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SK Telecom Smart Learning robots add twist to interactive learning, we go hands-on (video)
They aren't quite up to Johnny Number Five's level of fame and stature, but SK Telecom's new "Smart Learning" robots have something it (he?) never could have dreamed of: the power of a smartphone. The mechanical critters are designed to be next-gen educational tools for our posterity, and only function thanks to a Bluetooth-connected Android handset which serves as both the brains of the operation and the interactive display. We saw the robots in action last week at Mobile World Congress in a few different scenarios: a board game, a reading comprehension tool and other clever learning activities. This is just scraping the surface, because an SDK is in the works that will allow developers to find plenty of ways to take advantage of the tech. The robots are still prototypes for now, but we should expect to see them arrive in Korea within the next six months. Check out a video of the little guys in action after the break.
Engadget Interview: Richard Yu, Huawei chairman of devices
Countless smartphones were announced at last week's Mobile World Congress, but Huawei's showing was one of the more intriguing at the event. The company has some incredibly lofty goals, intending to ditch its past reputation as an ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) focused on budget devices and embracing an exciting future as an industry leader. Since such a thing doesn't happen overnight, what's the vendor's strategy to come out on top in the coming years? We briefly caught up with Richard Yu, Huawei's chair of devices, and picked his brain on some of his company's ambitions.
Acer Allegro hands-on at MWC 2012
We covered Acer's two Android devices at last week's show, but what in the world happened to its Windows Phone? It's easy to forget about the Acer Allegro because we haven't seen it show up beyond the reaches of Asia and France, but we hunted one down at Mobile World Congress and snapped a few shots for posterity. Intended to tempt bargain hunters, the device offers a 3.6-inch WVGA display, 1GHz single-core Qualcomm MSM8255 CPU, 8GB internal storage, 5MP rear camera with LED flash and a 1,300mAh battery. It also features Fast Charge, which provides the Allegro with a full battery two and a half times faster than a standard Acer. On the unfortunate side, it's also 13mm thick and lacks a front-facing shooter, which may be enough for the hardcore Windows Phone fan to lose interest. But if you're still reading on, feel free to gaze upon our pics below.%Gallery-149195%Sean Cooper contributed to this hands-on.For more coverage of MWC 2012, visit our event hub!
Adéu, Barcelona: Mobile World Congress 2012 comes to a close
The mobile world's biggest players have exhausted themselves again, taking us with them in the process. While HTC and Nokia seemed to grab a lot of the attention, Samsung stayed quiet -- at least for now -- there was still a veritable pile of devices and news to cover from everyone else. Let's take a look at what caught our attention during the week.
HTC unveils new APIs, opens Beats, lockscreen and more to devs
APIs, as essential as they are to our modern computing experience, aren't the sort of thing we usually get too excited about. HTC is walking away from Mobile World Congress having announced four new application interfaces though, that have piqued our interest. First up, and the most spotlight hogging of the bunch, is Beats. Soon enough any music app, game or what-have-you will be able to take advantage of the bass-boosting software equalizer. Perhaps more interesting, if a little less headline grabbing, is the ability to integrate your app with the Sense lockscreen -- a feature we'd love to see come to stock Android. Now lockscreen widgets wont be limited to Google's own music app... so long as you've got an HTC. The manufacturer is also prepping a MediaLink API for streaming content over wireless HDMI. Now the One X is looking even better than before, huh?
