Facebook is Building a Desktop Software Team, Despite Lack of iPad App (PC Magazine)

Need a job? Give Facebook a call. The company is seeking engineers for a new desktop software team.

TechCrunch pointed out a posting on the jobs page titled "Software Engineer, Desktop Software" at Facebook's recently-opened Seattle office

The description reads: "The desktop software team is a new team at Facebook based out of Seattle, WA. We will be working on new products that we expect to deliver to millions of users' computers to help make their entire computing experience more social. Facebook is seeking experienced software engineers in Seattle to join this team."

The page says the other responsibilities of the job are to "create desktop applications for Mac and/or Windows, work closely with our product and design teams to define feature specifications, work closely with our Platform team to build server-side APIs and interfaces in support of these applications, [and] conduct design and code reviews."

Interestingly enough, Facebook is building this team for the desktop before it even has an iPad app. The lack of the iPad app is also curious considering Facebook's iPhone app is the most downloaded application of all time.

Could Facebook be building a desktop app? Possibly, but TechCrunch notes that it "doesn't seem to make a lot of sense given their stated (over and over again) commitment to HTML5 and that being the key driver for why they don't have an iPad app."

Last fall, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed the absence of an iPad app.

"iPad's not mobile," he said. "I don't mean to be rude to Apple. iPad just isn't mobile in the same way [an iPhone] is."

It's unclear whether or not Facebook will eventually cave and build an official iPad app. For now it seems we might see an increased emphasis on the desktop.

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Microsoft to update Windows Phone software (AP)

NEW YORK – Microsoft Corp. said Tuesday that it plans a major upgrade to its Windows Phone software this fall, ahead of the launch of the first Nokia phones to use it.

The revamped software contains a new, faster Web browser and allows users to switch quickly between applications, using a "card" display similar to the one in Hewlett-Packard Co.'s webOS software, which it bought along with Palm Inc.

Microsoft said the software, codenamed "Mango," will be available as a downloadable update for all Windows Phones sold until then.

Finland's Nokia Corp., the world's biggest maker of phones, announced in February that it would adopt Windows Phone and toss out its current smartphone software. Microsoft is paying it billions of dollars to do so, as it's trying to buy into a market now dominated by Apple Inc. and Google Inc.'s Android software.

Microsoft launched Windows Phone in November, but it ran only 1.6 percent of the smartphones sold worldwide in the first quarter, according to research firm Gartner Inc.

"Mango" contains more than 500 changes, Microsoft said, including integration of Facebook Chat into conversations that can also include text messages from the same person. Overall, the update is aimed at reducing the reliance on separate third-party apps and baking in as much as possible of their functionality in the operating system.

Ovum analyst Tony Cripps said the new update looks worthwhile, but may not be enough, considering the opposition.

"Microsoft needs to do better if it is to persuade the market that it has the most user friendly — and desirable — mobile platform in the market today," Cripps said.

Microsoft said three more manufacturers would make Windows phones: Acer of Taiwan, Fujitsu of Japan and ZTE of China. ZTE is little-known outside China, but is the world's sixth-largest phone maker, according to research firm Gartner Inc.

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Peter Svensson can be reached at http://twitter.com/petersvensson

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