Here’s an interesting application, which was pointed out to me today; it’s called Juice Defender (despite the screenshot saying Juice Control), which allows you to create a set of rules to limit certain battery draining functions; for instance, you can set it to only activate 3G & WiFi for a minute every few minutes, and whilst it does the activation, it will also check for updates and emails, but will then shut those connections back down to help save battery.  There is a element of being location-aware, so you can set rules based on location too (although you’ll need Ultimate Juice for that, which is available from the Android Market).

There are 5 main triggers:

• Battery – when battery level gets low (less than 15%), disable APN/WiFi, and re-enable them when battery level is restored. APN/WiFi will also be enabled while the device is being recharged.

• Schedule – regularly enable APN/WiFi for a short period of time, to let background data sync occur (email, Twitter, Facebook, stock quotes…). If Quick is disabled APN/WiFi stays enabled for a longer period, useful if your data connection is very slow or you need to sync lots of data.

• Night schedule (requires UltimateJuice) – disable APN/WiFi during night time; you can also optionally put the phone in Silent Mode.

• Screen – enable APN/WiFi while the screen is on to allow browsing, tweeting, procrastination and general internet-powered enjoyment, regardless of scheduled events and battery level.

• Location (requires UltimateJuice) – this trigger controlled by the ‘AutoWiFi’ button. It disables WiFi when the device is not in range of any known WiFi network. The location is determined via the cellular network, so it’s usually quite coarse. It’s a fully automatic set-it-and-forget-it WiFi manager!

The priority order of the triggers is 1) location (WiFi only), 2) screen, 3) battery, 4) night schedule, 5) schedule – this means, for example, that when the screen is on APN/WiFi will be enabled even when the battery is low, or that the regular schedule won’t occur during the night period.

This looks a very interesting application, although whether Locale (which we covered here) offers more facilities (especially if you have regular access to a power source).  If you are interested in Juice Defender, then see the authors website here.

I’ve covered Swim before, a tool for automating syncs on your Nokia (Symbian) phone.  I use it every day with GooSync to keep my Google Calendar and my local Symbian calendar in sync with each other, but one problem was that Swim only worked on S60 3rd Edition FP1 phones.

Well, the team behind Swim have apparently been working direct with the Symbian Foundation to resolve the issues, which they have managed to do succesfully, so they have now released an updated version with S60 3rd Edition FP2 support (eg Nokia E72) and S60 5th Edition (Nokia N97, Nokia N97 Mini, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic) too.  It should be noted that the updated version only supports these new platforms, and for regular FP1 users, there is no new version at this stage.

This is one of those utilities you really should consider with Symbian, and it’s a shame it’s still not included automatically by Symbian; if, for example, you go and buy an Android phone (especially a Google Experience one), you simply enter your Google details, and your calendar (even multiple claendars, if you are a power user of Goolge Calendar) will be automatically kept up to date with your device with no further intervention by you… it’s these little integration points that make Android so popular at the moment…

Last week we covered the news of the new v3.3 for Symbian and Windows Mobile, and today Google has launched v3.3 for Android as well.  However, it’s not quite got the same feature set, with some additional features, and some missing features too.

Firstly, they now have the “What’s Nearby” feature, which lists nearby businesses, and can often provide useful information on cafes and restaurants nearby.  To access this, just long press on the map and tap on the bubble, and look for “What’s nearby?” in the menu.

Secondly, they have added a range of Labs features (in essence, Beta features that you may want to use to make the program a little better); these include:

• A scale bar on the map
• Showing a terrain layer which adds a level of height and the ability to see a shaded relief map
• Search for popular categories
• Turn the blue dot into a compass to show which way you are facing when stationary
• Added Layers support to be able to see Traffic, Satellite mapping, Latitude users, and Transit lines (eg the London Underground)

There’s also a “Report errors in the map”, but that’s definitely US-only, so won’t be available in the UK.  It’s worth noting there is no mention of the star / favourites syncing that comes with the v3.3 on Symbian and Windows Mobile.  It’s not clear whether any other of the Labs features are US-only, but it’s nice to see Google still managing to innovate and provide new features into the products, even if it’s not consistent across their full platform range.

Google have improved their Google Maps mobile product by now adding support for syncing of your “Stars”, or favourites.  Both the Windows Mobile and Symbian version have been upgraded to v3.3 this week and now offer to sync these favourites so that they will also appear in Google Maps in your desktop browser.  Of course, on Symbian, Google Maps shares the Location Favourites with Nokia Maps / Ovi Maps, which can also sync to the Ovi browser solution too.  For those who are not using the Ovi Maps browser support, you can now use Google Maps to find favourites and sync them to your phone, as well as having a nice safe backup of the favourites.

