Smartphones

BARCELONA, Spain--Sony Ericsson's Xperia Play wasn't the only new cell phone that the company released at Mobile World Congress. The slim and media-centric Xperia Neo and Xperia Pro also had their official coming out party in Spain.

The candy bar smartphones look very much like the handset that we caught a glimpse of last week. The only physical difference between the Neo and the Pro is that the former has a virtual keyboard while the latter adds a physical keyboard.

On both handsets, the 3.7-inch touch screen supports 16.7 million colors and a 854x480-pixel resolution. Three … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--After months of rumors, a slew of leaks, and one creepy commercial, Sony Ericsson's worst-kept secret is now a reality. On Sunday, the day before Mobile World Congress officially opens, Sony Ericsson finally took the wraps off of the Xperia Play.

Long billed as the "PlayStation phone," the Xperia Play is very much the handset that Sony Ericsson highlighted last week during the Super Bowl. In the United States, it will arrive as a Verizon Wireless exclusive later this spring.

The 4-inch (854x480-pixel resolution; 16.7 million colors) display is up to usual Sony Ericsson standards. Colors were bright and vibrant, and graphics showed up well. From our brief hands-on experience, the display also appears to do the gaming features justice. Below the display are four physical controls for the usual Android functions (back, menu, home, and search). On the left spine you'll find a 3.5mm headset jack and a Micro-USB port; the power control, a volume rocker, and shoulder gaming controls sit on the right spine. … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--As promised, Samsung unveiled its next-generation Galaxy S smartphone at Mobile World Congress 2011 today.

Dubbed the Samsung Galaxy S II, the handset improves on its predecessor in a number of ways. First, you've got the addition of a dual-core processor. We were originally told by the company that it was using Nvidia's Tegra 2 chipset but were later informed that it was Samsung's own chip; unfortunately, further details were not provided at the event but generally speaking you should see faster performance and graphics.

It also runs the latest Android 2.3 Gingerbread, but unlike … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Along with the Galaxy S II, Samsung introduced its second Android tablet today on the eve of Mobile World Congress 2011.

Joining the 7-inch Galaxy Tab, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 features a larger 10.1-inch WXGA (1,280x800-pixel resolution) TFT touch screen, and runs the latest Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system. In addition, it's a Google Experience device, so the tablet will feature the stock Android user interface instead of Samsung's custom UI, TouchWiz. This should, hopefully, prevent any delays with future OS updates.

In other good news, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 will … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--The show doesn't begin until Monday, but LG has spilled more details on its new devices for Mobile World Congress. We already knew about the Optimus 3D, but the company also will show the Optimus Pad tablet. Here are the preliminary details on each device from an LG press release.

The LG Optimus 3D will have a 1GHz dual-core processor with dual-channel and dual-memory architecture. It will offer a 3D-capable 4.3-inch WVGA display that won't require glasses. We're still not sure how that will work, but we'll find out tomorrow at LG's press … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--After a long journey from San Francisco and a good night's sleep, I arrived in Barcelona ready for whatever Mobile World Congress will offer. Indeed, we expect quite a lot of news from the major manufacturers though Nokia already created a lot of buzz with its new Microsoft partnership.

First stop was the Fira de Barcelona, where the trade show will take place. I picked up my press badge, and then walked around the grounds and watched the work crews prepare the company booths and pavilions. I've always been amazed at the amount of work that goes … Read more

AT&T isn't just getting aggressive with ads to tout the iPhone on its network versus Verizon's, it's giving away minutes as well.

Many current AT&T iPhone users have received text messages from their carrier today thanking them for being loyal customers, and while the text doesn't say so, we're sure it's also a thanks for not switching during Verizon's underwhelming iPhone launch this week.

The text comes with instructions to reply with "yes" to receive 1,000 extra rollover minutes. AT&T tells us these will be applied to each iPhone on the account.

The texts are coming from the number 11113020, and when a user replies with the "yes," another text is received saying that the minutes will be applied in the coming weeks.

With our testing, we found that iPhone users can simply text "yes" to the SMS number and get the deal, though we can't say yet if it applies to all iPhone customers or just those with contracts expiring soon.

So, iPhone-using Crave readers, why not give it a try and tell us back here if it worked for you? Really, it couldn't hurt.… Read more

February 11, 2011, is truly a game-changing day. Hosni Mubarak's autocratic reign in Egypt is over, it's Jennifer Aniston's birthday, MaGaga dropped her new single Born This Way, Justin Bieber's "Never Say Never 3D" is now in theaters, and New York Fashion Week has officially begun.

Last year Erin Lee and Lani Nguyen from the fashion blog SugarRockCatWalk.com joined us in the studio to report on Fashion Week, but we're tackling the runways ourselves today and apparently the hottest trend is "belted satchels"-- a fancy name for fanny packs!

Sartorial designer Diane von Furstenberg has already released a $325 version of the "hands-free bag" that fastens around the waist, but don't call it a fanny pack--international designers are trying to edit the lexicon to "bum bags," since the word "fanny" is slang in the U.K. and Australia for the female genitalia.

The French have already started calling them "le sac banane," which references the banana-shape in the pouch, but something tells me Americans already have that area covered.… Read more

There's a big question being explored right now about the intersection of health and social media: Does the tracking and sharing of personal fitness and diet data motivate us to get, and stay, healthy?

A host of Web sites and mobile apps are banking on the answer being yes. FitDay provides a free diet journal; Daily Burn offers logs to track diet, exercise, and weight; an Awareness app promises to upgrade one's mental software; and dozens of other sites and apps cater to specific types of diets, exercises, and desired outcomes.

So the just-launched Humana fit social network, designed to help users live healthier, more active lives, is going to have to offer some pretty stellar features to stand out.… Read more