Barcelona, Spain | February 27 - March 1, 2012
I’m sitting in the packed press room for the Nokia press conference.
Stephen Elop has just come out and right off the bat praised his company’s performance in the last year, a huge one for the company in its turnaround strategy with a new operating system (Microsoft), and a shift away from its own Symbian platform. It’s proven that “We can rapidly execute our new strategy.” → Read More
Ah yes, the One X. It’s been shrouded by rumors and half-truths for so long now that it’s quite a thrill to get one in my hands.
While I like the One S’s build quality quite a bit, I found myself taking a shine to the One X’s industrial design almost immediately. It’s 9.7mm waistline is remarkably thin considering all that HTC managed to jam into it (Tegra 3 chipset, 1GB of RAM, killer camera… → Read More
Besides a fear of imminent conjunctivitis from handling the same phone as hundreds of others at the Sony Xperia Press Event at the GSMA Mobile World Congress…what else comes to mind?
This phone — a model marketed mostly toward a younger segment — is, to me, reminiscent in some minuscule way of the old Sony W series phones I loved so much (way back in the day). I think it’s the thickness… → Read More
The HTC One X is clearly the device everyone wants to see, which is why I decided to give its little brother a bit of spotlight first.
The One S is sort of a puzzle to me. Though it’s meant to be more of a mid-range device than the powerhouse that is the HTC One X, the One S sports an arguably handsomer exterior. Unlike its polycarbonate-clad counterpart, the One S sports a frame made from… → Read More
The next step in Intel’s ambition to become a central player in the mobile ecosystem is dovetailing with mobile carrier Orange’s strategy to grow its line of own-brand smartphones.
At MWC, the two are together announcing a new device, code-named “Santa Clara”, that will be Intel’s first handset for the European market, and the most ambitious, own-branded device yet rolled out by… → Read More
Slotted in the middle of HTC’s Android phone announcements tonight in Barcelona, the CEO of HTC, Peter Chou, revealed a new development that is the handset maker’s answer to Apple’s iCloud: a deal with Dropbox, currently the big name in cloud storage.
HTC says that those who buy an HTC One, the company’s new flagship device, will get 25 gigabytes of storage free for two years — a huge deal… → Read More
The rumor mill has been hard at work these past few months circulating information about HTC’s latest line of smartphones, but now HTC CEO Peter Chou has announced that the company’s new line of smartphones will indeed sport the “One” brand
Chou hasn’t yet jumped into details about specific phones yet, but expect that to come shortly. → Read More
Ahead of Mobile World Congress and an appearance by Facebook to explain its next moves in mobile, the social networking giant is coming under increasing strain over its use of users’ personal information. Mobile startups and operators are both fretting over the issue this week, as smartphones and the apps that come with them increasingly eclipse the feature phones of old. We’ve already seen how … → Read More
While the idea of skipping Sony’s event to watch a beautiful Barcelona sunset was strangely appealing, we nevertheless come to you from Sony’s press event where the recently divorced company has just (officially) revealed two new handsets, the Xperia P and the Xperia U. → Read More
Last month we reported on the launch of Evi, a new iPhone (iTunes link) and Android app (link) which was very Siri-like in its capabilities. Maybe it was too good at acting like Siri?
Yes, Evi can’t do Siri’s trick of adding things to your iPhone Calendar or hook into reminders. But, ask “How do I make apple pie?” and Evi provides a list of recipes with web links. Siri can’t give you a direct… → Read More
We haven’t heard much from Huawei lately. Aside from a few smartphones here and there, the company hasn’t really made a huge push or impression as of late. But according to this release we’re seeing here at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Huawei has quite a bit in store for us, including the freshly announced Ascend D quad smartphone.
Huawei wants to market this as the “world’s fastest… → Read More
We’re here checking out LG’s media preview event, and so far, there are no surprises to be had here. LG’s Daniel Hernandez is on stage as I write this talking about all of the phones that the company has already announced these past few weeks.
Of course, we’re not just here to listen — we’re here to play! And on that note, how could I resist playing with the giant little Optimus Vu.
Two… → Read More
The vast event that is Mobile World Congress (all our coverage will be here) is just shifting into first gear. Although the show doesn’t officially start until tomorrow various announcements are coming out today. The latest is about some new devices from Samsung, which hasn’t been shy and retiring with its huge stand here at the Fira venue. Incidentally, this is where, once, George Orwell paraded… → Read More
In the world of mobile handsets, LG has been steadily losing market share to companies like Apple and ZTE in their collective march to catch up to market leaders Nokia and Samsung. But in the world of Twitter, LG is apparently winning.
According to some number crunching from Twitter analytics firm Anly.tk, LG in the last week has blown away competition from rival handset makers, and even… → Read More
Whether you’re a “mobile first” publisher, app developer or carrier, all eyes are set on Barcelona at the end of this month for Mobile World Congress 2012. It’s part conference, part trade show, part excuse to spend a week at extravagant parties with mobile’s biggest influencers – all wrapped up into an unparalleled four-day event. Long the mobile industry’s largest global… → Read More
Pearson, the owners of Penguin, the Financial Times Group and a number of education imprints, has made some significant strides into digital with e-books and apps, but it is always on the hunt for more.
So today the publisher is announcing that it is expanding one of its newer ventures, Plug & Play, which offers its copyrighted material via APIs to third-party developers: it has signed a… → Read More
It’s hard to believe that Mobile World Congress is right around the corner, but here we are with just under two days to go until the festivities begin.
TechCrunch’s MWC delegation is ready to bring you the latest and greatest in mobile tech straight from the heart of Barcelona from the moment MWC kicks off, but there’s going to be gobs upon gobs of nifty stuff on the show floor. Just for your… → Read More
Fujitsu once said that it didn’t have any plans to launch mobile handsets outside of Asia, but that strategy appears to be changing rapidly. Today comes a report that the Japanese handset maker — which makes both Android and Windows Phone-based devices — is planning to start selling its devices in Europe, with a debut to take place next week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
The news… → Read More
With the end of February nearly in sight, the tech community is all abuzz with talk about Mobile World Congress, the huge mobile conference set to take place in beautiful Barcelona in just over a week. All the big players will be there (though some will be less conspicuous than before), and of course among them will be Taiwan-based phone giant HTC. → Read More
This is definitely one way for unions to get some attention for their cause: as of this time of writing, public transport employees in Barcelona will be striking during the Mobile World Congress trade show, due to take place between February 27 and March 1. That means no buses and no metros (subways) for an event that last year attracted more than 60,000 people to the city — many of whom did not… → Read More
