Facebook Home Is Now Available For Download From Google Play

Facebook Home, the new launcher for Android based phone which put the main focus on the social network and its services such as messaging, photo and other services by putting it on the centre of a user’s mobile devices. The Facebook Home is now available for download for Google Official Apps store the Google Play with one bad news though, this app is only available for a limited number of Android devices(HTC One X, HTC One X+, Samsung Galaxy S III and Samsung Galaxy Note II). This come just after Facebook rollout update to its Facebook Messenger Android app which bring Chat Heads functionality plus basic Android app with Facebook Home support. 

Facebook announced ‘Home’ earlier this month with the confirmation that the apps would be available in Google Play from April 12^th onwards. Home is also coming straight out-of-the-box on the HTC First which has been available for pre-order since April 4 on AT&T. The HTC First will also be hitting France and UK market this summer and could follow suit to other markets such as Malaysia and India.

You can see full specification of the HTC First here

Home is Facebook’s biggest shot at mobile and clearly show the company’s ambition to be the main platform for all of your communications, ever present, no matter where and what you are doing. CEO of Facebook call it “the next version of Facebook “. Other moves also point toward that this may extend beyond just Android too. It just remain to be seen. 

This clearly mean that even though Home is still limited in how many people can use it now – just the HTC First ,along with four other devices including two model from the world’s biggest smartphone maker, Samsung -  and with limited functionality, but if all the things go according to plan for Facebook, this could be just the beginning. 

Facebook also look likely to place an announcements on streams to signal the availability, perhaps targeting users of those four devices specifically or even targeting all of its Android users. Facebook’s own Mobile page has some 6.1 million likes. 

Source : TechCrunch

Android Based Facebook Phone To Be Announced This Week

Over the years, there has been numerous rumors of possible “Facebook phone” and nothing had been materialized and yes, we had one that came with a special Facebook button under the name HTC Cha Cha and that all about it and soon after that Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg went on to announce that they company wasn’t really keen on entering the hardware business. So to speak its look like the rumors will stay as a rumours forever. Most of tech expert might have leave out the idea of a Facebook Phone until they saw the press release for a special Facebook/Android event happening on April 4^th.

Although the invitation can be bean anything or perhaps even deeper integration for Facebook within Android devices. However, most tech site report that they are absolutely confident that an HTC device running in a ‘modified’ version of Android will be announced this week at the event held in 1 Hacker Way.

9to5Google‘s Mark Gurman also agree on this matter. He went on to say this “The social network is again hooking up with HTC which will design the hardware.” With Facebook already held its annual main event a few week back, Its unlikely that the company would held a major media event like this unless something that new and exciting will  be announced – An Android running HTC phone with a custom Facebook skin/bloat ware.

Design wise, it is expected to look almost similar like the Apple iPhone that come with a rounded home button plus unlike Apple’s smartphone, ‘Facebook phone’ expected to come with a two capacitive buttons on either side of the phone and it would be major surprise if it was a high end device because if the phone is targeted to Facebook addicts, we are looking at socially driven youth that still relying on parents and for sure they won’t cough up hundreds of dollars on a high end Facebook device. A 4.3-inch device is the same group as the Galaxy S3 Mini or HTC 8S look more likely.  the device is expected to be available in US although availability in other market such as Malaysia is still unknown