Today of all days, it seems almost pointless to try to report any actual news because there will always be the lingering worry that any good story is nothing more than an April Fool's Day prank. With that in mind, Android Police is claiming that it has gotten its hands on a full system dump of Facebook Home for Android.
As skeptical as we are that this is a prank, it does make sense that this is legit. Facebook's announcement event is just three days away, so a leak at this point wouldn't be unheard of. The story goes that Android Police got a system dump of the upcoming Facebook Home, which is expected to be a launcher replacement and baked-in layer for Facebook on select devices. AP says that there is "always-on DRM" which limited the number of screenshots they were able to pull.
The dump allegedly came from a mid-range HTC device codenamed "Myst", which is built for the AT&T network. The dump reveals a new version of the Facebook app, which is named “com.facebook.wakizashi” rather than the usual Facebook app, “com.facebook.katana”. A wakizashi is the shorter secondary sword traditionally used by samurai along with a katana.
Facebook Home apparently has some extra Android permissions, including the ability to create windows on top of all other windows, disable your lock screen, start on boot, control system settings, and even see what other apps you have running. That's a lot of information that you'd have to fork over to Facebook if you wanted one of these devices.
The dump included app tray icons, compose icons, and even a Google search icon, which means Facebook may not try forcing Bing in this deal. It also looks like Facebook Home will be offered through the Play Store as an alternative launcher, though it may not have all of the features of the baked-in version.
We'll see the real thing soon enough, and know for sure if this was a prank or not.
Michael Heller is known for his clear and informative articles on mobile technology. He explores important topics such as the rollouts of 5G networks and the advancements in mobile payments, offering readers insights into the evolving tech landscape.
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