Mwc2010
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Jabra Clipper stereo Bluetooth headset gets official
Well, it just wouldn't be MWC without a few Bluetooth headsets to go along with the new phones now, would it? Thankfully, Jabra has come through with its new Clipper headset which, like Jabra's BT3030, packs a standard 3.5mm jack to let you pair it with your own headphones (although Jabra also supplies a pair of its own noise-canceling buds). Otherwise, you'll get some full, discreetly hidden controls on the clip itself, and a promised six hours of talk time and eight days of standby. No official word of a North America release just yet, but this one is expected to run £39 in the UK (or about $60).
Dell Mini 5 will run 'something newer' than Android 1.6 at launch
We've been able to confirm in a chat with Dell spokesfolks this evening that the lovely Mini 5 won't ship with the Android 1.6 build (also known as Donut) that we've seen so far -- instead, it'll be running "something newer." They wouldn't say what that newer version would be -- and to be fair, we're not sure they even knew since Android is always a moving target on account of Google's breakneck development pace -- but it was specifically mentioned that Flash compatibility was something they had on their radar, suggesting that something really, really fresh might be needed. Then again, they also mentioned that the giant phone / MID / thingamajig is going to be totally upgradeable, something that fellow Android skinners HTC and Motorola have both had to reassure the Android-buying public over. How this all shakes out remains to be seen, but let's put it this way: Eclair, at minimum, seems to be a lock by the time the Mini 5 is on a shelf near you.%Gallery-85591%
Acer Aspire One 532G first to feature NVIDIA Ion 2 switchable graphics
Well here's one we didn't expect to come out of MWC. Acer decided to throw some netbook news into its Liquid E press conference with the 10.1-inch Aspire One 532G -- the first netbook with NVIDIA's Ion 2. Not withstanding the addition of the HDMI port and HD display, the Pine Trail netbook has the same chassis as the previously reviewed 532h, but inside it's a whole different story -- its 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, GMA 3150 GPU graphics, 2GB of RAM and 320GB hard drive will be joined by a discrete NVIDIA GPU. As confirmed by the press release below, it will use NVIDIA's new Optimus automatic switching technology, though it appears Acer is holding out for NVIDIA to officially launch the platform at CeBit to reveal details of the GPU -- but a GeForce G310 seems likely from the rumors. The high-def capable netbook should be available in March, but we'll be listening for a price and more news on this one. In the meantime, hit the break for a relaxing hands-on video and the full PR.
Motorola MOTOROI hands-on with video
The Motorola MOTOROI is definitely a stunner, but the looks are almost surpassed by just how amazing it feels, it glows with quality -- think Milestone, but somehow nicer. The display and UI on this Android 2.0 set are right on, with no lag to speak of -- in our really limited hanging-from-a-tether-being-jostled take on it -- while flipping about the OS. Sadly, like most other sets on display, the internet wasn't going anywhere for us to really take it for a spin. But, hey, the MOTOROI is apparently headed to the US in March, and we're without a doubt going to get a little more in-depth with this phone just as soon as we're able.%Gallery-85536%
Toshiba TG02 hands-on
We were all over Toshiba's drop dead thin and gorgeous TG01 last year, so naturally a chance to peek at the rumored TG02 first hand was something we couldn't pass up. Very little is new here, the touchscreen technology has seen resistive swapped with capacitive, the device has become a wee bit smaller while retaining the monster 4.1-inch display, and some 3D touches have been added to the SPB Mobile Shell-skinned Windows Mobile 6.5 OS. Like its older sibling, the handset is still a thing of beauty and the 1GHz Snapdragon does make it all purr along very nicely -- and while the UI isn't really a custom one -- we like the ability to flip between pages kinda like iPhone and Android do now. All in, this is a pretty decent effort, and removing some of the pain that was the resistive display can only make the TG02 better. Follow on for a tour and a gallery of shots. %Gallery-85570%
Toshiba K01 hands-on
Toshiba's K01 is exactly what we would've liked to have seen as a complementary set to the TG01. Happily, Toshiba's given us a QWERTY option with the new model, added capacitive touch, and swapped out the earlier display for a swanky new AMOLED version. Key feel is a bit rough on the outside keys -- shift, delete, enter -- but this device still isn't final, and with all that real estate, the layout feels just great. In fact, the devices being shown on the floor are just looping a demo video and not really showing off the UI as seen above; we couldn't get any film of it, so the pics we got will have to suffice. We like what they've done here -- in fact, this could make an excellent day to day set if battery life proves good enough. We also can't help but notice the three buttons (soft touch) across the bottom that could quite easily be skinned for Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 Series, could they not? A bunch of pics are just below.%Gallery-85576%
OmniVision brings RAW shooting to mobiles with new 5 megapixel sensor
It seems that the megapixel race in the mobile arena has slowed (temporarily, at least), but it's not like innovation has completely ground to a halt. OmniVision, which made waves around a month ago with its 14.6 megapixel CMOS sensor, has just announced what may be the most significant introduction in the cameraphone space... ever. The 1/4-inch, 5 megapixel RAW sensor is said to offer up best-in-class low light sensitivity (680-mV/lux-sec), and it can also capture 720p video at 60 frames per second or 1080p at 30 frames per second. The real kicker, however, is its ability to shoot in RAW, which would give cameraphone shooters a much greater range of editing options when it came time to tweak before hitting Flickr. We're told that the chip is sampling now and should hit mass production this July, and we'd be lying if we said we weren't falling over ourselves to get ahold of a RAW-capable smartphone.
