Category archives: Mobile World Congress

 

 

SK Telecom Smart Learning robots add twist to interactive learning, we go hands-on (video)

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They aren’t quite up to Johnny Number Five’s level of fame and stature, but SK Telecom’s new “Smart Learning” robots have something it (he?) never could have dreamed of: the power of a smartphone. The mechanical critters are designed to be next-gen educational tools for our posterity, and only function thanks to a Bluetooth-connected Android handset which serves as both the brains of the operation and the interactive display. We saw the robots in action last week at Mobile World Congress in a few different scenarios: a board game, a reading comprehension tool and other clever learning activities. This is just scraping the surface, because an SDK is in the works that will allow developers to find plenty of ways to take advantage of the tech. The robots are still prototypes for now, but we should expect to see them arrive in Korea within the next six months. Check out a video of the little guys in action after the break. Continue reading SK Telecom Smart Learning robots add twist to interactive learning, we go hands-on (video) SK Telecom Smart Learning robots add twist to interactive learning, we go hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Mar 2012 19:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | | Email this | Comments

 

Engadget Interview: Richard Yu, Huawei chairman of devices

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Countless smartphones were announced at last week’s Mobile World Congress, but Huawei’s showing was one of the more intriguing at the event. The company has some incredibly lofty goals, intending to ditch its past reputation as an ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) focused on budget devices and embracing an exciting future as an industry leader. Since such a thing doesn’t happen overnight, what’s the vendor’s strategy to come out on top in the coming years? We briefly caught up with Richard Yu, Huawei’s chair of devices, and picked his brain on some of his company’s ambitions. Continue reading Engadget Interview: Richard Yu, Huawei chairman of devices Engadget Interview: Richard Yu, Huawei chairman of devices originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Mar 2012 18:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | | Email this | Comments

 

Acer Allegro hands-on at MWC 2012

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We covered Acer’s two Android devices at last week’s show, but what in the world happened to its Windows Phone? It’s easy to forget about the Acer Allegro because we haven’t seen it show up beyond the reaches of Asia and France , but we hunted one down at Mobile World Congress and snapped a few shots for posterity. Intended to tempt bargain hunters, the device offers a 3.6-inch WVGA display, 1GHz single-core Qualcomm MSM8255 CPU, 8GB internal storage, 5MP rear camera with LED flash and a 1,300mAh battery. It also features Fast Charge, which provides the Allegro with a full battery two and a half times faster than a standard Acer. On the unfortunate side, it’s also 13mm thick and lacks a front-facing shooter, which may be enough for the hardcore Windows Phone fan to lose interest. But if you’re still reading on, feel free to gaze upon our pics below. Gallery: Acer Allegro hands-on Sean Cooper contributed to this hands-on. For more coverage of MWC 2012, visit our event hub ! Acer Allegro hands-on at MWC 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Mar 2012 10:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | | Email this | Comments

 

Adéu, Barcelona: Mobile World Congress 2012 comes to a close

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The mobile world’s biggest players have exhausted themselves again, taking us with them in the process. While HTC and Nokia seemed to grab a lot of the attention, Samsung stayed quiet — at least for now — there was still a veritable pile of devices and news to cover from everyone else. Let’s take a look at what caught our attention during the week. Continue reading Adéu, Barcelona: Mobile World Congress 2012 comes to a close Adéu, Barcelona: Mobile World Congress 2012 comes to a close originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Mar 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | | Email this | Comments

 

HTC unveils new APIs, opens Beats, lockscreen and more to devs

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APIs , as essential as they are to our modern computing experience, aren’t the sort of thing we usually get too excited about. HTC is walking away from Mobile World Congress having announced four new application interfaces though, that have piqued our interest. First up, and the most spotlight hogging of the bunch, is Beats . Soon enough any music app, game or what-have-you will be able to take advantage of the bass-boosting software equalizer. Perhaps more interesting, if a little less headline grabbing, is the ability to integrate your app with the Sense lockscreen — a feature we’d love to see come to stock Android. Now lockscreen widgets wont be limited to Google’s own music app… so long as you’ve got an HTC. The manufacturer is also prepping a MediaLink API for streaming content over wireless HDMI. Now the One X is looking even better than before, huh? HTC unveils new APIs, opens Beats, lockscreen and more to devs originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Mar 2012 13:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | HTC | Email this | Comments

