Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

Ridiculous quantities of 3G handsets weren’t the only things showed off at this year’s Mobile World Congress — oh no, NetIndex, Kaga Electronics and Runcom shook up the norm a bit with their WiMAX-enabled portable VoIP phone. Reportedly, the trio joined forces to develop a VoIP handset that utilized a 802.16e module, and aside from “realizing all-IP voice communication,” it also sports a web browser and integrated WiFi for times when a plain ole hotspot will do. Sadly, we’ve no idea where this thing will go after it leaves Barcelona (nor what it looks like), but here’s to hoping it makes a commercial debut — and can decide on a single logo — in the not-too-distant future.

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Filed under: Cellphones

Okay, we suppose cellphone companies trumpeting some sort of fuel cell technology isn’t that weird, but nevertheless, Moto sure seems proud of its most recent advancements. Showcased at this year’s Mobile World Congress are a number of “alternative power solutions including fuel cell and reflow batteries,” which can be deployed in most every wireless / mobile environment out there. More specifically, the outfit is demonstrating a fuel cell-powered WiMAX base station, and it’s also suggesting that said technology could “further guarantee [the] availability of uninterrupted power” in TETRA radio networks that are used in public safety environments. Fascinating, no?

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Filed under: Cellphones, Features

If we’re kids, then Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress is the candy store — and today, all we did was stuff our fat, sticky faces with Runts, Jolly Ranchers, Smarties, and pretty much everything in between. Head on over to Engadget Mobile for the exhaustive coverage, or if you’re the love ‘em and leave ‘em type, at least be dolls and check out our gorgeous hands-on shots, won’t you?

Read - HTC’s newest touchscreen toy, say hello to the 3470
Read - Samsung’s sliding Soul
Read - iriver’s 3-inch touchscreen phone
Read - modu: it’s real and plenty fantastic
Read - Sony Ericsson’s splash-resistant C702
Read - Sony Ericsson’s 5 megapixel C902
Read - Sony Ericsson’s G900 touchscreen organizer
Read - The W980, Sony Ericsson’s really slick flip

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Filed under: Cellphones

It’s bordering on preposterous how long we’ve been teased about 3G connectivity from T-Mobile, but apparently, the madness will end this summer. According to CNET, company CEO Hamid Akhavan made mention at Mobile World Congress that T-Mobile would be rolling out 3G sometime during the warmest months of 2008 here in the US of A, but unfortunately, no concrete date was dished out. What he did say, however, was that it would prove to be the “best 3G network” in the nation, so yeah, there’s that. As if that weren’t enough to get T-Mob subscribers in a celebratory mood, the bigwig also hinted that a Google Android device would be unveiled on its network during Q4 of this year, but we’re left to wonder exactly what regions will see it.

[Via The Boy Genius Report, image courtesy of Flickr]

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Filed under: Cellphones

Whew, it was quite a day for cellphones at the Mobile World Congress, and there’s more to come this week — but if you haven’t been watching Engadget Mobile (where the full coverage is being posted) or are just getting up to speed, here’s everything that’s gone down.

Sony Ericsson

• The Sony Ericsson W980
• Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA X1 QWERTY with Windows Mobile and HSUPA
• Sony Ericsson’s G700 and G900: “touchscreen organizers”
• Two for the Cyber-shot crowd: Sony Ericsson intros C702 and C902
• The Sony Ericsson Z770: “your life in a clamshell”
• First live photo of Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA X1
• Video: Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA X1 “Panel Interface”
• No wonder Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA X1 is so good: HTC makes it
• Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 does a good job looking pretty at launch event
• Sony Ericsson ties up with Microsoft for Windows Mobile devices

HTC

• HTC P3470 is only EDGE, but has GPS
• HTC Advantage X7510: now upgraded with 16GB flash memory

Nokia

• The Nokia 6220 classic, all 5 megapixels of it
• The Nokia N78, in European and North American flavors
• The Nokia N96 redefines “high-end”
• The Nokia 6210 Navigator
• Nokia goes public with Maps 2.0 beta, plans Series 40 version
• Nokia CEO: No plans for Windows Mobile, S60 touch-screen launch in 2H 2008

Sad, lonely Moto

• Motorola’s pathetic MWC showing: Z6w, W161, and W181
• LG says it has no plans to buy Motorola’s cellphone biz

Everybody else

• Samsung’s F480 Armani (without the Armani), Dual Touch Chic G400 flip and F400 B&O slider
• NVIDIA shows off APX 2500 cellphone applications processor
• Hands-on with Sony Ericsson’s world-beating XPERIA X1
• Samsung hauls a load into Mobile World Congress
• First pics of CDMA BlackBerry Curve 8330 surface
• What’s an iPhone? 14.3m Windows Mobile phones sold in the past six months alone
• LG gets official with the KF700, KF600, and KF510
• Samsung’s HSDPA-equipped G810 slider gets official

More after the break.

