Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the social network has plans to “launch something awesome” next week. There’s no official word on what will be announced, but we suspect it’s going to be the new iPhone photo-sharing service that we saw just last week. The service — which looked amazing in the leaked screen shots — will likely compete with other applications such as Instagram and Path. Rumor has it that inside Facebook headquarters, the new photo sharing app has been dubbed either “WithPeople,” or “Hovertown.” It’s entirely possible that Zuckerberg will also take the wraps off of his company’s native Facebook iPad app, since it would likely fit well into the photo-sharing ecosystem. Lastly, it’s possible Facebook will detail the next steps it’s taking with its Facebook Places check-in service, too, but given Zuckerberg’s use of the word “launch,” we’re not so sure. It remains unclear what day the announcement will be made. 
 
 Read ||||| Mark Zuckerberg didn't say what his company has planned, but speculation abounds that it might have something to do with the mobile or tablet markets. 
 
 Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is promising something big for next week. (Credit: Jessica Dolcourt/CNET) 
 
 Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said today that his company will "launch something awesome" next week, Reuters is reporting. 
 
 According to the news service, Zuckerberg told reporters in his company's Seattle office that the team there had developed the upcoming project. Facebook's Seattle office played an integral role in the development of the social network's recently improved mobile site, prompting Reuters to suggest the upcoming launch could be mobile- or tablet-related. 
 
 If the launch is tablet-related, it could be Facebook's long-awaited iPad application. The company currently offers an iPhone app, but iPad owners have so far been forced to use the full site. Earlier this month, The New York Times cited sources who said Facebook was readying an iPad app, and could be launching it in the coming weeks. 
 
 Then again, Facebook might unveil a new photo-sharing app for the iPhone. A couple weeks ago, TechCrunch announced that it had acquired a 50MB file containing images and documents on a new Facebook app that would allow users to share photos with others. That program, the blog claimed, wouldn't be integrated into Facebook's existing iPhone application, but would take advantage of the service's social graph. 
 
 If Facebook doesn't offer those platforms, it might just unveil a project TechCrunch spotted earlier this month, called Project Spartan. According to the blog, which cited anonymous sources, Spartan is designed to be an HTML5-based competitor to Apple's App Store. The service works in mobile Safari. 
 
 TechCrunch reported at the time that "80 or so" third-party developers had already signed on with Project Spartan, including FarmVille creator Zynga. 
 
 Whether any of these services might be the "something awesome" that launches next week, though, remains to be seen. 
 
 Facebook did not immediately respond to request for comment. ||||| Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg walks through Facebook headquarters at a news conference in Palo Alto, California in this August 18, 2010 file photo. 
 
 SEATTLE Facebook, the world's biggest social networking website, is set to launch a new feature next week, possibly in the mobile or tablet arena, its CEO said. 
 
 Chief Executive and founder Mark Zuckerberg told reporters in a visit to Facebook's Seattle office on Wednesday that the company planned to "launch something awesome" next week. 
 
 He said the project had been developed at the 40-person Seattle office, Facebook's only major engineering center outside of its Palo Alto, California headquarters. 
 
 There has been speculation in technology blogs in recent weeks about various mobile products in development at Facebook, including the release of a long-awaited Facebook app for Apple Inc's iPad and a specialized app for photo-sharing on the iPhone. 
 
 Facebook's Seattle office has made a mark on the company's mobile efforts, playing a central role in the development of Facebook's unified mobile site, unveiled in March. 
 
 A Facebook spokesman declined to provide further details about Zuckerberg's comments. 
 
 Facebook, the world's largest Internet social network with more than 500 million users, is increasingly challenging established online companies like Google Inc and Yahoo Inc for consumers' time online and for advertising dollars. According to the company, people that use Facebook on mobile devices are twice as active on the service than users on PCs. 
 
