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February, 2011 Articles

[Update: the REAL Video] Acer Iconia A500 is a 10 Inch Beaut [MWC] [VIDEO]

by Quentyn Kennemer on February 14th, 2011

Another Acer tablet on show here at Mobile World Congress was the Acer Iconia A500 –  the 10 inch version of the A100, essentially. This one’s a bit different: inputs and slots and all those gizmos have been moved around a bit, and it’s bigger obviously. It also has no capacitive buttons, but in its [...]

Samsung Galaxy S WiFi is the Smartphone Minus the Phone

by Kevin Krause on February 14th, 2011

We had long heard whispers of a Samsung Galaxy S PMP, but figured we would just have to settle for the Samsung Galaxy Player, a mobile device not quite as capable as the good ol’ S. But Samsung didn’t abandon the project after all, as the new Samsung Galaxy Player WiFi is bringing all the [...]

Funky Android Illustrates 3D Gaming, Video Conferencing, Skype with TI OMAP 4

by Rob Jackson on February 14th, 2011

We stopped by the Texas Instruments booth after they announced some pretty awesome integrations of their TI OMAP 4 dual-core processor, the exact chip used to power the LG Optimus 3D, and their partners had some pretty cool apps to show off. Leveraging the chipset, we saw an awesome 3D Gaming integration, effective video conferencing [...]

Steve Jobs Virtually Kicked In Face By LG: Optimus Pad, Optimus 3D Promo Videos

by Rob Jackson on February 14th, 2011

Whether you can’t get enough Optimus Pad/3D or just couldn’t help but click with the aforementioned title, you’ll DEFINITELY want to check out the following Official Promo Vids that run through all the features in a pretty entertaining format. Skip to 1 minute in the first video to see the “Optimus” take on the “A [...]

Acer Liquid Metal Hands-on and Impressions [MWC] [VIDEO]

by Quentyn Kennemer on February 14th, 2011

The Acer Liquid Metal doesn’t really do anything special software wise, but it’s the hardware that its name is derived from. The phone is constructed of mostly aluminum, but a unibody design it isn’t. Still, all of the materials come together to make a nice looking phone that anyone would want to carry around. Perhaps [...]

Acer Iconia Smart Runs 2.3 On Huge 4.8-inch Screen

by Rob Jackson on February 14th, 2011

Double take. That’s exactly what I did when I saw the Acer Iconia Smart. The screen size alone didn’t get me, after all it seems we’ve got 10-inch tablets in bulk, but the shape of the Acer Iconia Smart caught my eye and I was immediately intrigued: I like the concept of the 4.8-inch screen. [...]

Acer Iconia 7 Inch Tablet: A Sizable Honeycomb Offering [MWC] [VIDEO]

by Quentyn Kennemer on February 14th, 2011

We popped into Acer’s outside pavilion at Mobile World Congress to find a lot of stuff we haven’t had the chance to see. Of note were the Acer Liquid Metal, the Iconia Smart 4.8-inch phone, and some of those 7 and 10 inch tablets they announced at a press event a while back. The 7 [...]

Motorola Atrix, XOOM at MWC [VIDEO]

by Rob Jackson on February 14th, 2011

The Motorola Atrix and Motorola XOOM were announced and displayed at CES last month, but I still took a few minutes to get full demos on each. Why? First of all, I played with the LG Optimus Pad and Galaxy Tab 10.1 and wanted a frame of reference for comparing the XOOM. At CES the [...]

Motorola Pro is Droid Pro for Europe, XOOM Headed there as well

by Kevin Krause on February 14th, 2011

The MWC madness has brought us yet another announcement. The Motorola DROID PRO will be making its way to Europe as simply the Motorola Pro. The BlackBerry-esque Android smartphone looks to challenge the enterprise market all over when the phone launches. Check out the video below if you need a refresher. Also, one of the [...]

LG Optimus Pad (G-Slate) First Look at MWC [Video]

by Kevin Krause on February 14th, 2011

The Android tablet scene is starting to look quite a bit different. Dozens of lack-luster and poorly designed slates are giving a way to a handful of powerful tablet PCs featuring Android 3.0. With this unified UI experience comes a slight drawback: two of the Honeycomb devices we have seen — the Samsung Galaxy Tab [...]

