mobile world congress

BARCELONA, Spain--The cell phone manufacturers have been bringing it at MWC, and ZTE is no exception. The Chinese manufacturer announced several Android handsets and hinted at others in the weeks leading up to the show, and today, revealed the rest of their global plans.

Out of the 15 smartphones and tablets is ZTE's flagship phone for the year, the ZTE Era. It runs off an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core 1.3GHz processor, has a 4.3-inch qHD display, and a profile of just 7.8 millimeters thick. It will launch in the third quarter of the year.

Android phones … Read more

Startup Audience currently specializes in improving audio quality for higher-end phones--the iPhone 4 and 4S, most notably--but now it's going down market.

The company sells small chips that process phones' microphone signals with technology it calls EarSmart designed to identify the person speaking and filter out everything else. It's good for voice calls, obviously, but also for newer uses, such as issuing voice commands to a phone, videoconferencing, or capturing the soundtrack for a video.

Audiences's technology reproduces audio signal processing that humans use--processing that relies on our having two ears and therefore that works on … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Samsung is back with another Wi-Fi-only device we like to refer to tongue-in-cheek as a Galaxy S phone without the phone. Indeed, the Galaxy S WiFi has most of the makings of a more entry-level Android smartphone, from the version 2.3 Gingerbread OS to the 4.2-inch WVGA screen (480x800-pixel resolution) and the 1GHz processor.

There's a 2-megapixel camera on the back and a VGA lens on the front, and all the usual Samsung apps and hubs. As long as the price is right, I could see this as a second device for parents to give their … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--If you, like me, are still trying to figure out what the Samsung Galaxy Note with its S-Pen stylus is really for, then the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet is refreshingly simple as a large slate with a clear purpose.

Leaked before its official announcement at Mobile World Congress, the Galaxy Note 10.1 has the potential to offer a true tablet experience that goes beyond the usual.

That throwback S-Pen stylus has finally found a calling, thanks to improved "pen" hardware and apps that, at least in my demo, seemed carefully considered (I'll know … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--While the HTC real stars of the evening are undoubtedly the HTC One family of Android Ice Cream Sandwich smartphones--the One X, One S, and One V--we did learn something new that will interest HTC Vivid owners on AT&T.

The carrier issued a press release promising enhanced audio and compatibility with Beats Audio accessories "in the coming weeks." All it will take is an over-the-air update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and Sense 4.0.

Beats Audio, a trademark HTC bought and developed for its smartphones, promises distortion-free sound, better bass,and improved … Read more

Just a few months after its first suite of Creative apps debuted on Android, Adobe makes good on shipping its flagship Photoshop Touch for iPad. The app, which is as close to identical to the Android version as is possible given the platform differences, is available on iTunes for the same $9.99; it requires an iPad 2 running iOS 5. Adobe says the iPadification of the rest of the Touch apps is under way.… Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Sony Mobile Communications has a new strategy. Instead of announcing one killer phone at this year's Mobile World Congress, it's announcing a suite of devices that it hopes will attract a wider audience of consumers, particularly those at the low end.

Will the strategy work? It's hard to say. There's a lot of competition out there that will make it hard. Still, with full ownership from its former parent company Sony, executives say they're ready to spend big on making Sony's mobile phones a household brand.

Sony Ericsson (Sony Mobile's former name … Read more

In Greek mythology, Pegasus was a winged horse that was very handy when it came to slaying monsters. Huawei is hoping its Pegasus smartphone sculpture at Mobile World Congress 2012 will help slay some competitors.

As the Chinese manufacturer pulled the wraps off what it calls the world's fastest smartphone, the Ascend D Quad, it also unveiled this striking statue outside the MWC venue in Spain. … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--What do HTC's three Mobile World Congress smartphones have in common? Quite a lot, actually.

Besides sharing similar names, the HTC One X, HTC One S, and HTC One V are all Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) smartphones that also include the toned-down Sense 4.0 interface, HTC's Beats Audio enhancement software, and a new image-processing chip that takes over camera and video tasks.

At a meeting in San Francisco before Mobile World Congress, HTC described to CNET its goals for the "One" brand. HTC wants smartphones falling under this umbrella to shine … Read more