FACEBOOK IN MY HOME

In a sense, I'm the ideal target for Facebook's new Home app. Those photos, links and posts I couldn't be bothered to check on the social network's app automatically come to the screen when I turn on the phone. I can see friends' musings scroll by, as photos they've chosen to highlight take up the entire screen in the background. A new one appears every seven seconds.

At first, the free app is available only on certain phones running Google's Android operating system - HTC Corp.'s One, One X and One X Plus and Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note 2. It will work on the Galaxy S 4 when the phone goes on sale in the coming weeks.

If you have a Facebook app already installed on one of those phones, you'll get a prompt when Home is ready to download on Friday. Otherwise, visit the phone's Google Play store to get it. Home comes already installed on the HTC First, which ships Friday and costs $100 in the U.S. with a two-year AT&T Inc. service contract. I had a chance to spend several hours with a First that Facebook Inc. lent me to try out ahead of Home's public debut.