 

Neonode zForce uses infrared LEDs to measure pressure, replace capacitive touch (hands-on)

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Smartphone fanatics may recall the Neonode N2 — a rather unique recall-plagued feature phone that ultimately resulted in the demise of the company’s handset arm . Neonode is still a major player in the portable device market, but may be more familiar to OEMs that employ its infrared LED-based touch technology , rather than consumers that utilize it in e-readers, with tablets soon joining the mix . zForce offers several advantages over its capacitive-based counterparts — it’s incredibly responsive and accurate, and can now measure the intensity (or pressure) of your touch, and not just position. There’s also a built-in proximity sensor that can be added to any device for a few pennies, which is considerably less than traditional offerings. However, because Neonode uses an array of infrared LEDs and photodiodes, a raised bezel is required to accommodate the additional hardware, making it impossible to integrate a flush display. We went hands-on with an updated smartphone-sized embed of the company’s zForce technology that not only works with any object, such as a finger, pen or a paint brush, but also recognizes both the pressure of your implement and also its size, so a larger paint brush has broader strokes than a smaller one, for example. Because the device can operate at 500Hz all the way up to 1,000Hz (refreshing 1,000 times per second), it appears to be incredibly responsive, with an almost unnoticeable delay between the time you touch the pad and when your input is displayed on the screen. A second demo unit, called Stargate, offers dual-layer touch with support for 3D control — you can literally reach inside the unit to manipulate an object. There’s no word on when this latest tech will make its way into devices, or how exactly we’ll see it used, but you really need to see it in action to get a feel for how it works — jump past the break for our video hands-on. Gallery: Neonode zForce hands-on Continue reading Neonode zForce uses infrared LEDs to measure pressure, replace capacitive touch (hands-on) Neonode zForce uses infrared LEDs to measure pressure, replace capacitive touch (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Mar 2012 10:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | | Email this | Comments

 

Texas Instruments dual WiFi module lets your tablet connect to your TV and the web simultaneously (hands-on)

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Texas Instruments is helping to lead the way when it comes to mobile computing — when we want an early look at what’s to come months and even years down the road, TI is always one of our first stops. At this year’s Mobile World Congress , the semiconductor leader wasn’t shy about showing off its latest innovations, including those from its manufacturing and design partners. Today’s demo focused on wireless video streaming — a concept that engineers are approaching from every imaginable angle , and that is bound to make its way to consumers in a very big way within the next few years. TI’s flavor is based on WiFi, and offers a dual-connection solution, letting you pair a tablet with a TV using peer-to-peer while also creating a second link between the tablet and a wireless router for Internet. We took the tech for a spin using one of TI’s development platform tablets and an external WiFi dongle (shipping versions will be integrated), and everything worked as described, though the video stream was noticeably choppy and compressed. TI reps explained that they dialed down the bitrate in order to maintain a connection at the MWC expo hall, which, as you might imagine, probably had a wireless signal density greater than any other room in the world. The tablet we saw was running a very slick context-aware UI that displays one of three home screens based on your current location — there’s one for work (that displays your calendar), one for home (media and home automation controls) and another for travel (restaurant reviews and weather). Pushing content from the tablet to the TV seemed to be seamless, and while both the UI and wireless functionality may appear to be ready to make their way into your home, TI isn’t making any announcements about availability. There’s no need to wait for a teaser, however, which you’ll find just past the break. Gallery: Texas Instruments dual WiFi module hands-on Continue reading Texas Instruments dual WiFi module lets your tablet connect to your TV and the web simultaneously (hands-on) Texas Instruments dual WiFi module lets your tablet connect to your TV and the web simultaneously (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Mar 2012 12:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | | Email this | Comments

