This post was written in advance of most of the Mobile World Congress 2010 Press Releases and companies announcing new products, so what do I think will be announced across the week of the event…

Firstly, HTC will announce a replacement Android device to replace the Hero, possibly with a QWERTY keyboard too.

Nokia will announce a new top of the range N-Series device to replace the N97, and hopefully not following the trend of the Nokia N96 and the Nokia N97 in not really being a fantastic / perfect device to head up the range.

Nokia will announce at least one new E-Series device, possibly using a form factor not seen within the E-Series range before.

INQ will announce something; either a concept of their Android devices due later this year, or an actual phone, possibly also announcing more operators who will be taking their phones.

Sony Ericsson seem to have already announced a range of new phones:

• The X10 Mini and the X10 Mini Pro (which adds a QWERTY slider), both Android devices
• The Vivaz Pro; a QWERTY slider version of the already announced Vivaz, both S60 5th Edition devices and shown below
• The Aspen, a Windows Mobile device

The Vivaz will be available in Q1 2010 along with the X10, whereas the X10 Mini, X10 Mini Pro, and the Aspen will all appear in Q2 2010.

The most important thing seems to be that the main mobile companies are back on form, and releasing devices worthy of discussion…

A billion minutes may not sound a lot to most telecoms companies, but 3UK have just passed a billion minutes of Skype calls on their network!  That’s an impressive figure.  The billionth minute was made by Stephen Timms (Minister for Digital Britain) to the CEO of Merlin (a medical charity).  It’s nice to see that 3UK have donated a small number of 3 SkypePhones to Merlin to allow them to communicate whilst they are out in Haiti.

This is an impressive figure, and in fact, 3UK have said that they are handled over 3 million minutes of Skype calls are handled every day!

3UK want to promote the use of Twitter, and so for the whole of February and March, access to Twitter will be free!  What exactly is and isn’t included?  Well, 3UK have stated that access to Twitter for tweeting messages and pictures will be free of charge, whether you are accessing Twitter via the mobile browser, or using the integrated client on devices such as the INQ Mini 3G, Sony Ericsson T715, or even the INQ Chat 3G.  If you already pay for Internet access on your mobile phone, then accessing twitter will not come out of your internet data allowance.

Although this is only a 2 month period, this means that right now you can use Skype, Twitter and Windows Live Messenger for free on your device.  As always, 3UK seem to be pushing the boundaries on what could and should be included within the contract, and we hope this promotion can be extended in the long term.

Last week I attended an event hosted by 3UK.  In attendance were a variety of 3UK staff from Marketing & PR, Products & Services, Customer Services, and the Networks team.  I had a chance to chat with people for each area and was able to ask a wide range of questions, especially those that you had added as comments to my request last week.  As a result, I’m able to provide a glimpse into what 2010 holds for 3UK (although nothing truly exclusive and brand new was announced, there was some useful information provided)…

Please read the questions and answers after the break…

(more…)

Later this week, I’ll be meeting up with a number of people from all different departments within 3UK, so here’s your chance to get any questions you have asked direct to people within 3UK who may be able to provide feedback for you…

Obviously they need to be general questions about the overall service, or plans for the future (although I doubt they will magically reveal their future product / phone handset plans), as I won’t be able to deal with specific individual problems, but if you have any questions, please add a comment and although the comment may not appear on the public site, I’ll read it and pass on the question if appropriate…

I already have 3 or 4 questions to put to 3UK, so I’m hoping this event will provide some useful information for you when I writeup the event.

In attendance at the event there should be 3UK staff from Customer Services, Handsets, Mobile Broadband, and Products & Services, so whatever your question, I’ll try to pass it on…

When I covered the INQ Chat 3G last week (here), I didn’t mention anything about the PC software side of things, so I thought I’d add a few comments on that here.  From one point of view, it all looks very smooth and slick, but when you go into the weeds, it’s not so perfect…

Firstly, when you connect the phone to your PC, it brings up a little menu with a variety of options, including installing the drivers to user your phone as a modem, and the option to install DoubleTwist, the new application INQ are using to manage your media.

