If you haven’t heard, Facebook just launched a new home on Android, when I say Home, I meant a new ‘Skin’ that lives on Android phones. When installed, this ‘skin’ would basically takeover your home screen and functionality and turn it into a Facebook phone!!
So, what is Facebook Home? This is basically a brand new experience Facebook wants you to take on board with every aspect of using your Android phone. Why do I keep saying Android phone? That is because this new Home cannot exist on any Apple IOS products as Apple do not allow for such customisation.
So, a quick breakdown on what Facebook Home is all about:
When you first turn on your phone, you no longer get a Home screen, this is now overtaken by what Facebook call it a ‘Cover Feed’, which is basically Facebook status updates with pretty pictures
You can flick through these feeds using swipe gestures and double tapping would ‘Like’ the status
Comments and messages can be easily access through these feeds
A new feature call ‘Chat heads’ is pop-up profile pic of someone who messages you and sits on top of any Apps that you may be using. Tapping this pic would bring up a comment/message box where you can reply quickly
All the usual Android Apps and functionality still works with this skin and can be access through your profile
A new Facebook Phone will be launch with Home pre-installed made by HTC and will be named ‘First’, this phone is a mid-range handset, much of the technical specs are still being finalised
Note, not all current Android phones will be able to install Facebook Home, so far only selected handsets from Samsung and HTC are on the list, I suppose this list should grow over time.
Monthly software updates to be released to keep the Home app as updated as possible
Judging by the hands-on demo from Facebook, this ‘Skin’ really are meant for people who lives and breathe Facebook. The concept sounds interesting and it definitely looks very pretty and smooth, but my personal experience with facebook feeds are usually fill with Ads, baby photos and motivational pics. Now, do I really want to turn on my phone and see my friend’s 2 yr old eating Oreos or an Ad to buy shampoo? Not really. I’m happy to keep Facebook outside of my usual phone experience but for many others, this could be a game changer for them. Anyhow, the idea seems great for Facebook, not so much for Google or Apple since it completely takes over the OS user experience.
The Home App will be available for download on the Google play store from April 12 and limited to some handsets only. More interesting reads can be found here.
Yes folks, I am now an Android user (again), ever since the Nexus One back in 2010 I have been using the Apple iphone from the 3GS to the 4/4S and finally the iphone 5. No, I’m not a rich bum it’s just that I get to choose a phone for work and when a new iphone comes round I would raise my hand. So after spending 4 months with the iphone 5, I was bored with it and now really intrigued with the new line up of Nexus devices from Google. That is when I caught my eye on the Nexus 4, this is the latest (well it’s now about 4 months old since it launch on mid November) Android device running on a smartphone from google. Made by LG which I must say would not be a choice of company I would normally buy from.
So, why did I switch? Simple, the screen size and keyboard, I always wanted a bigger screen for my phone as it just gives you so much more real estate and everything looks bigger!! The new 4″ screen on the iphone 5 was a welcome relieve but after spending some time on it, it still pales when compares with any other smartphone. Second, the keyboard, Apple does have a decent keyboard but Damn that autocorrect, it just doesn’t cut it for me anymore. With Android, you get to choose from a hugh variety of keyboards, I have settle with the stock Android 4.2 keyboard with swipe-like gesture for typing. You know what, I’m loving this swipe thingy, it really makes typing so much quicker and most importantly, it just so cool to use. It feels like playing a game of Fruit ninja if you know what I’m talking about.
Well, it is now week 3 with the Nexus 4 and I’m now really getting into the hang of it, the Android may take abit of getting used to as now you can customised to your heart’s content. So this is my quick run down on the pros and cons considering there are about a billion reviews of this phone out there.
PROS:
Speed, this phone is fast, like iphone fast kind of fast, transition is like butter (punt intended) and apps opens quickly. I’m amazed at how well the phone runs with so many apps opened in the background.
Stocked Android OS, this means this phone gets the latest and greatest software updates as soon as Google releases it. I love it. With the latest 4.2 release, some of the camera features are really awesome like photo-sphere.
Design, I must admit this phone is beautifully built, it has a great fit and finished and feels great in the hand.
Customisation, out with the boring icons like pages in the iphone, all Android phones are made to be completely customisable. Over time, I will try out some of the great Home screen customisation as found on http://www.mycolorscreen.com
Google integration, this phone is one of the easiest phone to setup, all you need is your Gmail account and Boom, everything you ever did with Google apps like G+/Picasa/Reader/Gmail/Docs/Maps are all there and setupped once you go pass the login screen. Well, this may not be a feature if you do not use Gmail or many of the other Google apps.
