Posts with tag Mwc2009
Alcatel's not known for its high-end fare, and we wouldn't get our hopes up here, either -- in fact, the full touchscreen set is so low-end that there's nothing "full touchscreen" about it. As you can see here, the QVGA display on the OT-707 actually only takes up about three-quarters of the front, the remainder treated to a listless matte black plastic. Good news is it'll only run about 100 euros ($127), but you'll have to put up with GPRS -- yes, GPRS, not EDGE -- to use it. Moving one tiny rung down the luxury ladder at 95 euros, the OT-800 is a portrait QWERTY phone that'll be available in a variety of fun colors at launch; it seems that the keyboard's surprisingly usable, and the quadband EDGE radio means you could theoretically take it stateside if you were so inclined. No word on release dates or carriers, but these would make great prepaid offerings, wouldn't they?
ZTE's fancy concepts at MWC 2009

Gallery: ZTE's fancy concepts at MWC 2009
SIM Technology's U1 runs Android at VGA resolution, sort of

Quigo ad placement
General Mobile: "Mini And Sweat In My Hands"

LG shows off solar phone, battery cover at MWC
Proving (as usual) that it's not too big for a little tit-for-tat with its crosstown rival, LG showed its own concept solar phone at MWC this week to match up with Samsung's Blue Earth. The prototype LG handset doesn't have a name -- takes a whole team of high-priced consultants to christen a product like that, we'd wager -- but we do know that the slider can eke 3 minutes' worth of life out of a 10-minute charge in natural light. The thing looks like it was thrown together in a week, but hey, as long as it works, we know LG can take care of the design side of things by the time production rolls around.
Bye bye Barcelona and Mobile World Congress 2009

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
Quigo ad placement
LG affirms that 12 megapixel cameraphone is in the works
Here at MWC, the only cellphone maker to actually come forward with proof of a 12 megapixel phone was Sony Ericsson. Still, you know that everyone else is apt to follow suit as quickly as possible, and it seems that LG will be one of the first. In fact, said company "absolutely" has a 12 megapixeler in the works. That's according to Jeremy Newing, LG Mobile's head of marketing in the UK, who also proclaimed that the KS360 would be LG's first Android phone. In his words: "We'll very much be releasing a 12MP cameraphone. However, it's important that people realize when taking 12MP images, they'll be using huge amounts of data, and it will be more difficult to do things like send such files." Honestly, we're a bit tired of the megapixel race -- get an optical zoom onto a slim cellphone, and then we'll talk.
[Thanks, Jimb]
[Thanks, Jimb]
Vodafone pulls a mini KDDI, launches 5 sets

Aside form the Android powered Magic, Vodafone also launched a pretty big handful of feature phones this week: the Vodafone 835 (from top left), 736, 735, 235, and the 135. The 835 is Voda's first set for consumers with GPS added specifically for its Find and Go nav, 3G, and a 2.4-inch display. The 736 shines by being affordable, also features a decent 2-inch display, 2 megapixel camera, Google Maps, and will ship in rose, white and silver with its twin the 735 getting black and only on pre paid. Rounding out the offering are the 235, a 2G set with things like FM radio,a 1.5 -inch color screen, and the really low specced, but rather nice looking 135, with a 2-line black and white display meant for emerging markets. Huge gallery of them all posin' like they really mean it after the break.
Sonar hopes to power social featurephones, we get a demo
As with any trade show, flashy, high-end products have a tendency to steal the lion's share of the spotlight at MWC -- but the fact is, featurephones still outsell traditional smartphones by an order of magnitude. Companies like INQ are betting the farm on the belief that today's ultra-connected generation of Twitter, Myspace, and Facebook users are ultimately going to pick fashionable, cheap, easy-to-use handsets over the complexity of an iPhone, G1, or Omnia. There's something to be said for that -- most people don't know the model of their own phone, after all, and have no interest in learning how to download and install an app, let alone learn an entire mobile operating system. Plus, for the youngest members of this profitable group, there's a lot of price sensitivity -- smartphones are typically out of reach.
If startup Sonar has its way, that's where its new platform comes in. The idea was to fundamentally rethink the way average consumers -- you know, the ones who are plugged into three, four, or fourteen social networks and don't know a G1 from a P1i -- use a phone to communicate, and they're ready to show off their efforts for the first time here at MWC. We had an opportunity to sit down with Sonar's founders this week for a tour of the system, and we're pretty stoked about what we saw. Read on.
If startup Sonar has its way, that's where its new platform comes in. The idea was to fundamentally rethink the way average consumers -- you know, the ones who are plugged into three, four, or fourteen social networks and don't know a G1 from a P1i -- use a phone to communicate, and they're ready to show off their efforts for the first time here at MWC. We had an opportunity to sit down with Sonar's founders this week for a tour of the system, and we're pretty stoked about what we saw. Read on.
INQ¹ wins "Best Mobile Handset or Device" at MWC, golf claps

