Well, now I can see myself paying $1500 for the developer version of Google Glass. Following the announcement of a Twitter application, Facebook has arrived! Announced today, Facebook can now be found for Google Glass users, allowing them to post photos directly to their timelines. In addition, you can simply speak the photo’s description to have it added to the post. 

Facebook says this is only “step one” for their development process for Glass. Hmm, I wonder what else we can expect to see from Zuckerburg’s crew.

You are now completely sold on Glass, right?

Via: CNET

Facebook App Now Available For Google Glass, Allows For Posting Pictures Straight to Timeline is a post from: Droid Life

Just a little over a month ago, Facebook held a press event in Menlo Park at their headquarters to announce a partnership with HTC and AT&T. The child of that partnership was the HTC First, priced at just $99 and the first device to come pre-loaded with Facebook Home. While Home was met with mixed reviews from the media and consumers, the First itself didn’t seem all that bad. Beneath Facebook’s launcher lays a vanilla Android operating system, with mid-level specs inside of a well-designed body. According to sources of BGR, none of it was good enough to keep the device on shelves for even a few months. 

Sources state that fewer than 15,000 units were sold during the time that the device dropped in price to just $0.99 on contract, as AT&T representatives were not pushing the device onto buyers. Apparently, all unsold inventory will be shipped back to HTC and from there, who knows. For added insult to injury, it is said that the HTC ChaCha from 2011 saw better total sales than the HTC First. Oy vey.

Are we even surprised by this?

Via: BGR

Cheers Nick and Justin!

HTC First aka “Facebook Phone” Reportedly Already to be Discontinued is a post from: Droid Life

In case you happen to own an HTC One or Samsung Galaxy S4 and have desperately been waiting to try out Facebook Home (woah, don’t all start rushing Google Play at once), both of those devices received support for the social network’s Android launcher last night through an update. The update actually took place through the official Facebook app and not the Home app, so be sure to update that one as well. 

After booting up Home on the One, I noticed HTC’s infamous 3-dot settings bar along the bottom and immediately uninstalled. Performance seems quite nice on the Galaxy S4, but after five minutes I’m sure I’ll remove it.

Any takers?

Play Link

Cheers Chris and Kaitlin!

Facebook Home Updated to Support HTC One and Galaxy S4, Kind of is a post from: Droid Life

For the sake of science and journalism or whatever you want to call this, I downloaded the official Bang With Friends application that just launched on Google Play for Android.

If you are not familiar, BWF is a website where you can anonymously list who of your Facebook friends you would like to hook up with. If that person happens to use BWF too, then mark that they would also like to hang out, then you will both be notified. Unless each of you list that you either want to “hang” or “bang,” neither party will be notified that one another is creeping. Pretty interesting, right? 

So the official app is now on Google Play, although it is experiencing some server issues currently. When it does work though, the app is silky smooth, following Android design guidelines quite well, with a menu bar on the side and full swipe navigation throughout. It’s actually pretty hot.

If you are into this kind of thing, go grab it and have some fun.

Play Link

Official Bang With Friends App Hits Google Play, Could Lead to Some Interesting Rendezvous is a post from: Droid Life

We know that many of the readers here are not huge fans of Facebook, but today, AT&T lowered the price of the HTC First, otherwise known as the Facebook phone. When it launched it was $99.99, but it is now down to only $0.99 if you are upgrading or a new customer. The phone features Facebook Home, a whole new take on what a smartphone can do, but underneath that it runs perfectly stock Android 4.1.2. For $0.99 can you really get a better stock Android device? 

The First comes with AT&T’s LTE network built in and features a Snapdragon 400 dual-core processor, not the biggest chip, but when running stock Android you don’t need that much power. A 720p display and 1GB of RAM make this a serious contender for anyone looking for a good Android device on AT&T.

That being said, does this interest you for only a dollar?

Via: AT&T

HTC First Now Only $0.99 For New and Upgrading Customers, Are You Intrigued? is a post from: Droid Life

News hit the web today that Matias Duarte, the one and only Android design chief at Google, expressed his feelings on Facebook’s Home application, saying the app shows, “an incredible amount of polish.” 

