Bloomberg Reports Facebook Building Android Smartphones

destinyland writes "Reports are surfacing of a Facebook-backed smartphone running Google's Android system, built by INQ (who also manufactures a phone for Skype). GigaOm's Om Malik says he's been aware of the project 'for quite some time,' and Bloomberg News (linked above) reported that Facebook will release two AT&T smartphones in 2011, first in Europe and then in America. (Adding that 25% of Facebook users access the social networking site with their wireless devices.) " Whether it's pure semantics or pure misdirection, as of yesterday, Facebook acknowledges work with INQ, but describes the collaboration as customization, rather than a phone of their own.

There's room for irony here.

[pecosdave]

Does this mean that Facebook is finally going to build a mobile phone interface that doesn't just outright suck?

I used the Facebook client for the iPhone when I had an iPhone. It was buggy as hell and left something to be desired. It improved towards the end of my using an iphone, but I must say it still wasn't that great, still had caching and sync issues. I found I was much better off using Safari on all but a few specialized task, but that sucked also.

Now I'm using an EVO 4G. The Facebook program that came with it sucked rocks. It was arguable worse than the iPhone one, because instead of giving me out of date garbage cache, it gave me nothing most of them. That or code errors. I updated to a newer version yesterday, seems to be a little better but I haven't really put it to the test. I've been doing just like I did with the iPhone with my Android phone, using one or the other depending on my task at hand. Still at the end of the day it's sort of random as to getting everything or not.

BTW - I've never been happier to ditch Apple, I far prefer Android.

I think it's going to be hilarious if Facebook releases a phone that does everything but Facebook well.

Re:Tinfoil hat time

[hex0D]

Google and facebook, two of the most scandalous purveyors of communication

...hysterical much? Sure Google and Facebook have issues, and the potential to be truly evil, the only reason they are even ever referred to as 'scandalous' is because their misbehavior has been an exception to the rule of generally decent behavior.

What 'purveyor of communication' would you prefer? J Randolf Hearst's 'yellow journalism', or Fox News, getting us into wars that actually kill people?

wait

[darrenkopp]

they can't even make a decent facebook application for android... how are they going to make an android phone?

Data mining

[Wowsers]

And how much data-mining will they do to the call information? Let's face it, Facebook has an awful reputation for privacy.

AT&T *AND* FACEBOOK? SIGN ME UP (TO NOT GET O

[Anonymous Coward]

Facebook will release two AT&T smartphones in 2011

You lost me at "facebook"... and then again at "AT&T"...

I mean... the two companies I've managed to avoid for the last few years teaming up... wow. So how will this work? Will their phone calls route straight to AT&T's secret rooms [wired.com] or will that be an opt-out privacy option that I won't be able to find in the settings and that will then revert back to "in" three months later?

Re:There's room for irony here.

[garcia]

I used the Facebook client for the iPhone when I had an iPhone. It was buggy as hell and left something to be desired. It improved towards the end of my using an iphone, but I must say it still wasn't that great, still had caching and sync issues.

I guess we all have different opinions on the topic but the Facebook application for the iPhone, for me, is 1000x better than the web interface. In fact, I'd rather visit Facebook via my phone than the website any day. Less clutter, no ads, no bullshit, and I can get shit done quickly--in and out--like websites were meant to be.

The only thing I still find "buggy" on the Facebook app for the iPhone is the chat feature but being that I don't chat with anyone for more than 1 or 2 quick lines, it's really a non-issue for me.

YMMV.

Re:privacy.....

[bennomatic]

They've got 500 million users; even if just 0.2% of those users decide that they love FB so much they need the official phone, that's a million sales. Probably more profitable than if they tried to sell Mark Zuckerberg bobble head dolls.

Re:Data mining

[Darkness404]

As opposed to Google? As opposed to Microsoft? Lets face it, any company who makes the majority of their revenue on ads is not going to be privacy friendly because the less privacy friendly they are the more money they can make.

Re:Tinfoil hat time

[kiwimate]

This has BAD ENDING written all over it, mark my words. Seriously, haven't you people learned ANYTHING??

Given that the average geek / Slashdot reader is falling over themselves to do almost exactly the same for Google, an entity that has demonstrated time and time again they have the ability and desire to be mining that data and already are... ...I think the answer is "not a bit".

Re:Tinfoil hat time

[Joe Tie.]

Oh yah, I'm terrified. I and everyone I know is just hardly getting by paying the massive debt incurred by school. The economy is shit, our retirement plan is going to be killing ourselves because we can't afford a real one, and I've been hacking my lungs up the past month because I can't afford to go to the doctor to get a prescription for the antibiotics I can't pay for either. We don't care, because privacy concerns are so minuscule compared to all our other problems. Rome's burning, it just set my hair ablaze. Fuck if I'm not going to enjoy the nice fiddle music as I burn.

Ads on the internet? You're Doing It Wrong

[znerk]

I guess we all have different opinions on the topic but the Facebook application for the iPhone, for me, is 1000x better than the web interface. In fact, I'd rather visit Facebook via my phone than the website any day. Less clutter, no ads, no bullshit, and I can get shit done quickly--in and out--like websites were meant to be.

Allow me to introduce your PC-based surfing to a little app called "firefox", with its addon friends "noscript" and "adblockplus". I absolutely love how they make my surfing experience faster - not downloading all the flash and graphical ads makes pages load ten times faster. (Yes, even facebook!)

Now, all I need to do is find a decent plugin for streaming together those articles that for some reason get broken up into one page per paragraph, and I'll be all set.