It’s been more than a year since the iPad was released, but during all this time, iPad owners have either had to deal with either the official Facebook app for the iPhone (that you had to stretch out—badly—to fill the iPad’s larger screen, install unofficial iPad-optimized apps like Friendly or MyPad, or just use the browser to go to the non-touch friendly website. We have no idea why an official Facebook app for the iPad is taking so long, but it looks like we won’t have to wait much longer.
There were a few reports and rumors about it at first, all of which Facebook founder (and young, richer-than-Steve-Jobs billionaire) Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly shot down, but this new report might be a sign that there really is a “Facebook phone” in the works. According to the Bloomberg report, Facebook is working with INQ on a couple of Android smartphones that will feature Facebook social networking features. INQ has already put out phones that offer “always on” social networking features (mainly with Facebook and Twitter) in the past, so yeah, it sounds like it could happen.
Little bit of a shocker there. Well, not really “shocking” per se, but it’s just something you didn’t expect. Just 5 years after unleashing Facebook, 26 year-old founder Mark Zuckerberg is now worth more than Steve Jobs. According to Forbes, Zuckerberg added $4.9 billion to his name this year, adding up to a total net worth of $6.9 billion, or around $800 million more than Jobs. That’s enough to place Zuckerberg at #35 on the Forbes 400 (richest in America), while Steve Jobs is at #42. (Bill Gates, by the way, still leads the list by far with $54 B, while Oracle head Larry Ellison is at #3 with $27 B.)
Interesting tech-related stuff you might have missed the past week:
Around the net:
- Amazon: You know what Geiger Counters are for? They’re used to detect radioactive materials. Now you can buy radioactive uranium ore to test if your Geiger Counter works. $29.99 for a can. Check out the customer reviews for other creative uses. [Via CrunchGear]
- Gizmodo: This helmet checks your head for damage. Never mind that you were probably already crazy for doing anything that needed a helmet in the first place.
- Tech-On: If these batteries can be recharged using vibrations, how long can you run a vibrator or handheld blender?
- 1Up: After 7 years in the making and more than $100M in development costs, Starcraft II had better knock our socks off.
- HotHardware: Toshiba angers Spanish soccer fans by loophole-ing their way out of a World Cup promise. Angering a population of football fans = never a good idea.
Anything Apple:
- The Tech Report: Another instance of a burning Apple USB cable. No refunds this time.
- CNET: Free bumper cases to fix the problem? No-hassle return policies? Someone tell Whoopi Goldberg before she murders another iPhone in frustration.
- Engadget: Take a stroll into Apple’s inner sanctum, where the company tests antennas and wireless signals in cavernous, million-dollar rooms filled with pointy things.
(more weekend links, plus two awesome videos after the break)
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| Atticus Ross & Trent Reznor have signed on to provide the Facebook movie musical score. |
Industrial rocker and social media purveyor extraordinaire Trent Reznor announced that he has gotten on board the Facebook movie barge, saying that he’s been tapped to craft the film’s musical score. The announcement was made by the Nine Inch Nails (NiN) vocalist a mere few hours after we posted the official teaser trailer for The Social Network.
