mwc2013

BARCELONA, Spain--One of the big news developments at MWC 2013 is Mozilla's big push of its Firefox operating system for mobile phones. Based on the few devices which are expected to run it, however, I'm not impressed.

Software maker Mozilla certainly generated a lot of buzz when it announced a slew of mobile carriers (18 in all) which have jumped on board the Firefox phone operating system. Big-name handset manufactures have also hinted at supporting the fledgling mobile platform or have expressed outright plans to sell their own devices running Firefox themselves.

Besides heavy-hitters such as Sony and … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Opera Software has dropped the new engine into its browser and now has begun revving it up.

At the Mobile World Congress show here, the company began showing for the first time its new WebKit-based version of Opera for Android. That browser is the first product from a completely overhauled product line and technology strategy for the company based in Oslo, Norway.

Opera is changing the browser engine at the core of its software, dumping its own Presto for the open-source WebKit used in Chrome and Safari. It's a radical change in many ways: many engineers are changing … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Announced on Saturday at Mobile World Congress, the Samsung HomeSync is a home theater media hub that aims to inject a little Android OS into your TV via your Galaxy handset. Slated for April, the device can stream videos, games, and other media from your Galaxy phone to your big-screen TV through Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Think of it as an Apple TV for the Samsung faithful.

Design The Samsung HomeSync is packaged in a minimalistic glossy black box, and it's about the size of three DVD cases stacked on top of one another. When placed on a flat … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--One of the great things about a trade show like Mobile World Congress is seeing the cool phones and tablets we won't get. Hang on, did I say great? I meant depressing -- I'd love to get my hands on a 4G Android smartphone as powerful as the Fujitsu Arrows X F-02E, or a water-resistant 4G Windows 8 tablet like the Fujitsu Arrows Tab.

Both devices are only available in Japan, and unlikely to go on sale elsewhere. Which is a shame: the Arrows X F-02E, Fujitsu's flagship phone, has specs to die for -- and … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Carriers love to bash companies like Skype and WhatsApp that provide services on top of their mobile networks at the Mobile World Congress trade show. But one thing was different this year: Viber Media founder and Chief Executive Talmon Marco entered the lion's den to defend the idea.

Viber's free messaging service, which competes directly with carriers' own high-profit services for text- and multimedia-messaging services, is a prime example of the despised over-the-top (OTT) approach. Marco showed no remorse for sapping telco revenues and argued that users are just moving to where the innovative, useful services are … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Part of what makes Nokia phones like the Lumia 920, and the new Lumia 720 and Lumia 520, so distinctive are their bright color options. And part of what makes those shades pop is the use of polycarbonate, a type of plastic, as the body material.

Although Nokia hasn't ruled out an all-metal body, speaking at Mobile World Congress with Hans Henrik Lund, Nokia's vice president of product marketing for smart devices, makes me think that we won't be seeing metal Lumias anytime soon.

"The important part for us is that we're obsessed with differentiation,&… Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--With another 2 billion people hooking up to the Internet in the next five years, there's plenty of room for another mobile operating system, Mozilla Chief Executive Gary Kovacs said today in a sales pitch for his new Firefox OS.

Apple and Google have led the way in the smartphone market but can't cover the whole thing, he said in a speech to thousands at the Mobile World Congress show here, though he didn't mention the companies by name.

"I find it impossible to understand how 3, 4, 5, or 6 billion people are going … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Under a broadened partnership with mobile network operator Telefonica, Sony Mobile is exploring support for Mozilla's new Firefox OS and hopes to release a phone with it next year.

"Our engineers are now working with Firefox OS Mobile and HTML5, evolving technologies which show great potential. In addition, we continue to work with our operator partners, including Telefónica, on a development project with an ambition to bring a product to market in 2014," said Bob Ishida, head of Sony Mobile Communications' Products Business Group, in a statement yesterday at the Mobile World Congress show … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Announced in December 2012, the Samsung Galaxy Grand made an appearance at this year's Mobile World Congress amid a plethora of the company's new devices, like the Galaxy Young and Galaxy Fame. According to the company, the device will be available in both single- and dual-SIM versions. Unfortunately, no availability or pricing information has been released regarding the Grand.

Design Like most Galaxy handsets, the Grand cuts a slim (0.38-inch to be exact) profile, is of a long rectangular shape with severely rounded corners, and has a wide home button at the bottom of the display.… Read more