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HTC 'first' device may be Facebook's starter Home

A photo surfaces of an HTC device. One site pegs it as the first to get Facebook Home.

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Headshot of Jennifer Van Grove
Jennifer Van Grove Former Senior Writer / News
Jennifer Van Grove covered the social beat for CNET. She loves Boo the dog, CrossFit, and eating vegan. Her jokes are often in poor taste, but her articles are not.
Jennifer Van Grove
CNET
Another day, another Facebook "phone" rumor. This time around, the folks at 9to5Google believe that a leaked photo of a device apparently called the "HTC first" means that we'll see Facebook's "Home" on Android debut on the iPhone-like smartphone.

Thursday, Facebook is expected to show off an HTC device running "Facebook Home," a version of the Android operating system that makes the social network's features and applications native to smartphones.

The device in question was rumored to be code-named "Myst," but a new rumor suggests the phone may actually be called "first."

The Twitter account @evleaks posted a fairly nondescript picture of the supposed HTC first. 9to5Google, a source of several Facebook phone-related stories in the past few days, believes the screenshot corroborates its previous intel.

"It looks pretty much identical to the Facebook-HTC device that we described last week," the site said. "Given that the image lines up with what [we] previously heard, we expect the device shown above to be the first, or one of the first, Facebook Home handsets."

Previously, 9to5Google cited sources who had seen a Facebook-HTC smartphone that resembled an iPhone, albeit with a slightly larger screen, and included a bottom-center home button with two additional function keys.

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment. We suspect we'll hear back with official word no sooner than Thursday at 10 a.m. Pacific.

Update 4:07 p.m PT: As expected, a Facebook spokesperson said that the company does not comment on rumors or speculation.