As we witnessed ourselves, Google has been giving away free Nexus One phones for all registered atendees at Android Developers Lab's technical conferences at Mobile World Congress. While we are entering this text Nexuses are being unboxed and a bunch of people are walking trough Barcelona with grey new phones and pink X signs on their hands.
Way to go, Google!
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It has been a busy start here in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress 2010. We just saw the HTC's new 3 models, Desire (aka Bravo), Legend, and HD Mini (photon). The event itself was hosted by Peter Chow, CEO of HTC along with it's colleagues.
HTC has introduced the new HTC Sense, improved and ready to ship with these models as well as some older ones (confirmed for HTC Hero). As far the specifications go, you allready know everything, we had them first 
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Microsoft is currently hosting Windows Phone event at Mobile World Congress / Barcelona. ai.rs blog is on site and we will update this post live.
15:51 CET – Three fundamental principles: Accountability for user experience, New platform with deep integrated services, A strong ecosystem.
15:48 CET – A different kind of phone designed for Life in Motion.
15:47 CET – Windows Phone 7 movie shows. Wow, tells us that we are confused with number of apps and that we need to step over. Steve Balmer takes over.
15:45 CET – The demo will be available to see at Microsoft's boot at WMC. So the Windows Phone is usable already.
15:43 CET – The next is Games hub, featuring Xbox LIVE.
15:41 CET – Joe shows Zune desktop application. Content on the phone are accessible directly from the app.
15:39 CET – Music and Video part of the WM is next. Joe shows the music+video hub. Every WM phone will be a Zune, but go beyond.
15:38 CET – Office hub allows us to create notes in One Note, connect to SharePoint, and collaborate with people consisting with upcoming Office 2010.
15:36 CET – Pictures are present regardless of the way the got to the phone. Next is productivity.
15:34 CET – The next section is Pictures hub. UI is nice and clean, clear fonts, everything is in 2D, looks sleek.
15:31 CET – Joe shows the way WP will connect to People. People hub is the people-oriented UI section, integratiin all the available services (Outlook, Facebook, MSN). People hub is panoramic, can be panned to left and right. All the contacts are present trough People hub showing all the available info (Windows Live, Facebook status…)
15:29 CET – Outlook is great, e-mails available offline as well. Optimized for finger use. There are no scrollbars.
15:28 CET – Fonts are improved, 1/3 of the screen shows additional commands accessible via fingers. All the WP devices will have capacitive screens.
15:26 CET – The browser looks OK, Windows Phone 7 browser is based on desktop IE code, giving the compatibility. Crowd is confused, IE code ?
15:24 CET – The search button brings up Bing, showing the local relevant results (e.g. sushi bars are shown in Barcelona)
15:22 CET – Joe shows Bing maps, that changes the visualization, shows satellite photos when zoomed enough. Supports pinch-zoom. His demo device is not HD2!
15:20 CET – The calendar looks good, appbar showed as well. Users can access advanced commands trough appbar.
15:19 CET – The tiles are scrollable, and user customizable. Applications as well can be live tiles.
15:16 CET – All the devices will have 3 buttons, start, search and back. Joe shows live demo. Calls the icons – Live Tiles
15:14 CET – Joe – it is designed for Life in Motion with smart design and integrated experiences.
15:13 CET – Video is playing, UI looks great. Short but effective. Crowd cheers…
15:11 CET – Joe says all the phones started to look the same, Microsoft would like to focus to end user.
15:10 CET – Je Belfiore steps on the stage. The Vice President / Windwows Phone, starts to talk about the opportunity for change
15:09 CET – Steve Balmer steps on the stage, will talk about phones and next generation of Windows Phone series – 7.
15:07 CET – We just saw guys from Engadget, angle of the photos gave them away… Music is playing, nothing yet…
14:57 CET – The hotel lobby is leaking on our Sony Vaio P – just moved to another spot. Not good for start
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After Acer Liquid, we present you the review of Acer F1. If you are looking for a less-expensive alternative for HTC HD2, then read more about it.
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As usual, here are specifications:
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It has been a long time since our last post regarding the upcoming HTC Bravo. In the meantime, Nexus One has hit the market and it is now time for the comparation based on the information we know.
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We can see that Bravo will ceirtanly be a winner. The only unknown data is the amount of RAM in Bravo, and there are rumors that it will be 512MB afterall. We'll keep you posted |
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Lenovo joins Android frenzy with announced Snapdragon powered device named Lephone. The interesting part is that besides being the cool, slick smartphone, one of the options include attachable qwerty keyboard with cover. Besides the usual options (Bluetooth, WiFi) it looks like it lacks a good camera (3MP only). It will be available in China, and we expect more details at MWC, Barcelona.
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More images can be found at Engadget
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We have tested another smartphone. This time, it's all about style and speed. For a full review, go here. Have you tried it / do you own it? What do you think about it?
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Specifications sheet:
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There has been a lot of rumors considering the next version of Windows Mobile. WM7 is definately late, as all of us were dissapointed with versions 6.5.x. It feels like Microsoft is loosing it's ground, by letting everyone take a shot at them. With a large consumer base, and tons of available applications, Microsoft still has the advantage among the corporate customers. However, iPhone and Android apps/consumer base is growing very fast.
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HTC and Samsung have been saving Microsoft in the last years by implementing customized user interfaces that covered obvious flaws and dull screens. Recent models HD2 and Omnia II are prime examples of the recipe this companies had: hide as much as you can and develop your own UI.
At CES Robbie Bach from MS says (on WM7): And when you look at the product, I’m sort of like, I have the luxury of having seen it, to be able to look at it and played with it a little bit, but I’m certainly confident people are going to see it as something that’s differentiated and something that really does move the bar forward, not in an evolutionary way from where we are today, but it’s something that feels, looks, acts and performs completely different.
One major event is finished (CES), two to go: Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and (less likely) Cebit in Hannover. It looks like we'll have more info at MWC, from 15-18. february.
Read the complete story here
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Remember Xperia X1 and tragic UI panels made by Sony Ericsson (we saw it on MWC 2008)? Although they did not move much from X1 in terms of specs, and Xperia X2 does not seem like anything special, the guys from SE have realized that there is alternative to WM stock UI right there on the market. We had a review of the great SPB Mobile Shell a while ago and could not agree more that this was the best solution for the X2. Check out the image from the Boy Genius Report's coverage of CES 2010.
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But, SE is terribly slow, they waited 2 years to update X1 to X2 and they bring us what ? Same processor, same screen resolution, 4-row keyboard (Touch Pro 2 has 5, with separate number row).
Oh we do expect a lot from X10 with Android platform, but SE needs to move fast and be competitive with the price. Can they do it ?
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The first 1GHz Snapdragon Android phone is here. Nexus One has been the hot topic of all the technology blogs around the world.
Engadget has the full review here. As far as we European users go, Vodafone has announced that in just a few weeks it will have it in it's offer. It appears that HTC outdid itself, making the most powerful Android smartphone on the market. It looks very similar to the Bravo that we announced a while ago, and it looks like HTC will hold it's breath until the Q2 to roll out the Bravo (probably with new version of Sense). Will there be enough Nexus One models in the stock for all the interested customers ? $530 is just great, with the dollar being so down, can we expect a european Bravo to be under 500€ ?
Can and will you wait for the Bravo or try to get the Nexus One ? Shout in the comments and enjoy the following specs:
Complete specs can be found at the official page.
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