Cell phones

BARCELONA--Nokia is taking on smartphone rival Apple with its own version of an application store.

On Monday, the world's largest cell phone maker, which has been losing market share at the high end to devices like Apple's iPhone, announced here at the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2009 that it will follow Apple and a few other handset makers in launching a virtual storefront where developers can upload applications and consumers can easily download them.

The news of Nokia's Ovi Store is hardly a shock. Several news agencies had reported that the company was expected to announce the store here at MWC.… Read more

BARCELONA - Skyhook Wireless announced on Monday at the GSMA Mobile World Congress here that Texas Instruments will use its hybrid positioning technology in its mobile chips, so that cell phones can provide more accurate location information.

Skyhook has developed a hybrid technology that uses GPS satellite technology and Wi-Fi to help provide geolocation services. Skyhook's technology is used today on Apple's iPhone, among other services and devices.

The way it works is that Skyhook will use Wi-Fi access points to triangulate and get a fix on known Wi-Fi hot spots. The company has a database of where … Read more

Samsung's GSMA World Congress press conference doesn't begin for another hour, but details of the company's new phones are popping up on the blogosphere. And in any case, it's hard to keep a product secret when you've plastered huge posters advertising it around the Fira de Barcelona.

According to a Korean news site, Samsung will release just four phones in Barcelona: the S8300 UltraTouch, the i8910 Omnia HD, the BeatDJ, and the BeatDisc. Preliminary details are as follows.

Samsung S8300 UltraTouch--The Ultra Touch has a 2.8-inch touch screen, an 8-megapixel camera, and Samsung's … Read more

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

BARCELONA--A full-fledged version of the Adobe Flash player is coming soon to a whole slew of smartphones. Unfortunately, Apple's iPhone isn't one of them.

Adobe announced at the GSMA Mobile World Congress here Monday that Flash Player 10, which is the full version of Flash that runs on PCs, will be available on smartphones running Windows Mobile, Google's Android, Nokia S60/Symbian, and the new Palm operating systems. Devices with Flash Player 10 are expected to hit the market starting in early 2010.

The company has worked for years on a lightweight incarnation of its Flash technology … 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