Facebook CTO Bret Taylor talks mobile web, apps and Apple negotiations

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Facebook's launch of its mobile applications platform has been an exercise in diplomacy. It plays nice with the iOS ecosystem, pointing people to native App Store apps and Apple's own in-app payments system, while also promoting mobile web apps and the Facebook Credits currency on other devices.

A significant expansion of Facebook's apps platform, deftly executed. No wonder it was a long time coming: rumours about "Project Spartan" had been circulating for months before the official announcement on 10 October.

"It's a pretty cool launch for us," says Facebook's chief technology officer Bret Taylor.

"It really addresses some of the areas I've heard a lot of concerns about from mobile developers, and it plays to our strengths. For startups, it's very difficult to get their apps discovered. They have a honeymoon period in the app stores where they might be in a top 10 list and get a lot of downloads, but once that honeymoon period is over, discovery is very difficult. By integrating with these social channels in mobile, they can get discovered in really organic ways."

The mobile platform went live alongside the launch of Facebook's native iPad app, but for now, the social network isn't talking about how things have gone. Facebook will hold an event towards the end of next week and release some stats.

Taylor describes the challenges of taking Facebook's applications platform mobile well, though, highlighting the need to get apps working across various devices and operating systems.

"iPhone is extremely popular, but so are Android phones. Windows Phone has made a lot of inroads, and a lot of people use BlackBerry devices. Developing for mobile is a relatively nuanced and complex thing for a lot of developers, particularly in the context of social applications. If someone invites a friend to play a game with them, they don't necessarily know what handset they have."

From that point of view, Facebook's solution is elegant. People tapping on application alerts in their newsfeed on iPhone and iPad will be directed to a native iOS app if it exists – Words With Friends is the example cited by Taylor – while people on other devices will be pointed to the HTML5 mobile web versions. The social network is clearly encouraging developers towards creating both native and HTML5 versions of their apps.

"350 million people are using our mobile apps every month, and that's split 50-50 between mobile web and native apps," says Taylor. "We expect that a lot of the developers that really integrate deeply with these mobile features will have a similar mix… When we talk to developers, they don't want to pick just one platform and live or die by that. They want to reach their customers however they want to be reached. It's not really an either/or discussion."

That extends to mobile versus web as well as mobile web versus native mobile app. Increasingly, apps and services are looking to spread across every platform possible: web, mobile, TV, cars and whatever other devices they can run on.

Taylor talks about his own usage of personalised radio service Pandora in this context: listening on his computer at work, on his iPhone while driving home and then via his TiVo set-top box at home.

"Those are some of the most compelling services, when you're talking about mobile as not just something about your phone, but really about the proliferation of devices, and wanting your application to be accessible on all of them," he says. "We hope that we can be the social discovery engine that drives growth across all of these devices."

Facebook has just launched three new elements on its developer website focused on HTML5: a Resource Centre to help people build, test and deploy their apps; an HTML5-focused blog; and a developer group to foster discussion around the area.

One of the key challenges for developers making HTML5 mobile web apps has been making money from them, so Facebook's decision to make its Facebook Credits virtual currency part of its mobile expansion is a significant one.

Taylor warns that it's early days, though, saying that Facebook's team is working "very intensively" on making the payments system as simple as possible on mobile. The social network has made Facebook Credits mandatory for games running on its website, but mobile has required more diplomacy, deferring to Apple in not allowing developers to take payments using the currency from iOS users.

Negotiating with the likes of Apple will be ever more sensitive and important for Facebook's ambitions going forward – Fortune has a very good feature on how the two companies, along with Google and Amazon, are likely to compete in 2012. How challenging is it to find co-operation and collaboration against this backdrop?

"There is certainly a lot of competition in the mobile platforms space, but we have really effective relationships with a lot of those mobile platform owners," says Taylor. "It's complementary. We worked a lot with Apple on this release to improve discovery for iOS applications, and we're actively working to get this working really effectively on Android too."