Now, I thought this was very good, but when you click to install DoubleTwist, it actually opens a webpage and takes you directly to the DoubleTwist website to download the latest version from there.  From one point of view, this is good, as you always get the latest version, but it’s not exactly “out of the box”.  So, after a download and an installation, I was surprised to find the latest version of the software wasn’t able to recognise the phone at all.  In fact, reading the handy hint cards that came with the phone didn’t reveal the problem, until I happened to search the online INQ forums (although my phone arrived the same week most shops started selling it, I guessed that INQ Mini users may have had similar issues), and eventually I found the answer; you need to use a microSD card (not included in the box) to be able to use DoubleTwist…

Now, I acknowledge that the phone doesn’t have a lot of spare memory capacity built in, but it did seem a shame to not mention anywhere that music management needed an additional memory card.  One memory card later, and all was well.  Well, as well as could be expected; you see, I’m not (yet) a big Apple fan, so I rarely use iTunes for music (podcasts and other videos yes, but not music) as hence although DoubleTwist was capable of transferring my iTunes music across to the phone, that did not amount to much…

Here again, I found a minor issue with DoubleTwist; it happily copied the music from a couple of my iTunes playlists across to the phone, but didn’t actually copy the playlist; ie it copied all the songs, but made no attempt to build equivalent playlists on the phone to allow easy selection of the music again.

Apart from one or two niggles (that I covered within the actual INQ Chat 3G review here), this did seem a little bit of a let down to me, and although it’s outside of INQ’s control, I do hope that either DoubleTwist improves their software, or INQ can persuade them to support playlists just for them…

So, overall, the PC Software options are nicely integrated and thought out, but, like the phone, let down if you a power user.

My time with the INQ Chat 3G is now up, so I won’t necessarily keep up to date with how the software (on the phone or on the PC) improve with time, but I hope they do.  One thing I forgot to mention with the hardware review; since being announced, the price of the INQ Chat 3G has dropped a fair amount, and at only £89.99 on PAYG, it’s actually a hell of a lot of phone for the money…

Nokia BetaLabs have released an update to their Nokia Messaging for Social Networks beta product, which now features improved Facebook access, and also adds the first round of Twitter support.  Nokia have also commented that they will be adding other Social Networking sites over time.

As well as the initial version, which offered to let people view, post, and comment on messages, share their location and status while keeping up with their Facebook friends, the new version adds the following Facebook features:

• Upload pictures and videos
• Events: View upcoming events, birthdays and import to device calendar
• Search friends
• Click-to-call / click-to-SMS / click-to-FB Email

In terms of the Twitter support, it includes the ability to see your friends’ tweets, reply to them, and open links in their tweets, but more advanced functions like Direct Messages, Trends, and Follower information all have placeholders, but are marked as coming soon.

The application also has some location sharing features, which are built on top of Ovi Maps, and it also offers a Homescreen widget.  This app is, however, limited to the Nokia N97, Nokia N97 Mini, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and the Nokia X6 right now.

This does look an interesting application, and may, over time, become a useful tool for those wanting to keep online from their device.  This is the sort of functionality we are seeing built directly into other phones as they ship (eg the INQ Mini 3G, and the INQ Chat 3G), so it will be nice when Nokia are shipping this by default on their phones to offer a similar experience as other manufacturers are managing.

In a move said to be supporting the “Make do and Mend” movement, 3UK have announced that they are now selling refurbished handsets, which currently includes the Skypephone S2, the White Skypephone, and the LG KF310, although this list will vary as stock changes over time.

If you are interested, head to the 3UK Refurbished Handsets page on the 3UK website.

Just a quick heads up; the INQ Chat 3G has gone on sale with 3UK today in both their Stores and on the 3UK website.  It retails at £99.99 on PAYG or is available from £15 per month (18-month contract), and nicely it seems that 3UK are including internet on that tariff.  Head to the 3Store today to purchase.

This short video (from Nokia Conversations) shows how the Hermes application works on the new Nokia N900.  It can go and collect information from Facebook and Twitter (although only Facebook is shown in the video), and match up your contacts with your online friends, and then it will bring your friend’s latest avatar picture, birthday information, and profile URL into the local Address Book.  It’ll even import those birthdays into the Calendar too.

It can either be set to Retrieve (which collects the missing pieces of information from your contacts), or Refresh, which will overwrite all the local information from the online information.  We like this level of integration, and hope the developer continues to develop it to offer more functions.  This offers a similar base function to that of the INQ Mini 3G (although we don’t believe that Hermes brings status information into the Address Book.  If you have a friend on Facebook, but not already in your Address Book, and the only information available from Facebook is their birthday, Hermes will even create a generally empty Contact record to allow the birthday to still be recorded and stored in the Calendar.

The developer, for example, is working on a facility to keep a history of downloaded images (avatars), to allow you to select one, even if your friend has moved onto a different one, and he’s also looking at an auto-update facility, especially for Facebook.

