Love it or hate it, HTC is fully behind their Android skin, Sense. With each upgrade it is promised to be slimmer and easier to use, but still people complain about it getting in the way of their phone. Sense 5 debuted with their newest flagship the HTC One this year, but according to an HTC ROM developer, Sense 5 is upcoming for last year’s device, the One X. 

Facebook Home is official and launching April to the Google Play store. Device compatibility is limited for now, as Facebook has worked to make the experience as polished as can be. The first run of devices includes the HTC One and One X. From Samsung we’ll see compatibility for the Galaxy S3, Galaxy S4, and Galaxy Note 2. Other devices will come down the road.

Tablet support is also coming, but not for a few of months. 

Apparently, the HTC One X on AT&T has been more of an ignored step-child device than Verizon’s Galaxy Nexus, which has at least been running a Jelly Bean build for some time now and even sports Android 4.2.2 after a recent update. Unfortunately for One X users, they have been stuck on Ice Cream Sandwich since they bought the device, with no real word from AT&T and watching as mid-range device after mid-range device received Android 4.1+ updates. 

A curious user over on HTC’s Facebook decided to ask when his One X would receive an update to Sense 5, with HTC throwing down a good answer. According to whoever runs their FB page, the global variants of the One X, One X+, One S, and HTC Butterfly will all receive an update to Sense 5 within the “next few months.” 

A couple of weeks ago, the DROID DNA received somewhat of an S-OFF through the work of a phone repair shop who had a special tool that they would use on your device should you be willing to pay at least $45. It really wasn’t all that practical. And hopefully, no one actually used the service, because a much simpler S-OFF method has been released tonight by beaups and jcase of TeamAndIRC. 

We expect the official unveiling of HTC’s M7 device at a press conference scheduled for February 19, but if any more information leaks, there won’t be anything left. The latest details we have come from the fairly reliable evleaks twitter account. Posted this morning, he believes that the M7 will come to market under the name “HTC One.” 

With 2012 behind us, it only makes sense that we start looking ahead in an attempt to prepare ourselves for what’s to come. CES ended with little bang, so that means we have Mobile World Congress, CTIA, Google I/O, IFA, and stand-alone press events left to bring us the real goods. Will we see Motorola’s “X” phone and be blown away? Can HTC make a comeback with the next line of One Series phones (assuming they continue that line)? Will LG really introduce new Nexus devices? Or does it all really just come down to whatever Samsung and Google tell us to buy in late Spring or early Summer?

You tell us what you are most looking forward to and why.

For me personally, it’s all about that Motorola “X” phone and then whatever it is that Google decides to surprise us with at I/O, which of course could be the “X” phone. Samsung and the Galaxy S4 will undoubtedly be all over our radar, but Motorola remains the big question mark here. This is the “new” Moto after all, so hopefully “new” means awesome.

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In 2012, we saw the Android smartphone world reach heights that I don’t imagine many predicted. On a spec front, 2012 was the year of quad-core processors, 2GB of RAM, HD displays, longer battery lives, and incredibly thin bodies. It seems like just yesterday that we were asking DL readers if they had a dual-core or single-core phone, yet here we are, with dual-core phones already becoming a thing of the past.

On a manufacturer front, 2012 was the year that Samsung proved that it really was the only big fish in a bowl full of minnows. We saw Motorola kick off its life as a Google-owned company, HTC struggle to make money even while releasing amazing phones, and LG take its turn as the face of the Nexus phone program.

In this post, I thought we’d talk a bit about all of that by listing out my top 10 phones of the year.