Bye bye Barcelona and Mobile World Congress 2009
By Sean Cooper 
posted Feb 20th 2009 10:09PM
posted Feb 20th 2009 10:09PM
Another MWC is done and we're on one hand happy we were there to cover it for y'all, sad to see it gone, but relieved we can start eating normally and sleeping again. So what did we see? Well, so many things that made us laugh, smile, and scratch our heads that we can barely remember them all. Notable things from Barcelona this year include Sony Ericssons' first 12 megapixel camera phone, Windows Mobile 6.5's launch, Palm Pre for the GSM market, A smile pile of Android unveilings -- including Vodafone's HTC Magic launch -- INQ's INQ1, Sonar, and a really creepy mannequin that never failed to freak every single one of us out as we walked by her. If you're finding the list of links overwhelming, check our daily podcasts from the show and hear all about it instead of reading all about it. Check the links below for a quick rundown of some highlights.
Read - Sonar hopes to power social featurephones, we get a demo
Read - Texas Instruments and Wind River do up Android right
Read - HTC Magic is official, bringing Android to Vodafone sans keyboard
Read - HTC Magic first eyes-on!
Read - Nokia N86 hands-on with video!
Read - Samsung OmniaHD hands-on
Read - First hands-on with the HTC Touch Diamond2 (with video!)
Read - First hands-on with the HTC Touch Pro2 (with video!)
Read - Nokia E55 hands-on
Read - Windows Mobile 6.5 walkthrough with Engadget (now with video!)
Read - INQ¹ wins "Best Mobile Handset or Device" at MWC, golf claps
Read - Stantum's mind-blowing multitouch interface on video!
Read - Amosu hands-on: pink, pricey, and plenty of diamonds
Read - Toshiba TG01 hands-on and video walkthrough
Read - modu hands-on with the set, jackets, and some far out visions
Read - Sonar hopes to power social featurephones, we get a demo
Read - Texas Instruments and Wind River do up Android right
Read - HTC Magic is official, bringing Android to Vodafone sans keyboard
Read - HTC Magic first eyes-on!
Read - Nokia N86 hands-on with video!
Read - Samsung OmniaHD hands-on
Read - First hands-on with the HTC Touch Diamond2 (with video!)
Read - First hands-on with the HTC Touch Pro2 (with video!)
Read - Nokia E55 hands-on
Read - Windows Mobile 6.5 walkthrough with Engadget (now with video!)
Read - INQ¹ wins "Best Mobile Handset or Device" at MWC, golf claps
Read - Stantum's mind-blowing multitouch interface on video!
Read - Amosu hands-on: pink, pricey, and plenty of diamonds
Read - Toshiba TG01 hands-on and video walkthrough
Read - modu hands-on with the set, jackets, and some far out visions
What does an A380 have to do with Barcelona? The airport can't even handle it.
how observant, somebody get this kids some cookies
thou this plane cracks me up
An Engadget-branded A380 filled with schwag would be an excellent Black Friday giveaway.
Shoulda been a 777
The hookers there are choice!
A low flying plane with two towers... now where have I seen such images before...
Its simple photoshop!
Get a PNG of the A380 (Or use Lasso polygon tool), add the Engadget logo and tilt the aircraft. Then Add the Blue to White vignette in the Background layer. After that, just add the Mobile World Congress 09 scene. (All the buildings, road, etc).
And thats it !
"A low flying plane with two towers... now where have I seen such images before..."
Just this time the government isn't behind it, but Engadget is!
Well they better trash this then... of course it can handle it, there even opening a servicing company there.
http://www.aviationweek.co.uk/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=mro&id=news/iber4228.xml&headline=A380%20Hangar%20Underway%20At%20Barcelona%20El%20Prat
Sad part is that nobody is going to fly it there. None of the European carriers nor Qantas or Singapore. Emirates? they don't even serve the airport. Barcelona is mostly leisure traffic which means the travellers will be looking for the cheapest deal (ie economy class). When you have an A380 and 2/5 of seats are premium (Biz+first class) you better fill those seats because economy class is never the bread or butter of any airline (unless they are low-cost).
Samsung OmniaHD definitely won MWC for me.
I agree!