Microsoft offers up lengthy Windows Phone 7 Series video walkthrough
Not quite sure if you've heard, but Microsoft launched a new mobile operating system today. Crazy, right? Unfortunately, it'll be a few weeks seasons still before you can actually wrap your palms around an actual Windows Phone 7 Series device, but the folks over at MSDN aren't holding back. They've hosted up a 22 minute video walkthrough to explain every nook and crannie of the fresh OS, and if you're one of those "impatient" types, you owe it to yourself to hit the source link and mash play. Grab a beverage first, though. [Thanks, Nathan]
Motorola Quench hands-on with video
We had a quick tour today of Motorola's new Quench -- or CLIQ XT as it'll be called on T-Mobile USA when it launches next month -- and for an eighth outing in the Android world, it's pretty slick. Sure it lacks keyboard, but the touchscreen is pretty responsive and now includes Swype input on the virtual keyboard -- and we've found with a bit of practice and patience, Swype can be really fast. The soft touch plastic rear of the set can be removed to slip on over covers and shows off the 5 megapixel camera with auto focus and dual LED flash. Follow on for a quick video tour of the Blur-powered beast and some pics.%Gallery-85534%
Windows Phone 7 Series hands-on and impressions (updated with video)
Forget everything you know about Windows Mobile. Seriously, throw the whole OS concept in a garbage bin or incinerator or something. Microsoft has done what would have been unthinkable for the company just a few years ago: started from scratch. At least, that's how things look (and feel) with Windows Phone 7 Series. This really is a completely new OS -- and not just Microsoft's new OS, it's a new smartphone OS, like webOS new, like iPhone OS new. You haven't used an interface like this before (well, okay, if you've used a Zune HD then you've kind of used an interface like this). Still, 7 Series goes wider and deeper than the Zune by a longshot, and it's got some pretty intense ideas about how you're supposed to be interacting with a mobile device. We had a chance to go hands-on with the dev phone before today's announcement, and hear from some of the people behind the devices, and here's our takeaway. (And don't worry, we've got loads of pictures and video coming, so keep checking this post for the freshest updates). First the look and feel. The phones are really secondary here, and we want to focus on the interface. The design and layout of 7 Series' UI (internally called Metro) is really quite original, utilizing what one of the designers (Albert Shum, formerly of Nike) calls an "authentically digital" and "chromeless" experience. What does that mean? Well we can tell you what it doesn't mean -- no shaded icons, no faux 3D or drop shadows, no busy backgrounds (no backgrounds at all), and very little visual flair besides clean typography and transition animations. The whole look is strangely reminiscent of a terminal display (maybe Microsoft is recalling its DOS roots here) -- almost Tron-like in its primary color simplicity. To us, it's rather exciting. This OS looks nothing like anything else on the market, and we think that's to its advantage. Admittedly, we could stand for a little more information available within single views, and we have yet to see how the phone will handle things like notifications, but the design of the interface is definitely in a class of its own. Here's a few takeaways on what it's like to use (and some video)... %Gallery-85559% %Gallery-85564%
Acer launches neoTouch P300 / P400, beTouch E110 / E400 smartphones
If you thought the (admittedly weak) Liquid e was all Acer had in store for Mobile World Congress, you'd be badly mistaken. We've got a foursome of other smartphones on tap, so we won't waste any time breaking 'em down. Up first is the neoTouch P300 and neoTouch P400, each of which ship with Windows Mobile 6.5.3. The P300 gets a luscious 3.2-inch WQVGA touch panel, slide-out QWERTY keyboard (backlit, no less!), WiFi and a March ship date, while the May-bound P400 packs a 3.2-inch HVGA touchscreen, 600MHz Qualcomm 7227 CPU, WiFi and a 3.2 megapixel camera. Moving on, there's the beTouch E110 (shipping in March in black and dark blue), complete with a 2.8-inch touch panel, Android, 3 megapixel camera, FM tuner and a 1,500mAh battery. Finally, the beTouch E400 touts Android 2.1, the same 600MHz power plant as on the P400, a 3.2-inch HVGA resistive touchscreen, smart LED lighting (acts as a message indicator) and an April ship date. Pricing remains a mystery on the whole lot, but we're hoping to learn more as we dig our heels in at the show. %Gallery-85601%
Lumigon T1, S1 and E1 Android smartphones offer a lovely blend of uniqueness and Scandinavian style