Continue reading Mobile World Congress roundup: cellphone mania

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Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Portable Video, Wireless

If you’re sick of hearing about end products and want to get down and dirty with the innards of handsets of tomorrow, look no further than Qualcomm. The firm is busting out a smorgasbord of new chips at Mobile World Congress today, so we’ll get right to it. Up first is the QST1000, QST1100 and QST1105 chipsets, which include the following:

• An integrated ARM11 applications processor running at 528 MHz with support for third-party operating systems (Windows Mobile, Win CE and Linux)
• A comprehensive range of popular audio and video codecs
  Rich multimedia features, including camera, video playback at up to VGA resolution, and TV-out
• Seventh-generation gpsOne engine with support for Standalone-GPS and Assisted-GPS modes, as well as gpsOneXTRA Assistance technology delivering enhanced Standalone-GPS performance
• Support for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and FM radio
• 65 nanometer process technology for enhanced battery life and bill-of-materials savings
• Ability to interface with Qualcomm’s Universal Broadcast Modem (UBM) solution for MediaFLO, DVB-H and ISDB-T mobile broadcast TV support
• Wireless WAN connectivity for voice calls and data capabilities (QST1100)
• Hardware-accelerated 2D/3D graphics core capable of performing up to 2.8 million triangles per second (QST1105)
• All three are sampling now and are expected to begin launching this year

Head on past the break for more.

Continue reading Qualcomm goes wild at MWC 2008, unveils slew of new chips

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Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video

With all these companies honing in on bringing HD capabilities to handsets, we were beginning to wonder when someone would step up and lend a hand on the audio front. Thankfully, both Dolby and SRS Labs have come forward at Mobile World Congress to announce separate enhancements to mobile audio, so we’ll touch on the former first. Dolby Mobile, hailed as an “audio processing technology platform that brings rich, vibrant surround sound to music, movies, and television programs on mobile phones and portable media players,” is available as we speak on the FOMA SH905i and FOMA SH905iTV in Japan, but will hopefully float out to other handsets in due time. As for SRS Labs, it’s boasting its own SRS CS Headphone technology, which reportedly “takes stereo or surround encoded 2-channel audio and processes it using an ultra-low-power Circle Surround decoder to create 5.1 highly accurate channels.” Granted, we’re still wondering exactly how 5.1 channels make their way though stereo earbuds, but we’d be up for a listen, regardless.

Read - Dolby Mobile
Read - SRS CS Headphone technology

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Filed under: Cellphones, HDTV

On the same day that Texas Instruments chose to showcase a new chip that would enable HD recording capabilities on cellphones, On2 Technologies is taking a moment from its hectic day in Barcelona to trumpet an all new 1080p hardware RTL video decoder. The Hantro 8190 reportedly supports Adobe Flash along with H.263, H.264, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, VC-1, Sorenson Spark and VP6 video formats, and it can even handle JPEG images up to 16-megapixels. According to On2, the device was created to be easily integrated with ARM, MIPS and “other embedded CPU and DSP cores,” and can supposedly decode 1080p H.264 video at 30 frames-per-second using a clock frequency of just 165MHz. As it stands, the Hantro 8190 is currently available for licensing, but only time will tell who’s going to bite.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Transportation

No question about it, the N78 and the N96 are the heavies in Nokia’s Mobile World Congress announcements, but there are a couple gems on the lower end, too — if you can really call a navigation-ready handset and a 5 megapixel smartphone “lower end.” Taking advantage of the company’s newly-introduced Maps 2.0 app, the 6210 Navigator succeeds the 6110 by adding pedestrian navigation and an accelerometer to make it more responsive than AGPS alone. The 6220 classic, meanwhile, is an S60 candybar that slots in beneath the Nseries lineup, but still manages to clean up in the photography department with a Carl Zeiss lens, 5 megapixel sensor, and xenon flash. Check out the full rundown of the announcements over on Engadget Mobile!

