New Projects, new facebook Phone, facebook ph 2013. facebook and htc ph

New Facebook and HTC smartphone reportedly coming in 2013

We've heard rumors which claim a new Android smartphone from Facebook and HTC is on the way, but today Bloomberg is reporting a mid-2013 window for the phone's arrival. Apparently, the original plan was to release the phone sometime before the sun sets on 2012, but with HTC wanting to work on different projects, this new Facebook phone has now been pushed back to mid-2013. This also gives Facebook more time to develope its modified operating system for the new phone, sources close to the project have said.

There's just one tiny problem: neither Facebook nor HTC have confirmed that this phone actually exists.We wouldn't be surprised one bit to find out that it does, however – after all, more and more people are accessing Facebook through their smartphones, and releasing a phone that's centered around the social networking service would make it easier for Facebook to monetize its mobile efforts. Facebook and HTC want to keep this project secret for at least a little while longer, apparently, so the truth is that we won't know if the phone is real until one of those companies choose to comment on the currently-circulating rumors.

Hearing that Facebook and HTC may be working together to bring us a new phone brings back some bad memories of the HTC ChaCha and the HTC Salsa . Both of those devices were marketed as Facebook phones, and even though there wasn't anything especially terrible about them, they both crashed and burned after launch. We're sure Facebook and HTC both remember those bombs just as well as we do, so if there is in fact a new Facebook phone in the works, you can bet that HTC and Facebook are thinking of everything they can do to avoid a repeat. Stay tuned.

Facebook's Secret Projects Outed: Meet Project Spartan

Facebook is getting its mobile game on. The social network is reportedly nearing the release of a bevy of impressive apps that will transform the social network into a mobile-savvy company. On deck is reportedly a geolocation photo swapping app and a new HTML5-based mobile platform called Project Spartan.

TechCrunch reported on Wednesday that Facebook has a secret photo-sharing iPhone app , similar to the apps Instagram and Color, in the works. No one outside of Facebook knows exactly how the app will work, but TechCrunch says it has received a bunch of images and documents pertaining to the app. According to TechCrunch, the app looks like a hybrid of Instagram, Color, Path, and Path's new side project, 'With.'

According to TechCrunch, Project Spartan is the codename for a new Facebook platform that's based in HTML5. The aim for such a project is, of course, to reach the 100 million users who routinely utilize a browser that supports only HTML5: Safari on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

Instead of launching a new version of the Facebook app for iOS (note that there's still no official Facebook app for the iPad), Facebook will instead launch a mobile browser-based cloud platform that will run via Apple's Safari browser. And well, it's not just going to be an app--it's actually going to be a platform with apps. So in other words, it's going to be another OS...on iOS.

According to people "familiar with the project" the reason Facebook is doing this is pretty obvious: Facebook wants to sidestep Apple's App Store and "break the stranglehold they have on mobile app distribution."

But, of course, Facebook also wants to target iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad users.

TechCrunch reports that there are currently 80 outside developers working with Facebook on the platform, including Zynga and Huffington Post. The platform will supposedly launch in the next couple of weeks (though Facebook had no comment on the matter, naturally).