Facebook hiring to build a smartphone? [again]

This is a topic that has been going on and off, but here it goes again: Facebook is said to be hiring smartphone hardware and software engineers in order to build its own smartphone. That's what Nick Bilton from the NYTimes has just published, and looking at my own circles here in Silicon Valley, the hiring seems definitely real. Facebook has been hiring a number of engineers who have nothing to do with social networks, web development or network infrastructure, and it has done so for some time now. The question is: what is their mission.

Ubergizmo, Facebook hiring to build a smartphone? [again]