Neonode zForce uses infrared LEDs to measure pressure, replace capacitive touch (hands-on)
Smartphone fanatics may recall the Neonode N2 -- a rather unique recall-plagued feature phone that ultimately resulted in the demise of the company's handset arm. Neonode is still a major player in the portable device market, but may be more familiar to OEMs that employ its infrared LED-based touch technology, rather than consumers that utilize it in e-readers, with tablets soon joining the mix. zForce offers several advantages over its capacitive-based counterparts -- it's incredibly responsive and accurate, and can now measure the intensity (or pressure) of your touch, and not just position. There's also a built-in proximity sensor that can be added to any device for a few pennies, which is considerably less than traditional offerings. However, because Neonode uses an array of infrared LEDs and photodiodes, a raised bezel is required to accommodate the additional hardware, making it impossible to integrate a flush display.We went hands-on with an updated smartphone-sized embed of the company's zForce technology that not only works with any object, such as a finger, pen or a paint brush, but also recognizes both the pressure of your implement and also its size, so a larger paint brush has broader strokes than a smaller one, for example. Because the device can operate at 500Hz all the way up to 1,000Hz (refreshing 1,000 times per second), it appears to be incredibly responsive, with an almost unnoticeable delay between the time you touch the pad and when your input is displayed on the screen. A second demo unit, called Stargate, offers dual-layer touch with support for 3D control -- you can literally reach inside the unit to manipulate an object. There's no word on when this latest tech will make its way into devices, or how exactly we'll see it used, but you really need to see it in action to get a feel for how it works -- jump past the break for our video hands-on.%Gallery-149305%
Texas Instruments dual WiFi module lets your tablet connect to your TV and the web simultaneously (hands-on)
Texas Instruments is helping to lead the way when it comes to mobile computing -- when we want an early look at what's to come months and even years down the road, TI is always one of our first stops. At this year's Mobile World Congress, the semiconductor leader wasn't shy about showing off its latest innovations, including those from its manufacturing and design partners. Today's demo focused on wireless video streaming -- a concept that engineers are approaching from every imaginable angle, and that is bound to make its way to consumers in a very big way within the next few years. TI's flavor is based on WiFi, and offers a dual-connection solution, letting you pair a tablet with a TV using peer-to-peer while also creating a second link between the tablet and a wireless router for Internet.We took the tech for a spin using one of TI's development platform tablets and an external WiFi dongle (shipping versions will be integrated), and everything worked as described, though the video stream was noticeably choppy and compressed. TI reps explained that they dialed down the bitrate in order to maintain a connection at the MWC expo hall, which, as you might imagine, probably had a wireless signal density greater than any other room in the world. The tablet we saw was running a very slick context-aware UI that displays one of three home screens based on your current location -- there's one for work (that displays your calendar), one for home (media and home automation controls) and another for travel (restaurant reviews and weather). Pushing content from the tablet to the TV seemed to be seamless, and while both the UI and wireless functionality may appear to be ready to make their way into your home, TI isn't making any announcements about availability. There's no need to wait for a teaser, however, which you'll find just past the break.%Gallery-149212%
Always Innovating HDMI Android dongle gets an ICS update, we swing by for a taste (video)
Always Innovating appears to be living up to its name, making significant progress on that clever HDMI Android dongle that we first heard of way back at CES. Now the company's TI OMAP4-based television companion is rockin' some Ice Cream Sandwich madness, drawing curious Mobile World Congress attendees into the Texas Instruments booth for a look. We happened upon the device on the last day of the show, and we couldn't help but be impressed. The premise here is quite simple: your "dumb TV" (i.e. one that isn't Internet-enabled) gives up one HDMI and one USB port (for power), in return connecting you to the wonderful world of Android 4.0. Think web browsing, tweeting, gaming (yes, even Angry Birds), video streaming -- that same experience you'll get with any Android tablet can now be had on your aging flat-screen TV. Always Innovating isn't feeling inspired enough to take the lead on manufacturing, instead licensing the technology to third parties, but with some agreements signed and others on the way, this ICS solution on a stick may be hitting stores just in time to become this holiday season's ultimate stocking stuffer. Pricing is of course up to the manufacturers, but TI reps suggested that we might see these things pop up later this year in the $50-99 range, finally making Google on every TV a much more reasonable proposition. Care to take a gander at this stick-based wunderkind? Jump past the break for our hands-on.%Gallery-149208%
More specs of the Acer CloudMobile revealed, we take a second look (video)
We can't say it was necessarily love at first sight, but a second passover certainly helped our heart grow fonder. In our first hands-on of the Acer CloudMobile, a phone with a product design award under its belt, we weren't completely convinced that it was worthy of such a prize. However, we were given the opportunity to spend a significant amount of time with the device and previously unknown specs to go along with it. Here's what we discovered during our reacquaintance.%Gallery-149040%
Polaroid Spectrum tablet family hands-on
Polaroid hasn't got much more than Lady Gaga going for it at the moment and even that partnership is questionably fruitful at best. So, when we stopped by the company's booth here at MWC to check out its Spectrum line of Android tablets, our bar was already set quite low. Turns out, there's room for it to drop even lower as that family of 7-, 8- and 9.7-inch slates seems more of a KIRF attempt than true product line from a former imaging heavyweight.Which brings us to a very curious spec given the company's mission statement: the rear camera on what we presume is its 10-inch flagship is capable of a measly VGA resolution, despite indicating 2 megapixels. It's a baffling hardware miss and could've been the one bright spot amongst the cheap plastic build and software experience saddling these tabs. On a minor upswing, the OS across the capacitive tabs is stock ICS, with Froyo relegated to the resistive ones. Performance is sluggish and uneven at best considering the array of processors and clock speeds employed: from a 1.5GHz CPU in the auto-stereoscopic 7-incher to an 800MHz processor for the lower-end units to a 1GHz ARM11 in the 9.7-inch, TouchPad-like slab. It's a wonder the outfit even bothered with category, as the entirety of this lineup smacks of a half-hearted stab. You can check out the full array of lackluster tabs in our gallery below.%Gallery-149168%Mat Smith contributed to this report.