 

Always Innovating HDMI Android dongle gets an ICS update, we swing by for a taste (video)

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Always Innovating appears to be living up to its name, making significant progress on that clever HDMI Android dongle that we first heard of way back at CES. Now the company’s TI OMAP4-based television companion is rockin’ some Ice Cream Sandwich madness, drawing curious Mobile World Congress attendees into the Texas Instruments booth for a look. We happened upon the device on the last day of the show, and we couldn’t help but be impressed. The premise here is quite simple: your “dumb TV” (i.e. one that isn’t Internet-enabled) gives up one HDMI and one USB port (for power), in return connecting you to the wonderful world of Android 4.0. Think web browsing, tweeting, gaming (yes, even Angry Birds ), video streaming — that same experience you’ll get with any Android tablet can now be had on your aging flat-screen TV. Always Innovating isn’t feeling inspired enough to take the lead on manufacturing, instead licensing the technology to third parties, but with some agreements signed and others on the way, this ICS solution on a stick may be hitting stores just in time to become this holiday season’s ultimate stocking stuffer. Pricing is of course up to the manufacturers, but TI reps suggested that we might see these things pop up later this year in the $50-99 range, finally making Google on every TV a much more reasonable proposition. Care to take a gander at this stick-based wunderkind? Jump past the break for our hands-on. Gallery: Always Innovating HDMI Android dongle Continue reading Always Innovating HDMI Android dongle gets an ICS update, we swing by for a taste (video) Always Innovating HDMI Android dongle gets an ICS update, we swing by for a taste (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Mar 2012 11:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | | Email this | Comments

 

More specs of the Acer CloudMobile revealed, we take a second look (video)

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We can’t say it was necessarily love at first sight , but a second passover certainly helped our heart grow fonder. In our first hands-on of the Acer CloudMobile , a phone with a product design award under its belt, we weren’t completely convinced that it was worthy of such a prize. However, we were given the opportunity to spend a significant amount of time with the device and previously unknown specs to go along with it. Here’s what we discovered during our reacquaintance. Gallery: Acer CloudMobile hands-on at MWC2012 Continue reading More specs of the Acer CloudMobile revealed, we take a second look (video) More specs of the Acer CloudMobile revealed, we take a second look (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Mar 2012 10:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | | Email this | Comments

 

Polaroid Spectrum tablet family hands-on

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Polaroid hasn’t got much more than Lady Gaga going for it at the moment and even that partnership is questionably fruitful at best. So, when we stopped by the company’s booth here at MWC to check out its Spectrum line of Android tablets, our bar was already set quite low. Turns out, there’s room for it to drop even lower as that family of 7-, 8- and 9.7-inch slates seems more of a KIRF attempt than true product line from a former imaging heavyweight. Which brings us to a very curious spec given the company’s mission statement: the rear camera on what we presume is its 10-inch flagship is capable of a measly VGA resolution, despite indicating 2 megapixels. It’s a baffling hardware miss and could’ve been the one bright spot amongst the cheap plastic build and software experience saddling these tabs. On a minor upswing, the OS across the capacitive tabs is stock ICS, with Froyo relegated to the resistive ones. Performance is sluggish and uneven at best considering the array of processors and clock speeds employed: from a 1.5GHz CPU in the auto-stereoscopic 7-incher to an 800MHz processor for the lower-end units to a 1GHz ARM11 in the 9.7-inch, TouchPad-like slab. It’s a wonder the outfit even bothered with category, as the entirety of this lineup smacks of a half-hearted stab. You can check out the full array of lackluster tabs in our gallery below. Gallery: Polaroid Spectrum family hands-on Mat Smith contributed to this report. Polaroid Spectrum tablet family hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Mar 2012 07:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | | Email this | Comments