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HTC's Facebook phones, ChaCha and Salsa, get Amazon pre-order with June 26th delivery
Feeling the need for a phone with a dedicated Facebook button? HTC's got two to offer you, and now Amazon's UK bureau is ready to take pre-orders for the new Salsa and ChaCha handsets for a June 26th delivery. The ChaCha's equipped with a portrait QWERTY keyboard and a 2.6-inch touchscreen, while the Salsa stretches out to 3.4 inches and eschews the physical keys. Both feature 600MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 processors and 512MB of RAM, which are used to run Android with Sense laid over the top. The unsubsidized prices are set at £250 ($409) for the ChaCha and £320 ($524) for the Salsa, though we're sure you'll be able to get them without any upfront payments if you're happy to sign your life away to a carrier for the next couple of years.
INQ Cloud Touch Facebook phone graces store shelves in UK, wallets smile
The first round of the Facebook Phone war is underway in the UK, thanks to INQ launching the first javelin at its main opponent. Even as we continue to wait for HTC's Facebook offerings to come out sometime this summer, the INQ Cloud Touch has shown up on Carphone Warehouse shelves for a rather affordable £300 off-contract, or about $486. We were quick to Like the entry-level handset when we handled it back in February; the Froyo-powered device features an 800MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 processor, 5 megapixel sensor, and a custom Android homescreen that fully integrates the Facebook experience into the OS. While the specs may not be enough to make the Android enthusiast salivate, the price will almost definitely cause status-obsessed tweens to commence drooling.
INQ Cloud Touch gets priced in the UK, still MIA in the USA
We've had an affinity for INQ's Cloud Touch since we Poked and prodded the little device back in February, and now thanks to Carphone Warehouse we've got the all important pricetag to accompany the specs. Starting April 6, you'll be able to pick up the Facebook-ified device in the UK completely SIM-free for £300, or about $486. Not a bad deal for a 3.5-inch Android 2.2 handset with a 5-megapixel shooter and a custom Facebook homescreen. Of course, it lacks the Facebook Buttons of HTC's offerings, but if you simply can't wait to be the first person on the block with a Facebook phone you should definitely give the Cloud Touch a peek.
ChaCha sues HTC for Facebook phone trademark infringement
Facebook phone rumors were swirling for quite awhile, then HTC answered a question that seemingly nobody asked by delivering unto the world a phone with a dedicated Facebook button... the ChaCha. In what can only be considered a stroke of luck for all of humanity, the Taiwanese handset maker has been granted the opportunity to rectify its naming gaffe courtesy of a trademark infringement suit brought by ChaCha Inc. That company trademarked its name and logo in 2007 for its text and voice internet search engine services and is (rightfully) displeased with the HTC's choice of names for its Facebook-focused handset. ChaCha doesn't want mobile users thinking that it's endorsed the phone, and given that the company's bread and butter is providing mobile search, such confusion seems likely. ChaCha is asking for money damages and a permanent injunction to prevent the phone from going to market with its name. That's just fine with us -- if only the courts could grant an injunction to remove that Facebook button.
Gemalto puts Facebook on a SIM chip, Zuckerberg's plan for world domination coming along nicely
Smart card guru Gemalto is going to help Mark Zuckerberg take over the world! Ok, not really, but the company has made it possible to put Facebook on just about every GSM phone on earth by running it on a SIM chip. This allows every poke, friend request, and wall post to be transmitted by SMS -- meaning no data plan required -- so that the non-smartphone crowd can access Facebook on the go too. Gemalto, using only the brightest and most creative marketing minds out there, has named the solution "Facebook for SIM." Users get a free trial for an undisclosed period of time before a subscription for the service becomes necessary -- carriers are positively salivating at the prospect of all that extra SMS traffic lining their already deep pockets, no doubt. We knew that Mark had big plans for putting Facebook on phones, but we didn't figure that dumbphones would get to join in the social networking fun. Finally, a chicken in every pot and a Facebook phone (or three) in every home.
Zuckerberg: Expect 'dozens' of Facebook phones this year (update)
He's said it before: there will be no Facebook phone. And now it's clear what he meant -- Zuck's strategy is to integrate Facebook into every phone telling us today at the HTC launch event in Barcelona that we're only seeing the first wave of Facebook-enabled phones hitting the market, with dozens of phones featuring deep social integration coming this year. See Mark (or is it?) lay down the law after the break. Update: Facebook's official blog just chimed in with some factual heat -- some of those "dozens" of new Facebook phones will have the social network "as an element of the device hardware itself." If you ask us, it sounds like the physical Facebook button is going to be a thing.
