Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts

Social networking impact: EC may create model poll code for politicos online

The general elections of 2014 in India will go down in history for being one most influenced by social networking and technology in India. The matter has gone beyond mere speculation and research studies, with the Election Commission (EC) now working on ways to make sure that social media is brought within the purview of the model code of conduct.

According to a report by The Times of India, the EC is contemplating putting in action, ways and means to regulate not just accountability of expenses but even communication through social media for parties when it comes to campaigning. The matter was apparently brought to light when a rights organisation spoke of the social media question to the Chief Election Commissioner of the country, VS Sampath.

Reining in the social media

The question put forth in front of Sampath was regarding instances of likes being brought on Facebook for pages and posts belonging to national parties, campaign messages making its way through WhatsApp forwards as well as multiple websites for candidates. The organisation sought to have some kind of accountability and a larger scrutiny of the expenses being made through campaigning on social networking websites and the Internet in general.

For those not in the know, the EC is the authority for putting a limit on poll expenses as the general elections draw near. The limits can be revised from time to time and this seems to be an ideal opportunity to do so. Never before has the social networking medium been a more potent tool in the hands of politicians. Taking a leaf out of international poll campaigns, Indian politicos too have ramped up their presence on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Of course, this would mean incurring expenditure, especially when it comes to hosting and maintaining their own websites.

It has recently been revealed that social media could swing up to 4 percent urban votes in around 160 constituencies in the upcoming elections. Sampath may need to take a good, hard look at politicians’ online presence and expenditure on online campaigns in the run up to the elections.

Report by : Nishtha Kanal

US officials to Delhi court: Can’t summon Facebook, Google

US officials have told the Indian government that they cannot serve summons to Facebook and Google executives, as requested by a Delhi court, because that impacts “free speech principles".

India had asked the US to help in serving papers to the executives of 11 Internet companies who are accused of hosting content designed to fuel communal hatred.

In January this year, the court issued fresh summons for the executives and asked the Ministry of Home Affairs to ensure they were delivered. “As you know, there are limits to our Constitution’s protections on free speech, such as when the speech comprises a true threat or incites imminent violence. In this case, there has not been a sufficient showing in this regard,” US authorities said in response.

Facebook and Google won't have to appear in Indian courts just yet

The case was filed in December 2011 by a journalist named Vinay Ray who said Internet firms should be prosecuted for hosting the content. The case will be heard in Delhi on May 21.

Even as Google and Facebook get a breather from appearing in court over allegedly hosting offensive content, the search giant has had to deal with another legal issue pertaining to the Google Mapathon event’s India leg. While Google has maintained that the Mapathon contest was in line with Indian laws, the company could see some court time in India over allegedly violating the cartographical laws of the land.

Another petition filed with the Delhi High Court questions the legality of allowing minors to register on Facebook or the likes. The High Court is awaiting a response from the government, which was asked to explain why minors are allowed to enter contracts with social network.

Report by : Nikhil Subramaniam

How to Get More Facebook Fans

It's natural to have an inexplicable need for more social media followers, fans and subscribers. If Twitter has #TeamFollowBack, what can you do to get more likes on Facebook?

Report by : Matt Petronzio

Facebook Home crosses 500,000 downloads on Google Play Store

Looks like the mixed reviews and the privacy scare has not deterred Facebook users from adopting Home, the Android launcher released by the world's largest social network earlier this month.

As per the latest figures from the Play Store, Facebook Home has passed 500,000 downloads on the Android store ten days after it was launched. Though the app continues to have rollercoaster reviews, which bring down its average rating to 2.2, it would seem the novelty of the experience has drawn many users. Of course, just the download count seems like a vague way to gauge consumer interest as the numbers don’t show how many users are still using Home.

Home brings a brand new Facebook experience for Android

Another point to be noted is that the apk for Home has been floating around in the wild with several users forced to sideload it in the initial days when the app was a US-only affair. Between April 12 and 16, when the app was made available to international users, several modified apks cropped up, downloads of which do not count towards the official tally.

While 500,000 downloads might seem too few in comparison to Facebook’s massive 1 billion-plus user base, the app’s progress is also limited by the number of devices it can run on. Hardware requirements rule out most mid-range handsets, leaving only the high-end ones capable of using Home. By comparison, the main Facebook Android app has been downloaded between 100 million and 500 million times.