Eric Schmidt yaks it up at MWC, talks about the future like it's 1955
If you've been looking for an excuse to start using Chrome, Eric Schmidt is here to remind you, "it's free." Well, free, fast, secure and of course, on Android. After a quick demo of new Android Chrome app, Schmidt took the stage at Mobile World Congress to dream up a future of holographic projectors, driverless cars and a (Android powered) smartphone in every pocket. In short, Google's head honcho has technological expectations that make Back to the Future part II look modest. See the optimistic spiel for yourself up top, or hit the source link below to watch it on YouTube.
Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus hands-on (video)
Really, Samsung? The Ace 2, Mini 2, S Advance and now, the Ace Plus? It's a wonder anyone at the company can still keep track. Unfortunately, this particular Android offshoot is a bit of a stinker, saddled with a pitiful 3.65-inch 480 x 320 display that does the opposite of the usual, saturated OLED-impress, offering no other spec distraction from its lower pixel density. Like its aforementioned cousins, the device runs a TouchWiz skin atop Android Gingerbread 2.3.6, powered by a single 1GHz processor that does an acceptable job moving things along without that essential dual-core briskness. And while Sammy's plastic builds are normally balanced out by superior software performance, here the chintzy look and feel of the unit and its overgrown silver trim further confirm its place as a budget entry. For now, the phone appears to be an overseas-only affair, as it's already hit global markets this past January. Follow on past the break for a video tour of this forgettable pint-sizer.%Gallery-149098%
Samsung Galaxy S Advance hands-on (video)
It's getting so you need a map to traverse Samsung's mobile Galaxy, but that's not stopping the outfit from cranking out handsets -- no matter how minuscule the tweaks. Announced back in January, the Galaxy S Advance falls solidly on the middle of the OEM's consumer scale, delivering a speedy 1GHz dual-core experience on a build of Android 2.3.6. Naturally, the device comes outfitted with TouchWiz, but that skin doesn't get in the way of the apparent snappy performance, as we noticed navigation, transitions and browsing all carried on without a hiccup. As you might've guessed, the saturated, 4-inch 800 x 480 display is of the Super AMOLED variety, so you won't have much difficulty viewing the screen from a variety of angles. And while the construction is a typical plastic enclosure with subtly textured back, the combination of its light weight and thin profile conspire to make this one attractive purchase. A mostly global roll out's already underway, though sadly, the US isn't included on that select list. Peep the gallery below for some additional shots and, while you're at it, check out the video after the break.%Gallery-149090%
Hands-on with the Acer Liquid Glow at MWC 2012 (video)
Given the phone's name, you'd think the Acer Liquid Glow would be best shown off in an infomercial, but in reality it's the next in line for the long-running smartphone series. The Glow hasn't been quite as popular as the CloudMobile at this week's MWC, and for good reason -- its bigger brother won an award in product design, after all. But that doesn't mean it should have to suffer the anguish of living in the shadows. The Liquid Glow is quite a bit smaller, offering a 3.7 inch WVGA display, 5MP rear camera, 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon S2 CPU and 512MB of RAM. The device will run on its own customized ICS ROM at launch, but it was using stock Android ICS this week. The UI, we've been told, will be lightweight with a homegrown tweaks to the lock screen, status bar, messages and the phone dialpad.The Liquid Glow is just a tad thick, but we enjoyed how it felt when holding it as a result of the phone's curves matching the contours of our hand. If you have large hands or just crave a device with a bigger screen, this will probably be a little too small for you. In fact, the handset feels like it's smaller than it really is -- for those who prefer tinier phones but still desire as big a display as possible, this may be a rather good compromise. Its overall design scheme actually reminds us a lot of the CloudMobile, especially given those curves and Acer's signature arcs found on the top and bottom of the device. There are some major differences in terms of overall design, such as the inclusion of capacitive navigation buttons on the Glow as well as the lack of a soft-grip textured back, but the family resemblance is certainly there. We didn't notice any lags in software performance, but we'll need to check back when production-quality firmware is available at its launch. All in all, we think the Liquid Glow will wind up being a worthy competitor as long as it's reasonably priced. No availability date has been set, but we should expect to see it in stores sometime this summer. Our video and image gallery will guide you through the radiant goodness below.%Gallery-149013%
