Facebook Home Hits 500K Downloads In Five Days, Pales In Comparison To Instagram’s Android Shift

It would appear that Facebook Home has just surpassed 500k downloads on Google Play since launching on the platform five days ago on April 16. The app’s Google Play listing notes the milestone, and Ben Evans confirmed on Twitter.

Facebook Home isn’t so much of an app as a user interface for the phone, putting Facebook smack dab in the center of Android user’s smartphone experience. Users with Facebook Home can post status updates and view the newsfeed straight from the lock screen, and conduct messaging without ever being interrupted thanks to Chat Heads.

In essence, it’s Facebook’s push past being an app like every other app and being a central force of the smartphone, a launch pad. Hopes are seriously high, as foreshadowed by Zuckerberg’s sweaty brow at the announcement, but word had originally circulated that users weren’t all that into Facebook Home around launch day.

Clearly, that’s not true as the app has garnered over 100,000 downloads a day since launch. Still, these aren’t blow-out numbers. Remember when Instagram launched on Android, and hit over 1 million downloads in a day? And then hit over 5 million downloads in six days? Yeah, those were blow-out numbers.

You also have to consider that Facebook has over a billion users, so 500K doesn’t really move the needle.

But in Facebook’s defense, the Home application is only available on select devices, including the Samsung Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note II, HTC One X, and the HTC One X+, along with the Facebook Phone itself the HTC First.

Oh, and Facebook is now quite happy for Instagram’s success on Android, after that slight $1 billion acquisition.

Tags: facebook home, facebook, instagram

Just Who Uses Social Media? A Demographic Breakdown

You think you know social? How about who uses it? Well, you might not know it as well as you would have guessed.

A new study from the Pew Research Center and Docstoc shed some light on just who uses social and on what platforms. Some of the findings seem in line with what you would probably guess, but others were surprising.

If you think the smarter, more attractive sex is more socially prolific than us men, well ... you're right. Women use social media 9% more than men do. Despite having more distractions, people living in cities have the most social media activity, at 70% of the population. Perhaps it's the connectivity of large-city life.

In terms of racial and ethnic groups online, Hispanics lead the pack at 72% engagement, with African-Americans trailing at 68%, who are ahead of Caucasians at 65%. And in a strange twist, despite being somewhat economically disadvantaged, 72% of adults with annual household incomes below $30,000 use social networks, more than those with higher wages.

How about most popular social networks? That would be Facebook, with 67% of adults using the Zuckerberg-founded service. A distant second was LinkedIn with 20%, with Twitter coming in third at 16%, and Tumblr falling dead last at 6%.

Take a look at the details below:

Socialmatic Camera Creates Real-Life Instagram Pics

Eric Larson16 hours ago

Instagram's great. But have you ever wondered what it would be like to experience it outside the digital world? Snap a photo, select a filter and then — not tweet it, but — print it out to physically share? A new company called Socialmatic is hoping to make it a reality.

We've seen this cool design before, but now Socialmatic announced a branding deal with Polaroid for an Instagram-esque camera that lets you add filters to and instantly print your photos.

The device, which is still in its concept stage, dispenses photos from a built-in Zink printer — similar to a regular Polaroid camera. It additionally includes Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips, a 4.3-inch touchscreen and a custom operating system that syncs to both Instagram and Facebook apps.

SEE ALSO: The Wrong Time to Use Instagram

The official press release says product design and other details are still in development. The launch is planned for 2014.

Watch the video above to learn more. Does this sound like something you'd use?

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