A look at the graph presented on the Play Store also makes for an interesting reading, which says the number of new downloads for Home has actually dropped since its international launch on April 16. Home is currently available on certain devices, including the Samsung Galaxy S III, Samsung Galaxy Note II, HTC One X and HTC One X+. Besides these phones, Home also runs on the HTC First, which was launched alongside the app on April 4.

Adoption may be great, but reception for that app is altogether a different matter. Out of the 11,073 user ratings at the time of writing, over half i.e. 5,700 are a 1 Star and just over ten percent of the ratings i.e 1,832 are 5 Stars.

Facebook Home: 5 Things you need to know

Facebook has officially announced 'Facebook Home' - a brand new user interface that will run on Android smartphones with tablets to follow later



With Facebook still dominating the interwebs thanks to sheer weight of traffic, its millions of users and booming advertising revenue, Mark Zuckerberg has turned the gaze of his web-monster towards the mobile sector with the aim of making the social networking site more deeply integrated into day-to-day smartphone use by officially announcing its Android-based Facebook Home user interface which can be downloaded from Google Play.

Aiming to turn your Android phone into a 'great social phone', Facebook is hoping to make smartphone interaction more focused on people than apps. So what does that mean? If you missed the announcement, here's five things you need to know about Facebook Home.

Cover Feed

Referring to the home screen as the soul of your smartphone, the image-centric user interface will let you swipe from left to right to see Facebook content so if you see a cool image that your Facebook friend has uploaded you can zoom in and out of it or double tap on it to Like. Facebook content can also be viewed in the lockscreen without having to make any swipes or gestures and can be turned off if you are worrying about data issues.

App Launcher

If you are wondering where your native icons are going to go, they will be integrated into Home where your circlular profile pic icon will sit at the bottom of the screen and once tapped can open the standard applications tray as well as give you access to Facebook Messenger and a Most Recent app icon.

Chat Heads

If you are looking at a photo or playing a game and you want to talk to a friend about it, Chat Heads will let you talk with Facebook Messenger friends and people in your contacts you'd normally just text all from one place. A small circle with your friends profile picture will pop up when a message has come through and a preview of the message to understand the context at which point you can continue the discussion all while the application you’re currently looking at is still open. If you want to close a Chat Head conversation or multiple conversations you can simply flick them off the screen.

Facebook Home updates

Facebook announced that it will be adding new features on a monthly basis to enhance the Home experience but did not detail what kind of additions we can expect.

How do you get Facebook Home?

If you are in the US and have the most recent Facebook Android app and Facebook Messenger versions US customers will be able download it from Google Play next week with a global launch tipped in a few weeks time.

Unfortunately it will only be available for smartphones with a tablet version in the works which Facebook promises will be on the way in several months time. The other bad news is that the HTC One X, Samsung Galaxy Note 2, Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One will be amongst the few smartphones to be able to access Home as well as the newly announced HTC First which will have the Home software pre-loaded.

Report by : Michael Sawh

Android users in the US get free calling over VoIP using FB Messenger

The US became one of the first countries to receive free calling over VoIP using Facebook Messenger earlier this year. Unfortunately, the feature was limited to only iPhone users in the country. Now, Facebook is ready to roll the feature out for the large number of Android users of Facebook too.

If you’re an Android user in the US, you will be able to use this feature right away, without even updating your app. To place a free call over VoIP, you will need to get to the profile of the person you want to contact on Messenger, hit the “i” button on the top right corner and select the “Free Call” option.

Placing a phone call will send a push notification to your friends, who can choose to accept or reject your call. In case they do not have the Messenger app or it isn’t running in the background, you can leave them a voice message. Phone calls will be made over Wi-Fi if the option is available, or the app will use your data connection.

US Android users can now make free calls too

Now that Chat Heads are an integral part of Facebook Messenger on Android, the social networking giant has made arrangements to place free phone calls using the pop-up notification too. Tap on the three “more info” dots next to your friend’s name to open the conversation onto Messenger and then repeat the above mentioned procedure.

Back in December, Facebook had quietly started to test the free call option for iPhone users in Canada. Nearly a month later, the option was expanded to the US too. In March, Facebook pulled a double whammy and released the free call option for both iPhone and Android users in the UK. The speed at which Facebook seems to be rolling this feature makes it look like it's only a matter of time before global availabilty is signalled.

Facebook has said that as of today, 24 countries including the US have received the ability to place free calls using Facebook’s Messenger on Android. This feature comes only days after Facebook released Chat Heads for Messenger on both iOS and Android, and Facebook Home for Android shows that the social networking giant is on a bit of a roll.

