This week, some lucky members of the Mobile Fun team jetted off to beautiful sunny Barcelona to attend the world’s largest exhibition for the industry, Mobile World Congress. Or at least, this was the idyllic picture painted in the envious minds of the rest of us left behind back in Birmingham – apparently it was actually raining in Barcelona (this makes us feel a little better)!
The team brought back some interesting bits and pieces of news about the most cutting-edge in upcoming gadgetry, as well as a few videos of stuff in action.
Krusell have launched the Krusell SEaLABox, a truly waterproof smartphone case which allows you to continue using your phone in the wet – and even underwater! The SEaLABox is available in a range of seven different colours, and works for a range of smartphones – our team saw it used with an iPhone and an HTC Desire Z, though the HTC HD2 and Desire HD proved a little too large. The case is certified to IPX7 standard, and test duration was 30 minutes at an immersion depth of 1m. Great news for swimmers, sailors, skiers and just about anyone else who gets soggy on a regular basis. See the video below for the amazing sight of an iPhone being fully submerged in a bowl of water – eek! The iPhone in the video can also be seen working with a case on – the one shown is a Gaia case.
A few weeks ago we told you about the BeeWi Mini Cooper S Bluetooth Controlled Car, which got loads of interest around the blogosphere. The drawback to it, though, was that it only worked with certain Android and Symbian phones – not with iPhones. Apparently there’s good news on this: a new red version just for the iPhone is on its way. BeeWi have also been working on Bluetooth-controlled helicopters, which sound like they’ll be less costly than the gorgeous-but-expensive AR.Drone RC Quadricopter.
Sony Ericsson released the very nifty, very chic-looking MS430 speaker stand which is housed in an unusual aluminium tube. Small enough to put in your pocket, the MS430 can go wherever you go and works with any device that has a 3.5mm headphone jack – the one downside is that it doesn’t have a charge option and runs instead on AAA batteries. Our team also saw the speakers being used in tandem with the Sony Ericsson MW600 Bluetooth Headset, which means that you can play music remotely from your phone via Bluetooth – see the video below for what we mean.
SIM-based NFC payments using your mobile phone look to be just around the corner as Visa and DeviceFidelity announced plans for their innovative solution that lets you use any phone with a MicroSD memory slot as a contactless payment device.
MWC saw people getting their first hands-on glimpse of HP’s new tablet device, the TouchPad; the device runs WebOS (the operating system used on the Palm Pre mobile phones), has a 9.7 inch capacitive touchscreen (like the iPad) and supports Flash (unlike the iPad). Our team also got a glimpse at the TouchPad Charging Dock, which like the TouchStone Charging Dock for Palm Pre is an inductive charger that works using the special magnetised non-stick battery cover, meaning that there’s no need to plug the TouchPad in – you just stick on and it charges away.
The team managed to catch a glimpse of some official HTC docks – it looks as though some HTC-branded HTC Desire docks/ HTC Desire HD docks may be on their way at last:
And there was also a Sony Ericsson Xperia Play dock on show, which switches your phone into slideshow mode once it’s plugged in. It looks a bit temperamental, though, as you’ll see from the video:
Were you there too? Let us know about anything exciting you laid eyes on!
With Mobile World Congress now just days away, the rumour mill is working overtime with talk of new handsets from just about every manufacturer, and a few new ones too. So what are we likely to see announced next week?
Nokia:
Nokia seem to have the most amount of rumours again this year, with a few interesting handsets set to be announced. Some have been announced already, but information on them is still sketchy. Leaked information is still trickling out, so I’d expect to see more than just the ones below get confirmed.
Nokia E75 & 5730:
Originally covered on our post back in September, the E75 looks like its finally going to make its debut – along with the music inspried 5730. Both seem to be the same at first glance, and presumably will run different software to distinguish between the two, with more of a business user spin on the E75, and more music/media focus on the 5730.
Nokia App Store:
Apple really started something with the iPhone. First everyone went touchscreen crazy, now following the success of the Apple App Store (where users can download new applications and games directly to their phone,) it seems that everyone wants a slice of the action. Microsoft, Palm and Samsung have all announced they will be launching an App store in the not so distant future, and MWC should see Nokia announce to the world that their “download!” service is going to be replaced with their version of the App Store.
Codenames: Ivalo & Madeleine:
No real naming is known for these two handsets, but the do seem to match the descriptions of the leaked Nokia Roadmap that we revealed back in November.
Sony Ericsson:
Not so many with Sony Ericsson last year, nothing groundbreaking anyway. A few revisions to the Cyber-Shot line up and an interesting rumour on facebook phones are the main stories this year.
C903:
Last year camera phones to a big step forwards as the megapixels jumped up to 8MP, and software such as face detection and smile detection made its way into phones. Sony seem keen to develop the Cyber-Shot brand with their phones, with their latest one, the 5MP C903 looking more like a current Cyber-Shot camera from the back than a phone – although I’m really not convinced about the bright red housing.
