After yesterday's announcement (and before it's in stores on Friday) I thought you might like to see some photos of what the 3 Skypephone's user interface looks like. It runs Qualcomm's BREW platform.

When you first turn on the phone, you see the 3 logo (followed by the Skype logo and then the iSkoot logo--iSkoot is the company that helped develop the Skype software in the phone.). On the right you see the phone's main home screen. The top soft buttons launch 3's Launcher and Planet3 web services, and the Skype button opens up the Skype client.

Signing in is easy--you can use the account you have or make a new one. You can also set the 3 Skypephone to automatically sign you back in when you power it on.

The phone signs you in, synchronizes, and then shows you your contact list. You can set the Skype button to call or start a chat with contacts by default.

From the main home screen you can also launch 3's Launcher (on the left), which gives you easy access on the go to all sorts of websites (including eBay, Facebook and YouTube). On the right is Planet3, where you can see news and check your account details.

This is the main menu you see when you press the menu button. In there you've got Web, Call log, Games and apps, Multimedia, Messages, My stuff, Tools, Contacts, and Settings. The settings menu has all the sorts of things you'd find in a mobile phone.

The multimedia aspects of the phone are pretty cool (I'll be getting more in depth with them later this week)--you can see there's a media player (for video and music), a camera for stills and video, and a voice recorder. You can also load all sorts of Java games and apps. I was able to install the Google Mail Java app without a hitch and it works well.

The tools menu has some quite useful items (including an alarm clock and contact synchronization with a PC). If you're say using the calculator and also have the media player, web browser, and your Skype contacts window open, one of the neatest UI features in the phone is the switcher. From wherever you are, you can hit the switcher button (to the right of the screen) and it opens a very easy way to switch between applications, kind of like ALT+TAB in Windows.

Phew, photo'd out yet? Those are some of the highlights from the UI. Tomorrow I'll be sharing some more of the multimedia features of the phone.