While it is quite obvious Facebook spent a lot of time working on this application, it was not completely apparent how Google felt about it. That was until Eric Schmidt voiced his feelings about Home, saying that this is what open source is all about and that he loves it. For the most part, Matias shares Schmidt’s feelings about Home and had this to say to ABC News:

The new Facebook Home shows an incredible amount of polish and attention to design detail, and that didn’t come from a hardware manufacturer. With the Home experience, they did a nice job expressing the Facebook experience, but so much of the Google design experience with Ice Cream Sandwich was in there as well.

Google has always been one to give credit where credit is due, so this is no shocker. As unusable as I find Home, it is well made, so here’s a +1, Facebook.

Via: The Verge | ABC

Matias Duarte Impressed With Facebook Home, Says it Shows a Lot of Polish is a post from: Droid Life

Google updated the content policies section of the Google Play developer program today with a special note directed at any developer who attempts to update, modify, or replace an APK (app) within their own app or using an outside service. This new note, written under the “Dangerous Products” section, specifically says that no app from Google Play can be updated using any method other than the update mechanism in Google Play. With malware and security an ever-growing focus and area of concern, you can see why Google would be ready to enforce such a policy. 

Here is the note:

Click to enlarge.

No developer or company was named in particular, but as we were discussing shortly after this note went out, Facebook immediately comes to mind. Everyone remember a month or so ago when the Facebook app was updating itself within the Facebook app, asking you to “Install a new build,” only not through Google Play? It scared a number of Android users, prompting the creation of threads all over the internet to try and figure out if it was safe or not. I personally can’t think of another app that has done this, however, I’m sure there are many and Facebook is not alone.

Keep it clean, developers.

Google Reminds Developers They Can’t Update Apps Except With Google’s Update Mechanism, Stares Directly at Facebook is a post from: Droid Life

If you are still using Chat Heads, part of Facebook’s Messenger application, then maybe you can get some use out of its newest feature, stickers. Now I know, Messenger was lacking one thing this whole time and it was certainly kitten stickers, so this should do the trick.

To access stickers, simply hit the smiley face next to the location setting icon and you will see them pop up. If you hit the little shopping basket, you will also be taken to a store where you can get even more stickers. They are listed as free, so I’m guessing there will be an option to buy paid sticker packs in the future. How very uninteresting. 

Go grab it if you want it.

Play Link

Facebook Messenger Updated, Brings Adorable Cat Stickers is a post from: Droid Life

Managers of a Facebook Page take note, because today, the Pages Manager app for Android has been updated. If you are someone who loves to keep their pages updated on the go, today’s update will certainly be welcome with its new features. You can now share photos from other applications, promote your posts at the same time you post them, and turn links from outside the app into posts for your page. 

This continues the trend of Facebook’s big Android push as of late coming off the heels of their Facebook Home and Chat Heads updates. This is the official changelog for the update:

What’s New:

• Post and promote at the same time
  
• Turn an external link into a share post
• Share photos from other apps

The update is live now, so hit the link below to get your app updated.

Play Link

Facebook Pages Manager Receives Update, Adds External Link Support and More is a post from: Droid Life

Facebook Home made headlines over the weekend thanks to its total number of downloads crossing the 500,000 mark in 5 days time. Seems like a big deal, right? Unless of course you compare it to the success of Instagram, which grabbed over 1 million downloads in a single day back when it launched on Android last year. But then again, Facebook Home is only available on four devices (six shortly), two of which aren’t necessarily the most popular on the planet (HTC One X and One X+). For the most part, you have to imagine that the majority of Facebook Home downloads are coming from the top two Android devices on the planet, the Note 2 and Galaxy S3. 

No matter what, it’s probably some sort of a big deal for Facebook. With limited availability, those numbers aren’t necessarily something to mock or laugh at. Assuming they roll out their 3rd party launcher to more phones in the coming weeks or months, the number of downloads could skyrocket. It’s not a bad start, that’s for sure.