ZTE PF 100 hands-on at Mobile World Congress 2012 (video)
ZTE's been making some slow, but steady progress as it transitions from no name, white label manufacturer to more of a well-known brand. Aiding the company in that exact mission is one of its latest tablets, the PF 100, shown off by NVIDIA at this year's Mobile World Congress. The apparently stock Android 4.0.3 slate packs a Tegra 3 CPU inside and 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 display. The unit we saw is far from a finished production model, given the fact that it was literally bursting apart at the seams and appeared as if it'd been roughly handled. We imagine the final product will be a bit more hardy than the one we had in-hand, but that shoddiness aside, it's still a hulk of a tablet.Indeed you won't find the design at all charming; it's rough, thick and inelegant with a chunky bezel on front and mix of hard, grooved rubber and plastic on back. All of the ports and hardware keys are relegated to the top edge of the device with slots for both SIM and microSD covered by a single flap. There's also a dual camera setup, as well as stereo speakers and a proprietary dock connection on the base. As you might expect, performance on the tablet was incredibly fast thanks to its 1.5GHz quad-core processor and the one game we demoed loaded quickly, showcasing responsive controls. No further details about pricing, markets or availability have been announced at this time, but we expect those important tidbits to be forthcoming in the weeks ahead. You can check out a hardware tour of the tablet in the gallery below and be sure to jump past the break for a full video walkthrough.%Gallery-149030%
Myriad Updates enables social networking via USSD (hands-on video)
You may not be familiar with USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) but there's a good chance you've used it before -- by dialing *225# (or something similar) to check the balance on your account. Just like SMS, it's a protocol baked into every GSM phone. Unlike SMS, it allows session-based, real-time communication between a handset and an operator's USSD gateway -- without the store and forward mechanism required for text messaging. Basically, it's a simple way to enable data connectivity on phones without deploying an actual data network and while it's pretty slow, it may be monetized. We met with Myriad's VP of Business Development Olivier Bartholot at Mobile World Congress who gave us a demo of Myriad Updates, a solution based on the company's Xumii back-end that delivers social networking services like Facebook, Twitter and Flickr to any GSM handset via USSD. This means no data plan is required and there's no app to install or cumbersome SMS-based UI to deal with. Myriad's partnering with Vodafone, Orange and Mobinil to provide social networking access to customers in emerging markets who may be using very low-end devices (like the Nokia C1 above) with limited or no data functionality. Hands-on video and PR after the break.
Tianyu K-Touch Treasure V8 hands-on at Mobile World Congress 2012 (video)
Ever heard of Tianyu? You probably haven't, but that's why the Chinese manufacturer left most of the heavy PR lifting for its ICS-equipped, quad-core phone to NVIDIA at this year's Mobile World Congress 2012. Details on this Tegra 3-based Android handset are admittedly scarce for the time being, but from what we were able to glean, the 4.3-incher should be able to hold its own in the high-end smartphone market. Aside from an 8 megapixel shooter with single LED flash on its back and the aforementioned CPU clocked at 1.5GHz, there's not much else to divulge spec-wise.In terms of build, the design is a mixed bag. From afar, the Treasure V8 appears sleek and even (dare we say it?) sexy, but once the unit's in hand, you'll notice the cheapness of the glossy, white plastic enclosure. A metal trim borders the device lending to the mix of high and low quality materials used in its construction, but actually makes the phone uncomfortable to hold. The screen also tapers in towards the edges, leaving a ridge to form that's unpleasant in the hand. It doesn't appear that this is the final build of the product and it could even wind up becoming sleeker as it approaches an indeterminate launch, so there's room for improvement. Of course, pricing and availability for China are also unknowns, but we have a feeling that could very well be resolved in the coming weeks. Check out the gallery below and head on past the break for a brief video tour.
