Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile
  3. News

Facebook announces January 15 media event – says it’s building something….

Trevor Mogg
By

facebook mark zuckerbergWith tech-heads from around the world currently drooling over all the offerings at CES in Las Vegas, Facebook has apparently been feeling a little neglected, envious of all the attention being lavished upon the likes of Samsung and Sony. But of course, CES is a hardware-centric occasion, and Facebook doesn’t make hardware. Not yet, at least.

You see, on Tuesday the social networking giant sent out a press invitation with the teasing words “Come and see what we’re building”. The event will take place at its Menlo Park headquarters in California on January 15 at 10am PT.

Related Videos

So what’s in store? It could be – perhaps, maybe, possibly – something to do with the often-talked-about-but-never-confirmed Facebook phone. It hit the headlines again last week when a list of HTC device code names was leaked, which happened to include ‘Opera’, a name which has been linked to the Facebook phone….if indeed there is one.

Then again, you might argue the appearance of a Facebook phone is about as likely as Mark Zuckerberg turning up to the event in a ballerina outfit singing Abba’s Lay All Your Love On Me – because the invitation says “see what we’re building” not “see what we’ve built”. It wouldn’t look too impressive if out of his trouser pocket he pulled some bits of plastic, a 5-inch display, a processor and a tub of glue and said, “It’s going to be a smartphone,” would it. Oh, and just four months ago, Zuckerberg said in an interview that a Facebook phone “just doesn’t make any sense.”

But surely next week’s event has to be something significant, something big, otherwise why the vagueness of the invitation? Facebook knows it’s going to create a stir, so it wants to unveil something to a fanfare, not a raspberry.

If you’ve any ideas – whether carefully thought through or utterly absurd – as to what the social networking company has up its sleeve, do take a moment to let us know in the comments below.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Nomad’s hefty new MagSafe charger will stay exactly where you put it
The Nomad Stand One in carbide.

Tired of your wireless charger making its own way around the desk or bedside table? The way lightweight pads can slip around, seemingly with a will of their own, can be frustrating. That’s why you need Nomad’s new Stand One.

This metal and glass MagSafe charger weighs 613 grams, or just over 1 pound. It’s unlikely to shift about without quite a lot of encouragement. It's likely a bit overkill, but is there anything really wrong with that?

Read more
What is 5G UW? The real meaning behind the icon on your phone
Woman holding up smartphone with speed test results on Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband network.

You've probably noticed that there's been much more hype around 5G than for any of the wireless technologies that came before. Some of that is just marketing, of course; we are living in an increasingly connected era, and there are far more people toting smartphones now than there were in 2012 when 4G/LTE was just beginning to go mainstream. However, it's also not an exaggeration to say that with considerably faster speeds and the ability to handle many more devices, 5G is a much bigger step into the next stage of global connectivity. You've also probably noticed it yourself with a "5G UW" icon at the top of your phone.

As with most new technologies, 5G comes with some new challenges for both carriers and consumers. One of the most significant of these has been working out the best way to deploy 5G services across the much wider range of frequencies that it's capable of operating on. This wasn't nearly as significant a problem in the days of 3G and 4G/LTE services, which all operated in a much narrower range of radio spectrum.

Read more
Pixel Watch update brings a much-requested Apple Watch feature
Man using the Google Pixel Watch's app menu.

The Pixel Watch is a solid first outing as Google's debut smartwatch. However, it's still lacking a handful of features that early adopters have been requesting that are found on similar devices. Luckily, today marks the start of the rollout of one frequently requested feature: fall detection.

Fall detection is a crucial health and safety feature that all smartwatches are better for having, and now the Pixel Watch is finally joining the ranks of the Apple Watch and the Galaxy Watch with its addition.

Read more