Here’s another video of it in action (courtesy of thenokiablog.com)

I met up with James Body of Truphone last night, and had a nice long chat about where Truphone and other companies are going in the next few months.  However, the exciting solution is the Truphone Local Anywhere solution, that I’ve talked about before, should launch early next year.  Because Truphone are supplying the SIM which talks to their infrastructure backend, it allows them to provide some nice features you won’t see on other solutions…

When they launch, they will have support for UK and US, but not just will you be able to roam to the US at nice low rates, but on that single SIM, Truphone are able to provision you both a UK phone number and a US phone number (in fact, they will over time be able to provide multiple different country phone numbers on that single SIM).  This is the cool bit; irrespective of where you are located, the SIM will work the same way…

• If someone in the UK rings your UK number, they will reach you
• If someone in the US rings your US number, they will reach you
• There will be clever CLI management functions to allow you some control over the Caller ID presented to your callers as well.

Basically, the person you call doesn’t need to know you are roaming, doesn’t need to know which country you are in, and can also reach you on what is (to them) a local number.  Because your outbound call is being routed through Truphone, the call cost to you is lower than normal roaming rates too.

The benefits of this are items such as:

• The convenience of a single SIM with local mobile numbers in multiple countries
• The ability to transfer their current mobile number to Truphone
• Great value domestic calls, SMS, and data in their home country
• Low cost international calling to the world from their home country
• Significant call savings, when visiting other countries
• The feeling of being local, wherever they go

This is powerful.  For those regular international travellers or even international businessmen, this is a well designed solution.  As we mentioned earlier this year when we first covered Truphone Local Anywhere, data will also be available as part of this solution.

James was sporting (amongst many other handsets) an iPod Touch and a 3UK MiFi (which are being bundled together by 3UK; see here), and was having no problems with utilising the iPod Touch for VOIP calls over 3UK’s network.  In fact, a solution like Truphone on an iPod Touch, or Skype on an INQ Mini 3G may well suit many families to allow easy and cheap communications between everyone without needing lengthy phone contracts (calls to other Truphone users, like Skype, are free of call costs).

As Truphone have pointed out here, using an iPod Touch over WiFi with the 3UK MiFi allows apps such as Truphone and BBC iPlayer to work as the iPod Touch sees a WiFi connection and is not aware that the traffic will then pass onto a 3G network.  The same trick can be used with the iPhone as well, of course.

Thanks to James to taking time to talk through this and many other matters last night, and here at UK Gadgeteer we look forward to some of the other Truphone developments during 2010.

Update: When first published, this story had a number of technical inaccuracies which have now been addressed; apologies and thanks to Truphone for the corrections.  For more information on Truphone Local Anywhere, head to the Truphone website, or look at this PDF presentation giving the details of the new service.

Now available in the Ovi Store is a Symbian Facebook  for the Nokia E71 / Nokia E72.  To see more screenshots, head over to ZOMG its CJ’s website here.  However, from our point of view, it’s not enough…

On much cheaper phones (eg the INQ Mini 3G, reviewed here) the Facebook support is actually much more integrated into the phone; it will happily take the Facebook contacts and add them to the local addressbook, it will bring their picture down, and it even puts their latest status updates right in the addressbook for you to see if you are about to ring, text or IM them.  The Sony Ericsson T715 we recently reviewed (here) also had support for Facebook, with the ability to upload pictures to Facebook as soon as they were taken, so why aren’t we seeing this level of integration on Symbian?

None of this is difficult, and if it can be achieved for a £50 phone, then surely it can be achieved for a £300 phone…

However, it’s a start, and one we hope that Facebook and Symbian work on to improve.  Also, we’ve no idea why this application is limited to these two phones, although we can understand the need for a portrait version and a separate landscape version given the way Symbian works.

Screenshot courtesy of ZOMG its CJ too.

Well, I’ve had an INQ Mini 3G (courtesy of 3mobilebuzz) for a couple of weeks now, and overall, I’ve been quietly impressed by the phone.  From the automatic importing of Facebook and Skype contacts into the Contacts list, to the fact the phone has support for these Social Networking sites, and Twitter support, and all for less than £50!

Now, let’s be honest, I’m used to smartphones, and there are a number of little things that annoy me with the device; the start up sound can’t be cancelled by pressing a key (as per Nokia devices), and the whole menu system is a little bright and colourful for my taste (and with no theme support, no opportunity to change it either), but these are minor niggles, and certainly don’t detract from the phone.

Supporting Social Networking sites directly in the device, combined with the standard 3UK support of Windows Live Messenger makes this a well supported device, and well worth a look.  I liked the fact the homepage supports 3 widgets (I used weather, world clock and an RSS feed of the BBC website, all options built into the phone), although I have heard some people warn there may be a memory leak, as I’ve heard of people needing to reboot the phone after a long time turned on with widgets in use.  That’s a key issue to me; I rarely turn my phone off, so long term stability is key, and it maybe that a firmware / application update is needed to resolve these issues; hopefully they will be addressed before the INQ Chat ships.

