Is the HTC First Worth It for Non-Facebook Fans?

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Although neither HTC, AT&T or Facebook consider the HTC First to be the Facebook phone in any official capacity, that’s exactly what it is to the rest of the world. It’s phone that HTC and Facebook worked on for “a really long time”, the phone that was talked about in dozens of rumors over the course of two years, the phone that comes pre-loaded with Facebook Home. The Facebook phone. But is it really a Facebook phone? Does it really only appeal to those seeking a greater Facebook experience? According to the marketing, we have no reason to think otherwise. ...

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HTC First Review

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The elusive Facebook phone has been rumored for years. Facebook has been searching for a better way to monetize its service for mobile, and partnering with a hardware manufacturer seemed like the obvious move. There were two Android devices made by HTC in mid-2011, the ChaCha (Status here in the States) and Salsa, which featured dedicated Facebook share buttons on the lower right portion of the face. But Facebook never officially endorsed these two devices as Facebook phones. They were simply Android phones with a hardware integration with Facebook. Nothing more. Even after these two ...

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The Pocketnow Weekly Podcast, Episode 040

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We didn’t expect to run the Weekly with a skeleton crew two weeks in a row – and it’s a good thing we didn’t have to. Mere minutes into this week’s Tony-and-Michael-only podcast, Taylor Martin arrives to save us from the spectre of a fun, but low-energy, two-man show. In its place: jokes, laughs, and a lot of industry insight you’re gonna wanna put your ears on. We talk phone batteries that can jump-start your car, what place Twitter has in music, whether we should be excited about Motorola’s X phone or Nokia’s aluminum Catwalk, and the ...

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Other Services We’d Like To See Adopt a Home-Like Launcher

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Facebook Home brings an interesting question to the table. Who else could benefit from an experience like this? What other companies or services could really make the most out of an interface like this? Our own Taylor Martin opined on a series of apps that could use the ChatHeads treatment. These are just a few ideas of companies that could realistically make an appealing Facebook Home-like launcher. For the purposes of this article, when I refer to a Home Launcher, that’s ...

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Facebook Home Now Available Internationally As US Exclusivity Ends

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Chances are that by this time if you really wanted to get Facebook Home on your device, despite regional (US) and device limitations, you already did so, as we told you how to get it working on any device and in any region. The US exclusivity seems to have ended and you can tick off a limitation — while you’ll still have to rock a compatible device — and enjoy, or at least try, Facebook home the official way. If you have an HTC One X, HTC One X+, HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S3, Samsung ...

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Windowed Apps Are the Future of Smartphones

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Something very interesting is happening over on Android. After years of jumping between apps like pages in a book, we’re starting to see the emergence of software that allows us to work with multiple apps simultaneously – not just apps running concurrently in the background, but actually sharing screen real estate – and more importantly, software that does so well. Different parties have engineered different systems for giving our phones this ability, and it still remains to be seen what will be the “best” way to do things, but regardless of the details, I’m ...

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Facebook Chat Heads Migrate Over to iOS (With a Catch)

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Facebook’s Chat Heads have emerged as one of the most interesting aspects of Facebook Home, and when we saw them hit the recent Android update to Facebook Messenger, it became clear that these were going to be a much larger component of Facebook’s chat experience than a mere component of Facebook Home. Today, Facebook 6.0 arrives for the iPhone an iPad, and along with a new look for its News Feed, the app brings those same Chat Heads to iOS – sort ...

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Windows Phone VP Warns of Google’s Android Plans

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We’re no strangers to seeing smartphone fanboys talk a little trash about the other platforms, whether you’re an Android devotee bashing iOS for being too closed, or an Apple fan making fun of the lack of apps on Windows Phone. Things start getting a little more interesting, however, when the people making these attacks are smartphone execs themselves; today we get to hear some of the latest smack, with Microsoft’s VP of Windows Phone, Terry Myerson, digging in to Android in particular. Myerson pulls no punches, calling Android “a mess” and warning of the ...

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How to Unfacebook Your HTC First and Turn it Into a Nexus (Video)

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It’s pretty clear that Facebook Home is the defining feature of the HTC First. After all, that’s why the device exists in the first place – to be marketed as a Facebook phone of sorts and offer a slightly more integrated Facebook Home experience than you can get on other devices. But Facebook Home is hardly the only trick up the First’s sleeve. Beneath Facebook Home, it sports the one feature we hear requested more ...

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A Weekend With Facebook Home

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When Facebook came out with their Facebook Home announcement, I was intrigued. I am a pretty active Facebook user, so I figured this was an update/app/whatever I could get behind. Since then, we’ve waxed poetic about Facebook Home on many occasions. We’ve even demonstrated how to install in on non-approved devices worldwide. Now, I’ve had some quality snuggle time with Facebook Home on my Galaxy S III. I installed in on Friday, just before the Pocketnow Live and used it up to, and ...

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Facebook Home on the HTC First (Video)

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Facebook made waves when it announced its new mobile service, Facebook Home, which replaces the native launcher on Android devices with a beautiful, full-screen News Feed for a home screen. For avid Facebook users, Facebook Home has tons of value proposition, and it solves one of Facebook’s most outstanding problems – monetizing mobile. The company teamed up with HTC to bring the first smartphone pre-packaged with Facebook Home, the

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Here’s How To Get Facebook Home Working In Any Region And On Any Device

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Facebook Home has been released yesterday and initial reactions are mixed, depending on how you use your phone, how social you are, and how interesting the content your friends are posting. Regardless of what you hear online, this is as subjective as it gets, so we strongly encourage you to try it out yourself before making a judgement and drawing a conclusion. Sadly, Facebook Home is limited to both some regions and some devices. We’ll show you how to make it work in any region, regardless of where you are located, and on any device (hopefully). We got it working on a Google Nexus 7 ...

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HTC First and Facebook Home, Motorola X Delays, BlackBerry Accusations & more – Pocketnow Daily

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Watch today’s Pocketnow Daily as we talk about the new no-bezel project from Pantech dubbed Vega Iron. Then we talk about the Motorola X Phone, and that delay you were already expecting to hear about. The Pebble smart watch is next as their SDK gets released. Then we go over BlackBerry’s recent issues with the media as apparently their Z10 is being returned as quick as it’s bought. We end today’s show talking about the HTC First, Facebook Home, Chat heads and everything you need to know about Facebook’s new home on Android. All this and more after the break. ...

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Facebook Home Now Available for Download in Google Play Store

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A couple hours back, we told you about the Chat Heads from Facebook Home showing up in the new update for Facebook Messenger for Android. That was a pretty nice feature to see arrive in this manner, but as we poked around the Play Store getting the details on the update, we couldn’t help but notice that Facebook Home itself was still nowhere to be found – despite this being April 12, the date when the app was to become available for installation on a ...

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Facebook’s Chat Heads Could Be Much Bigger Than Messaging

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I’ve been using Facebook’s new Chat Heads feature on my HTC One for a grand total of two hours. In that time, I’ve become convinced that the concept behind it is bigger than Facebook Home, Facebook Messenger, and could become bigger than even Facebook itself – at least insofar as it relates to smartphone UI design. The quick rundown for those not yet indoctrinated into the new club of bubble-tappers: Chat Heads are floating overlays on your smartphone’s home screen. ...

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