Android

It's not just handsets and smartphones at this year's Mobile World Congress; tablets made their way to Barcelona, Spain, as well, despite some people's opinion that tablets aren't really mobile. As an echo to CES this year, Mobile World Congress proved once again that 2011 is the year of the tablet, with the introduction of at least five new models, and the promise of more to come.

LG Optimus Pad/T-Mobile G-Slate LG showed up in Barcelona with the LG Optimus Pad, which will be branded in the U.S. as the T-Mobile G-Slate. We already saw a glimpse of it at CES, but this is the first time we got to play around with it.

The display has a 1,280x768-pixel WXGA resolution in wide screen, and a 1GHz dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor is found inside. You also get 1080p HD video decoding, and HDMI support will let you share your 3D video with TVs. Unlike the Optimus 3D, though, you do need glasses to watch 3D video on the tablet.

And as part of the Optimus Pad announcement, LG has a established a partnership with YouTube, which will let Optimus Pad owners quickly upload 3D videos for sharing.… Read more

As you probably know by now, HTC has officially unveiled its first Android tablet, the 7-inch Flyer. With all the major players recently announcing new tablets, it was only a matter of time before the Taiwanese manufacturer threw its hat into the ring.

In terms of hardware, it has pretty much everything we were expecting. Thanks to its 1.5GHz processor, 1GB RAM, and 5-megapixel camera, the Flyer can stand proudly next to Samsung's Galaxy Tab. Holding one's own against a 6-month-old tablet is one thing, but how does the Flyer stack up against the new crop of … Read more

The second day of Mobile World Congress has come to a close, and while it's a little slower than the last few days, there was still plenty to see in Barcelona.

The big news of the day was from HTC, which introduced several new phones including the so-called "Facebook phones"--the HTC ChaCha and the HTC Salsa--which apparently might have Android OS 2.4. It also announced the HTC Incredible S, the Wildfire S, and the Desire S. HTC also jumped on the tablet bandwagon with the 7-inch HTC Flyer.

Speaking of tablets, we took a … Read more

Last night, IBM's "Watson" supercomputer competed against the top human competitors on "Jeopardy" to test Watson's ability to use artificial intelligence in the context of the English language.

Represented by a lighted blue avatar, Watson performed well against quiz game champs Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, finishing the first round with a tie against the latter at $5,000. It did this with the help of 10 racks of IBM Power 750 servers running Linux, although like everyone else we wonder if the speed at which Watson can "press" a buzzer is fair to the other contestants.

Either way, this sounds like the exposition for an unwritten Roland Emmerich movie starring Will Smith, so start loading up your ID4 viruses.

Howard Stern's "Private Parts" aired on HBO last weekend, and the King of All Media himself pulled a Tang and liveblogged behind-the-scenes commentary throughout the showing. In addition to answering questions from fans, Stern also talked about his co-stars, revealed details about specific shots, and even dished about adult film star Jenna Jameson's antics onset.

Stern's arrival on Twitter is an obvious move, although it took him a while to jump on the bandwagon--the star joined the Twitterverse on February 3, the same day he defended David Letterman's honor and galvanized his crew on "The Late Show."

Stern's incendiary approach to celebrity gossip and media makes Twitter an apt medium for speaking to his more than 270,000 followers. The Lord of Fart Manor can be found at @HowardStern.

Next on the show, we discuss Gawker and Facebook's recent site redesigns. The Internet is giving a cold shoulder to the Gawker network after it debuted an app-style blog layout last week.… Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Google today unveiled Movie Studio, a new application for the upcoming Honeycomb era of Android tablets that lets people edit videos.

The software, which Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt announced during a speech here at Mobile World Congress, is designed to expand on a phone's abilities to capture imagery.

With it, people can combine still images and videos to create broader video that can be shared online. People will be able to add musical soundtracks, fade to black at the end of the video, and add effects like the Ken Burns-style panning so common on Apple video software. … Read more

Android handset owners will now be able to watch a digital copy of a Blu-ray film on their smartphones.

The functionality comes by the way of "Unstoppable," an action-thriller starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pine that hit store shelves today. The movie is the first with a Blu-ray Digital Copy that plays on Android, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment said in a statement.

The ability to watch digital copies of films on Blu-ray is already available for Apple's iPhone and iPad. And as with many iPhone-compatible films, "Unstoppable" will also allow Android owners to access … Read more

ViewSonic Europe is in Barcelona this week where it's showing off the latest addition to its ViewPad family.

Joining its 7-inch and 10-inch siblings, the 4.1-inch ViewPad 4 is expected to be on the short list of Android devices running Android 2.3 Gingerbread when it debuts. Currently listed on ViewSonic's Web site as having Android 2.2, the hardware-maker promises an update to Gingerbread in the near future, and says it will demonstrate the device to key partners with Gingerbread in April.

In terms of user experience, ViewSonic has integrated its own custom user interface, ViewScene, … Read more

Love the little green robot on your phone? Now you can carry your affection to a new level with Androidify, an app that lets you customize Android's look.

Available for free from Android Market, Androidify lets users turn the logo-bot into caricatures of themselves or anyone else.

The app is the work of Google Creative Lab and Larva Labs, which has produced apps like Face Mixer and Retro Defense.

Choices include spiky hair, body types, beards, glasses, wardrobes, and accessories like hats, watches, and even a parrot.

The end result, though, may bear little resemblance to the original robot. The cartoonish avatars can be saved as user pics and shared with friends.

It's the next best thing to getting your own Android costume.

… Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--With Apple, Samsung, LG, and Motorola all entering the tablet space, you had to know HTC would join them sooner or later, so we can't say we were completely surprised when the Taiwanese handset manufacturer unveiled its first tablet today at Mobile World Congress 2011.

Everyone, meet the HTC Flyer. This Android 2.4 2.3-based tablet features a 7-inch Super LCD touch screen that's encased in an aluminum unibody design. This is a design that the company has used on a number of its smartphones, including the HTC Legend, and we've always been fond … Read more