mwc

BARCELONA, Spain--The rumors of a Facebook phone have been floating around for a while, but it was only recently that HTC's name came into the mix and, even then, Facebook once again denied the existence of any such product. Well, turns out the company wasn't being completely honest.

Today at Mobile World Congress, HTC unveiled two new smartphones that will feature dedicated Facebook buttons for easy access to the popular social-networking site. The HTC ChaCha and the HTC Salsa (yes, those are the names) each have a Facebook button on the bottom, which when pressed will let you … Read more

In addition to going out on a limb with two Facebook-friendly phones, HTC also hedged its wilder bets this Mobile World Congress with updates to three of its more popular phones.

The HTC Incredible S, Wildfire S, and Desire S are all familiar designs that include the HTC Sense interface on top of an Android base.

The high-end HTC Incredible S sports a 4-inch WVGA Super LCD display and stereo surround sound to highlight its multimedia-friendliness. The 8-megapixel camera comes with dual flash, and there's a front-facing camera on board as well for video chats. DLNA support brings the … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--The T-Mobile G-Slate by LG isn't a new announcement. The 4G Honeycomb tablet was actually first introduced at CES 2011, but it only made a brief appearance during T-Mobile's press conference before it was quickly whisked away by LG executives.

However, our appetite for the G-Slate was satiated at Mobile World Congress 2011 where T-Mobile and LG provided us with some hands-on time with the tablet. Now, I haven't seen all the tablets out there, but I've certainly checked out a number of devices, including the iPad, the HP TouchPad, and Samsung's Galaxy Tab … Read more

Burly and coated in ridged rubber, the forthcoming Sonim XP3300 Force can take its share of abuse.

Rugged phones are sturdy, but certainly not indestructible. That said, this "Force" fared better encased in concrete than Han Solo did in carbonite, and it also passed our dunk test. Several enhancements kick it up a notch from some other Sonim phones. We'll have a more in-depth look in our hands-on review, so stay tuned. In the meantime, see the dust-covered contours of the XP3300 Force filmed just today in our San Francisco headquarters.

BARCELONA--Apple gets plenty of praise for advancing mobile browsers with its iPhone's version of Safari, but an audience greeted its performance with some laughter as Microsoft compared it to an upcoming version of IE9 for Windows Phone 7.

Joe Belfiore, a Microsoft corporate vice president, showed off the browser here at the Mobile World Congress show during a keynote speech by Chief Executive Steve Ballmer. Specifically, Belfiore showed it running a Microsoft fishtank demonstration that's been in widespread use since the hardware acceleration work began in earnest among personal computer browser makers last year.

And he got a … Read more

Skype today launched a plan to bring its VoIP calling service to more smartphones and feature phones.

Its Mobile Partner Program targets mobile carriers operating in markets with weak 3G bandwidth. Skype is offering a partnership in which carriers preload the Skype communications app onto phones.

Partner carriers benefit from differentiating phones in their roster with a Skype app, and users win by getting free calls to other Skype users, and calls at lower rates to friends and family abroad.

Count on the apps we're likely to see as being functional for making calls, but rather limited in other … Read more

With the increasing number of tech gadgets we carry around, even on hiking trips, having a reliable power source is a serious consideration. While solar-powered battery packs have been around for a while, the reliance on a consistent sunlight source is a big concern in some regions.

The pocket-size PowerTrekk Fuel Cell charger out of Sweden offers two solutions to the personal energy crisis. Besides an internal battery pack that can be charged from the mains, the device also utilizes disposable fuel cell packs. The device splits water to create hydrogen that goes through the fuel cell to create an … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Israeli start-up Comodo Console debuted a low-cost, all-in-one infotainment system that turns any car--including a 10-year-old beater--into a cutting-edge, connected tech sled.

Comodo's aftermarket product is a one-stop shop that goes way beyond your typical dash-mounted navigation system. For a flat monthly fee the company provides all the hardware, software, and data plan necessary to install and run the console in the vehicle. The package includes a rotatable console with a 4.3-inch touch screen, dedicated USB modem, GPS antenna, Bluetooth, backup camera, external microphone, speaker, and installation kit--devices that … Read more

Cell phone-maker ZTE showed three Android smartphones at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year.

In addition to the Gingerbread-toting ZTE Skate, which we looked at earlier, there's the ZTE Amigo and the ZTE Blade. The Amigo has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a 3.2-megapixel camera--we'll known much more later when we get our hands on the device.

The third phone is one we saw at CES. The ZTE Blade it has a 3.5-inch touch screen and a 3.2-megapixel camera. Although it runs Android 2.1, ZTE says the Blade should be upgradable to Android … Read more