{"id":12006,"date":"2011-02-18T11:27:36","date_gmt":"2011-02-18T11:27:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/?p=12006"},"modified":"2011-02-18T15:11:47","modified_gmt":"2011-02-18T15:11:47","slug":"news-from-mwc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/2011\/02\/news-from-mwc\/","title":{"rendered":"News from MWC 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This week, some lucky members of the Mobile Fun team jetted off to beautiful sunny Barcelona to attend the world\u2019s largest exhibition for the industry, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mobileworldcongress.com\/\">Mobile World Congress<\/a>.\u00a0 Or at least, this was the idyllic picture painted in the envious minds of the rest of us left behind back in Birmingham &#8211; apparently it was actually raining in Barcelona (this makes us feel a little better)!<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Krusell have launched the Krusell SEaLABox, a truly waterproof smartphone case which allows you to continue using your phone in the wet \u2013 and even underwater! The SEaLABox is available in a range of seven different colours, and works for a range of smartphones \u2013 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.\u00a0 The case is certified to IPX7 standard, and test duration was 30 minutes at an immersion depth of 1m.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Great news for swimmers, sailors, skiers and just about anyone else who gets soggy on a regular basis.\u00a0 See the video below for the amazing sight of an iPhone being fully submerged in a bowl of water \u2013 eek!\u00a0 The iPhone in the video can also be seen working with a case on \u2013 the one shown is a Gaia case.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"640\" height=\"390\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8pz1BpC0byI\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A few weeks ago we told you about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/beewi-mini-cooper-s-bluetooth-controlled-car-27476\">BeeWi Mini Cooper S Bluetooth Controlled Car<\/a>, which got <em>loads <\/em>of interest around the blogosphere.\u00a0 The drawback to it, though, was that it only worked with certain Android and Symbian phones \u2013 not with iPhones.\u00a0 Apparently there\u2019s good news on this: a new red version just for the iPhone is on its way.\u00a0 BeeWi have also been working on Bluetooth-controlled helicopters, which sound like they\u2019ll be less costly than the gorgeous-but-expensive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/parrot-ar-drone-rc-quadricopter-27664\">AR.Drone RC Quadricopter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Sony Ericsson released the very nifty, very chic-looking <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/sony-ericsson-media-speaker-station-ms430-28123\">MS430 speaker stand<\/a> which is housed in an unusual aluminium tube.\u00a0 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 \u2013 the one downside is that it doesn\u2019t have a charge option and runs instead on AAA batteries.\u00a0 Our team also saw the speakers being used in tandem with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/sony-ericsson-mw600-stereo-bluetooth-headset-white-27117\">Sony Ericsson MW600 Bluetooth Headset<\/a>, which means that you can play music remotely from your phone via Bluetooth \u2013 see the video below for what we mean.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"640\" height=\"390\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mWOyLdOLaM4\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-12010\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/2011\/02\/news-from-mwc\/img_2306\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12010    aligncenter\" title=\"IMG_2306\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/IMG_2306-224x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"224\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/IMG_2306-224x300.jpg 224w, https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/IMG_2306-336x450.jpg 336w, https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/IMG_2306.jpg 968w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 224px) 100vw, 224px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>MWC saw people getting their first hands-on glimpse of HP\u2019s 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).\u00a0 Our team also got a glimpse at the TouchPad Charging Dock, which like the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/palm-pre-touchstone-charging-bundle-20134\">TouchStone Charging Dock for Palm Pre<\/a> is an inductive charger that works using the special magnetised non-stick battery cover, meaning that there\u2019s no need to plug the TouchPad in \u2013 you just stick on and it charges away.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-12008\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/2011\/02\/news-from-mwc\/img_2312\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12008  aligncenter\" title=\"IMG_2312\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/IMG_2312-224x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"224\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/IMG_2312-224x300.jpg 224w, https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/IMG_2312-336x450.jpg 336w, https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/IMG_2312.jpg 1936w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 224px) 100vw, 224px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The team managed to catch a glimpse of some official HTC docks \u2013 it looks as though some HTC-branded <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/htc\/desire\/desk-stands\">HTC Desire docks<\/a>\/ <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/htc\/desire-hd\/desk-stands\">HTC Desire HD docks<\/a> may be on their way at last:<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-12007\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/2011\/02\/news-from-mwc\/img_2301\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12007\" title=\"IMG_2301\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/IMG_2301-300x224.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/IMG_2301-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/IMG_2301-450x336.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>And there was also a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/sony-ericsson\/xperia-play\/desk-stands\">Sony Ericsson Xperia Play dock<\/a> on show, which switches your phone into slideshow mode once it\u2019s plugged in.\u00a0 It looks a bit temperamental, though, as you\u2019ll see from the video:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"640\" height=\"390\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7_wCUh9IF2Y\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Were you there too? Let us know about anything exciting you laid eyes on!<\/p>\n\n<!-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v. 2.0.27.4 -->\n<div class=\"quads-location quads-ad1\" id=\"quads-ad1\" style=\"float:none;margin:0px 0 0px 0;text-align:center;\">\n<div id=\"bari-widget\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week, some lucky members of the Mobile Fun team jetted off to beautiful sunny Barcelona to attend the world\u2019s largest exhibition for the industry, Mobile World Congress.\u00a0 Or at least, this was the idyllic picture painted in the envious minds of the rest of us left behind back in Birmingham &#8211; apparently it was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,216],"tags":[4736,4735,4737,118,4729,4734,526,4732,4266,108,4733,2861,4747],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12006"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12006"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12043,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12006\/revisions\/12043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}