Mark Gurman

Following Google’s announcement that it will bring its speedy Google Fiber network to Austin, Texas, in mid-2014, AT&T has created competition by announcing it plans to bring fiber-optic internet connectivity to the Lone Star state as well.

Today, AT&T announced that in conjunction with its previously announced Project VIP expansion of broadband access, it is prepared to build an advanced fiber optic infrastructure in Austin, Texas, capable of delivering speeds up to 1 gigabit per second.  AT&T’s expanded fiber plans in Austin anticipate it will be granted the same terms and conditions as Google on issues such as geographic scope of offerings, rights of way, permitting, state licenses and any investment incentives. This expanded investment is not expected to materially alter AT&T’s anticipated 2013 capital expenditures.

AT&T says it believes it will be granted the same privileges as Google in this regard. The full press release is available below:

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Following up on his first render of the HTC “first” earlier today, @evleaks has published additional renders of the device on Weibo. These new renders show that the device will come in multiple colors: red, white, and a light blue. That’s in addition to the black phone seen this morning. The funky colors seem to match up with what we heard: Facebook and HTC are targeting their phone to the younger crowd.

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Last week, we reported that Facebook and HTC are teaming up to launch a smartphone: HTC is building the hardware while Facebook is building an experience to run on the device. As we previously reported, this new Facebook interface gives quick access to Facebook functionality like messaging, photos, and contacts. It is called Facebook Home. We also previously reported that the first HTC launch device for Facebook Home would be akin to a slightly larger iPhone 5 with capacitive buttons along the bottom.

Sources who have seen the Facebook/HTC smartphone hardware in-person say it is reminiscent of an iPhone. It includes an iPhone-like “home button” on the bottom center, and this button is surrounded by horizontal function keys on the right and left side. These buttons are said to be capacitive. Above the keys is a display slightly larger in size to the 4-inch display found on the iPhone 5. Recent rumors have pointed to a collaborative Facebook/HTC phone featuring a 4.3-inch display.

Today, @evleaks has published a photo of an HTC device called the “first.” It looks pretty much identical to the Facebook-HTC device that we described last week. Given that the image lines up with what previously heard, we expect the device shown to above to be the first, or one of the first, Facebook Home handsets. Additionally, our original sources are now saying that this device appears to be the FaceBook Home device that they have seen.

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Last week, we reported that Facebook and HTC are soon launching a Facebook-built Android experience in tandem with new HTC hardware. We followed up yesterday reporting that this Facebook experience will be called “Facebook Home.” We said that it would put Facebook features like photos, messaging, and contacts in an easy to access form. Today, AndroidPolice shares that it obtained a software dump of Facebook Home.

The site’s analysis of the software seems to confirm some of the mid-range technical specifications that we and UnwiredView previously mentioned. It appears that Facebook Home is an experience on top of Android OS, and the software seems to affirm our claims of easily accessible contacts, messaging, and photos. The report says that the leaked software is not fully usable outside of Facebook HQ.

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Facebook’s invitation to its Android-related media event next week is much less cryptic than it would seem. The invitation reads “Come See Our New Home on Android.” While, based on these words, Facebook seems to be teasing at a new Android-related Facebook experience, our sources say that the tagline reveals the actual product name: “Facebook Home…”

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Follow years of rumors and speculation, Facebook is finally readying an entry into the mobile phone market. The social network is again hooking up with HTC which will design the hardware. The two companies have been working on a major marketing campaign in Southern California in recent weeks.

According to people familiar with the development of the marketing campaign for the Facebook/HTC phone, the advertisements are designed to focus on the potential user of the device, not on the hardware or software. As a nod to this phone being a much expanded version of the Facebook application found on iOS and standard Android devices, one of the tag-lines for the device is “more than just an app”.

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According to a report from the WSJ, Google is breaking up its joint Maps and Commerce unit. Additionally, Jeff Huber, the executive that ran the unit, is leaving his position.

The mapping unit will become part of the Google search team, led by Alan Eustace, and the commerce unit will be tucked into the advertising group, led by Susan Wojcicki, one of these people said.

Today’s news follows Andy Rubin’s departure from the Android team yesterday. Like Rubin, Huber is heading to Google X. The announcement was made internally via the same email that announced Rubin’s departure.

Finishing up my first decade at Google, and excited to begin the next one at Google X. What would you like to see X do next?

— Jeff Huber 🇺🇸 (@jhuber) March 14, 2013

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Today, Facebook announced a revamped News Feed for the web and mobile, offering a consistent Facebook experience across all devices. The fresh new look offers an even greater emphasis on photos, videos, events, and articles. The new News Feed also includes improved exploration options:

– All Friends – a feed that shows you everything your friends are sharing
– Photos – a feed with nothing but photos from your friends and the Pages you like
– Music – a feed with posts about the music you listen to
– Following – a feed with the latest news from the Pages you like and the people you follow.

