From BGR: A Facebook mobile phone?

Ooh! A Facebook-branded phone! How cool is that? Will Facebook now enter into the device race? Will they have a separate track on the Android build? Anything seems possible at this point.

I love how HTC knows who to partner with. I'm so happy with my Google Nexus One phone, it was quite disappointing how Google dropped HTC to partner with Samsung for the next gen Nexus S. Having a pure native device is cool because you get all the firmware updates early. I know it's the Apple model also, but I still don't like Apple for its snobbish stance to the open-source community. Yay to Facebook & HTC, boo to Apple.

[UPDATE] Facebook has denied that the phones will be Facebook-branded. See Mashable's report on this: http://mashable.com/2011/01/27/facebook-denies-facebook-phone/

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Facebook to launch two branded smartphones at MWC, report claims

By: Zach Epstein | Jan 26th, 2011 at 01:21PM

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Filed Under: Mobile, Rumors

Facebook will announce two Facebook-branded smartphones at next month’s Mobile World Congress according to a new report from City A.M. The report contradicts Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s earlier claim that the company was not working on branded cell phones, but was instead working to create a better, more comprehensive Facebook experience across existing mobile platforms. HTC will build the new Facebook phones according to the report, and they will feature branding and coloring in line with Facebook’s website. City A.M.goes on to state that the devices will run a modified build of Google’s Android operating system that will display information from a user’s Facebook account on the home screen. Details pertaining to pricing and availability are not yet available.

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Mashable's Face-off Series

Mashable has been running polls for a couple of months now, pitting two (or three) apps/companies/technologies against each other and getting their readers to vote.

Here are some of the past weeks' results:

Week 1:
- Mozilla Firefox vs. Google Chrome
- WINNER: Firefox, 4600 votes (Chrome: 3310 votes, Tie: 911 votes)

Week 2:
- Tumblr vs. Posterous
- WINNER: Tumblr, 1809 votes (Posterous: 1496 votes, Tie: 256 votes)

Week 3:
- Pandora vs. Last.fm
- WINNER: Last.fm, 1187 votes (Pandora: 1156 votes, Tie: 122 votes)

Week 4:
- Twitter vs. Facebook
- WINNER: Facebook, 2484 votes (Twitter: 2061 votes, Tie: 588 votes)

Week 5:
- WordPress vs. Typepad
- WINNER: WordPress, 2714 votes (Typepad: 267 votes, Tie: 357 votes)

Week 6:
- Windows 7 vs. Snow Leopard
- WINNER: Windows 7, 3632 votes (Snow Leopard: 3278 votes, Tie: 121 votes)

Week 7:
- TweetDeck vs. Seesmic Desktop
- WINNER: TweetDeck, 3294 votes (Seesmic Desktop: 1055 votes, Tie: 260 votes)

Week 8:
- Microsoft Office vs. Google Docs
- WINNER: Microsoft Office, 1365 votes (Google Docs: 994 votes, Tie: 315 votes)

Week 9:
- Apple iPhone vs. Google Android
- WINNER: Google Android, 3323 votes (Apple iPhone: 1494 votes, Tie: 228 votes)

Week 10:
- AT&T vs. Verizon
- WINNER: Verizon, 1161 votes (AT&T: 538 votes, Tie: 118 votes)

Week 11:
- Google vs. Bing
- WINNER: Google, 2180 votes (Bing: 519 votes, Tie: 97 votes)

Week 12:
- iPod Touch/iPhone vs. Nintendo DS vs. Sony PSP
- WINNER: iPod Touch/iPhone, 704 votes (Sony PSP: 639 votes, Nintendo DS: 482 votes, Tie: 108 votes)

Week 13:
- Digg vs. Reddit vs. StumbleUpon
- WINNER: Digg, 14,762 votes (Reddit: 11,466 votes, StumbleUpon: 2507 votes, Tie: 1032 votes)

Week 14:
- Old versus new Twitter retweets
- WINNER: Old style retweets, 1625 votes (New style retweets: 699 votes, Tie: 227 votes)

Week 15:
- Gmail vs. Outlook
- WINNER: Gmail, 3684 votes (Outlook: 980 votes, Tie: 590 votes)

Week 16:
- Boxee vs. Hulu
- WINNER: Hulu, 626 votes (Boxee: 591 votes, Tie: 106 votes)

Week 17:
- Nexus One vs. iPhone 3GS
- WINNER: Nexus One, 6743 votes (iPhone 3GS: 2818 votes, Tie: 592 votes)

Week 18:
- Foursquare vs. Yelp vs. Gowalla
- WINNER: Foursquare, 1182 votes, (Yelp: 661 votes, Gowalla: 509 votes, Tie: 143 votes)

Week 19:
- AIM vs. GTalk vs. FbChat
- WINNER: GTalk, 2189 votes, (AIM: 1257 votes, FbChat: 511 votes, Tie: 203 votes)

Week 20:
- Music Ownership vs. Music Subscription
- WINNER: Ownership, 533 votes (Subscription: 299 votes, Tie: 237)

Week 21:
- Match.com vs. PlentyofFish
- WINNER: Plenty of Fish, 430 votes (Match.com: 334 votes, Tie: 187 votes)

Week 21:
- Google Buzz vs. Facebook Vs. Twitter

- WINNER: Facebook, 3353 votes (Twitter: 1828 votes, Google Buzz: 1298 votes, Tie: 651 votes)

This week's poll: Adobe Flash vs. HTML 5

Which will you vote for?

