Hasta La Gadget!

Rumors of a Facebook phone flared up on Sunday, thanks largely to a TechCrunch post titled Facebook is Secretly Building a Phone. The story goes that two of the company’s high-level employees, Joe Hewitt and Matthew Papakipos were holed up at the social network’s headquarters working on a so-called “Facebook Phone.”

Facebook was quick to deny the rumors–sort of. A spokesperson for the popular social network told the press, “the story, which originated in Techcrunch, is not accurate. Facebook is not building a phone. Our approach has always been to make phones and apps more social.”

The spokesperson went further, stating, “The bottom line is that whenever we work on a deep integration, people want to call it a ‘Facebook Phone’ because that’s such an attractive soundbite, but building phones is just not what we do.”

The second quote is telling. It’s a non-denial denial of sorts. The company may not be working on a “Facebook Phone” in so many words, but that still allows for the possibility of a handset built around the social network and, potentially, a Facebook-branded phone.

And anyway, the original rumors didn’t really have the company creating the hardware itself. Facebook was said to be working with a third-party manufacturer on that part, not unlike the partnership with HTC that result in the Google Nexus One.

A new round of rumors have named a partner: London-based manufacturer INQ. The new rumors, championed by Bloomberg, upped the ante a bit, suggesting that Facebook and INQ are actually working on two handsets.

Bloomberg’s source? Three people “familiar with the matter.”

The handsets are said to be slated for the first half of 2011 in Europe and the second half in the U.S. AT&T is reportedly considering picking up the devices, but has yet to definitively decide whether or not it will carry the devices.