mobile world congress

Kent and Bonnie are busy in Barcelona, Spain, so I roped in Tom Merritt from Buzz Out Loud and The Real Deal to talk phones. We spend most of the show going over the big news from GSMA Mobile World Congress, but we also dip our toes in some local news and reviews as well.

News GSMA Mobile World Congress

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GSMA Mobile World Congress is just a few days away and already we've received a few sneak peeks at what will be at the show. We discuss those, as well as iPhone rumors, new phones, and this week's reviews. Plus we answer your questions, as always.

News On Call: Not excited about the Nano Apple gearing up for $99 iPhone? A phone made for gas stations Sony Ericsson launches C903, W395 T-Mobile gets 8-megapixel Samsung Memoir T-Mobile BlackBerry Curve 8900 now available to the masses ZTE to unveil smartphone lineup at GSMA 2009 … Read more

Microsoft is gearing up to take on rival Apple in the smartphone market.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Microsoft is getting ready to launch an online marketplace akin to Apple's App Store. In August, Microsoft had started looking for people to head up the new application store. Microsoft is also readying a more sophisticated version of its mobile operating system called Windows Mobile 6.5, the Journal reported.

Smartphones are sophisticated mobile phones that offer users access to the Web and e-mail, as well as, provide phone calling and all kinds of other messaging options. This category … Read more

This was originally posted at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

The LiMo Foundation on Monday said the second release of its Linux-based handset platform is on target. LiMo added that it will show off the latest platform at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, next week.

According to LiMo, its members are introducing reference implementations of the latest release (statement). The primary goals are to make the platform easier to deploy and add Web 2.0 features.

LiMo (all resources) is an open platform supported by a bevy of wireless-industry players.

Access, Azingo, LG Electronics, Purple Labs, and Samsung … Read more

Getting an early start on the competition, LG Electronics announced Sunday that its new Arena KM900 smartphone will debut at the upcoming Mobile World Congress.

LG is touting the touch screen's user interface as featuring a 3D cube-based layout with four customizable screens for accessing the phone's features.

"The direct, intuitive, and dynamic S-Class UI will be unlike anything that has appeared on a mobile phone before," Skott Ahn, president of LG Mobile, said in a statement.

The Arena features a 3-inch WVGA touch screen with 800?400 resolution and a 5-megapixel camera that promises "… Read more

Microsoft appears poised to officially unveil a Web-based service that will let users store, share, and back up data from their mobile phones.

Provided, that is, that the phones run Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6 phone operating system. And the service will be available as only a limited beta to start with.

Details of Microsoft's impending My Phone service slipped out inadvertently when the Web site went live ahead of its scheduled debut. The site appears to have been spotted first by Engadget Mobile, which also referred to the service as SkyBox.

According to the Microsoft My Phone site, the service will let users back up and restore the phone's data, access contact and scheduling information, and share photos. Users will get 200MB of free storage, but beware--a synchronization attempt that exceeds the limit will cut off any files beyond the 200MB mark.… Read more

The biggest cell phone show of the year is a week away, but we're already seeing loads of brand new phones finding their way to the Web before they're officially announced.

While it's guaranteed we'll see some more interesting stuff at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which of the phones that have already been leaked are you most excited about?

Less than a year after buying up smartphone maker E-Ten, Acer will debut its first handheld, a company representative confirmed Wednesday.

The Taiwanese PC maker has just begun distributing invitations to a press event that will be held next month during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Both President and CEO Gianfranco Lanci and Aymar de Lencquesaing, the head of the Smart Handheld business unit, will be on hand for the event. The invitation specifically says "smartphones" launch, so it doesn't sound like it's going to be an event focused on a single model or … Read more

Bill Gates skipped the Consumer Electronics Show this year, leaving the coveted opening-night keynote spot to CEO Steve Ballmer.

While Ballmer's always an engaging and funny speaker, the company didn't have much to say: a couple long-rumored deals for Live Search, some Windows 7 features that have already been shown at the Professional Developers' Conference and reviewed all over the Web (the beta will be publicly available by the end of the week), and Kodu, a Microsoft Research project moved to the Xbox 360 (pretty cool, but it's been around for a couple years).

But no Zune for Windows Mobile. … Read more