HTC's Facebook-loving phones show up in a series of press shots
Just a few days ago we heard that HTC might be prepping some lower-end devices with dedicated Facebook widgets, and well, here they are. The two devices -- one featuring a full keyboard and a less ugly one with full touchscreen -- definitely have a Facebook button, and while we know nothing of specs yet, various sources have reported that Facebook updates will be streamed directly to the widget, the camera will upload directly to Facebook, and the phones, which will run a stripped down Android build, will have minimal storage. We're not soothsayers, but we have a feeling we'll know more tomorrow, when HTC's MWC press event gets under way. Hit the source for a shot of the other phone.
HTC to debut Android phone with dedicated Facebook button that doubles as Winklevii irritant
Do you know how much time is lost having to jump out of an application to click on the Facebook icon (or widget) on your home screen? That 0.4 seconds, when done hundreds of times each and every day (assuming you ever leave the Facebook screen in the first place) can really add up -- precious time you could spend updating your status and liking your girlfriend's brother's Business Cat wall post. INQ figured it out, and HTC may have found a way to restore those precious seconds, as well. According to The Financial Times, the company plans to introduce an Android device with a dedicated Facebook button (note: not a "Facebook phone"). We wouldn't expect anything crazy out of the clicker, however, as the dream crushers known currently as "people familiar with the device" say its purpose is to take you to the Facebook front page -- if you want something more. HTC is expected to introduce it this month, and if we were betting folk, we'd say that meant Mobile World Congress next week.
INQ launches Facebook-focused Cloud Touch and Cloud Q phones
We've been hearing a fair bit of buzz about INQ and Facebook getting all cozy-like and creating a Facebook phone. Well, that's only half right: INQ has made its first Android 2.2 device, really focused on Facebook integration, and seem to have really nailed it. The two devices are the INQ Cloud Touch (pictured above) and a QWERTY device with exactly the same specs -- but, with a QWERTY keypad, of course -- named the Cloud Q. Features include triband HSPA for the European folks, 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen display, 5 megapixel autofocus camera, all manner of mail support including Exchange, what appears to be legendary Facebook support, and Spotify onboard as the de facto music app with a dedicated key. INQ's two Cloud devices are apparently the first mobiles to use the Facebook Social Graph API, which will see all your most important Facebook content appear on your set's homescreen. Another bonus in here is the keyboard tech -- based on SwiftKey -- which will not only predict what word you're typing, but what words you may type based on some AI wizardry, science, and your writing tendencies. The Cloud Touch is set to launch in April at Carphone Warehouse and BestBuy in the UK with the Cloud Q landing sometime in Q3. We're just about wheels-up for Barcelona to check out the haps at MWC next week, and you can be sure we'll be all over these sets as soon as we land. %Gallery-116164%
Facebook puts the kibosh on branded HTC phone rumors, still plans to sweep the Oscars
"The rumor got twenty-two hundred hits within two hours?" "Thousand." "I'm sorry?" "Twenty-two thousand." "Wow." And so it was. Once again, the powers that be at Facebook have been forced to come forward and deny yet another rumor that a FB-branded handset was on the horizon, this time crushing hopes and dreams of an HTC device. Dan Rose, head of business development at the company, came forward with the following statement: "This is really just another example of a manufacturer who has taken our public APIs (application programming interfaces) and integrated them into their device in an interesting way. The rumours around there being something more to this HTC device are overblown." When asked whether or not the handset in question would be Facebook-branded, he followed with this: "No. There's no such thing as Harvard law. And there's no such thing as a Facebook phone."* *Liberties taken with the quote.
Facebook phone rumors resurface: cloud-based, HTC-built?
Ah, the Facebook phone. Despite statements by the company that it is flat out not making a phone, the rumors persist, and not one but two separate stories have now cropped up on the same day that a mysterious "call" button has appeared on some folks' Facebook pages. The first of those comes courtesy of BGR, which says it has heard from someone involved in a recent focus group that supposedly centered on a Facebook phone. As the story goes, the phone (which apparently wasn't actually referred to as a "Facebook phone") would have an always-on GPS service, no or very little local storage, a camera (with images stored in the cloud), a "news ticker-style message notification system" with all messages funneled into one "mass inbox" and, last but not least, some sort of location-aware coupon service that's described as "Facebook Deals on steroids." Joining that is a report from the London-based City A.M. financial newspaper, which says it has learned from unnamed sources that HTC will debut two Facebook-branded phones at Mobile World Congress next month. Details on those are otherwise expectedly light, but the paper says the phones will run a "tweaked version" of Android and sport Facebook's colors -- supposedly, Facebook's Joe Hewitt and Matthew Papakipos (formerly of Firefox and Google, respectively) are largely responsible for the launch. Of course, the paper also says HTC is responsible for "Google's Nexus range," which doesn't exactly help its case, and leads us to suspect that we may simply be dealing with one big game of telephone here.