The Android launcher skin named Facebook Home was launched last week in a much-hyped event. Originally available to only the US, Facebook Home has been made available to countries the world over on Google Play now. To use Facebook Home, you will have to update your Facebook and Messenger apps to their latest versions. As of now, the app is only available for a few smartphones, namely, Samsung's Galaxy S3 and Note II, and HTC's One, One X and One X+ as of now.

Report by : Nishtha Kanal

81 per cent of Facebook users don't want to be friends with their boss

Washington: At least 81 per cent people believe that there is one person you should never be friends with on Facebook - your boss - according to a new survey.

The survey of 722 people conducted by two websites found that 81 per cent said you should not be Facebook friends with your boss.

Slightly more men than women said it was alright to friend your boss, the survey site SodaHead and anonymous feedback site YouTell found.

Those aged between 25 to 34 are the most comfortable with befriending their boss on the social networking site, Huffington Post report.

Those aged between 25 to 34 were the most comfortable with befriending their boss on the social networking site, 'Huffington Post' reported.

While there seemed to be a consensus on not befriending the boss on Facebook, people were less sure when it came to being friends with colleagues on the site.

In a parallel survey that asked whether or not you should be Facebook friends with your co-workers, 55 per cent said yes and 45 per cent said no.

Employees probably don't want bosses to see embarrassing information about them, and don't want to have to censor Facebook photos from their wild college days.

The fears may not be totally unfounded as people have been fired for Facebook posts.

In 2009, a Swiss woman was fired from her insurance job because she had told her boss that she couldn't work at her computer and needed to lie down in the dark. She was fired when she was seen to be active on Facebook.

In 2010, a woman was fired from her waitressing job after complaining about a pair of customers on her Facebook page.

Facebook Home now available outside US on Google Play

Facebook Home is now available for users outside the US. You can grab it for free from Google Play. To use Facebook Home, you will have to update your Facebook and Messenger apps to their latest versions. As of now, the app is only available to for a few smartphones, namely, Samsung's Galaxy S3 and Note II, and HTC's One, One X and One X+.

Cover Feed on Facebook Home lets users view their News Feed posts as soon as they turn their phone on. They can swipe through these posts to view more, double tap to like a post and then can comment on a post from the cover feed.

Up next is Chat Heads and Messenger. Home users can install Messenger on their devices to send and receive texts and Facebook messages at the same location. Then there is the ability to move in and out of conversations while, say, watching a video or browsing the web. It is possible to type replies right from chat heads. Alternatively, users can choose to move them around, in case they don't want to respond to it right away.

Now in India!

The app was launched last week and was only available to US users at the time. This didn't stop enterprising homebrew developers from getting their hands on the apk from Google Play and releasing it in the wild, however. There is also a tweaked version of the Facebook Home apk out in the wild that makes the app compatible with any phone that has a 720p screen.

Facebook Home has been very popular. Shortly after being available on Google Play, the app garnered a lot of downloads and user reviews. Opinions on Facebook Home seem to be polarised. The review rating is averaging out at 2.3 out of 5 stars. The overwhelming consensus seems to steer towards the lower end of the rating scale, though, with the app having gotten 2,608 1-star reviews, as opposed to only 897 5-star reviews and 478 4-star reviews.

The biggest criticism faced by the app is that it eats up too much battery and data usage, while at the same time hampering regular Android features such as widgets. A 1-star review says: "The app's pretty lousy. Causes battery drain, severely hampers operation of your device, it just gets in the way of what you need/want to do."

Facebook lovers seem to have taken a liking to Facebook Home, however. Users have praised the app for being smooth and having quick access to their social feeds. A 5-star review says: "I have the galaxy note 2 it does a amazing job thank you facebook! Keep up the amazing work!"

Some of the average reviews, namely the 239 3-star reviews, mostly seem to have issues with the restrictions on homescreen customisation that Facebook Home seems to have. One of the 3-star reviews read: "Looks pretty. Messenger is cool with that chatheads. However, we should have more freedom controlling what we want on the Lock screen because I want the phone dialer there."

Report by : Shunal Doke

Facebook for iOS gets Chat Heads

Facebook has launched a blitzkrieg of sorts for updates after the launch of Facebook Home. After having readied a bevy of updates for Android, Facebook has turned its focus on its iOS app. Facebook for iOS has received an update that gives it the much desired Chat Heads feature along with a few other new additions and tweaks.

With the Chat Heads you can now chat with your friends from wherever you are within the app. Mind you, you will not be able to see Chat Heads once you are outside the Facebook app on your iOS devices, since Apple does not allow apps to leave the sandbox this way yet.

