MWC 2014
Latest
Goophone took just two days to rip off the Galaxy S5
Goophone's a bit like a covers band that just happens to make knock-off smartphones. Not content with just plundering better artists' catalogs, the company has apparently managed to copy the Galaxy S5 in under two days. The Goophone S5, yep, has a 5-inch, 1,920 x 1,080 display, paired with a 2GHz octa-core MediaTek chip and 2GB RAM. Keep looking, and you'll find 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, dual-SIM slots, 32GB storage and a 2,800mAh battery, in addition to 13-and-5-megapixel rear and front cameras. It's available in white, black, gold or blue and is priced at $300, making it the ideal companion for your Lucci bag, Tammy Hilfinger shirt and Seanheiser headphones.
AT&T expands LTE roaming to 13 more countries
Mobile World Congress is in Spain, which is lucky, because today's the day that AT&T allows its users to use LTE while they're there. Following the deal with Rogers in Canada, 'Ma Bell has pushed out a list of 13 countries, including Japan, Russia and South Korea, where road warriors can now suck down super-fast data in peace. In order to make sure you're not going over on your plan, the the company has also launched a new travel app for iOS and Android devices that'll alert you if you get close to your cap. Someone should have brought MWC forward by a fortnight -- that way everyone could have used LTE while during the Winter Olympics.
Broadcom's new chip brings GPS to smartwatches without killing the battery
Mobile World Congress kicks off next week, so it's high time that the behind the scenes players showed off what'll linger beneath the aluminum and Gorilla Glass of next-generation devices. Broadcom is unveiling the BCM4771 GNSS SoC, a wittily named slab of silicon that promises to make the GPS units of smartwatches less power-hungry and more accurate than before. Thanks to its 40-nanometer construction and a new sensor hub that integrates everything into one package, the chip also claims to be much cheaper than the existing tech. It's pencilled in for a launch at the end of March, so hopefully we'll see wearables in the Fall boasting of a battery life that's longer than, say, an hour.
Samsung Galaxy S5 teaser hints at new privacy and fitness features
We're not mathematicians, but we're fairly sure that you can't multiply Life to the power of five. That hasn't stopped Samsung, however, from claiming as much on its latest MWC invite. The company's "back-to-basics" Galaxy S5 is expected to dominate the show, and this is the first official hint of what we can expect. The grid of nine icons are grouped by color, with Speed, Curiosity and Privacy in team blue and Outdoor, Style and Fitness in healthy green -- and yes, all are multiplied to the power of five. It'd be hasty to leap to any conclusions just yet, but perhaps we'll see Samsung beefing up device security in the wake of PRISM and, hopefully, a renewed focus on fitness.
