Haier came boldly at the MWC with various MIDs named “NetBooks”, a mini-laptop and not one but two Android phones. We’ve seen plenty of MIDs and netbooks so far so we’d be more interested in the Android phones. Weirdly enough the two devices are called the G1 and the G2 but we have no official specs so far. The phones do exist but there’s no telling when they’ll hit the market. One thing is clear though, Android will only grow this year as everyone is getting in on the action. We’ve seen future Android phones announced before and during the MWC, so all we have to do is sit and wait.

Please See Engadget for Further Details.

Tags: Android, Google, Haier, Laptops, MID, Mobile Software, MWC, netbook, Other Brands, Portable Devices

It’s going to take either a lot of alcohol or just the right amount of brain surgery before I buy a wrist phone, but that’s just me and there will always be someone out there who would want to chatter on their watches.  LG has done it already and there’s even one from the Chinese that looks enticing, and now it’s Samsung’s turn to show off its a wrist phone fresh off the anvil at the MWC. You don’t get much considering the GT-S1100’s size but the small touchscreen display, Bluetooth connectivity, and a speakerphone should keep your novelty going until someone comes up with better features, like a holographic display may be.

The timeline in the picture above shows it’s scheduled to come out some time this year, but the where and for how much are details that remain a mystery now until Samsung decides to open up.

(more…)

Tags: Cell Phones, GT-S1100, MWC, Samsung, Samsung, watch phone, wrist phone

Nokia 8208 is also present at the MWC and Nokia has announced the CDMA version for markets outside the US. And let’s recap the features of this dual slider:

• Dual band CDMA / EV-DO connectivity (800 / 1900 MHz)
• 2.2 inch display with 240 x 320 pixels and 16 million colors
• Nokia S40-like UI
• External music keys
• GPS
• Bluetooth 2.0
• 3.5mm headset jack
• FM Radio
• 3MP camera with flash
• 150MB of internal memory
• 1GB MicroSD card in the box (support for up to 16GB)
• Talk time: up to 4 hours
• Standby time: up to 11 days
• 101 x 45.2 x 15.9 millimeters
• 126.3 grams

We don’t know the price yet, but the CDMA Nokia 8208 will be available in March.

via Nokia

Tags: CDMA, Mobile News, MWC, Nokia, Nokia, Nokia 8208

Given the fact that Samsung has released officially announced an impressive number of new phones at the MWC, there would be no point in hiding one, right? It looks like a certain Valencia phone has not been unveiled by Samsung but by Microsoft.

Microsoft has for display various Windows Mobile phones and among those there lies a Samsung Valencia. We’ve shown you the Valencia before, although its name was the C6625. The Valencia comes with 3G, GPS, 128MB of both RAM and ROM, QVGA display and a 393MHz processor. Would you get a Valencia running Windows Mobile for just $365?

via Engadget

Tags: C6625, microsoft, Mobile News, Mobile Software, MWC, Samsung, Samsung, Valencia, Windows Mobile

Is Acer ready to launch Android phones by the end of the year? According to a sketch in a notebook “secret models” are going to be released in the second half of the year. And the notebook belongs to an Acer representative from MWC. From what you can see in the picture here, the secret models are supposed to run on Android. As you can imagine already, there aren’t any official details regarding these Android phones so we will all have to wait.

via Engadget Spanish

Tags: Acer, Android, Google, Mobile News, Mobile Software, MWC

Making its debut alongside its big brother, the M900, is the new F900 smartphone.  The spec sheet for the F900 is similar to the M900 including the 3.8-inch WVGA touchscreen, GPS, FM radio, voice recorder, voice commands, and expandable memory with two omissions.  On the F900, a virtual keyboard replaces QWERTY and the camera is downgraded to 3.2 megapixels from a 5mpx lens.  It is capable of handling 3.75G HSDPA/HSUPA speeds with ease and also integrates WiFi as one of its many connectivity options.  Acer’s own customized user interface should make key program access a breeze and those shaved off millimeters from the lack of QWERTY keyboard will definitely entice many users who like a fully featured smartphone without the accompanying bulk.

Pricing and availability are yet to be announced by Acer, but meanwhile head over Acer stall at the ongoing MWC to get some hands-on action. (more…)

Tags: Acer, Cell Phones, F900, MWC, Tempo

If you thought Acer had it topped with their notebooks, think again, as their new Tempo line of cell phones look built to give HTC’s Touch series a good old run for its money.  As promised, Acer has announced its new Tempo range consisting of four loaded Windows Mobile devices and a bevy of other features that are slowly becoming ubiquitous.