You will be able to hold multiple conversations from within the Facebook app without needing to run to the Messenger or open the messages tab. The Chat Heads will line up neatly on the iPhone or iPod Touch screen. On the iPad, the Chat Heads will come arranged vertically on the left of your screen. You can flick these Chat Heads around on your screen if they hamper your reading and you can flick them towards the bottom of the screen to make them disappear.

Chat Heads and Stickers! iOS users, rejoice!

Unlike in Android, Chat Heads on the iOS version of Facebook will not work with SMS.

Facebook for iOS now also has Stickers that will help you “liven up your messages”. Stickers are essentially these colourful, cute looking large emojis that you can send in a message with a single tap, quite like you can send emoticons. These large Stickers are bound to make conversations a lot more fun than sending those tiny emoticons whose emotions you can hardly make out.

The social networking giant is also rolling out new feeds like Music, Photo and Games in the revamped News Feed you will get along with this latest update. The iPad app is also set to get “brighter, more beautiful stories” in the News Feed.

Of course, the rollout is a little slow, but you will start getting these features on your iOS devices starting now. Here at tech2, the iPod Touch that we were using received Chat Heads, but not the newer News Feed or Stickers in the messages. Facebook promises us that these features will be available to everyone soon. We’re waiting!

You can grab version 6.0 of the Facebook for iOS app from the App Store here.

Meanwhile, there is good news for people who have been waiting for Facebook Home. The social media giant has made its Android launcher available to users outside the US now. Of course, Facebook Home is available only on select devices right now namely, Samsung's Galaxy S3 and Note II, and HTC's One, One X and One X+.

If you do use any of these devices anywhere in the world, you can download the app from Google Play for free.

Report by : Nishtha Kanal

Speech by Zuckerberg? No thanks, I prefer Facebook Home, says new ad

Facebook has released yet another advertisement for its newest iteration, Facebook Home. Quite like the previous “Airplane” advertisement, this one shows news stories from Facebook feeds come to life, this time inside the Facebook office.

The minute long advertisement shows Mark Zuckerberg announcing the launch of Facebook Home to his employees, talking about the product and its qualities. We all have that one person we know who has his nose buried inside his phone, even in the most important situations. Zuckerberg has one such employee on his hands.

Even as Zuckeberg is droning on, the employee, Jerry, is busy bringing to life scenarios from his Facebook Home enabled phone to life. There is a goat bleating hilariously at Zuckerberg and dirt-bikes roaring past him.

There is also a guy in extremely tiny tennis shorts who wants Jerry to come out and play with him. Turns out, it was an IM he received on the Messenger and Jerry replies back to him by clicking on the chat-head that he’s almost done. He then goes on to nod his head and show that he's been paying attention when Zuckerberg asks him for his opinion. "You know it, Mark," he massages Zuck's ego. Kinds of rude to be paying attention to your phone when your CEO is addressing you, but let’s face it, most of us do that in office anyway, even if we do it slyly.

And “rude” is the theme that seems to be running throughout this Facebook Home campaign, whether we like it or not. The “Airplane” TV commercial released on the day of the launch has the rude vibe going for it too.

Dealing with a rude employee

The ad doesn’t seem keen on telling you about the various aspects of Facebook Home. We see a guy boarding a flight and flipping through Facebook Home's news feed on an HTC One. Each time he looks at a post, friends and content from that Facebook post are shown to present around him inside the aircraft. The overhead luggage compartments have a couple of his friends lying around looking like they’re sunbathing on a beach, while a couple of singers sing when he looks at a post of a video. We also see a kid's party, people dancing in a club and, of course, cats inside the flight. The guy can't seem to take his hands off the phone when inside the flight, even when the airhostess asks him to switch it off.

The ads do kind of stump us with the message it is trying to send across. Should we not put our phones away in a flight when asked to? Should we risk our jobs going through our feeds even as our CEO is talking to us? Are we supposed to be so addicted to Facebook Home that we can’t stop going through our feed? Facebook Home’s first batch of commercials simply makes us go “huh?”

Report by : Nishtha Kanal

Just Who Uses Social Media? A Demographic Breakdown

You think you know social? How about who uses it? Well, you might not know it as well as you would have guessed.

A new study from the Pew Research Center and Docstoc shed some light on just who uses social and on what platforms. Some of the findings seem in line with what you would probably guess, but others were surprising.

