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Teens: Facebook's becoming more 'meh'

If you say something often enough, does it become true?

For a little while, rumors that teens see Facebook in the same way they see their dad's pale, baggy jeans have been wafting around the social biosphere.

Earlier this year, a couple of slightly anecdotal studies suggested that Facebook was showing its laughter lines and that teens were moving toward exciting places like Tumblr.

Now along comes a survey from Piper Jaffray that suggests teens are increasingly giving Facebook a "meh" rating.

It's a fascinating survey -- offering moving gems such as the fact that teens … Read more

How to set up the ultimate home theater PC

At some point, you've probably considered hooking your computer up to your TV. Maybe you even purchased a video cable, only to realize that being hunched over your computer and tethered to the TV is far from the awesome setup you had in mind.

Hooking up your computer to your TV can be as simple or as complex as you want. A basic setup lets you stream the occasional Web video, while a more advanced rig lets you access movie and music files from computers across your home network.

But the most brag-worthy home theater PCs (HTPCs) include all … Read more

Facebook Home review: The Android app for Facebook junkies

Facebook Home for Android is an interesting, and odd, experiment from the big dog in social networking. On the one hand, the home-screen replacement software introduces some daring, even likable, ideas about how to interact with your friends on your phone -- and soon, on your tablet. On the other hand, Home is very much first-generation software that could use more time in the oven to become truly useful for Facebook fanatics.

The software, which supplants your home screen interface with images and status updates from your friends' Facebook news feed, is niche at best. At worst, it's a … Read more

Poll: What's stopping you from getting a projector?

I've had a projector as my main display for more than 10 years. I don't for a second believe they're for everyone. However, I do believe that more people could enjoy projectors than currently do.

From other articles I've written on CNET, though, there's a lot of push-back and negativity with projectors, and I'd like to find out why. … Read more

Automate home maintenance with BrightNest for iOS

Like most homeowners, I've got furnace filters to replace, smoke-alarm batteries to check, a central air conditioner to maintain, and so on. I also have a septic tank and water softener that need occasional attention.

Unfortunately, I'm terrible at tracking this stuff, meaning important tasks often get overlooked or neglected -- sometimes at their peril (and my expense).

BrightNest for iOS lets me schedule these and other home maintenance jobs, thereby ensuring they don't get forgotten.

The app does require you to create an account (because it syncs with the BrightNest Web service), though you can also … Read more

Facebook Home leaks out before its official release

Facebook Home, the social network's latest, major push into the mobile devices arena, has been leaked before its official debut in the marketplace.

Mobile news site MoDaCo obtained a copy of a prerelease build of Facebook Home from an HTC First ROM. The site reports that the installation is "rather buggy and incomplete" and it couldn't get the platform's Chat Heads to work.

However, many of Facebook Home's other features were accessible, and MoDaCo published photos of the application in action. For those who want to take the risk of running prerelease software, MoDaCo … Read more

The new Facebook Home ad, complete with drag queen

The lovely thing about Facebook Home is that it allows Facebook to follow you, everywhere you go. You've always wanted that, haven't you?

You've always wanted Facebook to follow you onto your flight to Chicago, for example. Yes, even when you're flying coach.

So here's the launch TV spot for Facebook's new app-less Windows Phone-inspired creation.

A very nice-looking man is on a plane and he wants one last look at everything that's happening to and with his closest humans, before the airplane doors shut and the flight attendants start being passionately rude. … Read more

One-on-one with the guy who built Facebook's Home

If Facebook Home, the company's family of applications that make the social network unavoidable on Android devices such as the HTC First, had an architect, it would be Director of Product and project lead Adam Mosseri.

CNET sat down with Mosseri on Thursday after the company lifted the curtain on Home. Mosseri proved a lively interview subject. He didn't completely divert away from our first serious question as to why anyone would want this much Facebook in their phone, and he admitted that if you don't want to see the feed all the time, then this isn'… Read more

Facebook's one small step for mankind

Soon after Facebook announced its new family of apps for mobile devices, Michael Gartenberg, who works as an industry analyst at Gartner, quipped over Twitter, "So I pay $99 for a 2-year-contract on a sub standard phone. Turn my life over to Facebook and get ads on my home screen?"

Gartenberg's tweet contained more than a kernel of truth and, besides the snarky humor, it was appropriate to the occasion, as big companies like Facebook are always looking for ways to shove advertising in front of our faces -- in this case by locking you into Facebook'… Read more