Read - Nokia 6210 Navigator
Read - Nokia 6220 classic
Read - Nokia Maps 2.0

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

The revamped Nseries lineup is coming fast and furious since the launch of the N81 and N82 late last year, and the latest candybar to get the updated industrial design is the N78, a midrange handset (by Nseries standards, anyway) with an integrated FM transmitter setting it apart from the crowd. Another notable feature is its picture geotagging capability, made possible by the 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera paired with integrated AGPS. Other than that, it’s pretty much your average S60 Third Edition Feature Pack 2 piece with Bluetooth and WiFi, though it’s the very first Nseries model to be announced in both European and North American 3G versions simultaneously — and if that’s not progress, we don’t know what is. Look for it to start stocking shelves next quarter for €350 (about $507).

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Rumored for a few weeks now as the N95’s successor in waiting, the mighty N96 dual slider has gone all official on us at Mobile World Congress today. Though the phone it replaces is still a beast by any measure, the N96 pushes the envelope further by packing a solid 16GB of storage internally in addition to a microSD slot, something the N95 8GB lacks. The 5 megapixel autofocus camera with Carl Zeiss Tessar lens carries over, but there are now two LEDs doing flash and video light duty. The 2.8 inch QVGA display will come in handy for the integrated DVB-H mobile TV tuner, while a 3.5mm headphone jack, A2DP, and integrated stereo speakers should handle audio with aplomb. Other features include WiFi, AGPS, and morphing lights on the smaller second slide that hook the user up with game controls when it’s time to relax with a little N-Gage action. Unfortunately, the first version of the N96 (and the only version announced thus far) supports HSDPA only on the 900 and 2100MHz bands, but we imagine the strength of the spec sheet should still be enough to sell a few of these stateside when it launches in the third quarter for €550 (about $797).

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Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Wireless

There’s not too many deets on this just yet, but apparently, UK’s CSR is getting set to showcase a technology known as eGPS (enhanced Global Positioning System, if you couldn’t guess) at Mobile World Congress 2008. According to the firm, it delivers a “universal positioning capability that will not only work reliably indoors and in zero GPS signal conditions, but greatly speed time to fix in poor GPS reception areas where most handsets are used.” More specifically, it can “exploit data available from the cellular network to speed GPS fixes and provide complementary, fast, and reliable location sensing when GPS signals are weak or unavailable.” Best of all, the firm is hoping to add eGPS capabilities to handsets for under $1 per unit, and it’s also using the stage in Barcelona to trumpet a single-chip GPS receiver with embedded Bluetooth and FM radio. Unfortunately, mum’s the word on when this stuff will actually find its way into mobiles.

[Via NaviGadget]

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Filed under: Cellphones, Digital Cameras

So that rumored K820 has turned out to be the C902, and that waterproof model? Not so much waterproof — just “splash and dust resistant” — and it’s the C702. Starting on the bottom, the 3.2 megapixel C702 touts one-handed camera use for those spur-of-the-moment shots when you’re doing something, like, totally extreme that would necessitate the use of a splash resistant phone to begin with. GPS also finds its way on board, and Sony Ericsson is bundling Google Maps for Mobile (good call) to get the mapping done. Moving up, the C902 is a 5 megapixel beast with autofocus, face detection, a generous flash, and 160MB of storage before you add anything on with the Memory Stick Micro slot. Both models feature Cyber-shot branding and will be available in the second quarter; they’ll come in two versions — one with UMTS 2100 and one rocking quadband EDGE alone. Look for the C702 in Speed Black and Cyan Blue, while the C902 will do its thing in Swift Black and Luscious Red (pictured).

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Alright, we’ve got to admit, this looks like a pretty real press rendering to us, so we’re going to bite. This here is allegedly Sony Ericsson’s G700i, one of two members of the all-new “G” line allegedly being introduced at Mobile World Congress this week; if the previously-leaked specs hold up, it’ll include a 3.2 megapixel camera and a 2.5-ish inch display but lack WiFi, which is where its G900i big sib comes into the picture. Seeing how Sony Ericsson’s MWC press conference is within shouting distance at this point, we’ll have this all sorted out soon enough.

[Via SEfanatics]

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Filed under: Cellphones

According to Reuters, chipmaker ARM has plans to show off an Android-based “Google Phone” prototype at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The news agency is citing a “source” for this information, and both Google and ARM declined to comment, as if reading from some sort of industry script, though we’re seeing and hearing a lot of buzz from MWC on new tech, so this would come as no surprise. Come on guys, we don’t mind if the OS is still a little buggy… show us some hardware.

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