The jewel of the crown of course is the the Acer Tempo M900, which makes no pretense at which upcoming handset it is competing with.  With an expansive 3.8 inch WVGA touchscreen display, the M900 sports HSDPA support, GPS, WiFi, Flashlite support, FM radio, and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, all running on WM 6.1 Profession with a 5-megapixel camera to boot.  No details on its storage capacity are available, although some kind of expansion is suggested, with our bets mostly on microSD.  The M900 has also voice command and recording functions helping us go easy on the finger tapping.

There are no information on the price or availability but a guess like the second quarter of 2009 wouldn’t be too far off.

(more…)

Tags: Acer, Cell Phones, M900, MWC, Tempo

Samsung has officially launched its new BEAT edition mobiles. These are the BEATDJ and the BEATDISC which we have already spotted. Made for music lovers the phones will certainly impress them with the UI and touch support.

The phones run on Samsung’s intuitive DISC user interface and they both come with Bang & Olufsen audio technology and music applications for finding, purchasing and recommending music.

JK Shin, Executive Vice President and head of Mobile Communication division in Samsung Electronics said about the two new BEATs:

The Samsung BEAT Edition handsets will take music on mobile phones to a whole new level of quality and exciting user experience. With amazing sound quality and advanced music application, the BEAT Edition handsets will appeal to a growing base of consumers that want to consolidate their music playing devices without compromising on style, function and experience.

The BEATDJ will offer you a 2.8-inch AMOLED touchscreen display, a 50MB on-board memory expandable to 16GB via a microSD slot.The BEATDISC on the other hand will bring you a slide-out keypad which will make it a perfect communications device.

Which one would you choose? The BEATDJ or the BEATDISC?

via Press

Tags: BEATDISC, BEATDJ, Mobile News, Mobile Software, music, MWC, Samsung, Samsung

The Omnia HD is probably one of the best phones available at the MWC and one of the best Samsung handsets released so far. We’ve heard the rumors and now it’s time we checked out the official specs.

The Omnia HD is the first full-touch Symbian phone made by Samsung and it’s the first phone capable of recording 720p HD video. It’s also has the biggest AMOLED screen in the mobile business so far, which means you should definitely give it a try if you get your hands on it.

And here’s the features list you were waiting for:

• a 3.7 inch AMOLED 16:9 touchscreen
• dual stereo speakers
• support for SD and HD videos
• 8 megapixel camera
• up to one hour of 720p video recording
• HSUPA 5.76Mbps and HSDPA 7.2Mbps support
• GPS with voice guidance
• 8GB/16GB internal memory
• up to 32GB memory upgrade via microSD
• 3D interface
• Samsung Mobile Widget support
• Symbian OS

via Press

Tags: 720p, Mobile News, Mobile Software, MWC, Omnia HD, Samsung, Samsung

Here’s another manufacturer that failed to impress us with an Android phone. This time is Huawei who showed everyone a non-working prototype of an Android phone. The phone looks like an iPhone, and there’s no doubt about that. It doesn’t have any buttons so it might have problems running a standard Android interface.

Huawei will launch the phone sometime in Q3 as it’s currently negotiating with a carrier to launch it. By that time we’re hoping that Android will run perfectly on this iPhone-like device.

via Engadget

Tags: Android, Google, huawei, iPhone, Mobile News, Mobile Software, MWC, Other Brands

LG has announced that it has chosen Windows Mobile as the primary OS for its cell phone business. LG has reached an agreement with Microsoft and according to it, it will increase the number of Windows phones and the total volume of Windows phones it distributes. By 2012 LG might launch over 50 new LG Windows phones which is quite impressive. And if they’re going to be at least as impressive as the Arena KM900 we’ve seen today then LG might have landed quite an important deal.

Yong Nam vice chairman and chief executive officer of LG Electronics had this to say:

New LG phones running Windows will take advantage of the excitement in this dynamically growing market. The Windows platform brings flexible and customer-friendly software that ties into the Web and the PC, giving our phones a wide range of new capabilities to address an increasing number of segments and markets.

And here’s Ballmer version of the story:

Windows® phones enable people to tap into digital experiences that span their lives so they can connect to the people, information and services they care about most. Integrating Windows software with LG’s design leadership will bring new experiences to help enrich people’s lives.

