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Facebook Announces “Home”, A Homescreen Replacement For Standard Android

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Re: Facebook Announces “Home”, A Homescreen Replacement For Standard Android

#22
post #5

My initial thoughts (without having a ton of time to really absorb this yet) is that Apple's closed operating system may have just become a liability. The open 'intent' model of Android is really at the core of making something like this possible. In turn though does this also allow Facebook to take over "too many" aspects of Android and cut into Google's revenue streams as well? All things I'm still pondering. As an…

In this case it's not intents, it's that the homescreen is a replaceable app. This is the most thoroughly rethought homescreen replacement I've seen.

The launcher communicates with the rest of the framework through Intents. It's mostly the same point. If the launcher was responsible for the actual app management (launching via zygote, maintenance of the registry and permissions databases, clean up on uninstall...), you'd never be able to replace it. The Intents framework is what allows the launcher to be "just a replaceable app."

Re: Facebook Announces “Home”, A Homescreen Replacement For Standard Android

#23

Some serious lack of imagination on Facebook's part. They didn't go the hardware route since it is a lot of work. They didn't go the route of forking Android, since then they would have to partner with hardware manufacturers and that is a lot of work So what do they build instead? A deeply intrusive fork of their App that is not even going to be available on all Androids!

So, your definition of lack of imagination is that instead of taking one of the two obvious routes, they instead are doing something different and non-obvious (I don't recall anybody predicting this is what they would do) that gets them much greater bang-for-the-buck than either of the two obvious answers could have gotten, essentially accomplishing all the goals they care about for a fraction of the price?

You and I have very different ideas about what "imagination" looks like.

Re: Facebook Announces “Home”, A Homescreen Replacement For Standard Android

#24

Some serious lack of imagination on Facebook's part. They didn't go the hardware route since it is a lot of work. They didn't go the route of forking Android, since then they would have to partner with hardware manufacturers and that is a lot of work So what do they build instead? A deeply intrusive fork of their App that is not even going to be available on all Androids!

This solution seems to give them most of the benefits of having their own hardware or OS, without any of the downsides like slow iteration or requiring people to switch phones/carriers.

That seems rather imaginative to me.

Re: Facebook Announces “Home”, A Homescreen Replacement For Standard Android

#25
post #5

My initial thoughts (without having a ton of time to really absorb this yet) is that Apple's closed operating system may have just become a liability. The open 'intent' model of Android is really at the core of making something like this possible. In turn though does this also allow Facebook to take over "too many" aspects of Android and cut into Google's revenue streams as well? All things I'm still pondering. As an…

In this case it's not intents, it's that the homescreen is a replaceable app. This is the most thoroughly rethought homescreen replacement I've seen.

The intent system is what is behind the pluggability of Android, it's the thing that makes it possible to have several home screen apps installed in parallel.

Re: Facebook Announces “Home”, A Homescreen Replacement For Standard Android

#26
post #5

My initial thoughts (without having a ton of time to really absorb this yet) is that Apple's closed operating system may have just become a liability. The open 'intent' model of Android is really at the core of making something like this possible. In turn though does this also allow Facebook to take over "too many" aspects of Android and cut into Google's revenue streams as well? All things I'm still pondering. As an…

In this case it's not intents, it's that the homescreen is a replaceable app. This is the most thoroughly rethought homescreen replacement I've seen.

I'm pretty sure that the homescreen is actually launched via an intent, though. At least, if you have multiple homescreens installed it prompts you which one to launch through the same interface that intents use. (Until you set a default.)

Re: Facebook Announces “Home”, A Homescreen Replacement For Standard Android

#27

Facebook is touting Facebook Home as a "visually rich stream of media," but all it's going to turn out to be is a feed of filtered food and memes.

I thought something similar, "None of the photos that would come up for me are as great looking as the ones in this demo."

To be expected, but you're right, it is going to look totally different and spammy in someone's hands.

Re: Facebook Announces “Home”, A Homescreen Replacement For Standard Android

#28

Some serious lack of imagination on Facebook's part. They didn't go the hardware route since it is a lot of work. They didn't go the route of forking Android, since then they would have to partner with hardware manufacturers and that is a lot of work So what do they build instead? A deeply intrusive fork of their App that is not even going to be available on all Androids!

I don't have a great understanding of Android, but what would make them choose to limit the app's current phone options to a handful?

Fast phones make sure the app works well, for one. It's like putting an app out for iPhone 5 only.

Re: Facebook Announces “Home”, A Homescreen Replacement For Standard Android

#29

Some serious lack of imagination on Facebook's part. They didn't go the hardware route since it is a lot of work. They didn't go the route of forking Android, since then they would have to partner with hardware manufacturers and that is a lot of work So what do they build instead? A deeply intrusive fork of their App that is not even going to be available on all Androids!

I don't have a great understanding of Android, but what would make them choose to limit the app's current phone options to a handful?

Depends on the OS -- Jellybean is different from Ice Cream Sandwich is different from Gingerbread is different from...

If you want something like this on all Android phones, it's more than just making an app to put in the Google Play store -- it's understanding the ins and outs of the different nuances of each OS...

Re: Facebook Announces “Home”, A Homescreen Replacement For Standard Android

#30
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't like what your friends post to Facebook then you should reconsider if you want to be friends with them, or if you should begin using the tools FB already provides to control the content in your feed.

> If you don't like what your friends post to Facebook then you should reconsider if you want to be friends with them That seems like an over-reaction. My friends posting stupid memes on facebook has little bearing to my friendship to them.

> My friends posting stupid memes on facebook has little bearing to my friendship to them.

Pretty sure you meant to say "My friends on facebook have little bearing to my friendship to them."

Regardless, the rest of that sentence is:

> or if you should begin using the tools FB already provides to control the content in your feed.

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