The phone also shipped with Google Mail and Google Maps (v2.3.2; nice!), which was useful for people like me who use Google a lot, and the phone can be used with GooSync to sync data from the likes of Google Calendar too.  Personally, I found the calendar a bit simple when entering new entries, but I suspect most people will use the phone linked to Google or Outlook, and not enter directly onto the device (again, I’ve been spoilt by smartphones offering a decent Calendar app).  In fact, the only thing missing is the Last.fm scrobbling support that the INQ1 had, and it’s still not clear why INQ dropped this function, especially with the likes of Last.fm and Spotify moving more into the mobile space…

Again, a personal point, but it uses miniUSB (not the end of the world, although many manufacturers are moving to microUSB), which is used for both the headphones and charging.  With Bluetooth support for a headset in the car, this isn’t the end of the world, but I’m not a fan of the combined port; let’s hope when INQ move to Android next year we’ll see a dedicated headphone socket on their devices.  Whilst I’m looking at the hardware, I wasn’t a big fan of the way the rear cover clipped on (it did have a release button at the top, which makes it better than the Sony Ericsson T715 I reviewed here), but only just, and I couldn’t find any sight of the other 6 coloured interchangeable backs on the 3Store, so right now you’ll be stuck with the red back).

Let’s be honest, for the price and based on the software on this device; if you are not in the market for a smartphone but want connectivity options to keep upto date with your Social Networking sites, then the INQ Mini 3G should be high on your list of options, if not at the top.  Here at UK Gadgeteer, I’ve covered a number of hints and tips over the last few weeks, and INQ Mobile should be congratulated for providing online support, and being willing to engage with their customers.

When the INQ Chat arrives with the QWERTY keyboard, and GPS, it’ll be interesting to see whether INQ can still compete in the mid-tier marketplace against devices like the Nokia E63…

Oh, and finally, a small point, but having performed a master reset of the device to return it, the phone still had all the contacts on it, plus the sign-in details for Skype, so if you ever decide to sell your INQ Mini 3G, be careful about removing all your personal data as well as performing a master reset.

If you’ve got an INQ Mini 3G, then point the browser to the new INQ Hub at http://hub.inqmobile.com/inqhub/hub/opco/3uk and save it as a bookmark.  It allows easy access to many features, including the user guide, FAQ and troubleshooting information, but also provides access to any application upgrades, as well as to a 3UK specific GetJar application website for access to additional applications to download (some chargeable).

This is a good feature, and it’s little things like this that makes us fans of the INQ Mini 3G…

With thanks to INQ Mobile themselves, who providing this information to us.

Well, I’ve had a LG Chocolate BL40 in for review for a few weeks now, and overall I have been impressed with the phone.  I already covered my initial impressions of the phone here, so I’ll add to that review.  Having now used the phone in a variety of lighting conditions, the 21:9 screen is still wonderful to use; bright and clear in most situations.  The split screen functions within the phone are still useful, although as this isn’t a true smartphone, some of the apps still feel a little limited compared to other more advanced phones on the market.

In use, the size hasn’t proved a major problem, although even today there have been comments like “that’s a large phone”.  The touchscreen is nice to use, and a great improvement on some previous LG models, with the whole phone feeling more responsive, and easier to use.  Some games and other Java applications seemed not well adjusted to the large screen size, causing buttons to appear very small, but this is a minor problem.

Overall, this is a very nice phone to use, and stylish to boot!

In fact there are only a couple of downsides to the phone.  Firstly, given the phone is a designer device, we wonder how many of the users will take advantage of the whole range of features available.  Secondly, with the rise of phones supporting Social Networking sites via built in applications (such as the INQ Mini 3G, or the newer LG GW520, reviews of both phones soon!), and the lack of such applications on the phone may not have been an issue a few months ago, but now seems a little oversight.

Allowing for these small concerns, I’ll miss the phone, which is available on a number of networks.

Thanks to LGBlog for lending me the phone.

Following on from our previous INQ Mini Tip (here); here’s another Tip, which has existed for some time, but it’s nice to hear from INQ exactly how the function works.  To set the scene, INQ devices don’t support Over-The-Air (OTA) firmware updates (to update the whole phone), but they do support OTA Application updates, allowing INQ to roll out fixes / new features into some of the applications on the device, even if the whole firmware can’t be user updated.

