INQ Chat 3G
Encyclopedia
The INQ Chat 3G is a fully featured, 3G
enabled "Candy Bar" smartphone created by INQ
with "social media baked in". Dubbed the 'Twitter
phone', the INQ Chat 3G features integrated Twitter, Facebook
, Skype
and Windows Live Messenger
applications. The phone sports a full QWERTY keypad, a 3.2 megapixel camera and a 2.4" screen. The phone was launched alongside the INQ Mini 3G
- both of which succeed the hugely successful INQ1
.
, with a Sweden
launch shortly after on the 7th December, 2009. The INQ Chat 3G had a simultaneous UK and Hong Kong
launch, on the 11th December, 2009. It was later released in Singapore
on the 22nd December, 2009, and in India
on the 16th March, 2010. The mobile phone has also been released in Australia
on July 2 and in Canada
on July 27.
, a full QWERTY keypad, a 2.4" QVGA TFT LCD
screen, a mini-USB port, volume control buttons and a Switcher button (to switch between applications).
In their words: "We have collaborated with illustrators we love to turn our packaging and help cards into objects to cherish, not chuck."
Along with this, all of the artworks are included as images on the phone and can set as the wallpaper
or screensaver
if desired. The artwork use on the Chat 3G's box is by Matt Huynh.
The artwork for all of INQ's phones can be seen here, along with an introduction to "INQ+Art", brief descriptions of each artist, their artwork and which phone it was used for.
(Note: some artists have had more than one of their pieces used, and on multiple phones).
receive, two battery covers, a solid color and an artwork cover - feature either the artwork by Paul Vizzari http://www.paulvizzari.com or one of the pieces of artwork by Matt Huynh (different from the one use on the phone's box); both artworks feature on the back of the help cards.
On the reverse of all of the battery covers is a maze
, and the Latin phrase "Audaces Fortuna Iuvat", meaning "fortune favours the brave", all leading to a mysterious secret embedded within the phone.
, which own Hutchison 3G
; because of this the phone is usually carried on the 3 network where possible. INQ have adopted a style whereby they launch their phones on one network in that country. There are exceptions (i.e. Australia & Canada), but these are where the networks are commercially linked.
The INQ Chat 3G is currently carried on the following networks: 3 Denmark 3 Hong Kong 3 Ireland 3 Italy 3 Sweden 3 United Kingdom Aircel
SingTel
Vodafone Australia
and 3 Australia, both part of the Vodafone Hutchison Australia
Group. Telus
and Koodo Mobile
(which is a subsidiary
of Telus)
3G
3G or 3rd generation mobile telecommunications is a generation of standards for mobile phones and mobile telecommunication services fulfilling the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 specifications by the International Telecommunication Union...
enabled "Candy Bar" smartphone created by INQ
INQ
INQ is a mobile phone manufacturer, headquartered in London with offices in Rome, San Francisco, Beijing and Hong Kong, Toronto, Seattle, Singapore and Delhi....
with "social media baked in". Dubbed the 'Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
phone', the INQ Chat 3G features integrated Twitter, Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
, Skype
Skype
Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system...
and Windows Live Messenger
Windows Live Messenger
Windows Live Messenger is an instant messaging client created by Microsoft that is currently designed to work with Windows XP , Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Mobile, Windows CE, Xbox 360, Blackberry OS, iOS, Java ME, S60 on Symbian OS 9.x and Zune HD...
applications. The phone sports a full QWERTY keypad, a 3.2 megapixel camera and a 2.4" screen. The phone was launched alongside the INQ Mini 3G
INQ Mini 3G
The INQ Mini 3G is a 3G enabled "Candy Bar" smartphone created by "social phone developer" INQ. The INQ Mini 3G features Twitter, Facebook, Skype and Windows Live Messenger applications embed deep into the phone's Operating System. The phone has a numeric keypad, a 2 megapixel camera and a 2.2"...
