Hacker Modifies Facebook Home To Work On All Android Devices 124
An anonymous reader writes "That was quick. Mere hours after Facebook Home arrived on Google Play, the launcher has been modified to remove the device-specific limitation. This means you can use the latest Facebook service on any Android device. The brilliant hackers at XDA Developers have done it again. This particular hack was performed by XDA Senior Member theos0o; who provides details and download links."
Re:Still Using Forums (Score:5, Informative)
That's because much of what gets accomplished by the developers at XDA falls into the uneasy demilitarized zone where the manufacturers pretend it doesn't exist and look the other way, but technically much of what would be hosted would have at least bits and pieces that could be considered infringement of their respective trademarks, copyrights, and/or patents (example: tweaked & modded Samsung and HTC firmware).
Due to the way trademark law works (vigorously fight all infringement, or risk losing it altogether), if XDA openly hosted files a-la-Github, they might as well paint a target on their metaphorical forehead. Likewise, as long as the files get hosted by services that are slightly shady, the manufacturers can rationalize it as an act of anonymous piracy that's largely beyond their control. If it were hosted at XDA itself, their lawyers would be firing off DMCA takedown notices (or worse) within minutes of posting.
Manufacturers are more willing to look the other way when obtaining and flashing modified firmware involves jumping through a half-dozen annoying hoops. The more convenient it becomes, and the more likely less-technical end users are to use it, the more they (or at least their lawyers) feel compelled to fight for the sake of liability- and tech-support avoidance.
It would be nice, of course, if we could just go out and buy best-of-breed Android hardware with open drivers and unlocked bootloaders, but the sad fact is that Google's Nexi haven't been bleeding-edge best-of-breed devices since the Nexus One (the GNex could have been, had they not squandered 6 months of exclusivity on Verizon, but by the time the GSM GNex came out, the S3 was just a month or two away), so if you want best of breed hardware with hackable firmware now, there isn't really an alternative to buying the latest phone from Samsung or HTC & using hacked and tweaked variants of the official firmware for 3-9 months until Cyanogen, AOSP, and AOKP catch up & have fully-working versions (as opposed to versions with broken Camera, GPS, 4G, or other subsystems that seem to inevitably break with every new version of Android).
Re:I never ask this, but.... (Score:5, Informative)
But here, why? Do you really want Facebook Home?
Me? I don't. My sister? Her friends? Hell some of my friends? Yes.
While you and I may disagree with Facebook, how it works and what it stands for there are people out there who use it for everything. I mean EVERYTHING. You're not on their Facebook list? They won't call you to invite you to a party. SMS? How quaint, just use Facebook messaging from any device and talk to multiple people at a time.
There are literally people I can only talk to via Facebook because that is their mindset. They will line up to try Facebook Home.