We just received information from a tipster who apparently was part of a recent focus group for an upcoming device that appears to be a Facebook phone. Here are some features we anticipate will be part of the eventual Facebook handset based on questions asked at during the session:
- Location aware coupons: you pick main categories of interest. When you’re near any stores that fall into those categories, coupons are automatically pushed to your phone. Basically, it sounds like “Facebook Deals on steroids,” as our tipster elegantly phrased it.
- An always-on GPS service much like Google Latitude that would run in the background. The service would provide automatic “check-ins” and might share your location with friends.
- No local storage (or very little). Everything is cloud-based, including contacts, media, data, etc.
- Obviously the phone will include a camera, but everything will be uploaded automatically and stored in the cloud.
- A news ticker-style message notification system: all messages funnel into one mass inbox, sortable by type, but initially unfiltered. There will also be a ticker of some kind that reads off message content as it’s delivered, regardless of message type.
The handset itself wasn’t specifically referred to as a “Facebook phone,” though our tipster tells us they spent over an hour of the session talking about social media in addition to very specific things like “how many photos do you upload to Facebook a day”, and more.
