Editorial: The imperialism of Facebook Home

DNP Editorial The imperialism of Facebook Home

Business battles are often ecosystem battles, in which brands develop a matrix of conveniently connected products and services, in an attempt to lock customers into a dependency. Offline companies follow this tack (think razors and blades). But the internet, with its many connection nodes, crossovers to tangential realms and parallel on-ramps is where ecosystem wars are most elaborately waged.

Only rarely do market conditions cultivate a broader ambition in which a company has a chance to step beyond mere ecosystem competition to a higher level of sovereignty. Facebook's imminent release of Home represents a stab at that rare imperialism.

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Editor’s Letter: The social smartphone

In each issue of Distro, editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news.

DNP Editor's Letter The social smartphone

There's a good chance 2011's HTC Status, with its portrait QWERTY layout and dedicated Facebook button, never found its way into your social network. That last attempt at the mythical Facebook phone failed to garner much praise, but if social networks gave up so easily, well, we'd all still be using MySpace. HTC and Facebook are at it again, this week launching the $99 First, exclusively on AT&T in the US.

Yes, it's a name every commenter could love (or hate).

Yes, it's a name every commenter could love (or hate), a title cheekily reminiscent of the HTC One. This, though, is a rather different device, aiming more toward the mid-range and relying on some serious social integration to make it stand out. It's the first phone running the Facebook Home interface, which will be available on many devices starting on April 12th. It delivers a far more comprehensive Facebook experience than the previous apps have managed, and intriguingly Zuckerberg himself said that Home is "the next version of Facebook." The end of the web? Stay tuned.

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The Daily Roundup for 04.04.2013

DNP The Daily RoundUp

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

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Facebook Home UI pictured in more leaked images ahead of tomorrow’s event

Facebook Home UI pictured in more leaked images

We've already seen leaked images of the HTC First smartphone purported to be launching at tomorrow's Facebook event, as well as what appears to be its APK, and we now have our best look yet at the Facebook-infused UI you can expect on the device. As you can see above in the image from @evleaks (and others at the source link below), the apparent Facebook Home hub doesn't exactly scream Facebook, although there unsurprisingly appears to be deep Facebook integration throughout. There are only a handful of images though, so there's still a fair bit that remains unknown. We'd say to check back tomorrow for more, but at the rate these leaks have been turning up we may well get yet another look at what's in store before then.

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Source: 9 to 5 Google