@ facebook's relaunched Developer conference f8

My good friend Ilya Sukhar, who founded and Parse and then sold it to facebook now runs all app development platform for facebook. 

I am at The Concourse in sf, spending the day immersing myself in facebook's developer world.

Today Parse, facebook , Ilya, and Zuckerberg relaunched facbeook's developer facing efforts. The tagline is "going back to our developer roots". 

 I am most excited to check out the internet.org innovation lab that facebook is hosting with Ericsson. 

I have a 45 minute session scheduled with an Ericsson coach, who will take my android app and run it on a simulated "Nigeria" mobile / cellular network. Pretty excited about seeing how Opera Max will fare on a simulated mobile network

Checking In:

I was delighted by a well made f8 app that they suggested i install on my iPhone for check in. I got the android one , it was well made and helpful. It told you the wifi password :) It has map and schedule as well. Also they are holding free t shirts hostage until the end of the day, and ask you to fill our a survey inside the f8 app to get the free tshirt. Clever tactic :) 

They also welcome developers by giving them a fjallraven backpack. A stand and a case for iphones. A moxie battery juice pack, and a notebook. Pretty cool schwag, but no Oculus rift giveaways here :)

The AM:

They announced a string of new developer tools and products. Best listed in this Gigaom blog post here:

https://gigaom.com/2014/04/30/heres-everything-that-was-announced-at-f8/

In a nutshell, fb just launched a mobile ad network . First time Fb is getting serious about helping mobile ad developers to moentize by using facbeook ads and facebook ad targeting. 

It will be interesting how this new change in the mobile ad market impacts Opera Mediaworks/ Ad Marvel (largest non game ad network outside of google) and Chartboost (largest game specific ad network).

The Main talks:

Waiting for the first set of talks to start.  I am sitting in the "Grow" track, where they will discuss how to use the newly launched tools to grow distribution of your apps. So thought its a great time to drum out a post, since i am trying to get into a steady post rhythm for fortechiesonly.com again :) 

more photos and stuff will come later.