Why's it here?

So what do you know about INQ? Well they are based in the UK, work mainly with Three Mobile and are building up a selection of mobiles that work seamlessly with internet apps. This handset's predecessor the INQ1 was billed as the Facebook phone, this model is designed to work well with Twitter and there's a phone coming next year that will make the most out of Spotify. I am waiting for the Posterous and the Farmville phones - surely they are just round the corner?

Anyway back to the INQ Mini 3G which is one of the most important Three phones this winter. It keeps many of the features of the INQ1 (more on that later) but has a different design (it loses the slider) and is a little more compact though a bit fatter.

Basically the INQ Mini 3G is all about offering social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter on a budget. The phone retails for around £60 on pay as you go and can be snapped up for free with an £15 a month contract (it has just dropped in price to £40 and £10 apparently).

The phone is a bit old school chocolate bar style and has the look and feel of a Sony Ericsson model from a couple of years back. I have read some reviews which criticise the phone for being a bit plasticky, but I kind of like the design and the red shiny back. Overall dimensions are a very compact 103 x 45.8 x 12.8mm. The keypad sports buttons which are solid and stiff so you need to give them a shove to get them to work. Overall though the phone isn't bad for inputting text which, if it is to match its billing as a Twitter mobile, it needs to be. As for the screen it is 2.2-inches and is capable of displaying 240x320 pixels

What's good?

It is the phone's access to Facebook and Twitter where the Mini 3G really scores. Flick the phone on and you get a home screen (which you can customise - I have the weather and the BBC news running off mine) with a series of icons at the bottom. You just use the circular button below the screen or the button on the side to move between the apps. If that sounds complex then there's a menu button which instantly takes you to a colourful and pleasant looking screen which is filled with icons from the various apps.

The key ones are of course Skype - you get free phone calls to other Skype users - Messenger, email and of course Facebook and Twitter. It was very easy to set Facebook up and the the ability to upload to Facebook each time you take picture and the integration of your Facebook friends into the contacts are very useful. As for Twitter the client is basic - it sure isn't Tweetie, but it is simple to use. You can swiftly move through your latest set for tweets and adding a tweet is very easy. However if you want to retweet, search tweets or try anything a bit more complex then this isn't for you.

All the other features you'd expect are on board, so you get an MP3 music player, (though not the Last FM connection of its predecessor), an ok web browser and basics like calendar and alarm. Should also add that it comes with a single USB cable so you can use it to connect to your PC or to power from the mains - if only all phones were like this...

What's bad?

Well there has to be a few reasons why the phone is so cheap/competitively priced. The main one is the camera which quite frankly is pretty useless. It takes two mega pixel images, takes an age to get snapping and is very poor in anything other an optimum lighting conditions. What makes this rather baffling is that the INQ 1 has an ok 3.2 mega pixel camera - curious.

The big omission though is not a QWERTY keypad - we can live without that - but rather a 3.5mm earphone jack. I don't know why this isn't standard on mobiles now and if INQ thinks it can sell a Spotify phone without one it can think again.

Just 50MB of storage also sounds pretty poor, though you can of course upgrade this via a microSD card.

As I mentioned a few people will find the styling a bit tacky and I guess given its billing as a Twitter phone the lack of functionality there might rankle some users.

Finally a word about battery life. It wasn't too bad and as long as you don't spend too much time online it should see you through more than one day. The problem for INQ though is that many similarly priced and sized rival handsets will double that.

Overall

Well this is social networking on a budget and if that's what you want then the Mini 3G is a real contender. If you want to keep in touch and take advantage of the cheap deal and the Skype free calls then the Mini 3G has much to recommend it.

Here's Anna's video take on the phone

The simplest phone on the market, the Emporia TalkPremium lets you call, text and set an alarm and that's it. With big buttons and large text it's loosely aimed at the older generation or anyone fed up with complex phones.

£105 from Emporia.at

See the full text review here

The Talk Premium mobile phone is certainly a bit different. As a general rule, new phones tend to have more features than old phones. But the chunky retro-looking phone from Emporia does exactly the opposite - stripping the mobile phone down to its basic features.

Where other handsets let you record music, play videos, listen to the radio - hell - feed your dog, this lets you do three things, and that's it:
1. Call people
2. Text
3. Set an alarm

There's also a sweet little LED torch light.

A silicon valley company have set up a mobile phone network - it's smart, user-friendly and it aims to change what we expect from phone networks - forever. Yes, Forever.

In the rapidly morphing world of telecomm it's sometimes hard to categorise the new products that crop up. Ribbit is one of those services.

Part internet provider, part mobile phone network provider, a bit like an open-source Skype... it describes itself as an open platform for voice innovation. Ribbit connects up devices to the internet, any internet-ennabled device, not just one of your phones, as in the current system. Ribbit has an "ecosystem" of developers who can use Ribbit to tailor their platform to the specific needs of individuals.

