BARCELONA–Apple gets plenty of praise for advancing mobile browsers with its iPhone’s version of Safari, but an audience greeted its performance with some laughter as Microsoft compared it to an upcoming version of IE9 for Windows Phone 7. Joe Belfiore, a Microsoft corporate vice president, showed off the browser here at the Mobile World Congress …

Umeox’s new Apollo smart phone laughs in the face of low battery life. Well, it does as long as you don’t take it to Manchester. The newly announced Android handset has its own built-in solar charger, to keep it juiced with the sun’s rays as you go through the day. Not heard of Umeox? That might not be surprising: the …

Let’s see you do this, Han. Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET Burly and coated in ridged rubber, the forthcoming Sonim XP3300 Force can take its share of abuse. Rugged phones are sturdy, but certainly not indestructible. That said, this “Force” fared better encased in concrete than Han Solo did in carbonite, and it also passed our dunk test. Several enhancements kick …

LG’s 3D-capable smartphone and tablet will be the first of their kind to market, and could maintain the advantage for some time. (Credit: LG/CBSi) The Korean company today announced two devices capable of creating and viewing 3D content: the Optimus 3D smartphone and the Optimus Pad tablet computer. Both devices have dual-5-megapixel stereoscopic cameras for recording 3D video at 720p, …

Twitter Chief Executive Dick Costolo Stephen Shankland/CNET BARCELONA, Spain–To make Twitter easier to use for everyone and similar across platforms the company is aiming for tighter integration with phone services and launching translation tools, Chief Executive Dick Costolo said during his keynote at the Mobile World Congress 2011 here. The company is launching a “crowd sourced” translation center for Russian, …

BlackBerry PlayBook with Wi-Fi connectivity alone might not be a hugely tempting prospect, even if you can pair it with a BlackBerry smart phone for 3G access. RIM, however, has announced two new PlayBook models this morning, due to go on sale this year, which will have built-in 4G mobile broadband. 4G? Bully for the US, where the operators are …

BARCELONA, Spain–Intel has shown off a developer preview of the tablet user interface for its MeeGo Linux operating system at Mobile World Congress here. At the same time today, the company also addressed Nokia’s withdrawal from the long-term development of MeeGo for mobile phones, with software and services chief Renee James saying the company was “disappointed” with its Finnish partner. …

Behold: the Incredible S! It’s a bold heart that names a phone so presumptuously, but HTC clearly thinks fortune favours the bold. The HTC Incredible S is straining credulity at Barcelona phone fiesta MWC this week. The Incredible S sports a 4-inch screen in its unusual casing. The rubberised back has a ridge around it, which HTC calls “inside out” …

Apple One Taiwanese Web site is jumping into the iPhone 5 rumor fray with the claim that Apple is testing an iPhone prototype that has a slide-out keyboard. The lack of a physical keyboard is one of the last remaining gripes many have about Apple’s revolutionary iPhone. Many longtime BlackBerry users refuse to switch to the iPhone due to their …

Skype today launched a plan to bring its VoIP calling service to more smartphones and feature phones. Its Mobile Partner Program targets mobile carriers operating in markets with weak 3G bandwidth. Skype is offering a partnership in which carriers preload the Skype communications app onto phones. Partner carriers benefit from differentiating phones in their roster with a Skype app, and …

While recording TV has never been more popular, there are now so many different ways to do it. Sony wants you to use Freeview HD, which makes sense, because it sells Freeview HD PVRs. To this end, the company offers up two new models, the HDT500 and the HDT1000. The two machines have the ability to record one channel while …

Nokia’s recent decision to adopt Windows Phone 7 as its primary smart-phone platform has thrown up plenty of thorny questions. Not least among them is whether Nokia and Intel’s joint MeeGo operating system has a real future. Despite widespread expectations that it will be mothballed eventually, it seems Nokia could announce its next MeeGo device as soon as today. Nokia …

Samsung will take the wrappers off its Galaxy S2 smart phone tomorrow at its Mobile World Congress press conference, but the device’s specs appear to have leaked early, via a listing on UK retailer MobileFun’s website. The site is taking pre-orders on the Samsung Galaxy S2 i9100 for £549.95 SIM-free, with an expected release date of 4 March. There’s also …

LG’s new toys, including the previously-announced Optimus 2x and Optimus Black LG BARCELONA, Spain–The show doesn’t begin until Monday, but LG has spilled more details on its new devices for Mobile World Congress. We already knew about the Optimus 3D, but the company also will show the Optimus Pad tablet. Here are the preliminary details on each device from an …

commentary Yesterday Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer joined former employee-cum-Nokia CEO Stephan Elop to announce a newly formed partnership between two of the world’s largest companies, in which Nokia would adopt Windows Phone 7 as its primary smartphone platform. Smart move? Absolutely. I don’t approach this opinion as a business analyst. We know that Nokia’s shares plummeted on the announcement of the …