Rumours of a "Facebook Phone" or fully-fledged smartphone OS have remained just that: rumours. That means Facebook is still able to present itself as "not a mobile platform ourselves, but a social discovery and engagement platform" in Taylor's words.

For now, at least, its promotion of HTML5 and the mobile web as a viable space for applications is aligned with the improvement in the browser capabilities on iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry. "That's the great benefit of all this competition: everyone's products are getting really good," says Taylor.

"There is so much innovation in the browser space both on mobile and desktop. HTML5 and the other technologies it represents really exist now because of that competition. Apple, Microsoft, Google and a whole bunch of other companies are investing so much in the browser, and it's so good for the web. Most of our developers are hoping the mobile web becomes a viable platform for their applications."

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Mobile network plan for underground shelf

Boris Johnsonmayoral hopes for a mobile phone network London is installed on the underground in time for the Olympic Games 2012 has been dashed.

Transport for London and mobile operators including 02, Vodafone, everything everywhere, and 3 the French engineering firm Thales, agreed to abandon the project financing issues and technical complexity in order to install the system in time.

Huawei, the Chinese network equipment supplier who would donate £ 50 m of equipment for wire network up as a contribution from one Olympic nation to another, while the mobile networks will pay for 3 G networks is installed.

The decision to ditch the project will be a disappointment for the capital's conservative mayor, who said earlier this year that while some tube users would have reservations for people to be able to use their mobile phones on the underground network, it was "road".

Other capitals, including Paris, already mobile phone signals across their underground network.

Johnson, however, had warned Londonernes not to "count their chickens" during the service in place in time for the games because the project would be both commercially and technically difficult to deliver.

City Hall insisted the project remained a "long-term goal", pointing out that a separate plan to install Wi-Fi on 120 tube stations in time for the games would go ahead.

Transport for London said: "the Mayor and TfL made it clear that, since the financial pressure on Tfls, any solution budgets would have to be financed through mobile operators with free of charge to the price of the ticket or the taxpayer.

"The parties were not able to agree a viable proposal, and the project does not have come at this time."

Vodafone confirmed that talks for underground mobile phone access had fallen. A statement said: "we have worked closely with infrastructure partners and London Underground for some time with the hope of delivering mobile services to the … underground and is disappointed that it would not be possible in time for next year's Olympic Games.

"As a group, we will continue to positively explore all other available opportunities for us to provide a service at a later time."

A spokesman for Johnson, said: "we are happy for those companies, which explored the possibility of having full mobile coverage in the tube, although disappointed the genuine problems could not be overcome by this opportunity.

"It remains a long-term objective, but in the meantime, our efforts will be focused on ensuring a greater expansion of Wi-Fi coverage in the tube stations in time for the Olympic Games.

"We are proceeding with great energy and urgency to deliver this improvement, which means Londonernes can then use their mobile devices to intercept their e-mails or access the Internet at the same time, passes through our stations."

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Mobile phone use increases brain activity, study suggests

Radio waves mobile phones from appears to increase activity in parts of the brain that are closest to the devices, according to US Government antennas scientists.

Researchers found, 50 minute call led to a localized increase in brain activity of 7%, but they said there was no evidence to suggest the increase was harmful.

In order to exclude variation in brain activity, which would be expected when someone is listening to a call normally, changes in activity was monitored while the phone takes a call but was dampened.

Team, led by Nora volkow, Director of the National Institute on drug addiction in Maryland, found this brain activity increased in line with the strength of the electromagnetic field as the region specific brain was exposed.

Mobile phones use radio waves to send and receive calls and these produce small electromagnetic fields that can be absorbed by the head and brain.

"Even if we can't determine the clinical importance, our results provide evidence that the human brain is sensitive to the effects of radio frequency electromagnetic fields from acute cellphone exposures", said Dr. Volkow. the study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The dramatic increase in mobile phone use in the world has prompted concern about the possible adverse effects, including brain tumours. Last year, it was very late Interphone report no hard evidence that mobile phones increase the risk of cancer, but the question remains unresolved.

