February, 2011

• 16 February

  CEO: Intel

  

  BARCELONA, Spain–In a trade show dominated by phones and PCs using ARM-based processors, Intel Chief Executive took the stage to tout his own x86 chips. Intel, of course, grew to power on the basis of its x86 chip family, including Pentium, Xeon, and now Core and Atom processors. Today’s smartphones, though, use ARM-based chips from …

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• 16 February

  Revisiting the Xperia Play

  

  BARCELONA, Spain–Sony Ericsson got the ball rolling at Mobile World Congress when it announced its long-rumored and it-was-hardly-a-secret Xperia Play. As the “PlayStation phone,” the Xperia Play combines a cell phone and a gaming device like few other handsets have. Though we posted out initial hands-on impression shortly after the unveiling, it was difficult to get serious time with the …

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• 16 February

  RIM and Nokia: Carrier

  

  BARCELONA, Spain–Research In Motion and Nokia share a similar vision for success: help wireless carriers avoid becoming a dumb pipe. RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie and Nokia CEO Stephen Elop shared the stage here today at the Mobile World Congress as part of a keynote panel. Competition is heating up between the two handset makers after Nokia’s announcement last week that …

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• 16 February

  First Nokia Windows Phone unlikely to launch before autumn ‘Mango’ update

  

  Nokia isn’t making Windows Phone 7 smart phones after all. No, it hasn’t already fled Microsoft’s warm embrace for Android — despite Google boss Eric Schmidt keeping the door open for such a move. Instead, it seems Nokia will wait for the next generation of Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS before it releases its first WP handsets. Nokia hasn’t said as …

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• 16 February

  Hands

  

  BARCELONA, Spain–In late November, Acer unveiled an Android smartphone that raised some eyebrows with its large 4.8-inch touch screen. The device now has a name, the Acer Iconia Smart, and it’s on display here at Mobile World Congress 2011, so naturally we had to take it for a spin. To be honest, we were expecting to see a huge, clunky …

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• 16 February

  LG Optimus 3D vs Nintendo 3DS in 3D display destruction derby

  

  There’s this little thing that’s pretty big in tech at the moment. 3D — perhaps you’ve heard of it? We’ve gone way beyond the geeky specs 3D of last year, and now all the coolest upcoming gadgets are sporting glasses-free 3D technology. The Nintendo 3DS was the device that started it all, but now LG is showing off the world’s …

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• 16 February

  The phones that ate Barcelona

  

  Play audio version Your browser does not support the audio element. Welcome to the latest episode of CNET Australia’s Pulse podcast. Your hosts this week are CNET Australia editors Ty Pendlebury, Craig Simms, Joseph “Chicken” Hanlon and GameSpot editor Randolph Ramsay. This episode’s topics of discussion include: All the latest news from MWC 2011 Guitar Hero franchise no more Samsung …

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• 16 February

  Samsung goes big and small in Barcelona

  

  Samsung Galaxy S 4G hands-on (photos) +4 more See all photos Samsung’s little Android family (photos) +7 more See all photos BARCELONA, Spain–Samsung usually arrives at a trade show with all guns blazing and Mobile World Congress was no exception. Not only did the company show off its new Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy S II, but also it displayed …

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• 16 February

  Google CEO Eric Schmidt tells Nokia that its Android offer ‘remains open’

  

  Nokia may have chosen Windows Phone 7 as its smart phone OS for the forseeable future, but Google CEO Eric Schmidt hopes the company will change its mind — and says he’ll give Nokia a warm Android welcome if it does. During his keynote speech at Mobile World Congress last night, Schmidt confirmed Google and Nokia had “extensive” discussions before …

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• 16 February

  Quad

  

  Dual-core smart phones? Pfft. Nvidia has been showing off its new Tegra quad-core processor, which includes a 12-core GeForce GPU. Codenamed Project Kal-El, the new processor will be finding its way into smart phones and tablets this year. “Our customers are getting samples now, and they’re planning production in August,” writes Nvidia’s mobile boss Mike Rayfield on the company’s official …

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