Obviously, not every part of Ericsson (or Sony, for that matter) knows what's going on over at Sony Ericsson HQ -- though they share names, joint venture Sony Ericsson is a separate company, by and large, joined to its corporate parents more by ownership than by mindshare. Still, though, you can't help but find it interesting that Ericsson Labs' official Twitter account is tweeting about a story on Softpedia echoing recent rumors that the Android-powered, Rachael-skinned XPERIA X3 will finally bow next month. In the most sensational version of the conclusion-drawing that's about to occur, we'd say that Ericsson just underhandedly confirmed the story, the product, and the product's name -- and in the least sensational version, a dude in one division of a largely unrelated company is simply throwing out a story that he finds interesting. Considering the rumored specs on the X3, we're hoping its the former -- and realistically, we might only have a few more weeks before we find out.

Oftentimes a picture shouts a thousand words. Other times it belts out precisely a dozen. Straight from Verizon Wireless' official Twitter account comes this, a confirmation that the Palm Pre we knew was coming to Big Red, well, is coming to Big Red. If you can hold off through the tempting holiday rush, you'll find Palm's first-ever webOS device on VZW "early next year." Huzzah!

[Via Boy Genius Report]

This time last year, you might have thought that LiMo was waning in the shadow of Android's eminence, but we're witnessing the vanguard of a new resurgence in the form of the Vodafone 360 H1 and M1 handsets by Samsung. Being the first LiMo Release 2 devices, they'll come with a bagful of fancy 3D UI visualizations to splash atop 3.5- and 3.2-inch touchscreen displays, with the bigger H1 (pictured) getting the AMOLED treatment, WiFi, HSDPA and 16GB of internal memory, and the M1 receiving HSDPA and 1GB of expandable memory, but no WiFi. They are making their debut alongside Vodafone's new 360 online platform, which takes over from the former Live service. You can expect it to bring Facebook, Twitter, Windows Live Messenger and Google Talk integration, as well as an app store to compete with the other heavy hitters. The M1's three color options are pictured after the break.

Read - Vodafone 360 press release
Read - Vodafone 360 H1 product page
Read - Vodafone 360 H1 hands-on
Read - Vodafone 360 M1 product page

The INQ Mini 3G is quite the intriguing little phone. It has the dimensions and outward appearance of a standard issue featurephone, yet aims to provide the multifunctional utility of the bulkier QWERTY keyboard-sporting smartphones that now roam these lands. With deep integration of Facebook, Twitter and Skype, it's designed to be a do-it-all social networking device, so we thought we'd run a few status updates through it to see if the latest spin on an award-winning heritage lives up to its billing. Slide on past the break to find out.

We've enjoyed seeing what INQ is bringing to the featurephone space, most recently with the Facebook and Twitter-centric INQ Mini 3G and INQ Chat handsets (which still haven't been announced for the States), but things are getting a lot more interesting on word that INQ is going to be using Android for upcoming touchscreen smartphones. We're guessing INQ will be blending its Synergy-style blended social networking capabilities with traditional Android goodness, much in the way HTC and now Motorola are approaching Android. So far all INQ is saying is that Android hasn't done well against the iPhone so far, and that "you need to get the experience better," promising "cool things" in response to this self-defined challenge. You know what else is a "cool thing"? America.

The original Sidekick was one of the first devices to push phones as deeply social text-based tools, and that trend continues today -- which naturally makes tight integration with Facebook and Twitter absolutely vital. The fresh 2009 version of the Sidekick LX has been available with both of these, and T-Mobile is now retroactively offering them to owners of the original LX, the Sidekick 2008, and the Sidekick Slide (remember that?). There's a catch, though -- while Facebook's free, Twitter is going to run owners of the older Sidekicks $1.99 a month, despite the fact that it's no charge to LX 2009 owners. Seems exceptionally bogus to us -- but then again, considering how great the latest LX is compared to every other Sidekick ever made, owners might just use this as an excuse to take the plunge. Both apps are now available.

[Via Phone Scoop]

While you'd expect the first hands-on shots of INQ's new sociable Mini 3G and Chat to emerge on Twitpic, it's TechRadar doing the honors. Both of these featurephones are fairly attractive in their own right, with each being suitably slim and chock full of status updating power. In fact, we'd say the Mini 3G's red and black QWERTY keypad is amongst the sexiest we've seen. Why not judge Like™ for yourself by giving those read links below a look?