Now, skyrocketing downloads doesn’t necessarily mean Facebook Home is a success in terms of users or experience, though. I’ve already shared my thoughts on why the app has more than a long way to go before it becomes usable, but you also have to keep in mind that downloads do not mean active users. 500K downloads could mean 100K active users for all we know. Speaking of experience, the current Google Play store rating of 2-stars is…well, I think it speaks for itself.

Has anyone made Facebook Home a major part of their smartphone experience?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Via:  Google Play | TechCrunch

Facebook Home Passes 500,000 Downloads Mark in a Week is a post from: Droid Life

The past couple weeks have been pretty big for Facebook, first launching Chat Heads and following it up with Home. To make sure that you never leave Facebook’s applications, they have upgraded their Messenger app again today to include free VoIP calling for people in the US.  If you need to get ahold of someone on your Facebook friends list, this feature is live in your Messenger app right now. 

Clicking on the “i” button inside the chat window in Messenger will bring up the option for “Free Call” and once you click that you can enjoy your VoIP service from Facebook.  And for those that might ask, no this does not use any of your plans minutes, purely data.

We know a lot of you are pretty anti-Facebook, anyone actually plan on using this?

Via: The Verge

Facebook Rolls Out VoIP Feature to Messenger App for Android is a post from: Droid Life

Today at AllThingsD‘s Dive Into Mobile conference, Facebook’s head of mobile engineering gave information on the first installment of monthly updates that is to be pushed to the Facebook Home application. Without diving into what the update would include, he did give mention that the update will be available starting the second week of May, but other details with sparse. 

Other than that, Home is now rolling out to international devices outside of the U.S. as well, so it will be interesting to see what others have to say about Home.

If there is something you would like to see added to Home, tell us what it would be down below.

Play Link

Via: The Verge

Inaugural Facebook Home Update Coming Second Week of May is a post from: Droid Life

I know this may be hard to believe, but I actually did find some time to spend with Facebook Home over the last 24 hours. As someone who self-admittedly is far from a lover of the social network, I still felt it necessary to give it a shot as the release is a bold move by Facebook in general as it relates to Android. This isn’t a fork, but it’s Facebook telling you that you should live and breath Facebook at all times, especially on your phone. The rest of what you know as a phone is not as important as the status update of your least favorite classmate from 11th grade Biology – at least to Facebook.

So what do I think? Boy, does it need a lot of work. The video below sums it up nicely. 

Click here to view the embedded video.

Video: This is Why Facebook Home Sucks, at Least for Now is a post from: Droid Life

Facebook Home has been heralded by some as Facebook’s first shot at Google and Apple and a warning that they’re going to enter the phone market with their own phone and OS soon. Still others have warned that Facebook Home may spell trouble for Google. I think Facebook Home is great for Google and great for the Android ecosystem as a whole.

When Facebook first sent out their press invitations the Facebook Home event, the Menlo Park-based company only hinted that it was going to show off its new home on Android. Immediately bloggers and journalists began to conjecture that Facebook was going to announce that it had forked Android. HTC was tied to the announcement early on according to rumors, prompting numerous stories asking if Facebook was indeed going to finally make a Facebook phone with their own OS based on Android on HTC’s hardware.

This idea was preposterous, of course. In order for HTC to make a device with a forked version of Android, HTC would have to leave the Open Handset Alliance (something that Acer learned the hard way). Even if HTC didn’t have the shackles of the OHA holding it back, HTC is in no condition to risk Google’s ire by making a fork of Android. HTC needs all the help it can get, and the only place that help is likely coming from is Google.

If you pull HTC out of the equation and assume that Facebook either secretly entered the hardware manufacturing business or found another hardware partner that isn’t a part of the OHA (go ahead, try and think of an OEM that Facebook would trust that isn’t in the OHA and would fork Android) then Facebook would still have to come up with a solution for getting people Android apps outside of the Play Store. Even more importantly, if Facebook was forking Android, wouldn’t they want to avoid talking about Android like Amazon does? Without the Play Store, companies like Amazon have to emphasize that the OS running on the Fire and similar products is familiar like Android, but different in that it doesn’t have any of the apps you purchased (who are we kidding – Android users don’t buy apps!).