I agree too, the Omnia HD was definitely the best phone in the show. It only needs a QWERTY
OMNIA HD really looks sweet.
but i think the new Sony Ericsson idou should have been in this list, how can that not be a highlight when the new Toshiba is? we already knew about the TG01 and if that does not matter then how about having the new LG in there.
Aw jeez, mention S60 please guys, it was the star of the show, powering both Idou and the Omnia HD
oh well it was fun while it lasted :)
now back to news about boring computers and cores and what nots filling the main page =[
that's it? Its over?
im disappointed.
whatever ill go back to reading anything i can find about the PRE now.
That picture was obviously PHOTOSHOPPED!
i can tell by the pixels
Yeah, the reflections are all wrong.
And what's up with the shadows?
Fake.
Next they will show video proving it's authenticity! :)
@dagamer: I bet they'll just make it up in 3ds Max... This whole thing is just too fake to be believed
They CAN'T be leaving Barcelona
i call fake too, it zez exit but they're in spain
r u guys serial? like honestly you dont even have to think about this one. firstly the 3 editors that work at engadget dont need to have an A380, most major flight companies are not getting A380's because of excess demand and they pay what engadget could make from all its advertisments in a decade, the engadget symbol would be on the back wing (the dorsal fin, if u will im not an aviator). Also did i mention there is like 3 people that work at engadget?...
ok i hope you guys were just being sarcastic.
lmao, the airplane is in the air with its wheels wide open. Anyways the omnia HD is something to crave on, i was hoping for the idou to run the real show but then again...
Yes, because it really can take off without wheels!
Was there ever a SPB Mobile Shell 3.0 announcement? I remember seeing a video of it being demo'd on a Touch Diamond but I don't remember seeing an official announcement.
MWC was pretty boring this time around. Tegra did not materialize, 6.5 was just that--a .4 addition to winmo 6.1 (though i like the honeycomb), hardly any android talk, gsm pre not to be seen anywhere, hardly any good stuff from nokia. The only thing positive was Stantum's amazing resistive touch screen.It was plain mindblowing. I'm waiting for the day that will be on a device with the specs of the Omnia HD. Till then im saving me money.
I agree. This MWC needed a Tegra phone and a functioning Android Huawei phone.
For me the best news was TEGRA coming to Android, and the best phone was the Touch Pro 2.... if only it ran an OS that supported 3D acceleration and HD.
Wheres the link to a pic of the creepy mannequin girl?
hey the plane's got the engadget's "e"
must be done is photoshop i guess
THATS A BIG ASS PLANE!!!!!
Do you mean big-ass plane or big ass-plane? That's a big difference my friend!
These days at engadget, the line is blurring between sarcasm, people making fun of sarcasm with sarcasm, and plain idiocy.
I mean how many posts are we going to see about this D-UH OF COURSE PHOTOSHOPPED plane?
I hope at MWC 2010 we'll be able to say "Wow! Look how many Android smartphones came out since MWC 2009".
Seriously. Handset vendors need to realize smartphones are about software these days. Some prefer the iPhone OS, others prefer Android, Symbian, webOS, Blackberry, WinMo, etc.
Vendors should develop smartphone "platforms" that can run different mobile OSs and let consumers decide which OS they want for it. After all, the underlying hardware is pretty much the same.
e.g.
Omnia HD-A (Android)
Omnia HD-S (Symbian)
Omnia HD-W (WinMo)
Omnia HD-? (Other)
WAIT A MINUTE!
You go to the trouble to mention a creepy mannequin and you don't have a photo/video of it!?
Awww....
thank goodness it's over! now we can get back to news people actually care about
YAY no more phone news*crosses fingers*
Hands down, the Toshiba TG01 was the most impressive hardware at the show for me.
I went last year to GSM World Congress. I found it a provincial party, specially when the R&D director for EMEA of a fortune 500 company and I asked an official employee about directions to find a stand and he replied to us in Catalan again and again. I got that pissed that I told him if he could please speak in Deutsch, French, English or, provided that he probably never left his catalonian eden and probably doesnt' speak any of those languages, to try Spanish.
I latter made this issue publicly available on my company, and try to discourage any foreign would-be visitors to visit this fair if I have the chance. We would of course never attend a GSM World Congress in Catalonia again, and if we have to, we'll send teenagers on internships. This is not serious.
Thanks!