Once you have installed the new version, and performed the initial sync, the stars should appear on your Google Maps in your browser.  For me, I had to star a new item for them to appear, but once they appeared, they remained visible irrespective of the zoom level selected.

Obviously, for me, as someone who regularly uses different mobile phones, the ability to have my list of favourites synced from device to device as well as from device to my PC (and any PC I happen to use) is a very useful feature, and one I am already using on a near daily basis, despite the feature only being released in the last few days.  Google have confirmed they will be bringing this same functionality to the other Google Maps Mobile platforms as soon as possible.

Nokia have released the first major firmware update for the Nokia E75 (v201).  Weighing in at 153MB, it may never be available using the Over-The-Air option, but is available via PC using NSU.  All About Symbian have said the changelog includes:

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.

This is an innovative desk stand for your phone.  As well as including an 8-in-1 memory card reader, a 2 port USB hub, having a variety of connectors to charge your phone, and running solely off USB power, it also claims to be able to hold any phone in portrait or landscape formats without any additional support!

The Desk Genie is apparently made from a special rubberised material, which is strong enough to hold an phone in portrait or landscape positions, and should even still hold the phone in place when the phone is vibrating, yet should leave no sticky residue on the phone.  For only £15 (+ delivery) this looks an interest device, if only to hold your phone at the right angle for use on your desk, let alone all the additional properties it has.

Mobile Fun do warn that with time the rubbery surface’s ability to hold a phone will fade as dust collects on the surface, but a quick wipe with clean water should restore it back to normal.

As for those mobile phones charging connectors: iPhone, Nokia (both 2mm and 3.5mm), Sony Ericsson, Samsung and LG are all supported, as are the miniUSB and microUSB formats (the latter being the standard connector for many manufacturers moving forward).   This power connector does not use either of the USB ports on the device, although it would appear at first glance that this is a power only connector, so it may not be possible to sync and charge many devices (unless you use Bluetooth to sync between the device and your PC/Mac).

You can see more of the Desk Genie at Mobile Fun.

This article will take two separate techniques, and show how to combine them to get Facebook Events into your Symbian phone.

Firstly, using Sean Bonner’s guide, you can configure Google Calendar to subscribe to your Facebook Events, which will result in your Google Calendar now having an additional calendar which contains these events.

However, we want to get them into our phone.  To achieve this, you’ll need to sign up at GooSync and pay for a premium account.  This then allows you to configure GooSync to synchronise multiple Google Calendars, and you’ll need to include this additional Facebook Events calendar in the sync process.  GooSync costs £20 for 12 months, £30 for 24 months, or £40 for a lifetime subscription.

Then, and finally, you need to use the built in SyncML services within Symbian to point to GooSync (GooSync will lead you through this process) which will then result in the calendars all coming down to your Symbian phone.

Finally, if you want to make the whole process look even smoother on your Symbian phone, invest a few extra pounds for a copy of SBSH Calendar (formally Papyrus), which has built in GooSync support to separate out the multiple calendars into different categories, which will allow you to colour code them too (something we find very useful).

If you don’t want all the hassle and faff of paying and setting up all these different tools just to achieve this single function, then head to an Android phone, as these natively support multiple Google Calendars, allowing you to achieve the same thing for free!

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…

What’s Vodafone 360 I hear you ask… Well, it’s a new, revolutionary set of services from Vodafone, which claims to gather up all of your friends, communities, entertainment and personal favourites into one single place.  From the intial press release, it looks like Vodafone is attempting to achieve across a broad range of phones what companies like INQ and LG have attempted with single phone models…

So what does the service comprise, what phones does it work on? Read on…

Firstly, the service is designed to be embedded within the phone, and Vodafone are using the LiMo operating system to help achieve this.  At launch, there is 1 phone, developed by Samsung, which will be labelled as the Vodafone 360 H1, which will support the capabilities natively on the device.  A second device is due from Samsung soon, which will offer customers a range of “colours” and models.

Also, at launch, the service will be pre-loaded on 4 Symbian handsets in Vodafone’s current phone catalogue, and the full service will be available for download on another 10 Symbian devices.  However, “part or all of the service” will also be available for download onto “over 100 popular phones”.  No word as to whether this is still limited to Symbian phones, or whether it is using Java / mobile web browser technology to allow them to support wider than just Symbian; however, Vodafone have stated they plan to support more handsets (from multiple manufacturers) and operating systems over the coming months.