INQ's social networking monster took away top honors at MWC with a win for best mobile device or handset at the show. Taking a gander at the competition, it is the who's who of high end stuff including the T-Mobile G1, BlackBerry Storm, LG KS360, and Nokia's E-71. So why, you ask, could the admittedly middle tier set win out against what seems like some pretty serious -- well, Storm aside -- competition? INQ won because of how they've enabled Facebook deep integration, focus on your contacts as living, breathing, and ever-changing entities, great pricing, and a compelling user interface. We'd set a meeting to catch up with INQ at MWC hoping to see how things are moving along post-launch and talk about the future. Down the road was the bit we were most interested in, and lucky for us, INQ was willing to share some secrets. Let's just say with QWERTY confidence, the future looks absolutely stunning, both in form and potential. Congrats INQ, way to win an award. Gallery of the newly-crowned INQ¹ after the break.
LG Renoir KC910i gets refreshed, and we get it on camera

So out of the blue we hear that the LG Renoir KC910 has become the KC910i. A quick inspection of LG's booth shows this as true, so we just had to find one off the tether to compare with the original -- and a kindly employee's own KC910 was donated for the cause. So what's new? Well, so far as we can see, the housing's changed the tiniest bit in the mechanical iris that protects the lens is no longer there, the handsets is now very black, and if anything, the newer is a hair thinner. Those aside, see if you can't spot some differences in the pics and vid that follow the break, think of it as a game.
Elektrobit's satellite-GSM hybrid smartphone reference design in the flesh

LG GD900 eyes-on, now with video

We did our best to get the LG GD900 (on many, many occasions) out of its enclosure into the not so fresh Mobile World Conference showroom air, but nothing doing. LG seems content to keep it in its glassy cage for the time being, though, they'll need to let us see it and its mysterious keypad at some point, right? The "show" here is that the keypad is crafted, poured, or whatever from some sort of clear plastic material and then we assume something like a thin transparent membrane is applied on top of that to register the key presses. Whatever the case, you can get a feel for the magic with a video replete with blinking lights and electronic sliding action. Enjoy this little slice of Vegas after the break.
Gallery: LG GD900 eyes-on, now with video
Palm Pre's Touchstone charger requires matte, soft-touch battery cover

Yahoo! to distribute, cheer for Opera Mini
Maybe we're just imagining things, but it sure seems like a lot of deals are going down here in Barcelona. The latest partnership to arise from the middle of nowhere is this one, a tie-up between Yahoo! and Opera that will see the search engine company distribute and pimp the Opera Mini web browser to its many Yahoo! Mobile users. Under the deal, Yahoo! is expected to begin distributing Opera Mini via Yahoo! Mobile (gratis, of course) and also as a standalone download from Yahoo!'s mobile Web sites in the near future. A curious matchup, yeah? Should be interesting to see where this leads -- we get the feeling this is just the beginning of something much, much bigger. Or maybe just bigger.
[Via phonescoop]
[Via phonescoop]



