- both of which succeed the hugely successful INQ1
INQ1
The INQ1 is the first product of the Hutchinson Whampoa subsidiary, INQ. The INQ1 was released in December 2008 as a social-networking phone. Retailing at a cheaper price than competitors such as the iPhone, Blackberry Storm, G1 and Nokia 5800, it also contains slightly fewer features than other 3G...
.
History
The BREW device was announced on 4 August 2009, and developed in response to consumer demand for a full QWERTY keypad layout device from INQ. The phone debuted on the 30th November 2009 in ItalyItaly
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, with a Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
launch shortly after on the 7th December, 2009. The INQ Chat 3G had a simultaneous UK and Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
launch, on the 11th December, 2009. It was later released in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
on the 22nd December, 2009, and in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
on the 16th March, 2010. The mobile phone has also been released in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
on July 2 and in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
on July 27.
Appearance
The phone features a red and black colour schemeColour Scheme
Colour Scheme is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the twelfth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1943. The novel takes place in New Zealand during World War II; the plot involves suspected Nazi activity at a hot springs resort on the New Zealand coast and a...
, a full QWERTY keypad, a 2.4" QVGA TFT LCD
TFT LCD
Thin film transistor liquid crystal display is a variant of liquid crystal display which uses thin-film transistor technology to improve image quality . TFT LCD is one type of Active matrix LCD, though all LCD-screens are based on TFT active matrix addressing...
screen, a mini-USB port, volume control buttons and a Switcher button (to switch between applications).
Artwork
INQ's packaging and instruction manual style is unique. The packaging the phone comes in is laden with artwork from various artists, and there is no manual as such, instead a set of 'Help Cards'. Each help card focusses on a particular part of the phone - for example Contacts, E-mail or Twitter - on one side, and then on the other side one of the many artworks selected by INQ.In their words: "We have collaborated with illustrators we love to turn our packaging and help cards into objects to cherish, not chuck."
Along with this, all of the artworks are included as images on the phone and can set as the wallpaper
Mobile wallpaper
A mobile wallpaper is a computer wallpaper sized to fit a mobile device such as a mobile phone, personal digital assistant or digital audio player. Screens range in size from 128x128 to 640x360 and the height is often greater than or equal to the width...
or screensaver
Screensaver
A screensaver is a type of computer program initially designed to prevent phosphor burn-in on CRT and plasma computer monitors by blanking the screen or filling it with moving images or patterns when the computer is not in use...
if desired. The artwork use on the Chat 3G's box is by Matt Huynh.
The artwork for all of INQ's phones can be seen here, along with an introduction to "INQ+Art", brief descriptions of each artist, their artwork and which phone it was used for.
(Note: some artists have had more than one of their pieces used, and on multiple phones).
Battery Covers
Like the Mini 3G, the INQ Chat 3G's battery covers are interchangeable with other colours. The default is the red battery cover, but black, pink and yellow battery covers can be purchased at participating stores of the default network in the respective countries. In Canada, phones bought on TelusTELUS
Telus is a national telecommunications company in Canada that provides a wide range of telecommunications products and services including internet access, voice, entertainment, video, and satellite television. The company is based in Burnaby, British Columbia, part of Greater Vancouver...
receive, two battery covers, a solid color and an artwork cover - feature either the artwork by Paul Vizzari http://www.paulvizzari.com or one of the pieces of artwork by Matt Huynh (different from the one use on the phone's box); both artworks feature on the back of the help cards.
| Battery Covers | Red | Yellow | Pink | Black | Artwork | Artwork |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image | ||||||
| Notes | Default colour. This is branded by the network the phone is locked to. This one is branded on the Three network Hutchison 3G 3 is a brand name under which several UMTS-based mobile phone networks and Broadband Internet Providers are operated in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, and the United Kingdom... . |
Available for purchase separately from the phone. | Artwork by Paul Vizzari, specially commissioned by Telus in Canada | Artwork by Matt Huynh, specially commissioned by Telus in Canada | ||
On the reverse of all of the battery covers is a maze
Maze
A maze is a tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage through which the solver must find a route. In everyday speech, both maze and labyrinth denote a complex and confusing series of pathways, but technically the maze is distinguished from the labyrinth, as the labyrinth has a single...