So, the service itself:

• The main key element is Vodafone People (and this function will be available across all 100 phone models) automtically syncs all contacts from your phone, Facebook, Windows Live Messenger, and Google Talk.  Soon, that list will be enhanced with Twitter, Hyves and studiVZ (the last two are leading Dutch and German social networks).
• This address book should also sync with your PC and Mac, although it’s not clear if these platforms will sync with the same internet server, or whether that will be direct to the device (the latter is hinted at).
• The internet services is said to include “apps, games, music and mapping services”.

Vodafone have stated that “Customers will have integrated contacts, music, photos, and mapping services and can share their favourite music choices and even their physical location, how and when they choose, with their chosen group of friends”.

If all of this is not enough, Vodafone are opening up the website that manages all of this to non-Vodafone users too, to allow the system to be used by all, although you’ll need to be a Vodafone customer to benefit from the mobile side of things.

A little more on the Vodafone 360 H1 (as pictured above); all we know right now is that it has “a 3.5 inch multitouch, high definition OLED screen, 16GB memory, WiFi, a maximum talk time of over 400 minutes (3G) and a 5 megapixel camera.”  It also has integrated GPS, as will the Vodafone 360 M1 to follow, although that has a smaller 3.2 inch TFT screen, 1GB memory, no Wi-Fi, and only a 3 megapixel camera.

However, Andrew Grill from London Calling, has provided info on some of the apps involved, including a Vodafone Mclaren Mercedes application providing news and live telemetry from their F1 cars, and Tube Exits (a popular iPhone app which gives you advice on where to board London Underground trains for the most efficient exit).

More information is now available at www.vodafone360.com.  Screenshot courtesy of Andrew Grill.

This is the new Nokia Booklet 3G, a small form factor laptop (similar to many other devices, like the Vodafone netbook / Dell Mini units).  This, however, as well as featuring what appears to be a Windows OS, will also include some special features.  Firstly, like some other units, it will have 3G capabilities built in, possibly via a hot-swappable SIM card slot (allowing you to change or remove the SIM with the machine booted up).  It will also have A-GPS facilities for location based services.  Now, let’s remember that other devices, such as the Dell Mini 9 have similar capabilities, so this isn’t yet a unique device.

It will though, ship will access to a number of the Ovi Services, which will make a difference, including Ovi Maps (device widget), Nokia Music Store (including music streaming), Ovi Files (cloud based file storage), and Ovi Suite, allowing syncing with your mobile.

The spec, what little is currently known, looks good on paper: 10″ glass fronted screen, 3G, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 120GB Hard Disk, HDMI port, integrated SD card reader, stereo speakers.

If you want to know more about this device, head over to All About Symbian.  More information is likely to be revealed by Nokia next week at their Nokia World event, where we expect a number of the phones we’ve covered recently to be announced as well.

Historically, the Skypephones and INQ1 were launched more by 3UK than by the manufacturer, but this has now changed; INQ has today released details of their two new phones, which will be in stores in time for Christmas.

Firstly, and after the success of the Nokia E71, we suspect the more popular device, is the INQ Chat.  This is a QWERTY based device designed to concentrate on Social Networking.  As well as the Facebook, Skype, and Windows Live Messaging support of the INQ1, these phones Twitter support, something we predicted a while ago.  This Twitter support includes providing the latest updates on the homescreen.

The INQ Chat also has a 3.2 megapixel camera, whereas the INQ Mini will feature a 2 megapixel camera, and both support upto 8GB (we’re guessing via a microSD card).  Both devices can operate as HSPA Modems for your PC, although whether this is inline with the 3UK T&Cs is another matter.

However, one interesting additional point is that via the third party DoubleTwist software, INQ plan to make it possible for both phones to be able to sync music with iTunes.  Although not aimed as iPhone killers, the ability to use a single source and program to manage your iPod and your mobile phone may sway some users into buying these devices.

We expect both will be available on 3UK around October time; although the Nokia N97 was the Top Seller with 3UK for a few weeks, the Nokia E71 is back in the top slot again, showing how popular the QWERTY format has been for 3UK, and remember that INQ and 3UK will be aiming these phones between £69.99 and £109.99 on PAYG; they have a good spec and are likely to be big sellers for 3UK when available.

Update: We’ve now had it confirmed that the INQ Chat does have GPS, but the INQ Mini does not; our main complaint against these devices (and their predecessors) is that Google Maps’ My Location feature (and by implication, Google Latitude) is unlikely to work on them, as there is no GPS, and Google Maps does not support Cell Based location on BREW based handsets, leaving no method to locate the phone.  This doesn’t apply to the INQ Chat, which will feature GPS and includes Google Maps.