If you think the smarter, more attractive sex is more socially prolific than us men, well ... you're right. Women use social media 9% more than men do. Despite having more distractions, people living in cities have the most social media activity, at 70% of the population. Perhaps it's the connectivity of large-city life.

In terms of racial and ethnic groups online, Hispanics lead the pack at 72% engagement, with African-Americans trailing at 68%, who are ahead of Caucasians at 65%. And in a strange twist, despite being somewhat economically disadvantaged, 72% of adults with annual household incomes below $30,000 use social networks, more than those with higher wages.

How about most popular social networks? That would be Facebook, with 67% of adults using the Zuckerberg-founded service. A distant second was LinkedIn with 20%, with Twitter coming in third at 16%, and Tumblr falling dead last at 6%.

Report by : Adam Popescu

Facebook Home is now on the Google Play store

After days of being just able to read about Facebook's new Home users of the HTC One, One X, and One X+, Samsung Galaxy S3, Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 2 can finally lay their hands on it. Facebook's latest iteration of the service for Android smartphones, Facebook Home, is up for grabs on the Google Play store.

Cover Feed on Facebook Home lets users view their News Feed posts as soon as they turn their phone on. They can swipe through these posts to view more, double tap to like a post and then can comment on a post from the cover feed.

Up next is Chat Heads and Messenger. Home users can install Messenger on their devices to send and receive texts and Facebook messages at the same location. Then there is the ability to move in and out of conversations while, say, watching a video or browsing the web. It is possible to type replies right from chat heads. Alternatively, users can choose to move them around, in case they don't want to respond to it right away.

Facebook Home settles on the Play store

Home users can view their notifications on their homescreen and they will stay there till the users want it to. To open a notification, users can tap on it or get them out of the way to view the cover feed.

Users have the app launcher to open their favourite apps and post to Facebook at the same time. Users can pick what they want to feature on the launcher, and they can press and hold it before dragging it to where they want to see it.

Facebook Home is dubbed as a replacement for the Android UI and puts more emphasis on people rather than apps. The tablet version of Facebook Home is still under development and will take some time to be launched.

On the question of privacy on Home, Facebook's Michael Richter and Erin Egan had clarified that it "doesn't change anything related to your privacy settings on Facebook." They added that privacy controls of a user work in the same way with Home as they do elsewhere on Facebook.

While stating that Home is a new way to experience the social networking platform, the post makes it clear that users get to the service by downloading it from the Play store or by purchasing a phone with Home pre-installed. Implying that they do not have to use Home to access Facebook on their Android devices.

Additionally, once a user installs Home on his Android device, he doesn't necessarily have to continue using it. Users can turn off Home in their Home Settings. Alternatively, if a user likes Home but doesn't want to show up as their lockscreen, there is an option for that too.

Importantly, the post goes on to add that Home collects information when users interact with the service, i.e. when they like or comment on a post and send a message. Home may also collect other details about how a user uses it. The post explains this by stating that Facebook has a list of apps that a user has in the Home app launcher.

As for devices that come pre-installed with Home, the service can display notifications from apps on the phone. Facebook explains that since these notifications appear in Home, they collect information about the notifications, like which app is generating them, and not the content of the notification. Facebook confirmed that it removes identifying information from this data after 90 days.

As far as the service's location collecting abilities go, Facebook clarifies that it does not use the location any differently than the Facebook app that users already have on their Android phones. Importantly, it is possible to control the location permission in the phone's settings.

Report by : tech2 News Staff

“Secretbook” extension can encode hidden messages in Facebook pictures

A 21-year-old Oxford University computer science student and former Google intern has released a Google Chrome browser extension this week that allows you to encode images uploaded to Facebook with secret messages.

Owen Campbell-Moore released Secretbook after spending two months working on the extension as a research project for the university.

The secret messages are limited to 140 characters and can only be unlocked through a password you create, keeping them safe from prying eyes in the company, government or anyone else.

This marks the first time someone has been able to automate digital steganography (the practice of concealing messages inside computer files,) through Facebook.

Steganographic messages are hidden where no one would think to look, such as in a single pixel changed and repeated. However, when an image is uploaded to Facebook, it’s automatically compressed, which would garble the secret message.

Campbell-Moore was able to replicate Facebook’s compression algorithm and minimize the amount of change in order to not damage the secret message.

Report by : Becca Mitchell

CHART OF THE DAY: Facebook Dominates Social Logins — But Google Is Closing The Gap

When users on the web are asked to log in to a site, they most often choose Facebook over Twitter, LinkedIn or Google rather than registering anew, according to data from Janrain, which tracks social logins.

