mwc

There's this little thing that's pretty big in tech at the moment--3D (perhaps you've heard of it?). We've gone way beyond the geeky specs 3D of last year, and now all the coolest upcoming gadgets are sporting glasses-free 3D technology.

The Nintendo 3DS was the device that started it all, but now LG is showing off the world's first 3D smartphone, the LG Optimus 3D. We've gone hands- and eyes-on with both devices, but which one packs better 3D tech?

Find out by reading more of "LG Optimus 3D vs. Nintendo 3DS in 3D display destruction derby&… Read more

BARCLEONA, Spain--Is MeeGo dead in the water now that Nokia has fallen in love with Windows Phone 7 for its smartphones? Partner Intel has been doing its utmost to dispel the doomsayers at Mobile World Congress, showing off an impressively slick demo of MeeGo-powered tablet software.

It showcases a swipe 'n' tap interface flicking between friends, music, photos, and other content, while swiping down to access more information, and tap-holding to trigger pop-up menus for more actions. It's very visual, and in the above demo video at least, appears to be running like a dream.

Intel's MWC press … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Umeox's new Apollo smartphone laughs in the face of low battery life. Well, it does as long as you don't take it to a place where it's perpetually overcast. The newly announced Android handset has its own built-in solar charger, to keep it juiced with the sun's rays as you go through the day.

Not heard of Umeox? That might not be surprising: The Chinese firm tends to sell its phones through operators around the world rather than under its own name. That's likely to be the plan with the Apollo, so expect it … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--At the Mobile World Congress here, I hitched a ride in a 2011 Audi A8 demo equipped with Alcatel-Lucent 4G/LTE infrastructure.

The 2011 Audi A8 is typically equipped with an integrated 3G Wi-Fi hot spot to support its Google Earth navigation system and up to six device connections. But the 4G hot spot will give users even higher bandwidth for better telematics response and Internet access to support applications such as streaming media. Think live video conferencing from the backseat of the car, which is what we did.

Alcatel-Lucent demoed the 4G capability in the vehicle using LiveCast and Vidyo. As I rode around Barcelona in the back of the A8, I video-conferenced with an Alcatel team following us in another vehicle. Our demo was also broadcast to Alcatel's booth at Mobile World Congress.

This Audi connected to Alcatel's temporary 4G base station in a building about 1.5 miles away from us, and we witnessed speeds of up to 30Mbps. However, there were only a couple of users accessing that base station. In a commercial application, Alcatel says users can expect speeds around 5Mbps. That's a lot faster than the 400Kbps to 1.5Mbps you can expect on current 3G networks. … Read more

Sandy Bridge processors in laptops still haven't been seen yet, but we can start putting together a wish list of laptops we'd most like to see with the updated Intel Core i-series CPUs. The Toshiba Portege R instantly rises to the top of that list. The Portege R705 was one of our top-rated laptops of 2010, and at MWC in Barcelona, Spain, Toshiba has unveiled the next generation of these laptops, the R800 series.

The Portege R830, as it's being called in Europe, corresponds directly with the 13-inch R700 line we loved so much. The big changes come under the hood: the Sandy Bridge CPUs should add greatly improved integrated graphics, a missing feature in the R700 line. In addition, a newly engineered air-flow cooling system detailed by Toshiba could help run operations with a little less heat. … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Samsung had more than one card up its sleeve at Mobile World Congress 2011. After announcing the Samsung Galaxy II and the Galaxy Tab 10.1, the company introduced two Android-based portable media players: the Samsung Galaxy S Wi-Fi 4.0 and the Samsung Galaxy S Wi-Fi 5.0.

Essentially, the devices are like the Samsung Galaxy S phones, just without the cellular phone capabilities. The main difference between the two models is screen size. The Galaxy S Wi-Fi 4.0 has a 4-inch WVGA Super LCD display, whereas the Galaxy S Wi-Fi 5.0 has a, you guessed … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Sony Ericsson got the ball rolling at Mobile World Congress when it announced its long-rumored and it-was-hardly-a-secret Xperia Play. As the "PlayStation phone," the Xperia Play combines a cell phone and a gaming device like few other handsets have.

Though we posted out initial hands-on impression shortly after the unveiling, it was difficult to get serious time with the device at the company's crowded press conference. So to take a second look, I trekked up the hill in Barcelona to Sony Ericsson's massive booth that it shared with Ericsson.

I'll warn you that I'… Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Research In Motion and Nokia share a similar vision for success: help wireless carriers avoid becoming a dumb pipe.

RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie and Nokia CEO Stephen Elop shared the stage here today at the Mobile World Congress as part of a keynote panel. Competition is heating up between the two handset makers after Nokia's announcement last week that it will team up with software maker Microsoft.

Since the announcement last Friday, Elop has been calling the Nokia-Microsoft pairing the "third horse" in what today is shaping up to be a two-horse race in the mobile … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--In late November, Acer unveiled an Android smartphone that raised some eyebrows with its large 4.8-inch touch screen. The device now has a name, the Acer Iconia Smart, and it's on display here at Mobile World Congress 2011, so naturally we had to take it for a spin.

To be honest, we were expecting to see a huge, clunky device, and the Iconia Smart is big, to be sure, but it's not as unwieldy as one would expect. Admittedly, it's on the long side, so it's not the most pocket-friendly device, unless you're … Read more