Google Shopper: Mobile Shopping for Android Phones

As I await for the arrival of my Nexus One Google phone, news about what it can do with it definitely excites me. Today, I heard about a new Android app called Google Shopper that brings shopper marketing to a whole new level using your mobile phone.

Mashable writes about it:

Google has just rolled out “Google Shopper,” a new mobile application for Android devices that offers a variety of different ways to search for products.In addition to basic search functionality, users can search by voice, take a picture of cover art, or scan a bar code to get detailed product information and price comparison. Google introduces the application on its website and in the video below.

As AndroidAndMe notes, the app clearly competes with the likes of ShopSavvy, who tells the publication that Google [and Amazon] “are and always have been our biggest competitors.”Google could deal a much stronger blow to the upstart by including Shopper – currently a Labs product – with new Android handsets. We also don’t see why Google wouldn’t extend the app to other mobile platforms as well.

Here's the video demo from Google on YouTube:

How do you think this will change how people shop at the store?

From Mashable: Google Buzz

I woke up to find the Web a-buzz about Google Buzz, see below what seems to me like a blow-by-blow recount by Ben Parr of Mashable of the announcement.

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Google Goes Social with Google Buzz

by Ben Parr | from Mashable

It’s official: Google has just announced Google Buzz, its newest push into the social media foray. This confirms earlier reports of Gmail integrating a social status feature.

On stage revealing the new product was Bradley Horowitz, Google’s vice president for product management. While introducing the product, Mr. Horowitz focused on the human penchant for sharing experiences and the social media phenomenon of wanting to share it in real time. These two key themes were core philosophies behind Google Buzz.

“It’s becoming harder and harder to find signal in the noise,” Bradley stated before introducing the product manager for Google Buzz, Todd Jackson.

Google Buzz: The Details

- Mr. Jackson introduced “a new way to communicate within Gmail.” It’s “an entire new world within Gmail.” Then he introduced the five key features that define Google Buzz:

- Key feature #1: Auto-following

- Key feature #2: Rich, fast sharing experience

- Key feature #3: Public and private sharing

- Key feature #4: Inbox integration

- Key feature #5: Just the good stuff

- Google then began the demo. Once you log into Gmail, you’ll be greeted wiht a splash page introducing Google Buzz.

- There is a tab right under the inbox, labeled “Buzz”

- It provides links to websites, content from around the web. Picasa, Twitter, Flickr and other sites are aggregated.

- It shows thumbnails when linked to photos from sites like Picasa and Flickr. Clicking on an image will blow up the images to almost the entire browser, making them easier to see.

- It uses the same keyboard shortcuts as Gmail. This makes sense. Hitting “R” allows you to comment/reply to a buzz post, for example.

- There are public and private settings for different posts. You can post updates to specific contact groups. This is a lot like Facebook friend lists.

- Google wants to make sure you don’t miss comments, so it has a system to send you an e-mail letting you know about updates. However, the e-mail will actually show you the Buzz you’ve created and all of the comments and images associated with it.

- Comments update in real time.

- @replies are supported, just like Twitter. If you @reply someone, it will send a buzz toward an individual’s inbox.

- Google Buzz has a “recommended” feature that will show buzzes from people you don’t follow if your friends are sharing or commenting on that person’s buzz. You can remove it or change this in settings.

- Google is now speaking about using algorithms to help filter conversations, as well as mobile devices related to Buzz.

The Mobile Aspect

- Google buzz will be accessible via mobile in three ways: from Google Mobile’s website, from Buzz.Google.com (iPhone and Android), and from Google Mobile Maps.

- Buzz knows wher you are. It will figure out what building you are and ask you if it’s right.

- Buzz has voice recognition and posts it right onto your buzz in real-time. It also geotags your buzz posts.

- Place pages integrate Buzz.

- In the mobile interface, you can click “nearby” and see what people are saying nearby. NIFTY, if I say so myself.

- You can layer Google Maps with Buzz. You can also associate pictures with buzz within Google Maps.

- Conversation bubbles will appear on your Google Maps. They are geotagged buzz posts, which lets you see what people are saying nearby.

- They just showed off a video for Buzz. We’ll have it up soon.

The Third Act

- Google’s philosophy on social is this: It wants buzz to be the paragon and poster child for creating a social destination in an open environment that adheres to open standards.

- It’s launching at 11:00 a.m. PT in its first wave.