February, 2013

• 24 February

  AT&T, General Motors to sell 4G LTE

  

  AT&T/GM BARCELONA, Spain–General Motors cars rocking their own 4G LTE connection will hit the road next year. AT&T and GM’s OnStar service unit struck a deal to bring millions of connected cars to the market, starting with the 2015 fleet, which comes out late 2014. GM said most Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac cars will …

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• 24 February

  Mophie unveils iPhone 5 version of its Juice Pack Air

  

  BARCELONA, Spain–Smartphone accessory maker Mophie may have launched the Juice Pack Helium two weeks back, but the successor to its iPhone 4 and 4S Juice Pack Air case has just been revealed at Pepcom’s MobileFocus Global event here at Mobile World Congress. While the Juice Pack Air looks similar to the Helium, we’re told that the Air is slightly heavier …

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• 24 February

  Intel talks new chips, partners at Mobile World Congress

  

  A year ago, Intel’s CEOtook the stage at Mobile World Congress to tout new partnerships and talk up the benefits of Intel’s mobile chips. At that time, the Santa Clara, Calif., semiconductor maker’s presence in the smartphone market was essentially nonexistent. Today, Intel has 10 phones shipping in 20 countries (though not the U.S.), and it keeps improving its power …

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• 24 February

  Asus teases a new PadFone ahead of MWC

  

  Everyone’s at this teaser game nowadays. Maybe not quite to the same extent as HTC, but still, you can’t get through the run-up to a major trade show without being teased left right and centre about upcoming products. Asus’ latest is a little odd. We see Christopher Columbus atop his Monument in Barcelona (the city where Mobile World Congress takes …

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• 24 February

  Asus at MWC 2013: Join us Monday (live blog)

  

  BARCELONA, Spain–Given what else it has had to deal with recently, Spain probably wouldn’t be all that shocked if a UFO did indeed land atop Gaudi’s famous Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Spain. But rest assured, would-be tourists, that was just a teaser in a brief video Asus released over the Internet in the run-up to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. …

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• 24 February

  Samsung amps up business push with Knox security software

  

  BARCELONA, Spain–Samsung Electronics is getting serious about attacking the business world. The South Korean consumer electronics giant unveiled Knox, an additional layer of security software that will run as part of its SAFE (Samsung for Enterprise) initiative. Samsung is considering embedding Knox into Samsung’s next flagship smartphone, YH Lee, executive vice president of Samsung Mobile, told CNET. Samsung considers the …

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• 24 February

  Spotify finally finds an automotive home

  

  BARCELONA, Spain–Internet music service Spotify gained more than 10 million users in Europe before its U.S. launch in July of 2011. But despite all the fanfare, no automotive integration had been announced. That all changed today as Ford welcomed Spotify integration into its Sync AppLink stable. Spotify joins automotive standard Pandora, along with music apps Slacker, Mog, Rhapsody, TuneIn, IHeartRadio, …

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• 24 February

  Samsung HomeSync is a Jelly Bean

  

  BARCELONA, Spain–Samsung’s not content with just making smart TVs — now it’s taking another lunge into your living room with HomeSync, an Android-powered media hub. The glossy black box, announced today at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, has an HDMI connection, but also hooks up to other gadgets over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. The HomeSync hub streams Android movies, TV …

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• 24 February

  Nvidia Tegra 4 supercharges smartphones (hands

  

  Now playing: Watch this: See the Nvidia Tegra 4 (and 4i) in action 2:36 BARCELONA, Spain–Nvidia’s latest mobile processor, the Tegra 4, and its little brother, the Tegra 4i, will soon be turning up in all manner of smartphones and tablets. I went hands-on with some of Nvidia’s reference devices at Mobile World Congress and found the new silicon to …

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• 24 February

  How MasterCard plans to transform mobile purchases

  

  BARCELONA, Spain–The hype around mobile payments is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the coming transformation for how people purchase goods and services. That’s according to Ed McLaughlin, chief emerging payments officer for MasterCard, who spoke with CNET about his company’s vision. While at the Mobile World Congress conference, MasterCard unveiled its MasterPass system, which addresses …

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