Install Facebook Home On Any Android Smartphone

Facebook Home, the social networking giant’s attempt to convert your Android smartphone into a Facebook-oriented device might have seen a mixed reaction from the public, but the truth is, it’s officially available for only five Android smartphones at present, and not everyone has been able to try the new launcher for themselves. 

If you’re a Facebook addict, you must be feeling left out if you don’t own one of the five smartphones that currently support Facebook Home.

Well, if that’s the case with you, this guide will surely cheer you up as today, we’ll be telling you how you can install Facebook Home on your Android smartphone running on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich or higher. 

First and foremost, we’d like to thank Android developer Paul O’Brien, as his efforts have made Facebook Home available to all devices, even unrooted ones. That is correct. You do not have to be rooted to give Facebook Home a try.

The folks at Modaco extracted the Facebook Home APK file and made it available for everyone. 

Paul O’Brian of Modaco found a way to patch the files necessary to run Facebook Home on unsupported devices and made it available for download. He patched a version of the Home app to keep it from figuring out what device you’ve just loaded it onto.

To install Facebook Home on your Android smartphone, here’s what you need

• Android smartphone running on Android 4.0 or higher.
• Facebook app by MoDaCo, which can be downloaded from here.
• Facebook Messenger app by MoDaCo, which can be downloaded from here.
• Modified Facebook Home app, which can be downloaded from here. 

After you’ve downloaded these files, follow some simple steps which have been mentioned below, to get Facebook Home on your device

• Before you start the process, you need to uninstall the Facebook app and Facebook Messenger app if they are currently installed on your smartphone. Sadly, if you’re smartphone came pre-installed with these apps, you will need to root your smartphone in order to uninstall them. 
• Now, go into Settings > Security and then  check the box which says “Unknown Sources”.

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Copy the three downloaded apps to your phone or you can download the apps directly to your smartphone as well. Once done, you’ll need a file manager app to access the downloaded apps. Popular File Manager apps like ES File Manager, Astro File Manager, etc. can be downloaded from the play store for this purpose. 

• Now, once you spot the three downloaded apps, click on the Facebook app (com.facebook.katana.modaco.apk) to install it first. Then, click on the Messenger app (com.facebook.orca.modaco.apk) to install it, and finally, install the Facebook  Home app (com.facebook.home.modaco.apk) as well. 

• Once installed, the three apps should appear on your smartphone like in the image below. 

Now, open the Facebook app and enter your credentials to log-in. Once you’re logged in, tap the “Menu” icon located at the top-left of the app, then, go to Accounts > App Settings and check the “Enable Facebook Home” box. 

When prompted, select Facebook Home and then tap on “Always”.

You will also be able to access the new Chat Heads feature while you chat with your friends on Facebook. 

So, now you can play around with the newest offering from Facebook and decide for yourself, if Mark Zuckerberg’s time and effort to create a “people-centered phone” was really worth it! 

Google Glass Successfully Rooted By iOS Jailbreaker!

While the world is still anticipating as to when the Google Glass will go on retail sale, the lucky few who have managed to get their hands on it, are busy exploring the possibilities with the latest toy from Google. 

One such curious developer, who managed to get one of the Explorer Edition of Google Glass was legendary iOS Jailbreaker and Cydia founder Jay Freeman aka Saurik, and no points for guessing what he did with his Google Glass! 

Freeman used an Android 4.0.4 exploit to gain root access to Google Glass. While speaking to Forbes, Freeman said that the exploit was first discovered by a hacker named B1nary and he used the exploit to gain full control over the Glass’s operating system.

In his interview, Freeman said:

"It took me two hours while I was having dinner with friends at the time. The implementation from B1nary is for normal Android tablets and phones, I learned how it worked and then did the same thing on Glass…which was quite simple."

Though it is still not clear as to what one can do by gaining root access to the headset, but it is believed that by gaining root access,  the user can disable Google’s ability to brick/disable the headset if the user violates Google’s terms of use. 

This becomes quite important as Google had warned that if the early adapters of Google Glass Explorer Edition tried to sell the headset, they will disable it, making the Glass unusable.

However, Jay Freeman isn’t the only developer who has been successful in gaining root access to Google Glass, as just a few hours back, a developer named Liam McLoughlin had managed to root the headset. 

While both the developers have been successful in hacking into the Glass, it isn’t yet clear if the same rooting technique will be usable for the consumer edition of Google Glass, once it goes on sale.  

Google Patents Touch Sensitive Wristband For Smartwatch

Engadget has posted an image of a new watch-based device, patented by Google, which would perform many of the same functions.