Straight out of Denmark comes a trio of additions to the ever-growing Android lineup, the result of "two years of top secret international development work" by Lumigon Corp. The first phones are the T1 and S1, both shipping before July, the latter of the two offering a sliding T9 keypad, both featuring Android 2.1, Freescale processors, 720p output over HDMI, FM tuning and broadcasting, and the handy ability to act as a universal remote. Next will be the E1, coming sometime later and offering a "unique navigation system and shape never experienced in mobile phones." It's so mind-blowingly beautiful that the company hasn't deemed your or our eyes capable of beholding such a wonder, so no pictures have been released just yet. Perhaps if we spend our days in devotional contemplation we'll be mentally prepared for its eventual release.
FLO TV storms automotive lots, FLO-EV gets launched and FLO smartbook apps surface
FLO TV may not have had the best Super Bowl commercial (not by a long shot, actually), but the fledgling mobile programming service is doing its darnedest to make some waves over in Barcelona. The biggest news is that Qualcomm will be on hand at MWC in order to showcase a FLO-enabled smartbook, a device that will purportedly bring together live television and live social networking updates -- something that would come in handy while watching the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, for example. In other, more international news, FLO-EV is being introduced, with Qualcomm describing it as the "next evolution of the FLO air interface." Finally, Audiovox has announced that an in-vehicle system based on FLO TV is now sweeping the nation, with Advent-branded solutions hitting up showroom accessory departments en masse. Now, if only these guys and gals could convince people to care about TV on-the-go...
Windows Phone 7 Series is official, and Microsoft is playing to win
Windows Phone 7 Series. Get used to the name, because it's now a part of the smartphone vernacular... however verbose it may seem. Today Microsoft launches one of its most ambitious (if not most ambitious) projects: the rebranding of Windows Mobile. The company is introducing the new mobile OS at Mobile World Congress 2010, in Barcelona, and if the press is anything to be believed, this is just the beginning. The phone operating system does away with pretty much every scrap of previous mobile efforts from Microsoft, from the look and feel down to the underlying code -- everything is brand new. 7 Series has rebuilt Windows Mobile from the ground up, featuring a completely altered home screen and user interface experience, robust Xbox LIVE and Zune integration, and vastly new and improved social networking tools. Gone is the familiar Start screen, now replaced with "tiles" which scroll vertically and can be customized as quick launches, links to contacts, or self contained widgets. The look of the OS has also been radically upended, mirroring the Zune HD experience closely, replete with that large, iconic text for menus, and content transitions which elegantly (and dimensionally) slide a user into and out of different views. The OS is also heavily focused on social networking, providing integrated contact pages which show status updates from multiple services and allow fast jumps to richer cloud content (such as photo galleries). The Xbox integration will include LIVE games, avatars, and profiles, while the Zune end of things appears to be a carbon copy of the standalone device's features (including FM radio). Besides just flipping the script on the brand, the company seems to be taking a much more vertical approach with hardware and user experience, dictating rigid specs for 7 Series devices (a specific CPU and speed, screen aspect ratio and resolution, memory, and even button configuration), and doing away with carrier or partner UI customizations such as Sense or TouchWiz. That's right -- there will be a single Windows Phone identity regardless of carrier or device brand. Those new phones will likely look similar at first, featuring a high res touchscreen, three front-facing buttons (back, start, and perhaps not shockingly, a Bing key), and little else. Carrier partnerships are far and wide, including AT&T, Deutsche Telekom AG, Orange, SFR, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telstra, T-Mobile USA, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone, while hardware partners include Dell, Garmin-Asus, HTC, HP, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Qualcomm. We're told that we likely won't get to see any third-party devices at MWC, though Microsoft is showing off dev units of unknown origin, and the first handsets are supposed to hit the market by the holidays of this year. We had chance to go hands-on with a device before the announcement, and we've got some detail to share on just what the experience is like, so click here to read our hands-on impressions (with lots of pics and video on the way!). %Gallery-85544% %Gallery-85542%
Live from Microsoft's Windows Phone press event at MWC 2010