Facebook says that the updates for Android devices will follow those for iOS. The iOS updates are scheduled to rollout in “the coming weeks.” The rollout for the web version on computers will begin today. After the break are videos about the new News Feed

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Google has released its Field Trip application for the iPhone and iPod touch. Field Trip is an application that works in the background to notify users of interesting places nearby. In addition to pointing users to the best places to visit nearby, the application can also share local historical information.

★ Discover thousands of interesting places/experiences that fall under the following categories: Architecture, Historic Places & Events, Lifestyle, Offers & Deals, Food Drinks & Fun, Movie Locations, Outdoor Art and Obscure Places of Interest around you.

★ Choose from three different modes to set frequency of Field Trip notifications. See “Field Trip” worthy places around you on a map, by tapping on cards in map view to pull up enthralling points of interest around you.

★ Go on a Field Trip while you drive. Field Trip can detect when you’re driving and automatically “talk” about interesting places and experience around you.

★ Came across an amazing story or restaurant? Mark it as a favorite to easily come back to it at any point.

★ Capture the memory of a special place, by sharing a wondrous discovery through email and social networks such as Google+, Twitter and Facebook.

★ Wondering where the gem that you recently discovered is? Find your discovered field trip cards in the “recent’ section.

Cross posted on 9to5Mac.com. 

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In addition to updating its application for the iOS App Store, Twitter has updated its Android app with a similar feature set. The updated Android version includes an improved, more timely search and Top Tweets experience, an improved Discover tab, and an extended conversation view that allows users to see more tweets. Unlike with the iOS application, Twitter did not remove MobyPicture, VodPod, and its own Posterous as video uploading services through Android. Release notes:

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ComScore has taken a look at the most used mobile apps across the iOS and Android platforms. Though mapping is a crucial feature on smartphone and tablet devices, Facebook’s mobile application actually surpassed the usage of Google Maps on iOS and Android in 2012.

ComScore says that a drop in Google Maps usage occurred this past fall because of its removal from the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch with iOS 6. However, even though it still is behind Facebook on the list, Google’s Maps software once again picked up steam when it came back to iOS via the App Store…

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Pebble has posted a note on its Kickstarter page to confirm that, as promised, shipments of the E-Paper watch have begun to first backers. While the iOS application might see delays (depending on approval from Apple), the Android Google Play app will be available tomorrow, January 24th.

Pebble says that, it unfortunately, was not able to get out as many Pebble units today as planned. The company is shipping out 500 watches today, with more shipping out soon. The company warns that shipment confirmation emails may have gone out to backers whose watches actually did not ship out today. The company has put together a website for backers to check their shipment status. A website for those who ordered directly from the Pebble website (not Kickstarter) is in the works.

Pebble says that its full mass production capacity per day is 2,400 units. However, the company is currently producing only 800-1000 watches each day. The first production and shipping run of Pebbles is for the most popular unit, the black colored watch, according to the company’s new Kickstarter posting. Producing multiple colors simultaneously was proven “impossible,” according to Pebble’s creators. They are hoping to begin making other colored units soon.

Cross posted on 9to5Mac.com. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google-Motorola is working on a new smartphone that is internally known as ‘X Phone’. It is aimed at Apple and Samsung’s latest flagship devices. Details seem to be slim, but here are some of the key points:

• X-Phone, and an eventual X-Tablet, are separate from Motorola’s long-existing Droid line.
• Some early plans for the device were scrapped over supply chain and manufacturing concerns.
• Project is led by Lior Ron, a former Google Product Manager.
• Motorola wants the phone to have panorama photo capabilities and improved color saturation, but these have been found to affect battery life.
• The companies wanted to use bendable and ceramic technologies, but these plans are apparently difficult to implement.
• Launching sometime in 2013.

The original report has more detail and background information. (Image: Chris Voss)

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Facebook has launched version 2.0 of its official Android application. The new application has be re-written for speed. Facebook says that tasks will now be twice as fast. They will be most noticeable when launching the application and loading up photos within the app. The update will be available from the Google Play Store.

Earlier this year, Facebook launched a new iOS application that relies on native code. Much like this new Android app. Facebook’s engineering team explains some of the process on the company’s blog:

Over the last year, we’ve been retooling our mobile apps to make them faster, more reliable, and easier to use. Several months ago, we embarked on a major step change for iOS and shipped a native re-write of Facebook for iOS. With Android, we’ve moved to a fixed-date release cycle and have been steadily making improvements over time so that Facebook performs consistently across multiple platforms.  

Today, we’re releasing a new version of Facebook for Android that’s been rebuilt in native code to improve speed and performance. To support the unique complexity of Facebook stories across devices, we’re moving from a hybrid native/webview to pure native code, allowing us to optimize the Facebook experience for faster loading, new user interfaces, disk cache, and so on.

We rebuilt several of Facebook for Android’s core features in native code, including news feed and timeline, to create a faster experience whether you’re opening the Facebook app, looking at photos, or interacting with friends. Now, you can comment and like a story more quickly, and photo loading is optimized to be much faster. We also built a new, automatically updated story banner to bubble up the newest stories, no matter where you are in news feed.

Facebook says that the new faster app provides a foundation for future feature additions.

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