While the drawing does not necessarily mean such a product is in the works for commercial release, it does hint at an intriguing new direction for the company’s move into wearable computing.

The device itself is explicitly titled “Smart-watch with user interface features” by the USPTO patent so there’s no beating around the bush, but it’s the extra little bits we’re interested in.

For example, the watch, displayed in the accompanying illustration, also has two touchpads on either side of the display face. The patent says that you’ll be able to use these to “pinch, stretch and scroll on a platform with limited space available for user input.”

Given what we’ve previously heard about Google’s foray into the smartwatch domain, it sounded like Mountain View was separating its smartwatch and Google Glass development teams. But this new discovery makes a crossover seem more likely than ever.

This actually isn’t the first time we stumble upon a smartwatch patent application granted to Google. Last year, the company received a patent for such a device with augmented reality features.

It’s all pretty vague at the moment – understandably. But with Google I/O coming up you might just be able to get into the wearable tech game before too long.

Facebook Home Now Available For HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4

Facebook Home has received a thumbs-down from a majority of the users, but Facebook is adding support for new devices as it hopes to get some positive feedback from new adapters. The service has now been extended to new flagship devices like the HTC one and the Samsung Galaxy S4. 

However, Facebook has added ‘official’ support for Home only on the HTC One, while the support for the Samsung Galaxy S4 is still ‘unofficial’. Along with the two flagships, Facebook Home is now also available on the Sony Xperia ZL. 

This comes soon after the social networking giant announced 1 million downloads for its latest offering, within a month of it’s launch. While the numbers themselves don’t look that bad, but the ratings that the launcher has received on the Play Store suggests that it has been a big failure, as it just gets a 2.2 star rating, which is considered below average. 

Facebook home was restricted to just five devices at launch, HTC First, HTC One X, HTC One X+, Samsung Galaxy S3 and Samsung Galaxy Note 2, but with the support for new devices being added, it looks like the launcher will be available on a large number of devices soon.

Coming to the Galaxy S4 and the Xperia ZL, the support for these devices is still unofficial, and when you install the launcher on these devices, you’ll get a message saying that Facebook Home is not yet supported on the device, but once you click on “Use Home Anyway”, the app runs without any issues. 

There is no such problem with the HTC One, and the launcher works perfectly fine without showing any warning message. 

Copycat Samsung Considers an Apple-Like App-Dock for Future Mobile Device Interfaces

Samsung is at it again. Within a new patent application published by the US Patent Office today, Samsung is found presenting some new user interface ideas for their touch display devices covering page turning effects and a new screen-unlock feature. Yet one of their so-called new ideas is one "borrowed" from Apple. It's the iOS app-dock that's like a glass shelf reserved for your most used/favorite apps. Samsung's patent figure is illustrated in our cover graphic above. Samsung's oh-so creative engineers just couldn't resist borrowing yet another Apple user interface element.

Nokia Lumia 928 Officially Announce For The US Market

After a slew of leaked ads and images, Nokia has officially announced the Lumia 928 for the US market that will run on the Verizon network. The company is expected to unveil the international version of the same device on May 14. Essentially, this represents a minor upgrade to the Lumia 920, which was criticised for being overly bulky and the new smartphone brings aboard a more slimmer, lighter and attractive design that still retains an unibody polycarbonate chassis.

While the name of final spec of the international version of the device is still unknown, one does not expect any major changes from what the US market is getting except for LTE support. Nokia makes a big deal of what it calls the ‘Infinity Display’ which is basically jargon for an edge-to-edge almost bezel-less AMOLED panel on the device. Actually, use of AMOLED technology for the display is one of the changes from the Lumia 920 design as this device uses a 4.5-inch 720p AMOLED display instead of a ClearBlack HD+ IPS panel.

Internally though, it retains the same components which include the dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon Plus processor, 1GB of RAM, 32GB of internal memory and a 2,000 mAh battery that also supports wireless charging through the Qi standard.

Nokia retains the 8.7-megapixel PureView camera with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) and a f/2.0 aperture, but it has now added a more powerful Xenon flash which replaces the LED flash found in the Lumia 920.

To demonstrate the prowess of its camera Nokia has posted a couple of videos that compare the camera performance with the Samsung Galaxy S III and the Apple iPhone 5. In one scenario it has the Lumia 928 on a rollercoaster in a low light scenario where the video is not only much more stable that its rivals, but when the frame is frozen for a still the focus is tighter and colour reproduction is much better.

Nokia Lumia 928 Official Video: