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Following the rumor earlier today that HTC was working on Android-based “Facebook phones”, BGR received a tip from someone who was part of a focus group for what appeared to be a Facebook phone. I won’t get into whether or not I believe this and earlier rumors personally, but here’s the full rundown:
- Location aware coupons: you pick main categories of interest. When you’re near any stores that fall into those categories, coupons are pushed to your phone. Basically, it sounds like “Facebook Deals on steroids,” as our tipster elegantly phrased it.
- An always-on GPS service much like Google Latitude that would run in the background. The service would provide automatic “check-ins” and might share your location with friends.
- No local storage (or very little). Everything is cloud based including contacts, media, data, etc.
- Obviously the phone will include a camera, but everything will be uploaded automatically and stored in the cloud.
- A news ticker-style message system: all messages funnel into one mass inbox, sortable by type, but initially unfiltered. There will also be a ticker of some kind that reads off message content as it’s is delivered, regardless of message type.
We should note that the phone wasn’t immediately presented as a Facebook-specific phone, but participants were asked social media-heavy questions such as “how many photos do you upload to Facebook a day?” Are we being primed for a Mobile World Congress unveiling? We’ll find out soon enough.
I wonder how the battery life is going to be with constant GPS and internet connectivity?
“All your life r belong to uz” – Facebook
well Brett, Here is the answer: crappy
Ugh…as if we don’t get enough facebook already. Sounds awful to me. I sure hope the rumors are false.
Sounds like the worst idea I’ve ever heard. Is there really someone thinking, you know what I need? I need a phone that constantly invades my privacy, gives me ads when I’m not looking at any real content, it sells all my data to a corporation, and it floods me with constant info crack that interrupts me at all times of the day.
You’d have to be a right nobber to think this is a good idea lol
@Russ : do you like panda?
wow that sounds like crap and you would need alot of data and multiple batteries, we also just dont have the network to make this good, what if i want to show pics to someone and theres no network or wifi?
I agree, there is no way in hell I would EVER want a phone like that. A Facebook phone? Really? Facebook has more privacy issues before 9 o’clock than the NSA does all month. Like the above poster said “Just what we need-even MORE Facebook.” Ugh.
Agreed, facebook is the worst offender of true privacy issues. They make everyone else look like amateurs. This phone will be a big step in the wrong direction.
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I also have to agree that having everything in the cloud is a very bad idea. Glitch in your service carrier and you have access to nothing, including your address book. Glitch at Facebook and again, no access. Too many steps in the ladder where all of a sudden, poof!, you don’t have even the basics at hand anymore.
Hate facebook anyways! Why bother! That shit of a Socielnetwork is syncing my Contacts in Android. Had to put it down with root explorer :D
no problem with facebook just got to be careful but good way to connect with old friends as far as what their saying doesnt seem possible and sounds like a gimmick mb a high school girl would buy it?
As smartphones get smarter, we get dumber into thinkin this tracking device their trying to call a phone is a cool thing. GPS= tracking and they give u maps and navigation and make it look cool, I like facebook for wut it was meant for not what it is now, turning into a national profile network, police ain’t even gotta work hard anymore to track u down, be careful of technology with these phones, and don’t let em trick u to giving up ur privacy. I never really understood why people liked vanilla android so much, but I’m starting to like it more, and i love sense but its to wide open, I like miui better, a lot more privacy features and I like that more!
Buttfacebook users are losers. Anyone stupid enough to buy one of these is a 9th grade female sleaze!
remember Amp’d mobile? lol Heilo? lol
I shut down my FB site a long time ago. Complete waste of my time. So, no need for a phone based on a non-essentiality.
I agree with many of the other comments, but more importantly, I wouldn’t want my contacts “in the cloud” if I lost service, would my contacts be empty? That would be a disaster. I am sure my car would break down in the middle of nowhere, and then when I look up AAA in my phonebook – “refreshing, no service”. No thanks!!!!!!
Your kidding me right? They can’t even release a damn Facebook app that works right. You read the comments for the Facebook for android app and no one likes it they only use it because there’s nothing better. I would never buy a Facebook phone. And if it was given to me I would sell it.
This phone sounds like my worst nightmare and an internet stalkers dream. Why the hell would you want to check in automatically everywhere you go, or to have all of your photos automatically uploaded to the interwebs. Sod that.
Why does Facebook need a PHONE? Isn’t an app and a www page good enough?