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Facebook Home Reviews Arrive
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.
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.
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?
"Why?"
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.
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 comparison, Conde Nast makes $4-5 billion on far, far fewer viewers, because they can get people to pay much higher rates for their ads, which are seen as valuable. People actually buy magazines for ads.
ugh....no thanks.
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?
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.
and im certian theres no gps tracking with 'locally owned businesses' injecting ads as you walk by right?
Thank you Facebook, I cannot wait!
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").
Decent SoC, enough RAM for most, 720p display (only 4.3" across!) and the fact that Home can be ripped off to reveal a perfectly functioning stock Jelly Bean: isn't this the ideal mid-range device? If you're not the kind who upgrades from a Samsung GS3 to a GS4 because of the "OMG four extra cores!!!", this phone + a tablet (iPad/Google Nexus) should keep you happy.
"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 worldwide smartphone market share to 52 percent from 46.4 percent in the third quarter of 2012. Samsung ended the year in the No. 1 position, in both worldwide smartphone sales and overall mobile phone sales. "
"and WP8 already has this level of Facebook integration... and integration with other social networks."
IMHO, at some point reality has to set in, they've falled from 1st to 2nd to 3rd to 4th slot in the Smartphone market, Elop has been reduced to chasing discount featurephones because their WP strategy has been such a disaster. You can say it has great FB integration, and I'm sure they're marketing as such, but the sales aren't there and they keep falling further behind the Android crowd. Get a grip Nokia!
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.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Imagine you're a cow. Here's a new bell... we call it the "Cowbell Home." There you go... now back out to pasture with you, you good little consumer you. *daw* Isn't life easier??
With UI, slow enough to be noticed is annoying...
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
Facebook = New AOL.
CDs are in the mail.
OMG somebody should do this for other sites, too! It's so obvious, now that I've heard of it.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Not 4th place, they've released the 2012 figures, their market share is 3% and that puts them at 9th or 10th place.
I'm glad my phone can finally be the social device it deserves to be!
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 have enough cat toys around.
Maybe Amazon will release a phone that can read ebooks that were purchased on Ama-- oh wait.
Some of these ideas may seem stupid, but they're fundamentally no stupider than the product in TFA. Take some arbitrary specialized service or brand, and sell a phone based on using it. Thanks, Facebook, for getting it into everyone's heads, that now anyone can sell a phone.
Is your business selling a phone yet? Why not?
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
Aren't you?
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...
Culture is more than commerce
I have no intention of buying this phone, but if Facebook really wants to make a dent, they'd go back to their university roots and give away these phones on college campuses with a sponsor (e.g. Pepsi). College students are poor and love a free anything. The phone itself is pretty capable hardware and probably 90% of the people you give it to will keep the Home launcher around, so Facebook can make up for their subsidy with advertising $. I wonder if they'll do something like this. To me, I can't see any other way for this to succeed.
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 whole point of the phone/app seems to have gone right over the reviewers head - it's aimed are core and heavy Facebook users, not at the technorati.
If it were available on iOS, there's times I'd be sorely tempted to use it sometimes.