And the strangest product branding of the day goes to Green Day-themed Angry Birds. What?

A new content pack for Facebook app Angry Birds Friends centers entirely around the pop-rock trio to promote a new album. Or something.

[shacknews]

Facebook has hired a team of software and hardware engineers to create a Facebook-branded smartphone that could be released as early as 2013, The New York Times reports.

The Facebook Phone team includes a handful of engineers with experience on Apple's iPhone, and Facebook is also continuing its previously-reported partnership with HTC.

"Mark is worried that if he doesn't create a mobile phone in the near future that Facebook will simply become an app on other mobile platforms," said one Facebook employee.

As for Facebook's official comment, all the company had to say was that "Our mobile strategy is simple: we think every mobile device is better if it is deeply social."

Would you buy a Facebook phone if it came out next year?

[gamefreakz / nyt.]

Facebook filed its IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission this afternoon, announcing its intention to sell 337 million shares at between $28 and $35 a pop in the biggest Internet stock offering since Google went public in 2004.

The $11.8 billion IPO would put the total valuation of the company at an astounding $77 to $96 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, 27, stands to gain as much as $17.6 billion in the IPO, which would make him richer than Microsoft's Steve Ballmer.

[abc / bloomberg.]

Facebook announced today that it has acquired popular photo-sharing app Instagram -- which just launched on Android last week -- for around $1 billion in cash and stock.

According to a Facebook post from FB chief Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram will be developed separately from the social network, but it will be able to share photos automatically to Facebook and keep the ability to share to other social sites.

Posting Instagram photos to Facebook will be opt-out.

"This is an important milestone for Facebook because it's the first time we've ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don't plan on doing many more of these, if any at all," said Zuckerberg in a statement.

[nyt / image: bwe]

Legislation that would have banned employers from asking for social network passwords from prospective employees was defeated by House Republicans yesterday by a vote of 236-185.

Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) attached the measure to a larger FCC bill after reports last week that employers are increasingly demanding access to applicants' Facebook and Twitter accounts as a condition of employment.

Although the measure failed, Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) are planning to introduce an equivalent bill in the Senate, and have called for the Department of Justice to investigate reports of Facebook privacy violations by employers.

Collecting employees' passwords is already prohibited Facebook's terms of service, as the company made clear in a statement earlier this week.

[mashable]

Facebook employees have been hard at work decorating the company's new Menlo Park, CA headquarters, and one team of ambitious Facebookers has tagged the roof of their office building with a 42-foot-wide QR code.

Mark Pike, who led the crew of rooftop artists/engineers during Facebook's recent Hackathon 29, said that he considered building the code out of wood or tile before someone suggesting painting directly on the roof.

The painting plan worked, as evidenced by the photo above, captured by a Facebook employee's camera-equipped quadrocopter. The code should be scannable from the air and, Pike hopes, from space. NASA hasn't yet confirmed that part, though.

Anyone flying overhead who manages to scan the code will be directed to fbco.de, a URL that the team purchased after realizing that a shorter web addresses make simpler -- and easier-to-paint -- QR codes.

So far, the only thing on the page is a "coming soon" message. And, of course, the option to "like" the QR code on Facebook.

[geekosystem]

Facebook has responded to recent reports that employers are increasingly asking job applicants for their Facebook passwords by pointing out that the practice violates the company's privacy policy and threatening to take legal action "where appropriate."

In a statement on Facebook's official blog, chief privacy officer Erin Egan wrote, "As a user, you shouldn't be forced to share your private information and communications just to get a job."

She also pointed out that employers are opening themselves up to discrimination lawsuits if, for example, they access a potential employee's Facebook account and discover that the candidate is a member of a legally protected class.

But Facebook users aren't the only ones who could potentially sue employers. Egan said that Facebook would also consider lawsuits if necessary.

"We'll take action to protect the privacy and security of our users, whether by engaging policymakers or, where appropriate, by initiating legal action, including by shutting down applications that abuse their privileges," she wrote.

Some of those policymakers are already taking steps to address the issue. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) recently announced that he's drafting legislation that would ban employers from asking for social networking and email passwords.

[ars]