As we predicted last month, 3UK launched their Facebook phone, the INQ1 yesterday.  Not just are the specs actually quite impressive (for the price), some of the software integration is very impressive too.

• Quad Band phone with HSDPA support
• 3.2 megapixel camera
• Can function as a modem when connected to a PC (*)
• A2DP Bluetooth
• Facebook, Skype and Windows Live Messaging built into the phone
• Facebook and Skype contacts are integrated directly into the Address Book
• Widget Manager with Weather, RSS Feeds, and Google now, others including eBay to follow
• Facebook avatars will get imported into the Address Book (that’s the type of integration we like!)
• Flight Mode support
• last.fm support built in for scrobbling only
• Available in Silver (Black coming soon)

That last point was one that no one knew was coming; last.fm support, built in directly into the phone.  That’s a nice coup for both 3UK and last.fm and one we support.  It will only scrobble (record the music you listen to), and there’s no access to listen to the last.fm radio streams (apparently due to licensing issues, although no one seems to know exactly what issues).

Also interesting is that 3UK knew that there are some limitations with this phone, and are addressing them; there’s no GPS in this phone, but future handsets will have GPS, and they are planning a QWERTY model too.  No Wi-Fi, and no plans to launch that though.

The Facebook is a feature rich solution, which as well as syncing your contacts, and the avatar integration, will also collect your messages.  If you are out of coverage, you can still use the Facetool tools, and the updates will be delivered to the site once coverage returns.  Now, if 3UK could expand this integration and offline working to a whole range of other social networking sites too I suspect they could clean up in the non-smartphone marketplace.

It looks like the INQ1 will be on a new 3UK tariff for £15 per month.  Normally this would buy you 300 cross network minutes or texts, but the INQ1 will only feature 75 cross network minutes or texts, but included within this price is their Internet Max Addon, which is normally £5 per month, and offers 1GB of data per month.  The tariff includes the recently launched “unlimited” 2000 minutes 3 to 3 calls, and free voicemail access.  Overall, that’s a very good for the phone and tariff, and one that will sell very well.  If that’s not enough cross network minutes, £20 per month ups the 75 to 200 cross network minutes or texts.  Alternatively, it will be available on PAYG for £79.99.

The phone above is a new device from INQ, a subsidiary of Hutchison, who also owns 3UK. Now right now, 3UK are running teasing adverts on their website about a new revolution coming on 13th November, and we wonder if they two are related.

The INQ1 slider phone features integrated Skype, Facebook (a key part of the 3UK teaser), Windows Live Messenger, ebay tracking, and a browser, which some of those features appearing on the home screen, and rumours of a single combined addressbook, although whether this will link into the Facebook Address Book is not yet clear. It appears to have a 3.2 megapixel camera, and should feature Bluetooth, a microSD slot. We also wonder if it will feature as a phone capable of the Mail on 3 email service…

The phone, like the 3 Skypephone, can act as an modem for your PC too. All this at an expected £99 on PAYG (ie no contract).  The timing is right (the INQ1 was due to be announced in October for availability in November); we’ll see in a couple of weeks…

Due to go into beta in the next week or so, Nokia LifeviNe takes Nokia Sportstracker, and enhances it. A lot of people had started using the Sportstracker application (and website) for recording roadtrips, walking routes, and simply using it as a method of providing a live link to their current position, all things it was capable of, but not part of the main aim of the website which was linked to recording and sharing sports based activities.

As such, Nokia have announced LifeviNe, which will offer those facilities. It will also offer the ability to not just show the route you took, but also the images and videos you created whilst walking, and even the music you were listening to.

There is also going to be a Facebook application for linking to your data from that site.

More information once it goes into public beta at Nokia Beta Labs.

We’ve covered fring before, but the latest version of the client has a new feature; add-ons. This allows connections and data from systems to be integrated into the one application. The key add-ons so far are facebook, Orkut and a GMail notifier, with more due over time. This facility could make fring even more appealing to new customers; not just the ability for free chat and calls, but now the ability to interact with those same friends through a variety of online social networking sites.

If you want to try these add-ons out, get the latest fring client, and then select Options / Select / Manage add-ons.

ShoZu have been busy people. First of all, they’ve announced ShoZu for iPhone, which should be available in the next few weeks, in line with the updated Apple iPhone 2.0 firmware, and the Apple App Store. ShoZu allows you to take photos, and then ShoZu will organisee uploading those pictures to your selected sites in the background. A very popular Symbian S60 app, and now available for the iPhone, supporting the same range of sites. As well as the traditional upload facilities, there are now facilities for downloading pictures from your friends, reading and commenting on your and your friends’ photos / posts, interaction with Facebook, and geotagging your photos for you. It even supports a variety of “Citizen Journalism Sites”, such as the BBC website, Scoopt, CNN and ITV.com.

ShoZu supports many sites, and the other big news is that they have recently added support for Ovi, the new Nokia sharing site. Interestingly, two months ago they only support 29 site; now they support 46, and looking through the list the majority of picture based sites we could think of were included. Although they support Twitter, they need to expand their range of text based sites (such as Plazes and Jaiku that add location information to the messages) to complete their support and claim to be able to support the majority of Web 2.0 sites.

Some content thanks to Jonathan at atmaspheric | endeavours, and Darla Mack at her website.

According to various rumours, Nokia is in talks with Facebook. The exact nature of the talks seems unknown, although some are suggesting Nokia may take a stake in the social networking site. The most prominent features will be opening up the Facebook users as an advertising target for Nokia to target, especially in the US, where Nokia do not have the market share they do in Europe. Another option will be putting a Facebook icon on their phones, in a similar way that the iPhone has a YouTube icon. In return, Facebook may well get advertising space in Nokia’s retail displays.