Facebook, Smartphone | featured news

Douglas Rushkoff says Facebook's new app just increases disorientation and isn't getting rave reviews from users... And when I looked up Facebook Home online to try to find out just what it was, the first search results that came up were from users sharing how to disable it. This way, consumers can buy the discounted phones on which Facebook Home ships, and turn them back into a regular Android smartphones, where Facebook is just another app we can use in our own good time.

Facebook announced their new social home screen replacement called Facebook Home last week, and today it's available in the Play Store for certain devices. The suite of apps puts more focus on your friends and social sharing than the separate apps you use to communicate, with a new home and lock screen, a new notifications area, and (of course) serious Facebook integration. Facebook Home is available for the HTC First, HTC One X and One X+, the Samsung Galaxy S III, and the Galaxy Note II. Support for the HTC One and Galaxy S4 are coming in the future, along with (hopefully) other devices. Check out the video above to see it in action, read our original post for more information, and if you have a supported device, hit the link below to try it out.

Yes, this again. Facebook on Thursday sent out invitations for a press event that promised to show off the company’s “new home on Android,” which naturally led to fresh speculation about the company’s intention to produce its own Facebook-centric smartphone.

As much as we're used to companies offering big teasers for their future devices, it's still rare that they put the revelation itself under our control. Sony's trying just that: its mobile division's Facebook page is promising a new Xperia phone whose unveiling date is contingent on how many people "fast forward" the unveiling date from its original June 22nd.

Facebook's $1 billion acquisition of photo-sharing start-up Instagram has shifted the spotlight to the newest phenomena in mobile apps: uploading personal videos from smartphones.

Facebook is working with HTC to develop a phone that has a much deeper integration with the social network than any previous "Facebook phone." That's according to a report from All Things D, which says the phone is probably 12 to 18 months away from hitting store shelves.

As the biggest social network across the Internet, Facebook has a lot of people to reach. And the current usage evidence shows that people really want to let their friends what's going on even when they're not near a computer so that means mobile devices. The result: Facebook has plans for its own smartphones in the ...