The main apps that support updates are Skype, Facebook and Twitter, and these are the main apps where new features or changes may be required over time.  INQ, via their Get Satisfaction support website, stated the following:

“Application updates are made available from time to time, when new features or improvements are made. When they become available, you will see a notification when you try to log in to the app on your handset. The ‘upgrade check’ happens each time you use an application – if there’s a newer version on our server, your handset will tell you; if not, it’ll simply log you in to the version on your handset.”

It’s nice to know it’s this easy to get updates.  As you may remember, the INQ1 had a number of updates delivered this way after a few months of release.  We should also add that INQ also stated they update their manufacturing build with these new updates, so a brand new phone may not need updates when taken out of the box.  It was also confirmed that at this stage, there have not yet been any updates for the UK INQ Mini 3G.

Having released the main technical specs for this device a while ago, there’s been little news since then on the INQ Chat 3G, although as it shares a lot of common code with the INQ Mini 3G, we can at least see how it should perform by looking at this unit.

However, little bits of additional information are starting to be released by INQ…

• In terms of the SD card support, they have confirmed it’s the same as the INQ Mini 3G, so both devices will support microSD cards upto “at least 8GB”.
• The main 3.2 megapixel camera will be referred to as the “Facebook Camera”.  “Itss a bit different to typical cameras as its built to be logged in 24/7 to Facebook. So you point, snap and one-click upload straight to your Facebook account”.  INQ go on that it “is optimised for Facebook to ensure it doesn’t take hours to upload your snaps”.
• INQ’s real life trials of the device show even with heavy usage, the battery will last between 1 and 1.5 days, which makes it better than some smartphones on the market today that struggle to complete a business day.

The device is pretty much ready (from the manufacturer’s point of view), so we should see it being released on 3UK soon.  We suspect it’ll either be in the December catalogue, or the January 2010 Catalogue, ready for the New Year Sales, but we’ll let you know once we hear an exact date.

Whilst we continue to trial the INQ Mini 3G, we notice that the price has come down from £59.99 to £49.99, making this device even more good value for those looking for access to Social Networking sites (Twitter, Facebook) yet also supporting 3UK’s features such as Skype and Windows Live Messenger (both of which are free, even if you run out of credit).  Plus, even at £49.99 the price includes a £10 TopUp!

We also note the 3UK MiFi device has been reduced in price too, if you are interested in that.

Whilst I am testing the INQ Mini, one thing that has proved useful is INQ’s belief in being open about their products.  Firstly, they are happy to provide feedback via their twitter account (@inqmobile).  More importantly, though, is their decision to offer direct technical support via Get Satisfaction.  Not just does this help the end user in getting answers to their questions, it can also offer useful information over and above what the mobile network operator may tell you.

For example, when INQ developed the device, they included a link on the Switcher App to the INQ Hub, which acts, in essence, as an App Store for the device.  However, INQ have confirmed that 3UK have not selected this option, and it is not available on the device here in the UK.  However, INQ have confirmed that the App Store is still available to 3UK customers by simply pointing their browser to m.inq.getjar.com, which provides the content behind the INQ Hub, so the same information and applications are available.

Many applications available from GetJar are free, so it offers easy access to Java / Brew specific applications which are pretty much guaranteed to run fine on the phone.

So, there’s the tip; if you are looking for additional applications for your INQ Mini, head to m.inq.getjar.com and see what’s available (and when we checked, there’s a lot available…)

I know INQ will be moving to Android next year, but the INQ Mini and INQ Chat are two key devices for early 2010 for INQ, and from the first looks, this phone may well achieve great things for INQ…

When you turn it on, the homescreen includes access to the Switcher app, which allows you to scroll through the key applications on the phone.  Included on that list, right next to Contacts, are Facebook and Twitter icons, showing the Social Networking aspects of this phone are key to INQ. Not just that, but having inserted a SIM into the phone, there were no lists of access points to choose from (as you would with Nokia’s Symbian) and in fact, the phone seemed to benefit from easy internet access, offering and performing updates in the background.  The level of integration is impressive; the Facebook app will not just download your Contacts from Facebook, but will include their photo and their latest status update direct from within the Contacts app; it can’t bring phone numbers down to the phone, but that’s a licensing limitation by Facebook, not a technical limitation in the phone.

The phone supports 3 widgets on the homescreen, the first two are weather (which needs configuring with a city) and world clock.  Obviously the phone has the normal range of additional 3UK specific applications, which we’ll look at as part of our main review of the phone.

There are many more features of this phone to study before we publish a more detailed review, but on first looks, this phone shows some very impressive features.  At only £60, it’s a bit of a bargain too, with little touches like SyncML support (so sites such as GooSync can be used to sync your Google information to the phone), and with the QWERTY keyboard and GPS support, the INQ Chat should be even better, even with it’s higher price…