BARCELONA, Spain–Under a broadened partnership with mobile network operator Telefonica, Sony Mobile is exploring support for Mozilla’s new Firefox OS and hopes to release a phone with it next year. “Our engineers are now working with Firefox OS Mobile and HTML5, evolving technologies which show great potential. In addition, we continue to work with our …

BARCELONA, Spain–Nestled away in Hall 7 of Mobile World Congress is Beijing Big Ben Technology, a China-based company that makes SIM cards mostly out of paper. While the actual cards themselves are made of recyclable ABS plastic and metal (the contact points), the card’s holder is actually made from 100 percent fiber paper. This material is far easier to recycle …

BARCELONA, Spain–After a rocky start, Samsung Electronics is finally seeing the light when it comes to the tablet business. The Korean consumer electronics giant, already the world’s largest handset manufacturer, plans to double its tablet sales from a year ago, according to Y.H. Lee, executive vice president of the company’s mobile unit. That would peg its sales to about 40 …

Now playing: Watch this: Fujitsu GPS cane points you in the right direction 1:37 BARCELONA, Spain–We all need a bit of direction in life, especially when we’re getting on in years. With the Fujitsu New Generation Cane, a prototype superconnected walking stick, seniors can find their way, stay healthy, and keep loved ones posted on their progress. The cane prototype …

BARCELONA, Spain–Opera Software has dropped the new engine into its browser and now has begun revving it up. At the Mobile World Congress show here, the company began showing for the first time its new WebKit-based version of Opera for Android. That browser is the first product from a completely overhauled product line and technology strategy for the company based …

Now playing: Watch this: Ford EcoSport has voice-controlled Spotify tech in video 2:18 BARCELONA, Spain–Mobile World Congress is usually more about smartphones and tablets than full-blooded vehicles, but that hasn’t stopped Ford from using the show to announce its newest motor, the Ford EcoSport, which boasts Spotify voice control and a host of other futuristic features. Technically the EcoSport isn’t …

BARCELONA, Spain–With another 2 billion people hooking up to the Internet in the next five years, there’s plenty of room for another mobile operating system, Mozilla Chief Executive Gary Kovacs said today in a sales pitch for his new Firefox OS. Apple and Google have led the way in the smartphone market but can’t cover the whole thing, he said …

Though most of the big players chose Sunday or Monday to make news and drop their newest devices, Day 2 of Mobile World Congress didn’t slow down in the least. Mobile operating systems have long been a popular theme at the word’s biggest wireless trade show and the 2013 confab is no exception. Sunday brought us the announcement of the …

Now playing: Watch this: Huawei’s Ascend P2 shows off its Android styling in hands-on… 2:05 BARCELONA, Spain–“They call me the UI guy.” This is Dennis Poon speaking, Huawei’s global UI design director for device-maker, and the man in charge of the new Emotion UI interface that all but completely re-envisions Android on smartphones. Sporting a textured brown blazer and collapsing …

As the saying goes, you can never be too rich or too skinny. And if you’re a wireless carrier, apparently, you can never have too much wireless spectrum. At least that’s AT&T’s take. The company, which is the second largest wireless provider in the U.S., is in good shape when it comes to wireless spectrum for the next five years, …

The Ubuntu Touch operating system is being ported to more than 20 types of smartphones and tablets. The developer preview of the Linux-based OS was released for the Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4 smartphones and Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 tablets last week. And developers are working to port the OS to a far greater range of devices, including the …

Now playing: Watch this: Hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy Grand 1:52 Samsung today unveiled the Samsung Galaxy Grand smartphone, which runs the Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean mobile operating system and sports a 5-inch WVGA display. The smartphone also features a powerful dual-core 1.2GHz processor, along with 1GB of RAM, an 8-megapixel rear camera offering 1080p video recording and a 2-megapixel …

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Virgin Mobile today announced that the Samsung Galaxy Victory 4G LTE has joined the carrier’s smartphone portfolio. Priced at $299.99, the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean handset is Virgin Mobile’s first LTE smartphone. Related stories: Review: Samsung Galaxy Victory 4G LTE Boost, Virgin Mobile get first 4G LTE smartphones Virgin Mobile adds Kyocera Brio for Paylo Also available through Sprint, the …

Update: The invite to Samsung Unpacked is here, and as you can see, the Galaxy S4 will be the star attraction. We’re told to be “Ready 4 The Show” and are invited to “Come and meet the next Galaxy”. It’s also “Episode 1” of Samsung Unpacked 2013, suggesting there will be more events later in the year, meaning more phones. …