Ready to visit a pinball arcade far, far away? Tomorrow, Zen Studios will release Star Wars Pinball for Android and iOS, giving you the chance to see how your pinball wizardry matches up with your Jedi wizardry. (The game is getting a simultaneous release for Mac, PlayStation, and Xbox.) Zen will offer three Star Wars-themed …

BARCELONA, Spain–Time for a new meaning to “plug and play”: the BeeWi Mobot is a power plug that not only controls the gadgets in your home, but also tells you what’s going on while you’re out, thanks to a SIM card and an iPhone app. The Mobot is a prototype shown off here at Mobile World Congress by smart toy-builder …

BARCELONA, Spain–The price of mobile devices and services will need to come down to connect the next billion people. That’s according to the CEOs of four major companies in the wireless arena: Nokia, Qtel Group, Bharti Airtel, and Mozilla. “As an operator, we have to package services to the lower segment of the economy,” said Nasser Marafih, CEO of the …

Google had already achieved a measure of success with the Chromebook Pixel, according to an analyst at Gap Intelligence. “[It’s] a fantastic ploy to get people to think about Chrome differently,” said Deron Kershaw, an analyst Gap Intelligence who follows retail sales of laptops. The Pixel is now being sold by Best Buy at a starting price of $1,299. Related …

BARCELONA, Spain–Carriers love to bash companies like Skype and WhatsApp that provide services on top of their mobile networks at the Mobile World Congress trade show. But one thing was different this year: Viber Media founder and Chief Executive Talmon Marco entered the lion’s den to defend the idea. Viber‘s free messaging service, which competes directly with carriers’ own high-profit …

CNET staff hit the ground running on the first official day of Mobile World Congress yesterday, turning up bright and early with not a bleary eye in sight to make it to Nokia’s 8.30am press conference. A series of budget and midrange handsets were launched, chief among them the latest additions to Nokia’s Windows Phone 8 range, the Lumia 720 …

Now playing: Watch this: Nokia’s Lumia 520 is the cheapest Lumia yet in video 1:38 BARCELONA, Spain–Part of what makes Nokia phones like the Lumia 920, and the new Lumia 720 and Lumia 520, so distinctive are their bright color options. And part of what makes those shades pop is the use of polycarbonate, a type of plastic, as the …

Now playing: Watch this: Hands-on with Qualcomm’s Wi-Fi coffee machine 1:31 BARCELONA, Spain–If you’re sick of trekking to the coffee machine every time you want a fresh mugful, Qualcomm’s concept Wi-Fi coffee machine may be right up your alley. Making an understated appearance at Qualcomm’s stand at Mobile World Congress, the machine is a standard coffeemaker that the processor company …

The U.S. Department of Defense announced today that it was further dropping its exclusive BlackBerry contract and opening all of its mobile communications networks to Apple, Google, and other device makers. “The Department of Defense is taking a leadership role in leveraging mobile device technology by ensuring its workforce is empowered with mobile devices,” Defense Department Chief Information Officer Teri …

Eric Franklin/CNET BARCELONA, Spain–Not content with dual- or even quad-core CPUs, Samsung has upped the ante with its Exynos 5 Octa. Announced at CES 2013, the Octa is the latest iteration of the Exynos line and will likely begin powering Samsung’s tablets in the next few months. The Nexus 10 seats the current most powerful Samsung CPU, the Exynos 5 …

BARCELONA, Spain–One of the big news developments at MWC 2013 is Mozilla’s big push of its Firefox operating system for mobile phones. Based on the few devices which are expected to run it, however, I’m not impressed. Software maker Mozilla certainly generated a lot of buzz when it announced a slew of mobile carriers (18 in all) which have jumped …

BARCELONA, Spain–Swinging past the Telefonica booth at Mobile World Congress I came across these two phones sitting in a case full of Firefox phones. First up is a mystery device from Huawei: Sarah Tew/CNET Related stories MWC 2022: How to Watch the Samsung Galaxy Book Reveal CES 2021: What to expect as the show goes all-digital ​Microsoft warns it might …

Android and iOS could be starting to lose their stranglehold on the UK’s smart phone sales, with 17 per cent of current Windows Phone users having jumped ship from Google’s platform. Microsoft has made big gains in the UK, adding 700,000 users to the platform within the last year, according to figures released by market research firm Kantar. During the …

BARCELONA, Spain–It’s Tizen’s turn for the spotlight. The upstart mobile operating system, shepherded into development by Samsung Electronics and Intel, made a splashy debut at an event at Mobile World Congress. Tizen OS early-stage interface and apps examined (pictures) +11 more See all photos The operating system is seen as a potential alternative to the dominance of Android, and has …

Richard Trenholm / CNET BARCELONA, Spain–One of the great things about a trade show like Mobile World Congress is seeing the cool phones and tablets we won’t get. Hang on, did I say great? I meant depressing — I’d love to get my hands on a 4G Android smartphone as powerful as the Fujitsu Arrows X F-02E, or a water-resistant …