C901: The C901 seems to be a replacement for the current C902, but without the gimmicky slide out camera and relatively small screen and with the welcome addition of a Xenon flash.
C510:
The C510 has already been announced, but the latest rumours suggest that when it is released, it will feature full facebook integration. While its not the first facebook phone, it will be good to see this in a more mainstream handset than the 3 exclusive INQ1.
LG: LG have had a good year with several successfull handsets, and it looks like they’ve still got a fwe tricks up their sleeve and are about to raise their game again when it comes to touchscreen phones.
LG Arena:
Interestingly named seeing as they are in the process of rebranding the NEC Arena to the LG Arena, but that aside, the LG Arena will introduce a new menu system – a 3D cubic system. Its not Multi-Touch like the iPhone, but looks pretty impressive.
LG Solar:
Not content with only offering a Solar Powered Bluetooth car kit LG are expected to announce a solar powered phone. While not relying solely on power from the sun, the phone will use solar energy for phone calls while a conventional battery will power the other functions.
Samsung: Last year Samsung probably got the most attention and released the most amount of handsets, and it looks like it could be the same this year. Rumours are suggesting that upto 14 new handsets could be being announced, most of these will be low end handsets though. Of all of them, these are the ones that have caught my eye the most.
Tocco Ultra:
I’m not 100% sure why they’re calling it the Tocco Ultra, as it doesn’t really resemble the original Tocco, but this full touch screen handset has handy addition of a sliding standard phone keypad. Great for those that want a touch screen phone, but don’t want to lose their keypads completely, or move to a more bulky device with a full QWERTY keyboard.
i8910 Acme:
This one is set to be the show stopper if it is announced. It runs on the same operating system as the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, so its Symbian 60, and rumoured to have 8MP camera and HDMI support.
Blue Earth:
Not wanting to be left behind by LG, Samsung are also set to announce a solar powered phone. The Blue earth is rumoured to be a touch screen device made from recycled plastic bottles, and will even tell you how many trees you’re saving by not charging your phone.
Garmin? Last year Garmin announced that they were going to start producing handsets. Its been announced that they’ve teamed up with Asus and we’re expecting the Nuvifone G60 and Nuvifone M20 to be officially announced. Source: Mobile Burn
Windows Mobile:
Windows Mobile was never really designed to be used using your finger, a stylus was and still is needed to access most menu’s, but since Apple changed the touchscreen interface, more and more manufacturers want to ditch the stylus, hence the introduction of software like Touch-Flo on HTC devices. Windows Mobile are hoping to fix all this with the introduction of Windows Mobile 6.5, information is patchy, but spy shots are starting to leak of the new finger friendly OS. Visit Engadget for more details and some leaked screenshots.
Mobile World Congress:
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Nokia have started the Mobile World Congress with the announcement of 4 new handsets. Two more handsets will join their N-Series range: the N96, successor to their flagship N95 and the N78, replacement for the N73. Nokia have also announced the Nokia 6120 as the replacement for the 6110 Navigator and a new 6220 Classic, a high spec non N-Series Multimedia device.
The N96 carries over all the features from the current N95 8GB, but has more of a look and feel of the Nokia N81. Additions to the already impressive list of specifications on the N95 8GB are, more memory – up from 8GB to 16GB of internal storage, as well as the capability to take up to 16GB Micro SDHC memory cards – Giving it potentially 32GB of storage. Nokia are also adding a digital TV tuner, so now not only can you watch video files, but live television too, but not in the UK as you need a DVB-H signal. DVB-H isn’t due to start broadcasting in the UK for a few years.
The N78 is similar in spec to that of the current Nokia N82. Having 3.2 Megapixel camera with xenon flash, built in GPS with the capability to Geo-tag your photo’s and Wi-Fi. New features introduced to the N78 are a touch sensitive D-pad, meaning you can scroll through photos and menu’s by sliding your thumb along one edge of the square silver D-pad. Nokia have also built in an FM transmitter, normally available as an add on accessory, this enables the N78 to play music from your phone on any FM radio.
The 6120 is an update to the current 6110 navigator. Offering built in GPS, this is designed to be a personal navigation system, with more focus on pedestrian use. The built in compass and accelerometer work together to keep the map facing in the correct direction. The camera has been increased from 2 mp to 3.2 and it now supports mobile broadband data speeds (HSDPA) for faster searches and map downloads.
The 6220 classic is essentially a non N-Series version of the Nokia N82 having the same 5 Megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens and xenon flash. Support for Micro SDHC Memory cards up to 8GB is also included.
All of these handsets will ship with Nokia Maps pre-installed. Nokia Maps 2.0 is an upgrade over the current Maps application, offering improved usability, as well as faster satellite locks and enhanced local searching. For more information on Nokia Maps, check out our Nokia Maps 2.0 review.
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Nokia E75 & 5730:
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