mwc2013

BARCELONA, Spain--Given what else it has had to deal with recently, Spain probably wouldn't be all that shocked if a UFO did indeed land atop Gaudi's famous Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Spain. But rest assured, would-be tourists, that was just a teaser in a brief video Asus released over the Internet in the run-up to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The video ends with an invitation to "join Asus to embrace the metallic miracle" on February 25 at Mobile World Congress. Another tease: the company's Mobile World … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Launched two weeks ago in Thailand and making its first appearance outside of Asia is Acer's latest Intel Atom smartphone, the Liquid C1. The U.S. $331 handset sports a single-core Intel Atom Z2420 1.2GHz processor, a 4.3-inch qHD LCD display, 1GB RAM, and only 4GB of storage (but it does have a microSD card slot).

The quad-band C1 weighs just 140 grams, and also features an 8-megapixel camera. It also packs a 2,000mAh battery that should last you a day of use.

Meant for the Asia market, the Liquid C1 will soon head to … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Laying the groundwork for its nascent Firefox OS, Mozilla has won over a sizeable list of allies including LG Electronics and China Unicom, and the first phones with the browser-based operating system should arrive in the second quarter of the year.

Mozilla announced today at the Mobile World Congress show here that it's persuaded 18 mobile network operators and four mobile phone makers to back its open-source mobile operating system. That's not enough to unseat the incumbent powers of Google's Android and Apple's iOS slayer, but it is enough to ensure Firefox OS at least … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Get all the details of ZTE's Mobile World Congress press conference right here.

CNET's Brian Bennett, photographer Stephen Shankland, and I will be bringing you the news, photos, and commentary from the event, which begins at 7 a.m. PT on Monday.

ZTE is expected to build upon its expanded presence at last year's show and go big with the smartphone announcements. The company has in the past unveiled phones here that don't make it to the U.S., although it has made progress in its relationships with the U.S. carriers.

You can tune … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--It's a vow we've heard many times before: Huawei will be a top global brand.

Here at Mobile World Congress, Huawei used its press conference as yet another opportunity to plead its softer side.

Addressing a room full of journalists, Huawei's director of global brand management, Amy Lou, passionately shared Huawei's philosophy for aggressively pursuing its dream of becoming a major mobile heavyweight. Sweeping imagery of Earth and dust, and powerful language like "visionary" and "spirited" signaled a new step for Huawei, one that's far more philosophical and emotional than … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Mozilla, Ericsson, and AT&T announced today they're demonstrating technology to place Internet-based voice and video calls that bridge traditional telephone services and the Web.

The demonstration, at Mobile World Congress here, uses the nascent WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communications) standard to set up browser-based communications between different devices.

The "proof of concept" links a Web app with a person's existing phone number and "shows how consumers can easily take and receive video calls from their mobile phones or desktop browser using WebRTC or share their Web experiences with friends or family who might … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Will Nokia unleash another Lumia smartphone?

Nokia kicks off the first official day of Mobile World Congress with its press conference, and you can get all the news right here.

Rather than a high-end superphone, Nokia is expected to unveil a line of more budget-friendly phones in a bid to go after the mass market. That could mean a lower-end Lumia device, as well phones from its Asha line of ultra-low-end phones.

CNET UK's Luke Westaway, photographer Sarah Tew, and I will be bringing you all the details, photos, and commentary from the event. The event kicks off … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--On Sunday, we'll find out how well Huawei is doing meeting its ambition to become a top-tier smartphone manufacturer.

That's when the up-and-coming company plans to debut a brand-new phone at a Mobile World Congress press conference. CNET will be there to provide all the details about that phone -- you can expect a premium Android model -- and likely other news as well.

CNET UK's Luke Westaway, photographer Sarah Tew, and I will supply news updates, photos, and commentary from the event. It starts at 6 a.m. PT, which is 3 p.m. local … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Huawei's booth crew may not have attached any phones to mounts over at its booth at Mobile World Congress, but it's clear that the Huawei Ascend P2 will officially debut at this show.

The successor to the Huawei Ascend P1 Android phone, the P2 is expected to run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and shoot for the high end with specs that include a 1.8GHz quad-core processor, a 13-megapixel camera and a 3,000mAh battery.

Rumors also point to a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, 2GB RAM, and 8GB internal storage, though perhaps without expandable memory.

We'… Read more