Read - INQ Mini 3G hands-on
Read - INQ Chat hands-on

INQ's unique take on the featurephone just got a significant facelift in the form of the new INQ Mini 3G and the INQ Chat. Leaving behind the INQ1's last-gen looks, the new INQ Chat offers a QWERTY keyboard in an E71-esque chassis, 2.4-inch screen, GPS and a 3.2 megapixel auto focus camera, while the Mini 3G takes up the T9er's mantle with a slim candybar form factor, 2.2-inch screen and 2 megapixel camera. The big deal of course is still the (award winning) software side, which already includes features such as Skype, Facebook and Windows Live Messenger integration, along with a Synergy-style integrated address book. New additions include a Twitter app, push Gmail, and iTunes syncing, courtesy of DVD Jon's doubleTwist software, and INQ claims that it'll be much more proactive with software updates this time around. The phones are only dipping their toes into the media playback pool, with hardly any onboard storage, empty microSD slots, and the ever-annoying USB-to-3.5mm converter headphone jack situation, but all the parts are there. INQ's also going to pull together an "app store" of sorts by curating freely available Java applets compatible with the handsets.

We had a look at the phones, and while the style might seem aggressive for some, the build of both phones is pretty quality for the target market, and they're certainly tighter in the design department than the INQ1. The keyboard on the INQ Chat is quite good, especially for featurephone land, and we like that INQ kept some T9-style predictive text in the software to make QWERTY use even more of a pleasure. No, these phones still don't replace smartphones, but they're designed to be a low-cost alternative to the smartphone for carriers, who are a little tired of heavy phone subsidies and intense data use from the iPhone types -- and sure wouldn't mind making a few bucks off your Facebook addiction. Unfortunately, there still aren't any plans for bringing these phones to the States. INQ is "in talks," but for now these handsets are Europe bound, and should hit stores by Q4.

INQ's whole lease in life is making mass-market feature phones with heavy doses of social network integration, and considering how much acclaim the INQ1 slider has received on account of its Skype and Facebook functionality (not to mention the fact that they've sold 700,000 of them), it only stands to reason that the Hutchison subsidiary would be looking to come out swinging with a new model or two. In fact, we already know that INQ's looking at doing Twitter integration, and now we know from an interview with the company's chief exec that there'll actually be two new models -- one of which will be a themed "Twitter phone" -- in time for the holiday season. Though Reuters suggests that that'd make it the first mass-market phone with a Twitter client, devices like the Sidekick LX 2009 already do it -- so INQ won't necessarily be the first in the game, but if can bring its wares to more than the Sidekick's... oh, one fricking carrier, they've got an angle.

[Via Phone Scoop]

The future of the Zune continues to be awfully cloudy: although the Twitter account @officethemovie was directly linked from Microsoft's Office 2010 promo site earlier today, company spokesperson Brian Seitz just pinged us to say that those Zune rumors posted to the account weren't exactly on the up-and-up:

That account is bunk. Not run by Microsoft so I would not put much stock in what they say. The real Office movie account is http://twitter.com/office2010movie.

Of course, that's a denial focused on the source of the rumors, not their content, so we're guessing something more serious is going on -- we've got a feeling whoever was running that account spoke out of turn, especially since Brian himself promised new Zune hardware this year. Regardless, the lesson stands: people on Twitter will lie to you until you are penniless and alone, and then they will kill and eat you.

Update: Yep, the account is a fake -- the person who created it has fessed up to pulling the hoax as a publicity stunt for some rambling iPhone piracy article he wrote, which is an excellent way to be ignored forever.

BlackBerry users know that stellar Twitter clients have been hard to come by, so whenever a major new release hits the streets, it's something that makes the BlackBerry-carrying Twitter addicts out there -- and there are many of them, rest assured -- sit up and take notice. The latest app is called TweetGenius, and if you've been keeping an eye on our Twitter accounts, you'd know that we've been pretty excited about this app since we first had the opportunity to check it out over a month ago. In that short period of time, it's gone through one hell of a metamorphosis, and it looks like the bar is being raised for future apps -- Twitter and non-Twitter alike -- on the BlackBerry front. Read on for a closer look at what makes this app tick -- and more importantly, to find out whether it'll be replacing your current Twitter client.

We'll go ahead and warn you that a lot has changed since 2007, but if anything, the surge in Twitter users and the overwhelming growth in social networking would likely strengthen these findings. The Pew Internet and American Life Project has just revealed some rather interesting stats from its study of age groups and their connection to mobile technology, particularly when looking at the "Ambivalent Networkers" group. Said clump is comprised mostly of males in their late 20s, which are stereotypically connected to their handsets at all times with a smile to go with it. According to the research, however, the majority of this group agreed that "taking a break is definitely a good idea," which was around ten percentage points above the average in the other four groups. We know you're about to tweet this to your 27 year old brother-in-law, but think twice before you knowingly hurt his soul like that.

[Via ArsTechnica]

Twitter clients for the iPhone are pretty much a dime a dozen, but unfortunately, the same can't be said for the BlackBerry platform. Things are looking up for the Waterloo faithful, though, with a number of clients on the horizon -- and one of the best we've seen thus far is SocialScope from the guys at Ubiquitous Systems. The app has been around in the form of an invite-only alpha for a few months now, and with more recent releases the guns are coming out and it's really starting to develop into a fairly advanced app. Read on for more impressions and an exclusive hands-on with the latest build -- and oh, yeah, we've got loads of invites for you certifiable addicts as well!