Someone's working on a Facebook phone

Remember how Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said they weren't working on a Facebook phone? Maybe he's not (or wasn't at the time), but it sure looks like someone is. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group got a submission dated Dec. 23 for the INQ Cloud Touch that is described as the following:

INQ Cloud Touch is an Android smartphone built to make messaging faster and smarter. It’s designed around the way people naturally communicate and has Facebook built into its core. The homescreen features multiple entry points to different Facebook functions, while a dynamic widget displays a feed of status updates, albums, videos and photos.

A lot of that's your typical hardware/software talking points ("the way people naturally communicate"). But it's the "Facebook built into its core" and "multiple entry points to different Facebook functions" that perks our ears up a little bit. That and the whole Android-based thing. So maybe we're going to see an official Facebook phone. Or maybe somebody's tapping into whatever APIs are available. [Bluetooth SIG via Pocketnow]

Phil Nickinson