What's on Facebook's mind? Mobile event set for November 3rd
Facebook's made no official push into the smartphone universe -- to date, we've been left using various mobile apps to connect with J. Timberlake, Marky Z. and the rest of the crew, but it looks as if the preeminent social networking site of our generation (ahem) is just about ready to clear the air on at least one issue. The invite above recently landed in our inbox, requesting our presence at "a mobile event at Facebook HQ" in Palo Alto, California. Naturally, we'll be on hand from NorCal bringing you the blow-by-blow, and we're interested to know what you think will be on deck. Will we finally see the Facebook phone that it quickly shot down? The Nexus Two with a borderline-criminal amount of Facebook integration? The resurgence of using pastel colored tin cans to connect Jane and Joe? Whatever the case, we're sure It's Complicated.
Facebook phone rumors resurface, Mark Zuckerberg fails to deny them
Let's try to untangle this Facebook mobile phone mess, shall we? Mark Zuckerberg has recently sat down with Michael Arrington of TechCrunch -- the source of the original rumor -- to try and dispel some of the confusion that has arisen as a result. The first thing the Zuckmeister says is that Facebook isn't looking to build its own OS or hardware and is absolutely opposed to competing with the likes of the iPhone and Android. What Zuckerberg wants is deeper social integration, positing the question, "What could we do if we also started hacking at a deeper level?" While there'll be no single answer or solution for all phones, Mark firmly believes that social elements have to be designed in from the start: On phones we can actually do something better. We can do a single sign-on if we do a good integration with a phone, rather than just doing something where you go to an app and it's automatically social or having to sign into each app individually. Those are the two options on the web. Why not for mobile? Just make it so that you log into your phone once, and then everything that you do on your phone is social. Notably, he fails to deny rumors of such deeply integrated devices being in the pipeline, and Bloomberg has trotted out a trio of insider sources who claim INQ Mobile has been engaged to produce two smartphones with just that purpose in mind -- you know the same INQ that already makes Facebook-heavy handsets, so this could very well be little more than a rebrand. One is said to feature a QWERTY keypad and a touchscreen while the other is an all touch affair, and both are reputedly headed for an early 2011 launch in Europe, followed by a late 2011 arrival in the USA. AT&T is the carrier that's closest to picking them up, we're told, though deals haven't been finalized on what could be sub-$100 phones after subsidies are distributed. So, whatever happens, we're staring down the barrel of a couple of glorified featurephones with deep social integration. Kin 2.0, anyone? Anyone?
Is Facebook working on a phone? (update: No.)
A report from TechCrunch today claims that Facebook may be working on a phone of its own to compete in the ever-warming smartphone race. According to a "source who has knowledge of the project," the social networking site has put two high level employees to the task of creating a smartphone which will allow deep integration with Facebook contacts. Apparently, says the source, Facebook has been concerned that Apple and Google represent some kind of threat as competitors, though there is rather deep Facebook integration in the Android platform, and even the iPhone app allows for contact merging. Additionally, the site speculates that the device could be targeted at the low end of the market ($50 or less), which would not place it as a direct competitor to anything but featurephones. The article goes as far to suggest that Facebook and Spotify investor Li Ka-Shing (who apparently had a hand in the Spotify featurephone with INQ) may have started putting those efforts and relationships into the Facebook handset. But, INQ's been down this road with Facebook already -- take a look at the INQ1. Still, TechCrunch says that Joe Hewitt and Matthew Papakipos are "secretly working on the project," which is being kept tightly under wraps; even Facebook employees are in the dark about the plan. Hewitt and Papakipos have certainly both worked in this space: the former created the Facebook iPhone app, and the latter was head of Google's Chrome OS team until June. But the article strangely leaves out what could be the most telling piece of the puzzle -- the departure of Android's lead project manager, Erick Tseng. After leaving the company in May, he went directly to Facebook to take on the job of head of mobile products. Keep in mind, Erick was high-up enough at Android to act as a spokesperson for the brand -- even appearing on the Engadget Show to talk about the platform. But does this make for a Facebook Phone in our future? That's not so clear -- the idea that the company would see an opportunity in an already overcrowded smartphone marketplace is questionable, and if it's truly worried about the major players, it wouldn't be targeting a low end handset. We also may be giving the company a little too much credit to think that it can pull off being a heavy hitter in the social networking space (platform and all), and make a dent in the hardware and services game (remember, the competition is Microsoft, Apple, Google, RIM, and Nokia). Like all rumor and speculation in the gadget world, take it with a grain of salt, but you can be sure we'll be putting our feelers out to get a concrete answer on this one. Update: Facebook wasted no time today shooting the idea down: "The story, which originated in Techcrunch, is not accurate," a spokesperson told Mashable. "Facebook is not building a phone." The company told the publication that it's focusing on "deep integration" with existing mobile platforms, but that "building phones is just not what we do."
