Three UK is offering its customers a Facebook mobile application for Java-based feature phones that'll be available from tomorrow.

It's also enabling customers to download and use the app without incurring any data charges until the end of January 2012. The 'Facebook for Every Phone' application claims to provide a better and faster Facebook experience than other similar non-smartphone applications and mobile sites.

Mobile operators must make the most of mobile social networking by offering innovative devices, tariffs and services. That's the message from Pyramid Research, which has just published a report called The Peril and Promise of Mobile Social Networks for Operators.

It says communications patterns and mobile devices are both being influenced by social networking.

The GSMA and comScore have just released data showing how UK mobile consumers use mobile applications. The data has been collected in partnership with mobile networks and is the latest in the GSMA Mobile Media Metrics series of reports.

Overall, almost 8.8 million UK mobile phone owners - 40% of the UK's mobile internet users - accessed an app that connected to the internet during April 2011.

New research from the Ericsson ConsumerLab team has found that found that an increasing number of consumers are using their smartphones to go online before getting out of bed.

35% of Android and iPhone users in the USA said they interacted with non-voice apps before getting up, with almost a fifth of social networking users connecting with Facebook friends while in bed.

Sony Ericsson has added two new members to its Xperia smartphone family. Both run Android v2.3 on a 1GHz processor, offering a 5 megapixel camera, 720p HD video recording and a 3-inch screen.

The new Xperia mini is just 88mm x 52mm x 16mm, weighing 94g, while the Xperia mini pro is slightly larger to accommodate a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.