Details about Sony Ericsson's first Google Android phone have just been released and it looks like the Xperia X10 will hit the market in early 2010.

The high spec X10 will be the flagship handset for Sony Ericsson's new phone family which is built on strengths in social media and entertainment. High resolution graphics (480 x 854 pixels WVGA) are promised for the 4 inch touchscreen, as is a richly interactive user interface and some great social networking applications.

Mobile internet provider 3 are cutting prices ahead of Christmas by reducing the up-front costs of their mobile internet devices.

What's on offer:
The MiFi Wireless Modem: previously £69.99, is now £49.99 upfront when you buy it on the 'Broadband 5GB 1 Month' deal. The package includes 5GB of data for £15 a month. The MiFi modem receives internet connection from 3 then broadcasts it out so you can use it to connect up laptops or any other wifi-ennabled devices in your house.
There are other deals on pay as you go and the 3gb data contract as well.

3's Inq phone: the INQ Mini 3G, is now £49.99, down from £59.99. The internet-enabled phone now includes Twitter as a native application as well.

See 3's website for more details on Christmas offers

Nokia has worked up an impressive new deal for music lovers which bundles unlimited music downloads with a T-Mobile 24month Combi contract.

For £30 a month you get unlimited downloads to mobile and PC from the Nokia music store. Plus the standard T-mobile 24-month contract services: 800 free minutes a month, unlimited texts, unlimited high-speed internet (but extra charges for picture messages and voicemail). There's one catch however...

Suddenly it seems as if everybody is sticking expensive jewellery on phones. Sagem wireless - the custom phone creators - have partnered with Swarovski diamonds to make Crystallised phones.

Their flagship product is a Vodafone VF533 to which they have added a trimming of crystals on the front face and a strip up the back.

Lights, laptops and technoology greats at
SEE 09 - the conference hosted by Symbian the people who make the operating systems found in Nokia phones. Hosted over the next two days, the Symbian Exchange and Exposition in London is a gadget marketplace, workshop host and stage for some big speakers and big ideas.

Symbian CEO introduces the conference with what they're offering to consumers, to businesses, to developers. He wants them to have a new dialogue. More conversations. More experiences.

Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia is on at ten giving a talk titled: "Welcome to the new World". Live-blog after the jump

An underground cinema group are teaming up with Windows phone. Sound like an unlikely partnership? Well yes - but basically it all culminates in a film screening in London on the 31st October. It's a mystery film in a mystery location - but from the look of things, it'll probably be trendy. As well as a mystery film, there be a wall displaying twitter feed from the event, and some Secret Cinema staffers and Microsoft employees showing out the new OS on Toshiba TG01s.

An unusual start to Hallowe'en? Yes, well the event is only half of it: they don't just tell you where the location is... you have to work out from clues on their twitter feed and website. Some tweets are clues, some are red herrings.

New, curvier and with that trademark QWERTY keyboard, the second Bold or rather the Bold 9700 is out now. The Bold is the executive's Blackberry, the top-flight phone in RIM's line-up.

Key new features in the 9700 are improved camera power and battery-life. Also new is a trackpad and the whole phone is slightly smaller and lighter than its predecessor.

Ashley got hold of one yesterday - see his verdict on TechDigest

What happens when fashion and tech collide? Well you get phones like the Jalou from Dolce & Gabbana and Sony Ericcson coming out this month.

Techies may be more interested in the Sony Ericcson bit, but D&G have contributed 24ct rose gold plating and a swish ad campaign to this lipstick-length clamshell handset.

Some little for-the-ladies features:

Palm is sexing up one of their new phones - the Pixi - with a range of limited edition high-concept backs: getting artists with big ideas about nature and art to design five artistic looks for the phone.

The Blackberry Storm 2 launched today, and RIM's flagship touchscreen phone has had some serious updates. In shops from 26th October, it will be available on Vodafone for £35 per month on a 24 month contract.

More details here: www.blackberry.com/storm

[NB. I had a bit of a fail getting the keyboard up, but let me tell you, the keyboard's good.]

There's a new Blackberry coming out today, and according to the CEO of RIM it's "a biggie."

The Storm 2 smartphone is launching on Vodafone on the 26th October, we're going to see it this morning, and we're all a bit excited.

Hardcore Twitter user? Fancy a new cheap-ish phone that's built around your micro blogging addiction? Well the good news is that the INQ Mini 3G Twitter phone goes on sale today via the 3 network.

The handset boasts a Twitter app that stays on in the background and lets customers send 'tweets' and 'retweet' existing tweets. It has 3's free Skype-to-Skype calls and Windows Live Messenger in the UK as well as Facebook access.

The handset is available free on 3's £15 Internet Texter plan and on one of the network's Mix & Match tariffs. It will also be available to Pay As You Go users for £59.99.
The Internet Texter plan tariff, which was created for the launch of the INQ1, offers free internet, free 3-to-3 calls, free voicemail and 75 minutes for £15 a month.

More details here