We're in our seats and the show is about to begin. Hang tight! Everything is set to go at these times: 04:00AM - Hawaii 06:00AM - Pacific 07:00AM - Mountain 08:00AM - Central 09:00AM - Eastern 02:00PM - London 03:00PM - Paris 11:00PM - Tokyo
ST-Ericsson's U8500 brings dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 to the Android world
Can't get enough of hearing about implementations of ARM's Cortex-A9 MPCore processors? Good. ST-Ericsson's powerhouse U8500 system-on-chip has come a major step closer to appearing in mainstream devices with today's newly announced support for the Android operating system. Having optimized the OS to take advantage of Symmetric Multi Processing -- a method for extending battery life by sharing the load between the two processing cores and underclocking when necessary -- the partner company is now ready to start dropping these 1.2GHz dual-core beasts inside the next generation of smartphones. The claim is that you'll get all that additional power while sacrificing nothing, as devices based on the U8500 would maintain "the cost and power consumption characteristics of a traditional feature phone." We're promised built-in HDMI-out support, 1080p video recording, and 120 hours of audio playback or 12 hours of Full HD video off a 1,000mAh battery -- pledges we'd very much like to see fulfilled.
Texas Instruments unleashes new nHD DLP chipset, now with more pico
We didn't think it could be done, but the fine folks at Texas Instruments have just unleashed a tiny, tiny beast in their all new DLP pico chipset. The nHD DLP chipset, as it's known, boasts 640x360 resolution, a contrast ratio of "better than" 1,000:1, RGB LED wide color gamut (which should more faithfully reproduce colors), a new, and a lower powered processor. Overall, the package is 20 percent thinner and 50 percent lighter than the current generation DLP chipset. We hear the chipset should be available in the second quarter of 2010. The full press release is after the break.
Acer Liquid e rolls with Android 2.1, underclocked 768MHz Snapdragon
We knew good and well Acer was prepared to ship a few more Android phones in the new decade, and it's sure starting off on the right foot here in Barcelona. Just a few months after the original Liquid began to ship, along comes a minor upgrade in the Liquid e. The main improvements? For starters, Android 2.1 has supplanted Android 1.6 as the onboard operating system, but much to our displeasure, the Snapdragon in this bad boy is still underclocked to 768MHz. If you still have the will to care, you'll get to enjoy the 3.5-inch WVGA display, 5 megapixel camera (with AutoFocus), inbuilt GPS (or so says the specs sheet), 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, 256MB of RAM, an accelerometer, 3.5mm headphone jack and support for 7.2Mbps HSDPA. Head on past the break for the full release, but don't expect to find any pricing or release details.
Texas Instruments introduces ARM-based OMAP 4 SOC, Blaze development platform
Texas Instruments has just made its OMAP 4 system-on-chip official, and garnished the announcement with the first development platform for it, aggressively titled Blaze. We already caught a glimpse of it in prototype form earlier this month, and the thing is quite a whopper -- you can see it on video after the break and we doubt you'll accuse TI of placing form before function with this one. The company's focus will be on promoting innovative new modes of interaction, with touchless gesturing (or "in the air" gesture recognition) figuring strongly in its vision of the future. Looking at the SOC diagram (available after the break), you'll find that its grunt will be provided by the same ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore class of CPU that powers the iPad, though TI claims it will be the only mobile platform capable of outputting stereoscopic 720p video at 30fps per channel. Perhaps its uniqueness will come from the fact that nobody else cares for the overkill that is 3D-HD on a mobile phone, whether it requires glasses or not. It'll still be fascinating to see if anybody picks up the chunky Blaze idea and tries to produce a viable mobile device out of it -- we could be convinced we need multiple displays while on the move, we're just not particularly hot on the 90s style bezel overflow.
Samsung's Wave gets the preview treatment
What, our hands-on with video wasn't good enough for you? Fine, Eldar at Mobile-Review.com has a rather lengthy preview of Sammy's 1GHz Bada phone, the Wave, including so many macro photos you could probably make yourself a compelling reproduction of Mr. Murtazin's thumbprint. Impressions of this pre-production phone were very positive, coming to the conclusion that it will "definitely become one of the milestones not only for Samsung, but also the whole industry." Yeah, it's looking that good, but we do have to wonder just how warmly the buying community is going to welcome yet another mobile OS. We'll find out soon enough, as the phone is set for release in April.