Following the agreement LG and Microsoft will create joint team for research and development which might deliver better Windows phones than we expect.

via Press

Tags: LG, LG, microsoft, microsoft, Mobile News, Mobile Software, MWC, Other Brands

Vodafone is ready to offer what others only dream about. And it’s not the Dream from HTC, it’s the successor. The HTC Magic is the phone formerly known as the G2. It will be a Vodafone exclusive in Europe and it will feature 3G via HSPA, WiFi and GPS, a 3.2 megapixel camera and the Cupcake G1 users are still missing. The phone hasn’t been officially announced at the MWC yet but we have just started. We’ll keep you in the loop when more details will be available.

via BGR

Tags: Android, Europe, G2, Google, HTC, Magic, Mobile News, MWC, Vodafone, Vodafone

The HTC Touch Diamond is a great phone that needs an impressive heir. And HTC prepared quite the follower. The HTC Touch Diamond2 will be available in Q2 for an undisclosed yet price. Like the Touch Pro2 the Touch Diamond2 will also be upgradeable to Windows Mobile 6.5 later this year.

The HTC Touch Diamond2 will get you a larger 3.2-inch high resolution widescreen VGA display, a new touch sensitive zoom bar and HTC TouchFlo 3D experience. HTC says that Diamond 2 will also get the company’s new Push Internet technology and the phone will be optimized for one hand use. You should also expect a better battery, a 5 megapixels auto focus camera, expandable memory, a gravity sensor and an ambient light sensor.

What would you choose? HTC Touch Pro2 or HTC Touch Diamond2?

via Press

Tags: HTC, HTC, microsoft, Mobile News, Mobile Software, MWC, Touch Diamond2, Touch Pro2, Windows Mobile 6.5

HTC is ready for the Windows Mobile 6.5 future and it has announced new phones which will be able to run it when it gets out. These are the HTC Touch Pro2 and the HTC Touch Diamond2.

The HTC Touch Pro2 is the follower of the Touch Pro and it will be available early this summer. The phone will sport HTC’s TouchFLO 3D which will be integrated with Windows Mobile 6.1. The phone will feature a 3.6-inch widescreen VGA display and an impressive QWERTY keyboard. We’re also looking at better battery life, expendable memory, gravity, proximity and ambient light sensors.

The Touch Pro2 will come with HTC’s new Straight Talk technology which offers you an integrated email, voice and speakerphone experience. You will be able to move freely between email to single or multi-party conference calls at any given time. Straight Talk will offer you a high-fidelity voice and sound experience using features like asymmetric speakers and advanced noise reduction with full duplex acoustics.

We have no price for the new HTCs yet but we’re counting on carriers to reveal them soon.

via Press

Tags: HTC, HTC, Mobile News, Mobile Software, MWC, Touch Diamond2, Touch Pro2, Windows Mobile

Microsoft has come in strong in Spain with all the new products we were waiting for. There’s Windows Mobile 6.5, My Phone, Marketplace and Recite. But let’s go through them one at a time.

The next generation of Windows phones will be based on Windows Mobile 6.5. Notice how I refer to them as Windows phones as Microsoft decided to totally rebrand its mobile branch. Windows Mobile 6.5 comes with a new home screen meant to improve the user’s browsing experience. The touchscreen interface has also been improved and there’s a new Internet Explorer waiting for you to try it on before you go ahead and replace it with something else.

My Phone is a free service which will let you manage your personal information on the device and back it up to a password-protected web-based service. That means you will be upgrading your phones without the fear of loosing any precious information. My Phone will offer automatic sync for contacts, calendar, messages and more information. Photos and video can also be uploaded to My Phone. We have no idea when My Phone is coming though since it’s only available in a limited beta trial so far.

Windows Mobile 6.5 will get you access to Windows Marketplace for Mobile. And yes, you got it, it’s Microsoft late response to Apple’s App Store. You will be able to get Windows application for your phone or PC using a Windows Live ID.

Microsoft Recite could be one of those applications. For now it’s open for trial and it might become really useful to you. With Recite you will be able to record your spoken thoughts and listen to them later when you need to remember stuff.

Interested in any of that? Are you going to get a new Windows phone soon?

via Press

Tags: marketplace, microsoft, microsoft, Mobile News, MWC, My Phone, Recite, Windows Mobile 6.5

Besides the E75 which we have just shown you Nokia launched a new E-series smartphone, the E55. Like the E75 this one will enhance your communication abilities. With the E55 you will be able to stay connected with your friends at all times. It also has the company’s new email user interface and Nokia Messaging. And the E55 has also a QWERTY keyboard, but this one is a compact version. The phone will be available from 265 Euros later this summer and it will come in black and white aluminum.

