For Samsung, it’s a new year, and a new smartwatch — and that means new apps. The world’s biggest smartphone maker unveiled the Gear 2 and the Gear 2 Neo at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain — both powered by its homegrown Tizen operating system, instead of Google’s Android. Apps were a key factor …

Mozilla’s mobile operating system, Firefox OS, is increasing its presence at Mobile World Congress this year with a selection of affordable options. (Credit: Mozilla) When it comes to mobile operating systems, it’s pretty hard to compete with iOS, Android and, to a lesser extent, Windows. Mozilla, however, seems to be taking its Firefox mobile OS in a different direction: the …

BARCELONA — The newest, highest-speed incarnation of Wi-Fi networking, 802.11ad, is coming to mobile phones. Wilocity announced Sunday it will show a prototype phone at Mobile World Congress that, with the company’s wireless networking chips, can use the 5Gbps wireless communication links. The company’s upcoming Sparrow chipset for phones will join existing chips that can be used in laptops and …

BARCELONA, Spain — Splish, splash, Sony’s taking a bath with a raft of waterproof gadgets. The Sony Xperia Z2 smartphone and Z2 tablet can take a dip without making your day a washout — and they’re joined by a World Cup version of the Sony SmartBand and Core gadget. Fancy splashing out on a smartphone that doesn’t care if it gets …

Speaking at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore said that the company was “supportive” of Nokia, although less excited about some projects. Joe Belfiore speaking at Microsoft’s Mobile World Congress event. (Credit: Shara Tibken/CNET) BARCELONA, Spain — An audience member during Microsoft’s event at Mobile World Congress put presenters Joe Belfiore, vice president of operating systems for Windows, …

Peak body ACCAN has found that consumers are being ripped off on SMS pricing and has called the ACCC to take action. (Credit: SMS image by Stefano Mortellaro, CC BY-ND 2.0) Paying for SMS? You’re probably getting ripped off, peak communications consumer body ACCAN has asserted in a statement calling the ACCC to action. Although it costs less than one …

In the future, Eye Tribe’s technology will work on mobile phones using this dongle. Aloysius Low/CNET BARCELONA, Spain–Having recently announced an Android SDK for its Eye Tribe Tracker, the company also showed off how its eye-tracking software would work on a mobile phone without using said Tracker. Eye Tribe’s Anders Bo Pedersen, mobile lead and partner, gave us a demo …

BARCELONA, Spain–The Tizen bandwagon is getting bigger, but it hasn’t traveled far. The Tizen Association on Sunday talked up its 15 new partners, including notable names such as Japanese carrier SoftBank, Sprint, Baidu, and ZTE. A no-show has been any smartphone running the operating system, with only reference units on display. “I’ve heard twice that Tizen is dead,” said Tizen …

Chinese wireless device maker Huawei unveiled five new 4G LTE devices at the Mobile World Congress 2014 trade show in Barcelona on Sunday. The company, which now claims to have ranked third in terms of worldwide smartphone shipments in 2013, is trying to make waves with its new products. These products include two small tablets, a new smartphone, the “world’s …

BARCELONA, Spain — Delta in the United States was one of the first to jump on the Gogo bandwagon and do it hard, quickly rolling out the in-flight internet service more or less across its fleet. But, there was always one big missing piece: international. Flights that crossed an ocean were left out of the connectivity fun, even when they …