Zuckerberg: No Facebook Phone, Confirms Search Engine

Zuckerberg talks Facebook stock, the rumored smartphone, and the company's search engine efforts.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made an appearance at the TechCrunch Disrupt event in San Francisco, talking about the company's mobile strategy and vision. It was the first time he had made a public appearance since Facebook went into IPO mode back in May, acknowledging that the networking giant's public offering – which is now selling for around half the initial $38 price – isn't performing as hoped. "The performance of the stock has obviously been disappointing," Zuckerberg said. Investors have reportedly been concerned about the company's ability to increase revenue and make money from the social website's growing mobile audience. But Zuckerberg points out that Facebook has big opportunities in both mobile and search, and that the company's mobile approach has been one of its most "misunderstood" traits thus far. "I think it's easy for folks to underestimate how fundamentally good mobile is for us," Zuckerberg said in an on-stage interview, adding that more people have phones than PCs, and that they engage with the site more on their mobile devices, as much as six out of seven days a week. "We already see mobile users are more likely to be daily active users," he said. "We think we're going to make more money on mobile than on the desktop." So does that mean Facebook may produce its own smartphone? Absolutely not. "It's so clearly the wrong strategy for us," he said. "We're going in the opposite direction [from companies that are building their own phones, such as Google and Apple]. We want to build a system that's as deeply integrated as possible into every device people use." During the interview, Zuckerberg also touched on rumors that the social website was building its own search engine. He said that Facebook is currently doing 1 billion queries a day – mostly people searches, but also searches for company brand pages and applications -- "and we’re not even trying." He said the company is in the perfect position to get serious about a search engine, and in fact there's a team already working on it.

"I think Facebook is uniquely positioned to answer a lot of queries people have," he said. "Like, 'What sushi restaurants have my friends gone to in New York in the last six months and liked? I know there's a big opportunity there and we just need to go and do that." People want answers to their queries, not a pile of results to sift through, he added. "Search engines are really evolving to give you a set of answers, ‘I have a specific question, answer this question for me,'" he said. What Facebook has that Google doesn't – and likely never will – is all the data provided by Facebook users. This is why Google has integrated Google+ into its search algorithms to produce more personal results. Google Now is an attempt to get even more personal, pulling from the user's Calendar, location and other details to offer a more personal pool of results. Zuckerberg also talked about some of the "missteps" Facebook has taken over the years, including jumping on the HTML5 bandwagon rather than focusing on native apps. He made it perfectly clear that Facebook remains optimistic about the web-based platform, but taking that route has caused the company's mobile strategy to suffer. "But we're coming out of that," the said. "The [new] iOS app is out and the [new] Android will be out soon."

iPhone 5: when will you get it?

The new iPhone 5 has been launched, but that's only half the story - you want to know when and where you can get your iPaws all over the handset. Well, the iPhone 5 launch date has been set for September 21, and pre-ordering begins on September 14. We've spoken to all the networks to find out which will be stocking the new iPhone, and if it will feature any fancy new features we may not have seen.

Vodafone

Surprise, surprise Vodafone will be stocking the iPhone 5 in all its capacity (16GB, 32GB, 64GB) and colour (black and white) options - shocker we know - and interestingly the big red has it available on 12 and 24 month pay monthly plans. In terms of 24 month contracts, its "flagship" (and most expensive) tariff is the £47 per month Red Data plan, giving you a free 16GB iPhone 5, unlimited calls and texts, plus 2GB of internet, which Vodafone has confirmed will cover you for Facetime over 3G. You can pay as little as £33 per month over two years, but that will only get you 600 minutes, unlimited texts and a paltry 500MB of data, plus you'll need to shell out £149 for the 16GB iPhone 5. There's also a 24 month plan for £25 per month, but this doesn't include Facetime over 3G in the 100MB of internet you get, plus you will need to fork out big money for the handset. Opt for a 12 month plan and you'll be paying an eye-wateringly high price for your shorter contract, with Vodafone demanding as much as £349 if you plump for the 16GB iPhone at £36 per month.

O2

O2 seems to have been a little slow of the mark with its iPhone 5 pre-order page, showing off the tariffs it has available, all of which offer unlimited texts and calls plus 1GB of data, but at varying prices. As the allowance is the same at each price band, which starts at £26 per month and raises all the way to £63, we expect some heavily subsidised iPhones to go with them, however O2 is yet to release its handset prices. Update: TechRadar has spoken to O2, who said it is just making sure everything is correct before it puts the pre-order page life. We should know the full details soon. O2 will also be offering the new iPhone 5 on its Pay & Go Go Go plan with 75 minutes, 500 texts and 100MB of data: £10 a month, then every 3 months your tariff gets better and better. After 3 months everything doubles, except the price. And after 9 months you get unlimited texts. Once again O2 has failed to provide us with handset prices for its PAYG deal – so watch this space. "We're celebrating the fifth year of working with Apple in style," said Ronan Dunne, Chief Executive of O2 in the UK. "We're looking forward to bringing the new iPhone 5 to everyone very soon, whether they're already on O2 or not."

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The iPhone Evolution – iPhone 5 is here

The new iPhone is here and once again we prepared a chart to show you how much it’s better than its predecessors. You’ve heard it will come with a bigger screen, improved positioning (with inclusion of Glonass), better front-facing camera, support for LTE connectivity and a brand new A6 processor. And while we don’t have A6′s GHz count, we’re pretty confident Apple will make sure everything works as smoothly as possible.

But I said it enough. Here’s the new chart – and, if you need a bigger version, you can get it from here.