 (Reporting by Bill Rigby and Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Phil Berlowitz) ||||| A smartphone user shows the Facebook application on his phone in the central Bosnian town of Zenica, in this photo illustration, May 2, 2013. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO Facebook introduced new features on Wednesday that let users limit how much personal information they share with third-party mobile apps, a move meant to quell privacy concerns as the social network seeks to become a top entry port to the Internet. 
 
 In recent years, Facebook Inc has successfully encouraged a growing number of third-party app makers to allow users to log in with their Facebook identity rather than, say, by entering an email address or creating a dedicated account. 
 
 The result has been an influx of valuable data for the world's No. 1 social network, but concerns have also mounted about third-party developers gaining access to private information. 
 
 Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said at Facebook's developer conference in San Francisco on Wednesday that a new version of Facebook's log-in tool, called "log in anonymously," would let users control what information they allow third-party apps to see. He told developers the tool would let users feel more comfortable about logging into apps using Facebook. 
 
 "By giving people more power and control, they're going to trust all the apps that we build more, and over time use them more. And that's positive for everyone," said Zuckerberg. 
 
 The revamped log-in screen will let users select which personal information stored on the social network, such as an email address, birthday or items that they have "liked" on Facebook, can be accessed by any particular app. 
 
 The user's names and gender will remain visible to the app. 
 
 On Wednesday, the social network also rolled out a new service to distribute ads across a network of mobile applications, opening the door to a new source of revenue. 
 
 The service, which has been in the works on for some time, allows mobile-app makers to insert various ads within their software, with Facebook sharing advertising dollars with the developers. 
 
 "This is really the first time that we're going to help you monetize in a serious way on mobile," Zuckerberg said. 
 
 Facebook faces tough competition in the active mobile ad network market. Google Inc's AdMob service already allows advertisers to distribute ads to mobile apps, while Twitter Inc said on Tuesday that its MoPub ad network can reach 1 billion mobile users. 
 
 Twitter's MoPub, which serves as an advertising management tool for app publishers, will allow mobile apps to feature ads for the Facebook audience as well as other networks, the two companies said. 
 
 Facebook began testing a mobile ad network with a limited number of advertisers and mobile app publishers in January. It plans to expand the number of app makers that can use the service, although it did not provide a time frame for when the system will become broadly available. 
 
 The new mobile ad system, dubbed the Facebook Audience Network, will leverage Facebook's more than 1 million advertisers and its own ability to target users based on their traits. 
 
 Facebook generates the bulk of its revenue from ads that appear on its own Web pages and within its own mobile app. By distributing ads across a constellation of independent mobile apps, Facebook effectively expands its advertising space, opening the door to more revenue. 
 
 To get access to the extra ad space, ad networks typically share the revenue with their partners. Facebook will share most of the ad revenue with apps makers, as is standard in the industry, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. 
 
 (Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Andre Grenon) ||||| Facebook is announcing something today at 1 PM. We'll have live coverage of the event. 
 
 Until then, here's a preview of sorts ... 
 
 Original: Google+? That's so this week. 
 
 Get ready for something "awesome" from the only social network that matters. 
 
 Mark Zuckerberg told reporters Facebook is "launching something awesome" next week. 
 
 He didn't reveal much else, but if we had to guess it would be an iPad app. 
 
 However, Zuckerberg said whatever it is that is being revealed was made in its new Seattle office. 
 
 We'll be on hand, and we'll get his thoughts on Google+.
– Mark Zuckerberg teased reporters on a tour of Facebook's Seattle office today by announcing that the company will "launch something awesome" next week, reports Reuters, which guesses it's in the "mobile or tablet arena." Let the speculation begin: BGR: "We suspect it’s going to be the new iPhone photo-sharing service that we saw just last week. ... It’s entirely possible that Zuckerberg will also take the wraps off of his company’s native Facebook iPad app, since it would likely fit well into the photo-sharing ecosystem." CNET: "It could be Facebook's long-awaited iPad application. The company currently offers an iPhone app, but iPad owners have so far been forced to use the full site." Business Insider: "If we had to guess it would be an iPad app."