BARCELONA, Spain–Isis, a mobile-payments joint venture among three of the major wireless carriers, is taking the slow and steady approach to its mobile wallet. And it appears to be working. An image of the Isis mobile wallet. Isis The venture, formed from an alliance between Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and T-Mobile USA, said today that BarclayCard, …

BARCELONA, Spain–The momentum for Android continues to build, with 850,000 phones and tablets getting activated each day. That’s according to Google Android chief Andy Rubin, who unveiled the statistic on his Google+ page today. Like most other major wireless players, he was in attendance at Mobile World Congress, the world’s largest wireless trade show. “Walking around Mobile World Congress and …

AT&T is considering a new system in which mobile app developers and publishers would pay for the wireless bandwidth associated with using the apps and downloading content. “A feature that we’re hoping to have out sometime next year is the equivalent of 800 numbers that would say, if you take this app, this app will come without any network usage,” …

BARCELONA–Facebook would like to build more mobile Web apps and fewer mobile native apps. Really, it would — but browsers just aren’t up to it, the company has concluded. Web apps naturally span the multitudes of mobile devices that Facebook loves to run on, but they support Web standards so inconsistently that it’s a developer’s nightmare, said Facebook Chief Technology …

If you’ve already been drooling over Nokia’s Lumia family these past few months, get ready for the manufacturer’s newest addition to the lineup: the Lumia 610. The Nokia Lumia 610 is the fourth Lumia model. Nokia The 610 is aimed toward a younger audience and will be one of the first few phones to run Windows Phone Tango. It will …

The Lumia 900 is heading for the UK, Nokia announced at Mobile World Congress this morning. The 900, which has been in the US for a while, is LTE-enabled for faster browsing, but will also be coming to countries like Blighty where 4G isn’t yet active in a ‘DC-HSPA’ variant. That means it’ll run smoothly on our boring old 3G …

BARCELONA–Half of Telefonica’s customers are in Latin America, where smartphones are scarcer than in wealthier parts of the world. But the mobile network operator hopes Mozilla’s new browser-based operating system, B2G, will change that. “What we’re selling the most in these countries is feature phones, which is ridiculous, said Carlos Domingo, Telefonica Digital’s director of product development and innovation, in …

The Samsung Galaxy S3 is the most keenly awaited smart phone since a certain iPhone 5 failed to make an appearance last year. Well it’s one step closer to becoming reality, as we have a spec list right here. And the big news is it has a 1080p screen, quad-core processor, and Android Ice Cream Sandwich, according to BGR’s sources. …

BARCELONA, Spain–Microsoft wants to be known as the people’s smartphone company. The software giant said today that it had lowered the minimum requirements to build a Windows Phone, a move that allows vendors to construct less-expensive devices that can appeal to more budget-conscious customers and first-time smartphone buyers. The shift represents an attempt to expand Microsoft’s addressable market, vital to …

Now playing: Watch this: Sony Xperia U hands-on 1:07 Sony’s recent buy-out of Ericsson has seen a return to the company producing phones marketed only under the Sony brand. Our mobile phones editor, Natasha Lomas, went hands-on with the baby of its newest range, the Sony Xperia U, at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The Xperia U may be dinky …

Startup Audience currently specializes in improving audio quality for higher-end phones–the iPhone 4 and 4S, most notably–but now it’s going down market. The company sells small chips that process phones’ microphone signals with technology it calls EarSmart designed to identify the person speaking and filter out everything else. It’s good for voice calls, obviously, but also for newer uses, such …

The ZTE Era comes packing Ice Cream Sandwich and a quad-core processor, the company announced this morning at Mobile World Congress, while its new Kis and Acqua phones pootle along on Android Gingerbread. So there’s plenty to choose from at the new-look ZTE buffet. But which is for you? ZTE is showing it can mix with the big boys, with …

BARCELONA, Spain–Samsung Electronics admitted that its attempt to breach the tablet market has largely been a flop, with one executive offering a sobering summary of its performance. “Honestly, we’re not doing very well in the tablet market,” Hankil Yoon, a product strategy executive for Samsung, said today during a media roundtable here. That’s about as frank a statement as it …

Now playing: Watch this: HTC One X hands-on 1:32 HTC has charged forth into Mobile World Congress this year with all guns blazing and a mighty quad-core monster at the helm. Rich Trenholm bravely went hands-on with its beastly new blower, the HTC One X, at the annual phone expo in Barcelona. You can take a good old gawp at …

Now playing: Watch this: Samsung Galaxy S Advance 1:02 BARCELONA, Spain–Amid all the Samsung Galaxy devices shown so far at MWC, these three barely saw the spotlight, if at all. Well, it’s time to turn on the diva lights for the Samsung Galaxy S Advance, Samsung Galaxy Mini 2, and Samsung Ace Plus, even if for just a minute. Now …