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Report: Facebook Home Quietly Rolls Out to Galaxy S4, HTC One
Facebook Home just topped 1 million downloads, a number that will likely increase with the recent launch of the mobile social network experience on two more devices.
Android Central reported this week that Facebook quietly added unofficial Facebook Home support for the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S 4.
Facebook Home was made available on April 12 for owners of the HTC One X, HTC One X+, Samsung Galaxy S III, and Samsung Galaxy Note II, while the HTC First was released with the app pre-loaded. At the time, Facebook said the interface would be made available for the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S 4 at some point after they were released in late April, but Home has not yet been officially released for those smartphones.
That's apparently about to change. When Android Central updated the standalone Facebook app (not the Facebook Home app) on the Galaxy S 4, the smartphone displayed a message offering up Facebook Home. "Your device is not supported yet, so you may not get the best experience if you use Home now," the message said, but provided the option to "Use Home Anyway" or cancel. Selecting Home access launched the app as it would on any officially supported phone, Android Central said, adding that it got the same message on the Sony Xperia ZL.
Meanwhile, the blog said the HTC One ran Facebook Home without the warning message, but Android Central did not elaborate about how it made its way to Facebook Home on the smartphone.
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but confirmed to TechCrunch that the apps have been released for the Galaxy S 4 and HTC One.
Comment on Facebook Directly From Bing
Bing is about to get a little more social.
Microsoft on Friday announced that it has more tightly integrated its search engine with Facebook to let users interact with friends' posts directly from the right-hand social sidebar. Launched last year, the Bing social sidebar displays content from Facebook and Twitter that is relevant to a user's query.
Thanks to the new integration, users who have connected their Facebook accounts to Bing will now be able to comment and like friends' relevant status updates directly from the search page.
The new feature works like this: If you're searching Bing for concert tickets, for instance, you might see a post from a Facebook friend saying that they are going to the show. Without leaving the Bing search results page, you'll be able to comment directly on that person's post saying you're thinking of going as well.
"If you're like us, it's hard to keep up with what friends are posting on an ongoing basis, and harder still to search and find specific topics that your friends may have posted about," Bing program manager Nektarios Ioannides wrote in a blog post Friday. "By bringing together Bing and Facebook, you have an easy way to complement your search with helpful, interesting or insightful content your friends have shared."
Facebook ‘Trusted Contacts’ Lets Friends Help You Recover Your Account
Facebook today launched Trusted Contacts, which lets Facebook users provide friends with a virtual spare key, in case of emergency.
The new Trusted Contacts is a redesigned and improved version of Trusted Friends, which rolled out in 2011 and called on friends if a user had trouble logging in to the social network.
Now with more control over account security, Trusted Contacts allows users to choose and manage said friends from the Security Settings, instead of only when having trouble accessing an account.
"That way, you can personally choose friends you really trust to help you," the Facebook Security team wrote in a blog post.
The company considers "trusted contacts" to be people you'd give a spare house key to and someone you can reach out to without using Facebook. Users can select three to five people to be listed.
Can't log into your account? Just call three of your trusty friends, and let them know you need help regaining access to your news feed and birthday reminders. Each one will get a security code with instructions on how to help, and only once you have all three codes can you recover your account.
Facebook Sees Mobile Boost, Talks Instagram Growth
Facebook continued to see gains from mobile during the quarter, and now boasts 751 mobile million monthly active users, a 54 percent increase from the same time period last year.
Revenue for the first quarter came in at $1.46 billion, up 38 percent from the same time period last year, but down from $1.585 billion in the fourth quarter. Income landed at $219 million.
Advertising revenue was $1.25 billion, or 85 percent of total revenue. Of that, 30 percent came from mobile advertising, which is up from 23 percent in the last quarter.
During a call with analysts, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg said the firm has seen success with the mobile app installs added to users' news feeds. During the quarter, 3,800 developers used those ads to drive 25 million app downloads, he said. Of the top 100 apps in the iOS and Android stores, 40 percent of them used Facebook's mobile app install ads.
Also on mobile, Zuckerberg talked up Facebook Home as an "important milestone," though he stressed that it's "still very early." At this point, the company hasn't really made a huge push for people to install Home, in part because of its limited availability. But in the coming year, Facebook hopes to "push this out much more broadly and get this in the hands of a lot more people," he said.
AP Twitter Feed Hacked With Bogus Report of White House Attack
The Twitter account for the Associated Press was hacked on Tuesday, with the attackers posting a false report about explosions at the White House.
"Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured," the @AP Twitter feed tweeted this afternoon.
The account has since been suspended. Minutes after the offending tweet appeared, the AP took to its Facebook page to say that "the Associated Press Twitter account (@AP) has been hacked. Please do not respond to news posted there in the last 20 minutes."
AP reporter Julie Pace also confirmed at today's White House press briefing that the account was hacked, CBS's Mark Knoller tweeted.
In a later update, the AP said the Twitter attack "came after hackers made repeated attempts to steal the passwords of AP journalists," but did not elaborate.
The hack, of course, comes just over a week after the Boston Marathon bombings, and one day after Canadian officials said they had thwarted a major attack on transportation systems there. The AP tweet got hundreds of re-tweets shortly after it was posted, though many immediately suggested that the feed had been hacked.