, and the Latin phrase "Audaces Fortuna Iuvat", meaning "fortune favours the brave", all leading to a mysterious secret embedded within the phone.
General
- The user of the phone can display widgets on their home screen for quick and easy access to information. Widgets include Facebook, Twitter, Weather and RSSRSS-Mathematics:* Root-sum-square, the square root of the sum of the squares of the elements of a data set* Residual sum of squares in statistics-Technology:* RSS , "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary", a family of web feed formats...
. - Compatibility with doubleTwistDoubleTwistdoubleTwist Corporation is a digital media company founded by Monique Farantzos and Jon Lech Johansen. It is backed by Index Ventures and Northzone Ventures....
. - Option to use the phone as a mobile modem, either over USB or DUN Bluetooth.
Applications
Applications include, but are not limited to:- Skype & Windows Live Messenger, which both make use of the free Skype and Messenger on selected Three networks
- E-mailE-mailElectronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
, including free PushPush e-mailPush email is used to describe email systems that provide an always-on capability, in which new email is actively transferred as it arrives by the mail delivery agent to the mail user agent , also called the email client...
GMailGmailGmail is a free, advertising-supported email service provided by Google. Users may access Gmail as secure webmail, as well via POP3 or IMAP protocols. Gmail was launched as an invitation-only beta release on April 1, 2004 and it became available to the general public on February 7, 2007, though...
, as well as supporting the IMAP4, POP3 and SMTP e-mail protocols. - A media player, capable of playing Audio: AMRAMR-Companies:* AMR , a UK manufacturer of high-end audio systems* AMR Corporation, parent company of American Airlines* American Medical Response, a private ambulance operator* Arcata and Mad River Railroad...
, AACAACAAC refers to Advanced Audio Coding, an audio compression format successor to the MP3 format.AAC may also refer to:-Aviation:* AAC, IATA airport code for El Arish International Airport, Egypt...
, AAC+, MIDI, MP3MP3MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
, WAVWAVWaveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs...
; Video: MPEG4, H.263H.263H.263 is a video compression standard originally designed as a low-bitrate compressed format for videoconferencing. It was developed by the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group in a project ending in 1995/1996 as one member of the H.26x family of video coding standards in the domain of the ITU-T.H.263...
, H.264 - Google Maps for Mobile, making use of the built-in GPS
- The NetFrontNetFrontNetFront Browser is a mobile browser for embedded devices, developed by Access Co. Ltd. of Japan, and was designed to function as an embedded browser....
browser, v3.5. In some countries, Opera MiniOpera MiniOpera Mini is a web browser designed primarily for mobile phones, smartphones and personal digital assistants. Until version 4 it used the Java ME platform, requiring the mobile device to run Java ME applications. From version 5 it is also available as a native application for Android, iOS, Symbian...
is the default browser instead.
Social Networking
The Chat 3G, as with all INQ phones, is built for social-networking, and it is highly integrated into the phone:- When the user take a picture they are immediately given the option to post to Twitter, using TwitpicTwitpicTwitPic is a website that allows users to easily post pictures to the Twitter microblogging and social media service. TwitPic is often used by citizen journalists to upload and distribute pictures in near real-time as an event is taking place.-History:...
, or to Facebook. - In the Contacts list, the user can assign social-networking profiles to a contact, including information about Facebook, Skype, Windows Live Messenger and e-mail. The contacts list then displays the Facebook or Windows Live Messenger profile picture, including the latest 'status update' from Facebook if the user is logged into the Facebook client. It also displays a small icon showing whether they are logged into Skype or Windows Live Messenger.
