be a good way to get a phone with stock Android. That has value.
"those who use a number of other social networks" (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course, in facebook's eyes, there's a simple solution for that: don't use the other social networks.
IF they decide to do away with the regular facebook app, imagine how many people would basically be turning their phone into a 'facebook phone' (because they've 'got to' have facebook, and the mobile site is laughable even without the "but it's not an app :("-factor), at the expense of other social networks.. such as Google+.. and that on what is largely considered to be Google's platform.
facebook chat is already chewing away at WhatsApp... now all facebook needs is forced short messages in a(n optionally) separate stream and who even needs twitter anymore?
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They could make a stock Android phone and put their own choice of services on it, and their own features. No need to keep flailing with Microsoft.
And if this Facebook home is a killer feature, why not bundle it? It will run on stock Android it seems, without using the Google services.
Except Nokia is doing better than most Android manufacturers, and WP8 already has this level of Facebook integration... and integration with other social networks.
So, that'd be a pretty bad move for Nokia from a business standpoint, and for their users... who already have an experience superior to Facebook Home.
4th place behind Huawei (Score:2, Informative)
"Except Nokia is doing better than most Android manufacturers"
They're still selling lots of feature phones, but the smartphones business is dying, Huawei took 3rd place in Smartphones (behind Samsung and Apple). Huawei FFS! They were *nowhere* a few years ago! Now they've overtaken Nokia, all in the space of a few years under Elop.
http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2335616
"Huawei Reached No. 3 Spot in Worldwide Smartphone Sales Ranking"
"In the fourth quarter of 2012, Apple and Samsung together raised their
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"Except Nokia is doing better than most Android manufacturers"
By what metric? I'm not sure with a $4bn+ loss last year that they're really doing better than anyone, few companies in few industries can claim that kind of massive loss, they really have entered "Most failed company in the world" territory.
About the only metric by which they can determine "success" is total phone shipments, but seeing as the vast majority of those are feature phones or dumb phones to places like Africa that have insanely low ma
gps tracking / ad revenue (Score:2, Interesting)
and im certian theres no gps tracking with 'locally owned businesses' injecting ads as you walk by right?
Finally, and endless stream of someecards! (Score:2)
Look beyond Home (Score:5, Informative)
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PS: The only feature that would be useful to me in a smartphone would be able to use google maps on the street, but the cost / benefit ratio is too bad on my country (mobile internet - 3G/4G/EDGE/LTE/etc - is a luxury item here).
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P.S: If you have understood and are only joking, yes, still exists people using voice communications instead of this facebook garbage.
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PS: The only feature that would be useful to me in a smartphone would be able to use google maps on the street, but the cost / benefit ratio is too bad on my country (mobile internet - 3G/4G/EDGE/LTE/etc - is a luxury item here).
There are some offline mapping applications for Android, just download the maps on WiFi and use the phone with Data turned off: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Android [openstreetmap.org]
There are also apps out there to help enforce a data-off policy on your phone, to prevent expensive accidental downloads. Basically, you use your Smartphone like a tablet with Wi-Fi (with the side benefit of having voice calls over cellular).
Maybe we need to stop calling these things phones. (Score:5, Insightful)
If the primary purpose of your "device" is NOT to make phone calls, then... it's something else. It's a handheld digital multipurpose device with cellular capability.
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I've been calling mine a hand computer. Rolls off the tongue a bit better than 'handheld digital multipurpose device'.
I'm always slightly startled when I get a call on my hand computer...
Disagree (Score:4, Informative)
Facebook = New AOL (Score:5, Interesting)
CDs are in the mail.
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Good, my disposable drink coaster supplies have been running low.
Social sites...and "social" sites (Score:2)
OMG somebody should do this for other sites, too! It's so obvious, now that I've heard of it.
Social Device (Score:2)
This weirdness opens the door (Score:1)
Now it's time for Coca Cola to release a Coke Phone that shows you exciting recipes on its home screen. Ooooh, Jack 'n' Coke? Gotta try that!
Maybe Ford will release a phone, whose home screen shows you your current fuel remaining as miles, and tells you which recurring maintenance is next needed. And whenever you're driving, it locks itself for our safety.
Wanna see my pets.com cat-owner's phone? If you really love your cat, surely you have one of these. It makes sure that you don't forget to always hav
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Facebook should subsidize this... (Score:2)
Well, duh. (Score:2)
Um... what exactly did the reviewer expect? That a specialized Facebook phone would somehow magically also be a G+ phone too? That's like walking into a Burger King and complaining that they're limiting your experience because they don't serve Arby's roast beef.... The wh