Price, you cant beat an unlocked smartphone with all the tech trimmings at a great price of USD$299 (16GB version).
CONS:
Battery life on this phone sucks, although it claims it has a 2100 mAh battery but with constant usage of the phone, you will probably only last 3/4 of the day til it runs flat. Also, the battery cannot be replaced since the back is sealed.
Glass back may become a problem as it can be scratched and break easily (similar to the iphone 4/4S)
No memory expansion, if you are like me who likes to try out new apps all the time, you may find the phone filling up rather quickly. With only 16GB on internal storage, it may become a problem if you have lots of videos or photos on your phone.
Camera quality, one thing the iphone has and still beats every other phone is the camera, no other smartphone comes close to the quality of the iphone camera. Sad to say, the Nexus 4 only have a passible camera, it does not take good low light photos and most of them comes out grainy.
One of my major concern about using an Android phone was the Apps that I have grown to lived without on the iphone, this is no longer a problem as I was able to find the same App or find a great replacement app in the Google Play store. All in all, I’m very happy with the switch and so far the transition has been very seamless and smooth, looking forward to all the Android goodness in the coming future. Checkout the Nexus 4 here.
I have thought of switching back to Android but was waiting for some Apple IOS apps to be available on it, but the leaked pics of the next google phone is definitely pulling me in. Once Camera+/Tilt shift gen/Photosynth ports to Android I’m leaving Apple behind!! Check it out here.
What is Google+, well picture Facebook and Twitter married and had a love child, that is google+. I was lucky enough to get an invite and has been playing with it. The interface is very facebook-ish with Status update and your Feed/Stream in the middle. The great new feature of + is your circle of friends. Basically you can group people into “circles” and you can then select only to post/receive from these circles. For example, you can have a Co-worker circle and a Family circle so if you post family photos into one, the other will not see it.
The other feature is called Hangout, this is similar to group chat with video, so you start a hangout session and your circle of friends can join in. Kind of fun if you don’t mind showing your ugly mug to them. Sparks is similar to google reader where you pick interests you want to see news for, example is you like food, your stream will be fill with Food related news and so forth. And the usual Photo/Video upload to picasaweb, if you have an Android phone, you can also set it to auto-sync so that every photos you take will automatically sync to picasaweb.
Overall, it’s a good alternative to Facebook and I can see myself using this over facebook as i very much like the idea of Circles (this is somewhat the goup/list feature in Facebook but done really well.) You can signup for a invite here.
Google is about to sell a netbook running its Chromium OS, aka ChromeBook, it’s basically a Netbook running Chrome, I feel like i’m repeating myself. Well, what’s the difference between a normal netbook with the Chrome Browser and a ChromeBook, as far as I know, absolutely no difference. In fact, with the current Chrome Browser, you can already run webapps, which I realized are basically glorified shortcuts/bookmarks to websites. You don’t need a ChromeBook to do anything different from any normal computer. So, do yourself a favour, just get a Netbook and use Chrome, its the same thing. Although I do find the Netbook kinda nice looking, good job Samsung. Check it out here.
Spotted these at a local K-Mart, first is the 10.2″ Augen Genbook running Android 2.1, on the side it says resolution to be at 800×600 and cost $189.99. The second is the Genbook at 7″, not sure if it’s running 2.1 as it doesn’t say on the box and cost $109.99. Last but not least, the Augen Gentouch 7″ Tablet running Android, again not mentioned which flavor and cost $179.99. There seems to be some in stock so if you’re out for a cheapo Android device, get them while they last.
Finally, news of a Android powered tablet/ebook is appearing in the woods. Welcome the Cruz reader which is a tablet powered by Android 1.5 with wifi and SD card. There are a couple of flavors but the mothership has wifi-n with build-in 4Gb and SD slot. Check out their site here.
This is a great idea, you have a android phone docked to your coffee machine, scan the code on the coffee capsule, it plays music to the mood of the coffee blends you are having. Cheeky really, I like wery wery much. Check it out here.
Was wondering when this would eventually appear and it has! These little gems are cute and I want one NOW!! There are 12 to collect and some are “rare” to find. You can rotate the head and arms too. Check it out here.
One of the reason why I love Firefox so much is due to one single reason only, Extensions. I used Google Chrome occasionally but would fall back to Firefox because I couldn’t live with my precious extensions. Well, it was inevitable that Chrome version 2.6 has finally include Extensions. I installed it immediately and so far it’s great. The number of extension is still small but there will grow in due time. Anyway, give it a go if you used Chrome. Check it out here.
