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.
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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.
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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
LG Arena KM900 smartphone to include 3D user interface
Archos working on Android Internet tablet
Samsung gussies up TouchWiz mobile interface
Virgin Mobile to sell the Kyocera X-tc
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GSMA preview
LG Rhythm
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Huawei M328
LG VX8360
Griffin SmartTalk Bluetooth headset
(Credit:
Crave UK)
While wandering through the mobile theme park that is the 3GSMA Mobile World Congress, we stumbled across a strangely familiar-looking phone at the Spyker stand. Spyker is mostly known for making cars, which gave us pause.
There was no model name on the handset, but of course the first thing we thought of when we saw it was the iPhone. The available press materials failed to shed any light on its name, but when we asked the man at the stand whether or not it belonged to the Spyker portfolio, he responded with a straightforward "yes." Click here for more.
(Source: Crave UK)
Vodafone makes itself known at GSMA.
(Credit: Kent German/CNET Networks)The GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, is winding to a close, but that doesn't mean mobile phone news have stopped streaming in. The third day of GSMA 2008 saw AMD announcing big plans for mobile phone processors, RIM's co-CEO downplaying the recent BlackBerry outage, and the LiMo Foundation possibly giving Google's Android a run for its money with its own effort at an open, Linux-based operating system. Of course, we also took the opportunity to look at phones and carriers off the beaten path.
For starters, Senior Editor Kent German explored the large Vodafone plaza (Vodafone is a UK-based carrier) and took a look at their phones, such as the Nokia 5310 and the Samsung SGH-P110, which we'll never get here. He also lamented the lackluster Alcatel presence, despite their big showing in 2007. NEC is a big phone manufacturer outside of the U.S., and Kent gave us a good look at the NEC FOMA N705i for NTT DoCoMo in Japan, which also happens to be one of the first LiMo Foundation phones.
Nokia's Remade uses recycled and renewable materials to lessen its environmental impact.
(Credit: Nokia)In an effort to go green, Nokia has unveiled Remade, a phone that is made entirely out of renewable and recycled parts. Senior Editor Bonnie Cha also got a look at the much talked about Garmin Nuvifone, a touch screen phone with a lot of GPS functionality. Andrew Lim from CNET UK gave us a hands-on look at the luscious LG KF600 and KF700 touch screen phones as well.
One of the different devices we saw is the Polymer Vision's Readius, a phone that is also an e-book reader--the display can even be rolled up like paper. Another phone that looks very different from the rest is the Modu, which has different "sleeves" that can add to the functionality of the phone. Even though iRiver is more known for their MP3 players, this year in Barcelona, iRiver Europe announced it's breaking into the cell phone business with its first ever mobile phone, called the iRiver W7.
Readius e-book reader that's also a phone.
(Credit: Crave Asia)ZTE, which doesn't have much of a presence in the U.S. market, is one of the largest cell phone manufacturers in China, so we had to take a look at the company's phones. Overall, we're pretty impressed--their phones ranged from the keyboard-equipped smartphone to the simple flip phone. A lot of their devices are high-end megapixel phones that support HSDPA. As for companies that the U.S. is familiar with, Palm is unfortunately rather quiet at GSMA 2008, but news is that it might debut a white version of the Palm Centro on February 19th.
We'll have more as the week goes on, but please take a look at our complete coverage of GSMA Mobile World Congress 2008 for plenty of product slide shows, videos, and more.
(Credit:
Crave UK)
February 11 has come and gone, and it turned out to be a busy first day at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Before the show even began, Senior Editor Kent German gave us a little preview of the convention scene, and Bonnie Cha tells us her woeful tale of her stolen wallet. But work must go on, and Kent managed to get a hands on with the Samsung Soul, a slider handset packed with HSDPA, a 5-megapixel camera, and a new navigation pad with a display that changes its icons depending on what feature is being used.
Of course, one of the biggest news items out of GSMA this first day is that Google Android prototypes are finally showing up for people to see, and CNET News.com's Marguerite Reardon managed to get her hands on it. She gives us her first impressions, and what the Google people have to say about the future of the Android platform.
Sony Ericsson Z770
(Credit: Kent German/CNET Networks)Back on the new phone trail, Sony Ericsson also debuted several phones, such as the incredibly slim Sony Ericsson Z770 with HSDPA support, the Sony Ericsson W980 Walkman phone with "shake" control, and a brand new G-series of phones with touchscreens. The G700 and the G900 "touch-screen organizers" sport the Symbian OS, while the G900 is more geared for photography thanks to its 5-megapixel camera. But Sony Ericsson's real camera phones are the C702 and the C902--the C702 has a 3.2-megapixel camera with 2x zoom, while the C902 has a 5-megapixel camera with 16x zoom. Sony Ericsson also dropped a smart phone bombshell--it's making its first ever Windows Mobile device, the Xperia X1, which has a QWERTY keyboard slider, plus support for HSDPA and HSUPA, as well as Wi-Fi.
Not to be left out, Nokia also knocked out a few phones of its own. The Finnish company's big announcement was the Nokia N96, a much more powerful version of the N95, with a 5-megapixel camera, 16GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot, a music player, quad-band support, and more. It's definitely sexier than the N95, but if you want to get one that is unlocked, it'll cost you about $780. Nokia also introduced the Nokia 6220, which has a 5-megapixel camera, 20x zoom, as well as Carl Zeiss optics. Other phones Nokia announced were the Nokia 6210 Navigator with built-in GPS, and the Nokia N78, which will be compatible with Nokia's Music Store and N-Gage mobile gaming platform. Finally, Nokia also debuted its Ovi photo-sharing service.
The Nokia N96 makes calls.
(Credit: Nokia)LG introduced the LG KF510, an absolutely gorgeous slider phone with tempered glass plus a 3-megapixel camera, as well as the KS20, a Windows Mobile phone that is all touchscreen (like the Prada). There's also the LG KT610, which has a QWERTY keyboard, as well as built-in GPS.
Though Motorola announced its commitment to the mobile phone industry, the company didn't have as many hot announcements. The Z6w looks like a Rizr clone, but it supports Wi-Fi plus a 2-megapixel camera, and a music player The W161 and W181 are two basic candy bar phones that are just phones.
On the tech news front, Microsoft announced that it will buy Sidekick maker, Danger, and Nvidia announced that it wants a piece of the mobile phone market with a standalone graphics processor made just for mobile phones coming next year. Mobile advertising start-up, JumpTap, said it will provide advertising and search services for seven TeliaSonera carriers in Europe, Cisco further defines its role in the mobile industry, and Texas Instruments has just made a new OMAP chip, and it's not only for mobile phones.
Stay tuned for the rest of the week for complete CNET coverage of the GSMA Mobile World Congress.
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