In the new survey had 47 voluntary two brain scans, each on different days. Scans, which used a technique known as positron emission tomography (PET), was designed to monitor changes in the way, the brain becomes glucose, fuel it requires to work.

Before being scanned, volunteers had a mobile phone located at each ear. In one scan, were both phones switched off. But in others the scan, the phone on the right ear was turned on, muted and set to receive a lengthy recorded message. Volunteers were given not to know what scanning was like.

When they compared scans taken in these two different scenarios, Volkow's team discovered a pattern of increased brain activity in the right orbitofrontal cortex and the right superior temporal gyrus lower parts. In these areas of the brain increased glucose metabolism from 33.3 to 35.7 micromoles of glucose per 100 g every minute.

Brain activity may increase much more than this, when a person just look at the images on a screen. In 2006, Andrei Vlassenko at Washington University School of Medicine reported to show images could increase brain activity by between six and 51%. Vokow said these increases were caused by way of thinking about images, while mobile phones appeared to increase activity "artificially".

She said it was unclear how mobile phone radiation can affect the brain metabolism and added that more research was needed to examine whether the effects could be harmful. Since completing the investigation, she is started by using a set with his mobile phone, a Move she described as "conservative, not paranoid".

If increases in brain activity caused by mobile phone use is, however, to be harmless, Volkow said, this phenomenon could be used to stimulate patients have underactive brain regions.

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' I felt great after I have lost my mobile phone»

In front of our eyes, Eric ... Stoltz with Paula Malcomson in Caprica. Photo: Syfy

What is your favorite piece of technology, and how it has improved your life?
TV-B-gone. It is a wonderful little device that has one button – which when pressed, will turn off any tv within 15 metres. It is ideal when you are sitting in an empty pub and a television is blaring ads too high. A simple device that brings peace.

When was the last time you used it, and what for?
Last week. Turn off a TV.

What additional features do you want to add, if you could?
It would be nice if the company expanded their repertoire a little. "People-who-speak-on-cellphones-in-shops-B-Gone" would be album swell. Not to mention "Taxes-B-gone".

Do you think, it will be obsolete in 10 years time?
' No '.

What always frustrates you about technology in General?
All that cursed convenience.

Is there any particular piece of technology that you have owned and hated?
I have a love-hate with just about all the technology in my life. My first typewriter in particular. I had a helluva time put new tape on it.

If you had a tip to get the best out of new technology, what would it be?
Please wait until the next version comes out – price drops, and they work normally some of the kinks.

You consider yourself to be a living or a nerd?
Both at different times in my life. Recently I directing an episode of hopeful of this and I lost my cellphone – and I devote time to buy a new one for three weeks. Well, could the first few days in was eager as hell, a little delirium tremens, didn't think I make it through, and so on. Then been kind of curious something – I began to feel great. Really great. Completely untethered, almost giddy. I had not had this feeling, because I learned to ride a bike, when I was a kid – it was fantastic. Later this week, my Twitter account suddenly and inexplicably deleted all my incredibly interesting speech. I took this as a sign, and decided to leave Luddites and end the modern age once more. But I am still thought-provoking about the entire experience.

What is the most expensive piece of technology you've ever owned?
My car or my piano, they were both pretty animals.

Mac or PC, and why?
Mac. I have been on them for 13 years and never had a virus.

Buy you still physical media such as CDs and DVDs, or you download? What was your last purchase?
I still buy them, even if it is stupid. A DVD Store near me went out of business last year, so I favoritspillet up a lot of older and foreign films. CDs not so much, I download them. my last purchase was you are not listening to the rescue operations.

Robot butlers – a good idea or not?
Let us not kid ourselves here, robots that are already running most of our world. We want to be their butlers quickly enough.

What piece of technology would you most like to own?
The emerging nanotechnology, which is able to deliver treatment to (and trigger death) malignant cancer cells in your body while leaving the healthy cells untouched.

• Eric Stoltz stars in tv series Caprica, season, one which is out now on DVD

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