Facebook has become hugely dominant as the social login of choice but Google gained some ground in Q1 2013, Janrain reports:

During Q1, Facebook did lose ground to Google for the second consecutive quarter, dropping in popularity from 49% during Q4 2012 to 46% in Q1 2013, while Google’s share of social logins ascended from 31% to 34% during the same period.

Here's the chart:
Report by : Jim Edwards

Facebook Home Review: Slick, Fun and, for Now, Superficial

HTC CEO Peter Chou holds an HTC First phone showing the new Facebook Home app for Android
If you attended Facebook’s “our new Home on Android” event last Thursday — or watched the live stream — you could be forgiven if you came away confused about just how significant Facebook thought its news was.

On one hand, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg kept stressing that, despite long-standing rumors, the company wasn’t announcing a “Facebook phone” after all. Nor had it created a Facebook phone operating system. Its new product, Facebook Home, was just a replacement for Android’s standard home screen; one that was shipping on just one new phone — HTC’s First — and which could be installed on a few different existing phone models from Samsung and HTC.

But Zuckerberg also said Facebook Home was a paradigm shift: a piece of software that makes the phones running it people-centric rather than app-centric. And he called it the best version of Facebook yet — not just for phones, but for any sort of device.

So which is it? Is Facebook Home a simple and straightforward piece of software, or a landmark?

Well, conceptually, it’s indeed a big deal: allowing one social network to insert itself, front and center, into your smartphone experience could change everything about how you interact with your phone.

But the thing is, there just isn’t that much Facebook Home to interact with. There are pretty pictures from your news feed, updates from your friends and an exceptionally clever messaging feature called Chat Heads — and not a whole lot else. To riff on what Gertrude Stein said about her hometown of Oakland, Calif., there’s not much there there.

Not yet, anyhow. But Zuckerberg said Facebook plans to release monthly updates to Home, which means that it could get much meatier in a hurry. And even though the software isn’t fancy, it represents Facebook’s first full-blown attempt to reimagine itself for a more mobile world. (The standard Facebook smartphone apps are pretty much just conventional Facebook, crammed onto a smaller display.) As such, it’s the company’s first rough draft of its own future.

I tried Facebook Home on HTC’s First, which will go on sale on April 12, the same day that the Home download becomes available to other phones. The LTE phone will be an AT&T exclusive, for $99.99 with a two-year contract. As the relatively low price indicates, it’s a basic smartphone, not a Galaxy S4 killer: the 4.3-in. (10.9 cm) screen is small by Android standards, the camera has only 5 megapixels of resolution and the Qualcomm processor isn’t among the most potent.

I found it to be a pleasing piece of hardware anyhow — a handset with a pocketable, one-hand feel similar to the iPhone 5 and a sleek, minimalist industrial design. It’s in line with the Facebook Home idea, which emphasizes simplicity over kitchen-sink complexity.

O.K., on to Home itself. It replaces Android’s standard lock screen and home screen with Cover Feed, a feature that reminds me a bit of browsing Facebook in Flipboard. It displays status updates and photos from your friends, one full-screen item at a time. You can swipe your way through them, letting you catch up on what your pals are doing within milliseconds of turning on your phone.

(You can also choose to use Home as your home screen but disable it in the lock screen. You might want to do that if you’d prefer to have one photo you choose greet you when you switch on your phone, rather than a fresh, ever-changing selection of items from Facebook.)

Cover Feed is constantly downloading updates and photos in the background — though it’s careful about doing so in a way that won’t kill your battery or decimate your data plan — so that they’re just there when you’re ready to look at them. You never have to pause while additional items load, as you do with Facebook’s standard app.

There’s a basic problem with blowing up Facebook photos to fill a phone’s whole screen, though: phone screens are designed to be used primarily in portrait orientation. (In fact, that’s the only orientation that Home supports.) Photos, by contrast, are most often landscape-shaped. Home deals with this by panning majestically across photos, Ken Burns style — which sometimes works quite well and sometimes renders them illegible. You can also press and hold a photo to see it in a smaller-but-complete view.

Cover Feed, like Facebook’s News Feed, is a never-ending river of stuff from all your friends. If a friend uses Facebook to aim something directly at you, by posting on your wall or sending you a message, it’ll show up as a banner notification on the lock screen, roughly comparable to the ones in Apple’s iOS. These notifications also alert you to new e-mail, calendar appointments and other items, and are cleaner and easier to read than the ones in standard Android. Nicely done.

