HTC China president Ray Yam believes the Taiwanese company’s new licensing deal with Apple will allow it to “take broader steps” and create better products this year. The Droid DNA maker recently entered into a 10-year licensing agreement with Apple that covers all current, pending, and future patents, and ended the litigation ongoing between the two companies.

Smartphones and tablets have been the hottest Christmas gifts in recent years, and the 2012 holidays were by far the biggest yet for Android and iOS. A new study from mobile analytics firm Flurry has found that a record-breaking 17.4 million Android and iOS devices were activated on Christmas Day, leading to an equally record-breaking 328 million app downloads.

Samsung’s request to keep some of its sales data sealed in an ongoing patent dispute with Apple in the United States has been denied by District Judge Lucy Koh. The Korean electronics giant wanted to keep its figures secret while it appeals an earlier sealing order, but it will now have to disclose the information to Apple.

Huawei has already confirmed that it has a number of new handsets lined up for CES 2013 next week, two of which will be powered by Android. The Ascend D2 is arguably the most exciting one, and as you can see from its leaked press shot above, it’s a very good-looking device. In fact, its chamfered silver bezel with embedded white antennas make it look a lot like Apple’s white iPhone 5.

WatchESPN, the Android application that allows sports fans to stream live games to their smartphones and tablets while they’re on the go, has finally been ported to Amazon Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD tablets. The app is free to download and use — providing you already have a supporting ESPN TV subscription — and it delivers access to ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, and ESPNU.