Instead it’s slick-looking software that wants to assume mass control of Android phones everywhere. It’s going to be available for download on April 12 in the Google Play store. HTC will be releasing the first Facebook Home optimized phone on the same day.

"It's a family of apps and you can install it and it becomes the home of your phone. So we're calling this, 'Home,'" announced Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg from under a sheen of sweat.

"With Home, you see your world through people, not apps."

Here's what that means: Home's central features include the "cover feed," a one-stop source about your friends' happenings, and "chat heads," which are bubbles enclosed with your friends' faces. "The home screen is the soul of your phone. You look at it 100 times per day," Zuck said, before criticizing the distraction of messaging apps that take you out of whatever screen you're looking at, and which Facebook clearly hopes to replace.

Now, as you hop from app to app on your phone, the "chat heads" will follow you around, begging for your attention as you try to browse Instagram and read the New York Times. Now, let's say you want to get rid of one of those pestering friends. (One example used in the presentation: Sheryl Sandberg.)

Zuck and his cohorts (who broke hoodie ranks with a cardigan and a button-down) used a number of words to describe how one gets rid of the "chat heads," with a brief swipe of one's fingertip. You can thinking of it as flicking them away, like a fly, for example. "When you're done with them you just throw them away at the bottom," Mr. Zuckerberg said once, discarding Sheryl's face.

This new mobile suite introduced, Mr. Zuckerberg returned to the stage for the grand finale: a new commercial. This one didn't mention chairs, but it was just as weird. A man killing time before his plane takes off flips through his cover feed, and as he does, the subjects of the photos pop up around him: A couple of friends in swimsuits are crammed into the overhead bins; cats run along the backsides of seats; his nephew appears, covered in birthday cake; a drag queen pops out of the beverage service cart.

Actually, it captured the  randomness of the Facebook browsing experience pretty well.

(Photo: Angelfire)

Digital music licensing revenues surpassed those from radio for the first time ever, mostly thanks to Google Play and Xbox. [The Guardian]

If this really is Mark Zuckerberg's first ever Angelfire page, it's just as mortifying as yours was. [Gizmodo]

Q1 of 2013 yielded a strangely low number of IPOs: only eight companies went public in the three-month period. [Silicon Valley Business Journal]

Not to be eclipsed by Microsoft, Samsung is getting its own brick and mortar stores, but with a twist: they'll exist solely inside Best Buys. Guess they really like the Geek Squad? [AllThingsD]

The Facebook phone is expected to be announced today. Yay? [New York Times]

Mr. Allen is signing...a lease?? (Photo: Flickr)

We're another day closer to the fabled Facebook phone release so images are leaking out of what the supposed Android-based OS is going to look like. Hint: it's blue! [CNET]

Say hi to your newest your coworker, Silicon Valley. It's Paul Allen! The Microsoft cofounder is opening a new investment office under the Vulcan Capital name. [PEHub]

A Federal Court ruled yesterday that one simply can not resell their iTunes-purchased songs thus endangering the future of music site ReDigi.com. But it’s not all bad news. This is probably the most press ReDigi has ever received! [AllThingsD]

Allan Kay, computer pioneer and the man who coined the phrase “The best way to predict the future is to invent it,” is the subject of a lengthy profile. [TIME]

Fresh off Aereo’s win in appeals court yesterday (where judges denied TV networks their request for an injunction), CEO Chet Kanojia is predicting that broadcasters will take the issue to Congress. [The Verge]

I win! I am the winner! (Photo: Wikimedia)

In a successful attempt to troll CES, Facebook announced a rare invitation to "come see what we're building" at its Menlo Park headquarters tomorrow. Let the speculation begin!

Could it be a Facebook phone? [TechCrunch]

Messenger for iPad? [TechCrunch]

What about FaceCAR integration? [TechCrunch]

Meanwhile, sources say Apple has cut orders for iPhone 5 components by "roughly half" due to "weaker-than-expected demand." [WSJ]

Could it be enough to send Apple stock below $500 a share? [Quartz]

It seems the most sober analysis of CES happens after the ballrooms clear. Here's a realist's guide to future gadgets. [WireCutter]

And a closer look at how China's biggest brands used CES to buy their way into America. [Verge]

(Original photo: App Advice)

Deconstructing the myth of the "booth babe." [Jezebel]

Speaking of myths, the Facebook phone is apparently a reality, which is a shame because nobody wants a stupid Facebook phone. [Bloomberg]

Roku continues getting cozy with pay TV, raises $45 million from News Corps. and BSkyB. [TechCrunch]

Kevin Rose on the new Betaworks incarnation of Digg: "It’s very simple, and there’s a lot of emphasis on real-time." Version one of the new Digg is set to debut in one week. [GigaOm]

Google is livestreaming its announcement about rolling out a fiber network in Kansas City today. [Google]

Zynga shares tumbled 42 percent yesterday; not even gullible mothers taking care of virtual crops can fix that. [Bloomberg]

INQ, which launched the so called "Facebook Phone", with the social graph built right into the OS, has decided to use Foursquare as the default service on INQ for integrating location into the OS. Considering that Facebook is already baked right into the phone, its a big deal that INQ would opt to look elsewhere for its location platform.

And while Crowley rightly announced this as an important partnership at TechCrunch Disrupt today, this wasn't some business development deal negotiated between the two companies. "Coolest thing of all: INQ was able to do this using our open API, joining thethousands of other developers who have made foursquare location a core part of their products. Because it’s built directly into the Android system, you can check in and explore without even firing up the application," notes the foursquare blog.

The other news is still in rumor stage, but Liz Gannes from All Things D is reporting that a partnership is in the works between Groupon and Foursquare. This would push Groupon Now offers to Foursquare users based on their location. It would probably look a lot like the Loopt deal Groupon signed last week.