Surprise: People Are Rude on Social Media
You might get annoyed by overly opinionated status updates, but would you actually cut someone out of your life over an argument on Facebook?
For many, the answer is yes. According to a new survey from corporate training firm VitalSmarts, one in five people have reduced in-person contact with someone after a cyber fight. Moreover, the survey of 2,698 individuals found that two in five have blocked, unsubscribed, or unfriended someone over an argument on social media.
The survey also indicated that social-networking sites are growing increasingly hostile. An overwhelming 88 percent of respondents believe people are less polite online than in person, and 75 percent said they have witnessed an argument on social media. Three out of four have seen the amount of incivility on social media increase over the years.
Worse yet, when tensions spring up on social media sites, they often go unresolved, according to the survey. Eighty-one percent of respondents said the difficult or emotionally charged conversations they had on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn were never resolved.
"Social media platforms allow us to connect with others and strengthen relationships in ways that weren't possible before," Joseph Grenny, co-chairman of VitalSmarts, said in a statement. "Sadly, they have also become the default forums for holding high-stakes conversations, blasting polarizing opinions and making statements with little regard for those within screen shot. We struggle to speak candidly and respectfully in person, let alone through a forum that allows no immediate feedback or the opportunity to see how our words will affect others."
Facebook Unveils Home, New Experience for Android Phones
MENLO PARK—Facebook on Thursday introduced a new mobile experience for Android smartphones called Home, ending months of speculation that the social networking giant was preparing to jump feet first into mobile with its own "Facebook phone."
"Today, we're finally going to talk about that Facebook phone, or more accurately we're going to talk about how you can turn your Android phone into a great Facebook device," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at a press event held at the company's headquarters.
HTC and AT&T will deliver the first Facebook Home-optimized smartphone, the $99.99 HTC first, on April 12 with pre-orders starting immediately. Home will also be available for U.S. users on Google Play for several more Android Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean handsets from HTC, Samsung, and others on the same date, Zuckerberg said.
While rumors had swirled that Facebook might introduce an actual handset or its own mobile operating system, Home is neither. Yet calling it an "app" seems an understatement as well.
Home, if anything, appears to be an Android app on steroids—it completely remakes the experience of turning on a smartphone, turning the intro screen into a Facebook feed complete with notifications and one-click access to a user's content on the social network.
After News Feed Overhaul, Facebook Also Redesigns Timeline
Facebook today unveiled a revamped version of the Timeline intended to give users a more organized profile.
Specifically, the social network is introducing better ways for apps to appear on Timeline, improved controls for users, and streamlined tools for setting up Open Graph.
The focus on apps, Facebook said, is due in part to how "apps [have] become an increasingly important part of people's identities."
Going forward, life events and posts will appear on the right side of a user's Timeline, while "other things people care about" will show up on the left, Facebook said in a blog post.
Apps will appear in their own section on the left-hand side of a Timeline and via the About tab up top. Categories might include books (below), music, movies, TV, and fitness, and users can add things to these sections by hand or via the apps themselves.
Facebook Introduces Revamped, More Visual News Feed
Facebook on Thursday showcased a revamped News Feed that reflects the increasingly visual nature of user-generated content while also adding new, more specific content filters for News Feed users.
The social-networking giant said its redesigned News Feed, which will be rolled out to a small number of users starting today, now provides a more consistent experience across its Web and mobile platforms.
"We're trying to give everyone in the world the best personalized newspaper we can," Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at a press conference at the company's Menlo Park, Calif. headquarters.
To that end, new News Feed filters will allow users to easily select for content from their Facebook friends, as well as from people and topics they're following, in specific categories like music and photos. Users can also now opt to see content from all of their Facebook friends with a new "All Friends" feed, while existing feeds like content from close friends and updates from games a user is playing will remain largely the same.
The presentation of content on the revamped News Feed has taken a decidedly visual turn. That's a direct response to the evolving nature of this key Facebook feature—the percentage of News Feed stories with photos grew from 25 percent at the end of 2011 to roughly half as of January of this year, Zuckerberg said.
Julie Zhuo, Facebook's director of design, walked reporters through a series of visualizing changes to News Feed content that will first be rolled out for Web users and hit smartphones and tablets over the next few weeks.
"We wanted to understand what it was that people wanted to share and design the best container to allow their stories to shine," Zhuo said.
Facebook Event to Unveil ‘New Look’ for News Feed
Facebook on Friday sent out invites for a March 7 event that promises to unveil an updated version of the social network's news feed.
"Come see a new look for News Feed," the invite reads.
The event will kick off at 10 a.m. Pacific.
Facebook's news feed has evolved from a quick snapshot of friends' status updates to a real-time feed that incorporates the activity of your connections on and off Facebook, as well as ads.
Back in 2009, Facebook introduced the concept of the "real-time" news feed, which added the link atop its main page to notify you that new updates had been posted.
By Sept. 2011, Facebook added the real-time "ticker," which gave you updates on absolutely everything that was going on with your friends via a scrolling menu on the top-right corner of your screen. The news feed, meanwhile, started focusing on the "most interesting" stories. At this point, you can opt to see "Most Recent" or "Top Stories" on your Facebook feed.
Last year, ads started cropping up amidst your friends' status updates and photos. They eventually made their way to mobile, where Facebook also added the option to download apps directly from the news feed.