The single best thing in this first version of Facebook Home, however, is Chat Heads. (I even admire the wonderfully silly name.) When you get an incoming Facebook message or a text message, a marblelike circle — a Chat Head — pops up on top of whatever else you’re doing on your phone. You can swipe the Chat Head to nudge it to any location on the screen, or tap it to begin chatting in a pop-up window. And you talk with multiple Chat Heads at one time. Much more efficient than hopping back and forth between two apps.

(The one thing that sometimes flummoxed me: each Chat Head is a tiny version of the person’s profile picture, cropped to fit inside a circle. I couldn’t always tell whom a Chat Head represented from this visual clue alone. Oh, and for reasons I don’t understand, Chat Heads are only initiated by an incoming message from a friend — if you start the conversation, you do so in the standard Facebook Messenger app.)

Despite Zuckerberg’s stance at the Facebook Home launch event that the software is organized around people, not apps, you’re going to spend plenty of time on a Facebook Home phone using apps — Facebook’s standard app and Facebook Messenger; all of Google’s built-in Android apps, such as Gmail and Chrome; and third-party apps you’ve installed. You get to them using Home’s launcher, which is comparable in overarching principle to the standard Android launcher and other third-party alternatives. As usual, there’s a section for your favorite apps and one that lists all your apps. (You press and hold an app to add it to the favorites.)

The launcher also lets you post status updates, upload photos and check in, putting three of Facebook’s most important features at your, um, fingertip.

Report by : Harry McCracken

Facebook begins allowing international users to buy Gifts for friends in U.S.

Facebook has started to expand its Gifts product beyond the U.S., according to users in the U.K., India and Canada who say they got access to the service this weekend. However, it seems that international users can only send gifts to their friends who live in the U.S.

Facebook launched Gifts in September 2012 as a way for users to buy physical and digital gifts for their friends via desktop or mobile. The product rolled out to all U.S. users by mid-December, but hadn’t been available in other countries until now.

[Update 4/8/13 6:03 p.m. PT - Facebook confirms to us that it launched "an update to Gifts that allows people using Facebook in English outside of the U.S. to send Gifts to friends living in the U.S."]

U.K. reader Matt Navarra sent us this screenshot of his Facebook homepage on Saturday. Inside Network contributer Pete Davison says he saw a similar prompt about Gifts today.

From the Gifts dashboard, users will see a note that they can send gifts to their friends and family in the U.S., Navarra says. Majestic Media Managing Director Mario Zelaya tells us he’s able to access the same dashboard from Canada.

Like in the U.K. and Canada, Gifts in India can only be sent to users in the U.S., according to reports from MediaNama and Techcircle.in.

This expansion increases the potential audience for Facebook’s relatively new monetization channel. So far, Gifts seems to be growing slowly. Facebook made $5 million from non-game payments in Q4 2012, a portion of which came from Gifts, but CFO David Ebersman said that user-promoted posts were the primary source of that revenue. Ebersman said he expected Gifts to continue to represent a small percentage of Facebook’s overall business as the company experiments with the design and functionality of the product. Facebook is due to report its first quarter earnings of this year on May 1.

Allowing users to buy gifts for their friends outside of the U.S. is a greater challenge when it comes to fulfillment and legal issues. In November, the company added a job listing for a customs and trade manager, which could be related to making Gifts available more globally. That position is still listed on Facebook’s careers site. Another job focused on strategic partner development for Gifts is also available.

Report by : Brittany Darwell

Facebook Home, a YOLO Controversy and Other Top Comments

There was a lot of speculation over what Facebook's big announcement would be this past Thursday. While many predicted a Facebook phone, Mark Zuckerberg announced that the social network planned to release an Android launcher called Facebook Home that will come pre-installed on the new HTC First smartphone. While the majority of our readers were disappointed with the news, some said they were excited for the immersive social network integration. Will you use the new Facebook Android launcher? Let us know in the comments section below.

This past week, a student received a four-day suspension for writing YOLO on a state-required standardized test. Technically, the school said the student received the suspension because he tweeted a photo of the aforementioned page. Do you think the punishment fit the crime?

Finally, this week we learned that Disney's Finding Nemo sequel is in the works. Finding Dory will star Ellen DeGeneres and is scheduled to debut on Nov. 25, 2015. The story received a lot of buzz, with an overwhelming majority of positive comments expressing excitement for the animated movie.

What was your favorite story of the week? Share with us below, and you could be featured in next week's top comments.

