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A year after it launched its Xperia X1, Sony Ericsson used the 2009 GSMA World Congress here in Barcelona to launch launch new panels for the high-end smartphone. All panels will be available for download from Sony Ericsson in mid-March.

The Skype panel will offer quick access to the calling service. You'll be able to tell which of your friends are online, browse contacts, and call and instant message your friends. The evening, daylight, and event-based effects will let you customize your handset at will.

The CNN panel will constantly update with the latest news, sports, and weather, all … Read more

Lenovo and Research In Motion make different devices, but have one thing in common: their target audience.

Seeing that, the Canadian smartphone maker and the Chinese PC vendor have teamed up on Constant Connect, a new service that will make it easier to link ThinkPads and BlackBerrys.

A PCI Express card, available from Lenovo for $150, will enable e-mail from a user's BlackBerry to automatically sync to their ThinkPad's e-mail program, whether that be Outlook, or a POP mail account. The key is that the ThinkPad doesn't have to be powered on for this to happen: it … Read more

BARCELONA--Intel announced here Monday at the GSMA Mobile World Congress that LG Electronics will use its latest generation technology to build a new class of device called mobile Internet devices, or MIDs.

Specifically, Intel and LG will work together to build these new devices using a processor that Intel has code-named Moorestown. The devices will also use a version of the Linux open-source operating system called Moblin. The LG device is expected to be one of the first Moorestown designs to market. And Intel has said that devices using the new Moorestown chips will hit the market by 2010.

Intel … Read more

BARCELONA--Sony Ericsson has been hit hard by the global recession, but the company says it has a new strategy focused on services and entertainment that it hopes will get it back on track.

On Sunday evening here on the eve of GSMA's Mobile World Congress, the cell phone maker, which is a joint venture between consumer electronics maker Sony and telecom equipment maker Ericsson, unveiled a new strategy that it says fuses "communication and entertainment."

At the core of its new strategy is something Sony Ericsson calls "Entertainment Unlimited." Executives were thin on details at … Read more

Though Sony Ericsson hasn't dropped a lot of new phones at the GSMA World Congress (at least not yet), we can show you a few glamour shots of the handsets it did unveil. To refresh your memory, the W995 Walkman is a music-centric handset but it also offers an 8.1-megapixel camera and Wi-Fi. The Idou isn't quite a reality yet--Sony Ericsson will formally unveil the phone and its official name later this year--but you can expect it to offer a touch screen with extensive video features. Check out our Sony Ericsson slide show for the full eye … Read more

Back in early February, Samsung revealed that it would bring its 8-megapixel camera phone, the Samsung Memoir, to T-Mobile by the end of the month, and the company has kept its promise.

The night before the official start of GSMA Mobile World Congress 2009 here in Barcelona, Samsung and T-Mobile held a joint press conference where they announced that the Samsung Memoir would be available starting February 25 for $249.99 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate.

The event was marked by a special guest appearance by supermodel Helena Christensen, who was on hand to endorse the Memoir. Now, you might be wondering what the connection is between a model and a camera phone, but Christensen also happens to be a photographer (who knew?) and was given the Memoir for a few days to use as her phone and camera throughout her travels in New York and Barcelona. Images that she took with the Memoir were then put on display at the event.

"As a photographer it was great for me to be the first to try the Memoir and to really experience everything it is capable of doing," said Christensen. "It's very important that my mobile phone also double up as a great camera, that way I always have my camera on hand to capture images at any moment. That's what a big part of photography is about." … Read more

When compared with its presence last year at the GSMA World Congress, Sony Ericsson is taking a quieter turn this time in Barcelona. Instead of unveiling a handset like the Xperia X1, the company is focusing more on strategy with an intense focus on entertainment.

As part of this move, the company unveiled just one new phone, the W995, but it also gave an advance peek at a new high-end, touch-screen handset.

Tentatively named the Idou, it will pack multimedia in a thin candy bar design. Features will include a 12.1-megapixel camera, a Xenon flash, a 3.5-inch display, … Read more

BARCELONA--If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Apple's biggest competitors are laying on the love a little thick.

It seems like handset makers aren't just trying to match Apple in terms of developing cool new touch screen devices, but now they're all clamoring to develop their own version of an application storefront, where users can easily discover and download applications for their smartphones and developers can easily create and monetize those apps.

Rumors have been flying around that Nokia, the largest handset maker in the world, will unveil its plans for its own application store … Read more

At the start of the GSMA World Congress on Sunday night, Sony Ericsson announced Media Go, a new service for transferring media files between your computer and your Sony Ericsson cell phone.

Premiering on the new W995 Walkman phone, Media Go will offer a number of services for the media-minded. Primarily, you can use it to transfer music, videos, photos, and podcasts to your phone through a USB cable.

You'll also be able to sync your phone's music library automatically, subscribe to podcasts, and auto-convert files for the best-quality playback. Once you've downloaded your media, you can … Read more