The HTC Status--the first U.S. smartphone with a physical "Share to Facebook" button on the device--is now available for pre-sale in the United States. The phone will be released on July 17.
"Later this month, the connection between mobile phones and social networking is going to the next level," reads the press release from Best Buy, where you can reserve your Status for $49.99 with a two-year commitment on AT&T. This "next level" is the Facebook button toward the bottom of the phone, underneath the QWERTY keyboard. Pressing it either enables you to share whatever webpage you are browsing on to your wall, or pops up a text box for you to update your status.
This is not the world's first phone with a Facebook button: the HTC ChaCha and Salsa, the UK versions of the Facebook phone, have been available to Brits for about half a month now. The Status is essentially the American edition of the ChaCha after undergoing a U.S. friendly name change (the ChaCha also changed names to travel to Spain, where it is known as the ChaChaCha).
If you're wondering how the Status works, HTC posted a helpful promotional video (for the identical ChaCha) a week ago:
The HTC Status also features a touch-screen, the Android 2.3 OS, and a rear-facing 5 megapixel camera (equal to the iPhone 4 camera) with flash. But the real innovation is, of course, the 'Facebook share' button.
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