Hardware
| Feature | Specification |
|---|---|
| Screen | 2.4" QVGA, 256k colours, 320x240 pixel Pixel In digital imaging, a pixel, or pel, is a single point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable screen element in a display device; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be represented or controlled.... s |
| Band | Tri, GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900 |
| 3G | Yes, with enhanced '3.5G', HSDPA. (2100) |
| Size | 114.5 x 61 x 12.8 mm |
| Weight | 122 g |
| Internal Memory | 175.6mb |
| Camera | 3.2megapixel, 2048x1536 pixels with autofocus Autofocus An autofocus optical system uses a sensor, a control system and a motor to focus fully automatic or on a manually selected point or area. An electronic rangefinder has a display instead of the motor; the adjustment of the optical system has to be done manually until indication... |
| Memory card slot | Yes, microSD/microSDHC |
| Bluetooth Bluetooth Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security... |
Yes, 2.0 + EDR; supports most profiles Bluetooth profile A Bluetooth profile is a wireless interface specification for Bluetooth-based communication between devices.In order to use Bluetooth technology, a device must be compatible with the subset of Bluetooth profiles necessary to use the desired services. A Bluetooth profile resides on top of the... , including A2DP for stereo audio and control and DUN Dun Dun is now used both as a generic term for a fort and also for a specific variety of Atlantic roundhouse... to use phone as a modem for internet tethering from other devices. |
| GPS | Yes |
| Wi-Fi | No |
| Infrared | No |
| Data cable support | Yes, USB 2.0 via mini USB port |
| FM Radio | No |
| Battery | 1500 mAh, Ion-Polymer |
| Talk time | 588 minutes |
| Standby time | 355 hours |
Carriers
INQ is owned by Hutchison WhampoaHutchison Whampoa
Hutchison Whampoa Limited or HWL of Hong Kong is a Fortune 500 company and one of the largest companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. HWL is an international corporation with a diverse array of holdings which includes the world's biggest port and telecommunication operations in 14...
, which own Hutchison 3G
Hutchison 3G
3 is a brand name under which several UMTS-based mobile phone networks and Broadband Internet Providers are operated in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, and the United Kingdom...
; because of this the phone is usually carried on the 3 network where possible. INQ have adopted a style whereby they launch their phones on one network in that country. There are exceptions (i.e. Australia & Canada), but these are where the networks are commercially linked.
The INQ Chat 3G is currently carried on the following networks: 3 Denmark 3 Hong Kong 3 Ireland 3 Italy 3 Sweden 3 United Kingdom Aircel
Aircel
Aircel group is a mobile phone service provider in India. It offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage throughout India. The Aircel group is a joint venture between Maxis Communications Berhad of Malaysia and Sindya Securities & Investments Private Limited, whose current...
SingTel
Singapore Telecommunications
Singapore Telecommunications Limited , commonly abbreviated as SingTel, is a Singaporean telecommunications company, with a combined mobile subscriber base of 416 million customers from its own operations and regional associates in 25 countries at end of June 2011 increased by 19 percent from a...
Vodafone Australia
Vodafone Australia
Vodafone Australia is a mobile telephone company, a subsidiary of Vodafone Hutchison Australia. Vodafone Australia was formerly a wholly owned subsidiary of Vodafone Plc ....
and 3 Australia, both part of the Vodafone Hutchison Australia
Vodafone Hutchison Australia
Vodafone Hutchison Australia ' is a mobile telecommunications company that operates the Vodafone, '3' and Crazy John's brands in Australia...
Group. Telus
TELUS
Telus is a national telecommunications company in Canada that provides a wide range of telecommunications products and services including internet access, voice, entertainment, video, and satellite television. The company is based in Burnaby, British Columbia, part of Greater Vancouver...
and Koodo Mobile
Koodo Mobile
Koodo Mobile is a mobile brand in Canada started by Telus in 2008. Koodo differs from its parent Telus by not requiring a fixed term contract. Koodo offers all its services on a month by month basis. Koodo uses the concept of a Tab which allows customers to build credit towards new phones...
(which is a subsidiary
Subsidiary
A subsidiary company, subsidiary, or daughter company is a company that is completely or partly owned and wholly controlled by another company that owns more than half of the subsidiary's stock. The subsidiary can be a company, corporation, or limited liability company. In some cases it is a...
of Telus)