INQ

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INQ Mobile today took the wraps off two new Android smartphones, headed first for the U.K. market, that are designed for people who depend on Facebook.

The INQ Cloud Touch and INQ Cloud Q both heavily integrate the popular social network into their overall operation. Working closely with people at Facebook, INQ has outfitted the home screen with a visual feed that lets users quickly access updates, pictures, videos, and other Facebook content. The phones also provide quick links to various Facebook features, including chats, messages, wall postings, and notifications, according to London-based INQ.

Facebook Places is accessible directly from the homescreen, giving people the ability to use the feature to check in at stores, restaurants, clubs, and other spots. Facebook's Events feature is also available to let people schedule events and sync them with Google Calendar. And instead of requiring users to log onto each feature separately, the phones offer a single sign-on to access all of the Facebook features available, INQ said.

For entertainment, both phones provide the Spotify music player with all of its features available to subscribers.… Read more

British start-up INQ Mobile will be releasing a new phone that spices up the Android operating system with tight Facebook integration, according to a demo video taped by TechCrunch. Among the features of the new phone, called the INQ Cloud Touch, are four Facebook-related buttons on the home screen, Facebook friends integrated with contacts, and a prominently featured real-time News Feed of Facebook activity.

The phone is intended to be a mid-level device geared toward teenagers, meaning that it could be available for a rather low price--perhaps as low as $50--when purchased with a contract. The Cloud Touch will also … Read more

Facebook is working with mobile phone maker INQ Mobile to create two smartphones that will highlight core features of the social-networking giant, according to a Bloomberg report.

The devices, which may have a network tie-up with carrier AT&T, are expected to be released in Europe in the first half of 2011 and in the U.S. in the second half, according to the report, which cited three unidentified sources familiar with the matter. INQ, which bills itself as the world's first social mobile handset maker, in 2008 unveiled its INQ1, which featured built-in integration with Facebook, Skype, … Read more

Cellphone maker INQ Mobile is launching two new low-cost cellphones optimized for social networking applications to give mobile subscribers alternatives to more expensive smartphones.

INQ, which is owned by Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa, launched its first low-cost, "smartphone-lite" device earlier this year. And now the company is expanding its portfolio with two new devices, one of which has a full QWERTY keypad.

The phones do not run full browsers and the operating system used on the device is Java-based and not nearly as sophisticated as smartphone operating systems used on devices such as the Apple iPhone or … Read more

It's all in INQ Mobile's Twitter feed from Tuesday, and appropriately so: "Yes, you guessed it. A Twitter phone from us is imminent!"

The same U.K.-based cell phone maker that launched the Facebook and Skype phones will be introducing the Twitter phone--the latest in its line of "social networking phones"--by the end of the year.

"This can really help open up and drive Twitter use on mobile when usage becomes part of your data package like on the PC," INQ Chief Executive Frank Meehan told Reuters earlier Tuesday.

The … Read more

Smartphones, such as Apple's iPhone, are all the rage these days. But as the economy worsens, these sophisticated devices and the expensive data plans that are required to be purchased along with them, are out of reach for most cell phone users.

A new handset maker based in the U.K. says it is developing phones that will offer similar functionality at a fraction of the cost. INQ U.K., which is owned by Hong Kong-based telecom giant Hutchison Whampoa, is developing a set of souped-up feature phones that will be loaded with all kinds of Internet and social … Read more

The idea of a "social networking phone" seems redundant at first--don't all phones have an ability to connect to a social network of some kind? But INQ Mobile, a company based in the U.K., claims that it is the first to really bring social networks in the form of Facebook, MySpace, et al. to those of us who prefer to have regular, affordable phones. INQ's argument is that most handsets with dedicated Facebook and Skype applications have so far been of the smartphone variety, and thus out of touch with the mainstream. But with the … Read more