Doro PhoneEasy 740 smartphone hands-on at MWC 2012
Don't recognize the name? If so, it's probably because Doro is a completely new player in the smartphone industry, as it doesn't necessarily quench the appetite of power users. The vendor primarily focuses on providing the elderly with simple handsets, which in the past equated to offering nothing but feature phones. Doro's got a few new tricks up its sleeve which may be the most ridiculously easy transition from old-school to new-school yet. Their creation, with a title nearly as simple as the device itself, is called the PhoneEasy 740. It's a phone running essentially a forked Android OS with an incredibly user-friendly launcher -- called the Doro Experience -- that consists of only a few major functions, such as phone, messages, email and pictures. As for the handset itself, you're looking at a meager spec sheet: 5MP rear camera, 3.2-inch HVGA shooter, four hours of continuous talk time, FM radio, 512MB of RAM and 4GB internal memory. The software itself isn't fully functional yet, so we were only able to scroll through the main menu. We're anticipating the device to be ready in time for a summer release in markets around the world.Speaking of the Doro Experience, the UI's going to be available on tablets this spring as an optional Android launcher. Fortunately the software can be paired with a desktop-specific app -- the Doro Experience Manager -- that gives the user the ability to remotely customize and manage the device. This is actually quite ideal, due to the fact that it's not limited to a proprietary Doro-made tablet. We haven't heard details on pricing and availability, but we'll get that information as it comes in. For now, anyone intrigued by the idea should hightail it to our gallery below.
ELVIIS Volvo C30 EV charges from any standard outlet, bills the driver (hands-on)
The electric vehicle is still a fresh enough concept that the issue of redirecting the bill when filling up at a public outlet or a friend's house is of little concern. But once EVs gain more traction and the cost of electricity during that monthly dinner party starts to run upwards of 50 bucks, you'll definitely take notice. ELVIIS, a research collaboration between Ericsson and the Viktoria Institute in Sweden, may be the solution. Instead of pulling power from the grid blindly and billing the outlet's owner, the system provides driver and vehicle information to a server before charging begins, then redirects the cost for power consumed to whatever account you've registered with the vehicle, alleviating any concern about unexpected electricity bills. ELVIIS can theoretically serve other purposes, allowing you to select the least-expensive energy source, for example, or set the car to wait to charge until late-night, when rates are lower.We jumped into the passenger seat of one of five existing ELVIIS cars -- built around an all-electric Volvo C30 -- and poked around the charging interface. The project isn't fully operational just yet, and was running in demo mode so there's no way to verify that it works as described, but it definitely appears to be solid, with Ericsson providing financial and development support. Eventually, it will use the car's GPS to identify nearby power outlets -- for now, you need to enter a specific outlet ID. There's also an Android app that allows you to monitor and reschedule charging, so if you programmed your car to be completely charged by 7AM but realized that you need to leave at 6, you can make sure you're covered without getting out of bed. But you don't need to go anywhere to see it in action -- just click on past the break.
T-Mobile HTC One S hands-on at MWC 2012
You know that One phone announced by HTC on Sunday? Well, it's actually a series of three phones, and we already know that a couple of them (at least) are going to be landing on the shelves of your friendly American corner retail store. We got a look at one of them today -- specifically, the One S destined for T-Mobile. We conjecture that this will be offered as Magenta's premium device, and it's not hard to see why. Its owners will enjoy nearly all of the same privileges as every other user around the world: a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 (Krait) CPU, 1GB of RAM, a durable and scratch-resistant ceramic unibody build and 8MP rear camera with f/2.0 and LED flash.In nearly every respect, the model we saw was the same as the global version we got acquainted with just two days ago. The only exceptions were found in T-Mo's choice of color (more of a gun metal grey flanked by light black on the top and bottom) and the obligatory carrier-branded bloatware. The apps aren't going anywhere, of course, but T-Mobile was quick to point out that the hardware and software aren't final. We believe it -- evidenced by the lack of any carrier branding on the phone -- but we can't be sure exactly how different it'll look by the time it comes hot off the press. Either way, we still captured a few images to keep your level of intrigue up to the max.