Report by : Jessica Fee

If Facebook Made a Real Facebook Home

Facebook made its big mobile announcement last week: the introduction of Facebook Home on Android devices. CEO Mark Zuckerberg referred to the new home screen and app launcher as "putting people first, instead of apps."

In this Sunday Comic, our friends Nitrozac and Snaggy at The Joy of Tech imagine what it would be like if Facebook made a real home. We find the Instagram table light and the complimentary dying squirrel in the front yard especially clever.

Report by : Matt Petronzio

Do You 'Like' Facebook's Home Announcement?

So what did we learn today? Did Facebook finally release the Facebook phone? Not really. Instead, the company unveiled Facebook Home, a new integration on Android devices that will put updates from the social network directly on the homescreen.

But that wasn't the only thing Facebook announced — we also got a peek at the new HTC First smartphone, which will be the first Facebook Home-optimized phone to hit the market.

With all the rumors and buzz that surrounded this event, are you satisfied with what was revealed? We want to know if you'll download the latest software. And do you dislike the name "chat heads" as much as we do for its new messaging feature?

Take our poll and then share your thoughts in the comments below.

Report by : Ryan Lytle

Hands On With Facebook Home

Facebook Home takes the traditional Android experience and adds a Facebook flair.

Facebook introduced Facebook Home on Thursday, a new home screen for your Android phone that integrates the Facebook experience into other functions on your device.

We had the opportunity to spend a little time with Facebook Home following Facebook’s event running on both the HTC First –- a phone that will come with Facebook Home pre-installed – as well as the Galaxy Note II, which had Facebook Home installed from Google Play.



The experience on both devices was exceptionally similar — so similar in fact that we couldn’t tell any real difference between the two.

A New Homescreen

The phone’s home screen, called Cover Feed, displays a constant stream of your friend’s status messages, and uploaded photos. For messages posted without a picture, Cover Feed will pull in your friend’s Cover Photo to use as the backdrop.

At launch those message will not contain ads, but Facebook mentioned at Thursday’s event that ads will eventually be included in the mix. Though likely a battery hog, the feature is pretty slick.

Tapping on something in Cover Feed brings you into an experience not unlike your traditional Facebook experience. Double tapping on the screen allows you to like a photo, bringing up a nice thumbs-up icon on the screen and a popping sound effect in the process.

Buttons at the bottom of the screen allow you to also leave comments on those photos.

Traditional notifications are supported as well, and show up in the center of the screen. Swiping a notification dismisses it, while tapping on it will launch the app.

One awkward note: currently there’s no way to disable a specific friend from showing up in the Cover Feed display. Facebook uses an algorithm to determine what photos show, so you won’t see everything. But if you’re friends with someone who often takes less-than-desirable pictures, you run the risk of those pictures showing up –- in large form –- when you least expect them.

Launched From You

Facebook Home uses your Facebook profile picture as the lock button. Swiping a finger up from your face will bring up an app menu for your phone, which Facebook has conveniently updated with quick-access buttons for adding a status message, photo, or checking –in.

Swiping instead to the right on your profile picture will bring up the least app you were using, be it Facebook, Chrome, or anything else.

For Facebook enthusiasts, swiping to the left will bring up Facebook Messenger.

Chat Heads

Chat heads is probably the most intriguing part of Facebook Home, and adds the most functionality for Facebook fans. When friends message you either through SMS or Facebook Messenger, their head shows up on your screen as a notification in a small, movable bubble.

Tapping on the bubble will launch the conversation with that person. If you’re not interested in talking, then you can dismiss the chat by dragging the Chat head down to the bottom of the screen.

Chat heads are also movable. So, if your friend sends you a message while you’re reading an email, you can move him to the top of the screen while you finish reading, and then tap on him once you’re done.

Chat heads are as easy to move around as that description sounds, and can be put wherever works best for you. If you dismiss a chat head, the next one will pop up in that perfect spot you found for the last. The feature learns what you like, and takes that into account.

How Do I Get It?

For those people who want to stay on top of Facebook constantly, Facebook Home will be available in the Google Play Store starting April 12. Android users who already have the Messenger and Facebook app installed on their phone will receive a notification suggestion they download Home.

At launch, Home will only work on a handful of preselected phones – HTC’s One X, and One X+, and Samsung’s Galaxy S III and 4 – as well as the HTC First, a phone that will come pre-installed with Home.

What do you think about Facebook Home? Will you be installing it on your Android device, or picking up an HTC First in a few weeks? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Report by : Mashable

Copyright © 2015 Dynamic Technology

Designed by