Finally, it will be interesting to see whether or not we’ll see an update to the INQ1 Slider to offer Twitter support for the existing users; although it would be very nice to see, we suspect it may not happen (or at least not until well after the initial sales period for these new phones).

Some content courtesy of The Guardian [Via TRMP]

Here’s Dopplr’s first mobile application; their Dopplr iPhone application.  This allows you to use the majority of the services available on the Dopplr website, but directly from your mobile phone.  These include:

• 1. Install the application

  Download Dopplr – The Social Atlas from the iTunes App store to your desktop computer or directly to your iPhone. Then sync your iPhone. If you’ve got an account on Dopplr, the app will ask you to log in to Dopplr when appropriate. You will only have to do this once.

• 2. Find a place

  The app opens the city map of the city you’re currently in, and shows your location as a blue dot. You can zoom in and out with standard pinch gestures. Wherever there’s a marked place, you’ll see a square marker. Places are sorted into categories: Eat, Stay, Explore and My Places. Switch between each category by tapping the icons on the map corners. Tap the list icon to see a list of places sorted by their distance from your current location.

• 3. Indicate you have been to a place

  Tap on the marker for that place. A popup will open; tap on the green plus symbol to say you’ve been to the place – it will change to a checkmark. Tap the star to say that you’ve been there and you liked it. Tap the checkmark to undo.

• 4. Get more information about a place

  Tap on the place marker. Tap on “more” and you’ll see all the information Dopplr knows about that place, such as phone number, address and website. You can also open the location in your iPhone’s Maps app, view the Dopplr page for the place in Safari, or create an email message containing the details.

• 5. Add a new place

  You can add a new place from your current location at any time, by tapping on the blue location dot. Tap the green plus symbol to say you’ve been to that place, or the “more” link to add more details. The new place will be stored on your phone but won’t be added to Dopplr’s database until you’ve confirmed the addition (and added more details, if you wish) at dopplr.com.

• 6. View a different city

  Tap on the Cities tab. An alphabetical list of the top 250 cities on Dopplr opens. Choose the one you want.

• 7. See your planned trips

  Tap on the Trips tab. All your upcoming trips are listed. By tapping one of them, you’ll see the trip details such as its description and coincidences with fellow travellers. Tap “See places in this city” to see related places in the map view.

• 8. View your fellow travellers’ trips

  Tap on the People tab. You can choose from an alphabetical list or a “Nearby” view, which sorts your fellow travellers by their proximity to your current location. Tap on a name to see a list of that person’s planned trips. Tap a trip to see more details about it. If we can match the person to a name in your iPhone’s Address Book, you’ll also see their phone number and email address. You can also contact people not listed in your Address Book by sending them a direct message through Dopplr.

What’s even better is that Dopplr have stated that although they have released for the iPhone first, they intend to release similar apps for Symbian, BlackBerry and Android devices before the end of 2009.  For users of those OSes who want to access Dopplr from their mobile before a dedicated app is available, there is still the m.dopplr.com website, which offers most of the features of the main website.

Google have finally launched Google Sync for S60, allowing you to sync your Google Calendar and Google Contacts between your Google account and your Symbian phone.  One caveat though, the Google Calendar support is limited to the primary calendar, and you’ll need to install the Nokia Mail for Exchange client onto your phone too (if it is not already pre-installed by Nokia), as “Google works best with version 2.09 (also called 2.9) or above”.

If you want more information on the client, how to set it up, or to discover the range of supported phones, then head to Google’s Sync Mobile Help pages (we’ll note here it doesn’t currently support S60 5th Edition phones).

Personally, we’ll be sticking with SyncML clients for the timebeing (the GooSync service will happily handle multiple Google calendars, and even multiple phones), but this is one to watch in the future.

On top of the Google Mail improvements we covered yesterday, Google have improved the web calendar interface for iPhone and Android users.  Simply head to google.com/calendar/gp from your mobile and you should see your calendar.  You can now change your attendance status, edit the details, or even add or remove guests.  Like the mail announcement, if you are on a flaky connection, or lose the connection completely, you will still have access to the last viewed events.

Although Symbian users seem to be being left out of accessing these new features, it’s much easier on a S60 device to use Goosync to sync your calendar directly to the native Calendar on the device, giving you full access to your calendar even when you have no connection.