As for the other specs, here they are:

• 2.4-inch QVGA screen,
• 3.2 megapixel camera,
• 3.5 mm headphone jack,
• WiFi, EGPRS, Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity,
• HSDPA up to 10.2Mbits
• HSUPA up to 2Mbits

What is it going to be? E75 or E55?

via Press

Tags: e55, Mobile News, Mobile Software, MWC, Nokia, Nokia, Nokia Messaging

We knew Nokia was going to deliver a few phones at MWC and Nokia confirmed. The Nokia E75 has been announced and together with the E55 they are the first handsets to arrive with Nokia’s new email interface. Nokia Messaging is also there so you should have absolutely no problem communicating weather for fun or business.

The E75 is a slider meant to help you deal with lots of messages and emails. It has HTML email support, expandable views and mail sorting capabilities. We only wished the keypad was replace by more screen real estate.

Kai Oistamo, Executive Vice President at Nokia said:

With the Nokia E75 we took a lot of inspiration from the Nokia 9300, which was our first mini communicator, Owners of the Nokia 9300 loved the messaging functionality a full keyboard provided, but also used the traditional phone keypad a great deal. With the Nokia E75 we kept these essential ingredients, significantly upgraded all of the features and made it as compact as possible.

The phone will be available next month and it will cost about 375 Euros. And here are the official specs of the E75

• 2.4-inch QVGA display,
• a 3.5mm headphone jack,
• 3.2 megapixel camera,
• built-in VPN,
• HSDA,
• 802.11 b/g,
• EGPRS,
• Bluetooth,
• up to 16GB microSD card.

via Press

Tags: e75, Mobile News, MWC, Nokia, Nokia

With all the smartphones around we certainly could use a new 16GB microSDHC card for more storage. Kingstom has announced its new flash memory card an the MWC in Spain and you should be able to get one real soon.

Wendy Lecot, Flash business development manager at Kingston Digital saidL

The increased functionality of the latest mobile phones has helped fuel andraise consumers’ appetites for more digital content. Today’s mobile lifestyleincludes using phones as portable media players and as a camera. The Kingston®16GB microSDHC card removes the barrier of limited internal handset or device memory and allows users to store more photos, songs, games and videos.

To get you a better idea of what a 16GB microSDHC means, you should know it will hold 3,000 songs, over 9,000 5 megapixels images and up to 16 hours of video. The card is going to be available at around $90, although you might find even better deals in a short while.

via Press

Tags: 16GB, Accessories, flash memory card, Kingston, microsdhc, MWC, Portable Devices

If you watch the video above and have a little experience with cell phones, you don’t need to read anything about the LG Arena KM900. It’s probably one of the best phones we’ve seen so far from LG and it can easily stand tall in front of the iPhone or the Storm. Or the Pre or the G1! Did I miss anyone important?

The most interesting feature so far is that new 3D user interface. It’s totally new and from what we’ve seen in the official video, we totally like it. Dr. Scott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company said about the UI:

What really makes ARENA special is its intuitive 3D S-Class UI, which is unlike anything that has appeared on a phone before. We surveyed consumers and found that they were unhappy withcurrent interfaces. They wanted a simple, fast and fun way to use multimedia and other features,but also an experience that was dynamic and interesting. We’ve done this so well with our brand new S-Class UI that it will set new standards for handsets in both functionality and fun.

There’s multitouch support, which, combined with the 3D UI leads to an impressive control support. Scroll through menus, drag you fingers against the touchscreen and get the expected result. The cube layout will get you 4 home screens, each one with different shortcuts on it.

Now that we’ve explored the UI, let’s check out the most important of Arena’s features:

• 3-inch touchscreen WVGA display
• Dolby Mobile sound
• 3.5 mm audio jack
• 5 megapixel camera with auto focus and video recording
• 8 GB of internal memory
• 32GB of storage space via microSD slot
• 3G HSDPA and WiFi connectivity
• A-GPS and geo-tagging

The only questions that remains now is about pricing and availability dates although we hope to get those details soon.

Tags: 3D, Arena, KM900, LG, LG, Mobile News, MWC, Portable Devices

I bet you’re tired with all the phones Samsung has been throwing at us lately. But you shouldn’t be. It’s good to know you’ll have where to choose from. The Omnia HD for example will be a great phone and it appears it will be the first phone in the world to record 720p video. The feature is not confirmed yet but we’re hoping it will be in just a few days. The Omnia HD is also said to sport a 3.7-inch AMOLED display but we’re going to need confirmation for those features too.

Tags: 720p, Features, Mobile News, MWC, Omnia HD, Samsung, Samsung, video