Netflix for Android Previewed on LG Revolution, Quick Look at Qualcomm’s Next-Gen Multi-Core CPU [MWC] [Video]

by Kevin Krause on February 14th, 2011

While perusing the Qualcomm booth at Mobile World Congress a pleasant surprise was had: a working demo of the upcoming Netflix app for Android. Now I assure you when I first approached the app worked just fine and the video quality looked great thanks to special work put in by the Snapdragon team, but, alas, [...]

LG Announces the Optimus 3D, Optimus Pad at MWC

by Kevin Krause on February 14th, 2011

Even though we had already went hands-on with both the LG Optimus 3D and LG Optimus Pad, moments later LG formally introduced us to the devices at their Mobile World Congress press conference. The two devices round out what LG is calling their “premium line-up” of Android goodies, and they both strive to break new [...]

VoLTE Demoed on the LG Revolution [MWC] [VIDEO]

by Quentyn Kennemer on February 14th, 2011

Much noise has been made about VoLTE over Verizon’s network. It was revealed that the LG Revolution would be the first device to undergo testing for the service, and Verizon brought it to Barcelona with them for everyone to check out. I got a demo from Steven at Verizon who showcased video calling over VoLTE. [...]

ZTE Looking to Break Into High-end in 2011 With Smartphone, Tablet, & STB Selection [MWC]

by Quentyn Kennemer on February 14th, 2011

I attended ZTE’s press conference – it wasn’t the most popular at this event, of course. But they’ve done exceptionally well with their smartphone push in 2010 and are looking to up the stakes in 2011. They will do this with a selection of new smartphones and tablets geared toward the high-end. Most of the [...]

LG Optimus 3D Hands-On Video

by Rob Jackson on February 14th, 2011

We stopped into the Android area at MWC and were stunned to see the Optimus 3D and Optimus Pad on display and available for demonstration prior to LG’s press conference. Then we headed over to the LG booth where they had a bunch of the devices gathered while mobs of people poured in to take [...]

Acer’s Prototype 10.1 Inch Tablet For Verizon Hands-On [MWC] [VIDEO]

by Quentyn Kennemer on February 14th, 2011

I stumbled across a real gem in Verizon’s booth here at Mobile World Congress. They are working with Acer on a 10.1 inch Android tablet that’ll have LTE radios at launch and will be powered by NVIDIA’s Tegra 2. They expect it to have Android 3.0 at launch, but as it’s a prototype it was [...]

Android Insanity, Awesomeness at MWC 2011 [VIDEO]

by Rob Jackson on February 14th, 2011

Android tends to dominate in terms of noteworthy announcements and points of interest at tech trade shows these days and MWC is no different. But what IS different is usually 3rd parties promote their own Android wares with Google humbly playing the wall flower. MWC is different… very different: I was pretty blown away. The [...]

Androidify Yourself: Google App Turns You Into A Cartoon Robot [VIDEO]

by Rob Jackson on February 14th, 2011

Do you wish there was an Android Robot designed to look like you? Time to get crackin’- Google just announced an Android App called Androidify which lets you customize the look of the typical robot to make it look like you, or however you want. Check it out: Call it an avatar, droidatar, avadroid, Dii [...]

Android Honeycomb Smoothie [VIDEO]

by Rob Jackson on February 14th, 2011

The Android area at Mobile World Congress is absolutely amazing. While I work on getting that up, I’d like to offer a quick Honeycomb flavored toast to Android, Google, Android enthusiasts, and all the companies showing off their Android-related goods (and services) at MWC. I feel like the Cupcake, Donut and Gingerbread flavors would have [...]

Huawei IDEOS X3, IDEOS S7 Slim, Made Official at MWC

by Rob Jackson on February 14th, 2011

Huawei has a press event tonight at 5pm (Barcelona time) but they’ve given us a sneak peak of what they’ll be offering up and it includes 2 Androids: the Huawei IDEOS X3 and the Huawei IDEOS S7 Slim. They’ll also have their HiLink and Wi-Fi Smart Pro modems on display, but we’re most interested in [...]