This is the new O2 Joggler Home Appliance, with it’s 7″ touchscreen, launched yesterday by O2 UK.  It’s an OpenFrame-based products (although it has to be said, there’s very little that’s Open about their products, more below), which offers a chance to become the focal point for the whole family (especially if they are all O2 customers…)

It comes with a range of applications built in, with options to download more over time.  These include:

• Weather information (from Sky News Weather)
• Road Traffic information (from TrafficMaster)
• News and Sports (Sky News and Sky Sports)
• Ability to show photos (stored on it’s 1GB internal memory, or from USB stick)
• Ability to play music / video (either local or streamed from your PC; although iTunes format not supported, which is unfortunate given O2’s iPhone exclusive)
• Ability to play games, like Sodoku
• Tools (alarm clock, calculator)

In fact, O2 have already announced that during May the following additional applications will be available:

• Messaging; send up to 50 free SMS text messages to any UK mobile per month
• Internet Radio support

However, one of the key selling points of this device is the calendar, which is available both on the device and as a standalone free service on the internet.  “Appointments, birthdays, school runs, work deadlines and more can all be stored on the O2 Joggler’s calendar, which will text handy reminders to family members’ O2 mobile phones.”  That’s last point is quite key; the reminders by SMS are only available to O2 UK customers, which I guess is O2 trying to encourage the whole family to select their mobile network and remain loyal.

It connects to your home Broadband either wirelessly or using an ethernet cable, and needs a permanent power supply (no batteries). There is no in-built SIM and therefore no ongoing costs or monthly subscription, and will be available next month (6th April) at £150, or will be free if you elect to take this device instead of a new handset when your contract is up for renewal.  However, this upgrade route is only open to those who are on 18 or 24 months contracts, ie not PAYG or Simplicity (SIM only) customers, although PAYG customers can use part of their upgrade discount to reduce the price of the Joggler, and it’s not available at all as an upgrade deal to corporate customers.

Mobile Industry Review were at the launch, and have even produced a short video and their opinion of the device here.

The device is running a dedicated O2 specific OpenFrame firmware, which although it runs on Linux underneath is not an open platform.  As OpenFrame firmwares are only provided to companies who sell these devices like O2, there is no ability (yet) to hack a different firmware onto this device, or to remove the O2 branding.  Other devices who have used the OpenFrame software have had additional applications, such as the ability to display photos from Flickr, videos from YouTube, and support for reading RSS feeds, all missing from the O2 device (as Mobile Industry Review point out, some even have a Domino’s Pizza option, but not this one), which does show the potential missed opportunity here.

Mobile Industry Review also point out that they are aware some of the other UK mobile operators are planning similar devices, so this may well be an interesting type of device to keep your eyes on.  However, right now, with no support for syncing the calendar from work diaries, or even Google Calendar, nor support for being able to sync the calendar onto phones (irrespective of whether they are S60, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry or iPhone), it does appear they have missed a trick here; an OpenSource equivalent of this, which offered access to other solutions such as Apple’s Mobile.Me or Google would be more popular, and fit better into the likely customer base.

Also announced by O2 is a new family bolt-on for O2 customers.  One O2 customers pay extra each month for the bolt-on and this allows them to add a number of other O2 customers into their “family” group (no pricing or maximum numbers available) and once setup, all parties can call, text or MMS each other for free.  Link these two solutions together, and you have the potential for the O2 Joggler to become the hub of a small family’s communications, as long as you don’t want to share the calendar from beyond the device.

All in all, an interesting product, but with rumours of new iPhones due out in the next few months, now might not be the best time to use up your O2 upgrade on this device…

If you use your Symbian mobile phone for syncing via SyncML, for example, using GooSync, to sync your calendar with Google Calendar, then one thing that may bother you is the fact you have to manually select the sync application each time.  Well, Swim may well be the application for you.  It allows you to specify how often to automatically sync multiple sync options, and best of all it’s free.

Story courtesy of The N82 Blog (although since that article was written the author has fixed the bug mentioned).

Google have updated their Google Sync for BlackBerry product to now include two way Contact Sync.  To get the new version, simply head to m.google.com/sync from your BlackBerry.  More information is here, although we recommend you read the comments there; it appears there are a few bugs for some people, and even some recent BlackBerry devices that are yet to be supported.

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.

As we mentioned last week, there’s a new version of Nokia PC Suite out, v7.0.9.2.  This update should soon be coming your way, as notifications are now appearing from within PC Suite that there is a new update available.  Although this version adds a number of stability fixes, it also installs (if you have Firefox installed) a new Firefox extension called PC Sync 2 Synchronisation Extension.  This is the sort of integration we like to see here at UK Gadgeteer, the ability to have the same set of bookmarks on both your PC and your mobile phone.  Now, if Nokia could just extend this to support their Internet Tablets as well…

Update: Watch out, this may remove the Nokia Communication Center beta version, so you may have to reinstall this afterwards.