Lo and behold, Facebook was not planning on forking Android to make their own phone. Instead, Facebook made an app that can run on almost any Android phone (or at least it will), making any phone a Facebook phone. This approach requires far fewer resources (although the quality of the app suggests that Facebook had undoubtedly worked hard on making a their own version of Android) and reaches far more of Facebook’s one billion users than they ever could with one phone.

This approach encouraged journalists and bloggers to wonder if this move was bad for Google. “Surely Google is upset that Facebook is taking over the lock and home screens of devices instead of Google+! Google has to strike back with Google+ Home!” The thing is, Google already has that plan in place – it’s called Google Now. Right now Google Now may not have Plus integration, but that sort of thing must be just around the corner (Babel is just another move by Google to consolidate all communications under your Google+ profile – you have “upgraded” to Google+, haven’t you?). Now seems destined to become the hub for your notifications and content on every platform (all your email, messages, directions, searches, websites, etc.).

Making a Google+ Home would make Google look like they were caught with their pants down by Facebook’s announcement. Google undoubtedly knows that a Plus Home would not be nearly as popular as Facebook home, so any efforts in that direction would be a waste of resources. Besides, if Google can get Android (and iOS) users to get used to finding everything they need in Now, they’ll win. Facebook may continue to be the main place for social interactions, but Now will hold everything else.

The reality is, Google has nothing to worry about. The HTC First runs stock Android underneath and has all of Google’s services from search to maps to Gmail. While Google may want people to be using Google+ over Facebook, Facebook Home isn’t hurting Google’s bottom line. Even with Home installed, users will still be reliant on Google’s services and seeing and tapping on Google’s ads. Facebook would have too many obstacles to overcome if they wanted to really challenge Google with their own phone and OS. Facebook and Google are certainly both after the same thing (information about users to sell advertisements), but that doesn’t necessarily mean one company has to win and the other has to lose.

So if Google still has tons of information about their users to sell ads and doesn’t have to worry about Facebook forking Android, why should Google be worried? Facebook Home is actually a really good thing for Google. What platform has the best Facebook experience? Only Android. Sure, you can get the Facebook app on iOS, Windows Phone, and Blackberry 10, but only on Android devices do you get the best experience for interacting with your friends on Facebook. While a lot of tech nerds seem to dislike Facebook, regular people love it. Having a phone or home replacement that is designed around the app you have open 90% of the time could be really compelling to users. It may not make a lot of people change from iOS or Windows Phone, but it may convince some to stay with Android so they can keep that great Facebook Home experience.

Facebook has set a new standard for what can happen with home screen replacements and how people can and should interact with their phones. Microsoft may have pioneered the idea that people should come before apps, but they didn’t push the idea that you should stay on your phone interacting with them in such a deeply enveloped way. Facebook has come a really long way from their first mobile apps to native apps for Android and iOS to Home. I’m excited to see a new wave of innovation in the home screen space as well as what else Facebook will do in mobile.

Facebook Home is Good for Google and Android [Opinion] is a post from: Droid Life

After updating the standard Facebook and Messenger apps this morning to prepare for the arrival of Facebook Home, Facebook has released the final piece to the puzzle. That’s right, Facebook Home is now available for select devices. If you own a Samsung Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note 2, HTC One, One X, or One X+, feel free to grab the app from Google Play for free. 

For those not familiar, Facebook Home is similar in a way to apps like Nova Launcher because it’s nothing more than a 3rd party launcher that can replace your current home experience. But it differs drastically when it comes to features and user experience in that Facebook is pushed to the front of your phone. Your app drawer is accessed differently, there are no widgets, your timeline is streamed as pages on your home screens, and navigation is something that may take some getting used to.

Additional support for devices not mentioned above is on the way, but no specific timeframe has been given.

*Note – At this time, it’s semi-live. We are only able to see it on our Nexus 4s. I can’t get it to show up on my HTC One or Galaxy S3, two devices that are supposed to be compatible. Give it a few minutes.

Update:  It appears to be live for my Galaxy S3 and HTC One, as long as I click on the direct link. Searching, I still come up empty.

Play Link

Click here to view the embedded video.

Facebook Home Now Available on Android for Select Devices is a post from: Droid Life