{"id":111872,"date":"2020-03-05T20:52:41","date_gmt":"2020-03-06T01:52:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbach.net\/?p=111872"},"modified":"2021-07-17T14:18:13","modified_gmt":"2021-07-17T18:18:13","slug":"son-of-facebook-phone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/son-of-facebook-phone\/","title":{"rendered":"Son of Facebook Phone"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Son<\/a>The tech world never learns from its mistakes. Rumors are that data-leaker Facebook<\/strong> is combining two bad ideas<\/strong>, software from Windows NT<\/strong> with FB hardware<\/strong>. The Verge<\/a><\/em> reports<\/a> that Facebook is developing its own operating system. Facebook’s effort is being led by Mark Lucovsky<\/a>, who co-authored the Windows NT operating system.<\/p>\n

\"Could<\/a>The reports say the FB OS<\/strong> could be used on Facebook\u2019s hardware products. Oculus, Portal, and forthcoming augmented reality glasses, code-named \u201cOrion,\u201d currently run on a modified version of Google’s Android. FB wants to reduce or remove entirely the control GOOG<\/strong> has over its hardware.<\/p>\n

Ficus Kirkpatrick<\/a>, who heads Facebook\u2019s AR and VR group hedges his bets, he told The Verge<\/em> \u201cit\u2019s possible\u201d that future FB hardware won\u2019t rely on Google\u2019s software<\/strong>. Facebook\u2019s head of hardware, Andrew Bosworth<\/a> is more definitive, \u201c… we\u2019re gonna do it ourselves.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FacebookThe Verge<\/em> points out that Facebook\u2019s last attempt at producing its own OS did not go so well.\u00a0The Facebook phone, or, more precisely, the Facebook phone\u00a0mobile operating system<\/em>, crashed and burned<\/strong> almost immediately.\u00a0Unveiled in 2013<\/a>, Mark Zuckerberg promised the $99 device<\/a>\u00a0would “turn your Android phone into a great social device.<\/em>”<\/p>\n

It didn’t exactly work out that way. Instead, shortly after the Facebook phone went on sale, the price dropped to 99 cents<\/a><\/strong>. The operating system was called out as mediocre<\/a>, and early adopters complained that it was counter-intuitive<\/strong> and hard to \u2014 of all things \u2014 place a phone call<\/a>. By 2014, the\u00a0New York Times<\/em> reported<\/a> that Facebook had disbanded the mobile OS engineering team.<\/p>\n

The FB mobile OS attempt resulted in a forked version of Android that ran on an HTC produced phone back in 2013. Flooding a phone with Facebook\u2019s social feed<\/strong> was wildly unpopular even back before Facebook\u2019s brand was tarnished with numerous privacy scandals<\/strong>. Facebook will have an uphill battle on its hands if it wants people to give its software another shot.<\/p>\n

For those with short memories FB has leaked nearly 1 billion personal data records<\/strong> that we know about since 2018:<\/p>\n