The number of sites that were unaware of the LG ‘hero’ handset at this year’s Mobile World Congress could be named on one finger, nevertheless the LG Arena was pretty exciting to finally see after such a long wait and all those teaser images!
Fortunately, LG knew this and let the Arena take centre stage at their booth.
As good as this was, the worst decision they could have made was to also have a touch-driven interactive table powered by magic blocks. Each one, when placed on the surface, triggered demos illustrating the LG Arena’s features. It was so amazing that many people were ignoring the handset purely to play with the cool interface (ourselves included!).
Eventually, we composed ourselves and got a decent demo of the LG Arena, and the intuitive new 3D touch-driven interface dubbed “S-Class”.
All very impressive, and the user interface takes some interesting changes in direction from touchscreen leaders like the iPhone.
Well, it wasn’t all about the Arena and S-Class, the slightly under-performing LG Renoir has received a revamp to court consumers a bit more. Now sporting an exciting ‘i’ addition to the KC910 model number, the Renoir now has lost the camera lens cover and bulked up slightly.The software running the 8 megapixel camera has also been brought up to date, and they had a cool miniature village on hand to test out the phone’s rebooted camera credentials…
We had a good look at everything Samsung had to offer at their booth at Mobile World Congress, and it was all about touchscreen handsets!
The Samsung Tocco Ultra was definitely their star device, and the guys were pushing it loads on their stand. It’s an impressive device and certainly holds it’s own, with the TouchWiz UI easy to use as well as fun.
This quick hands-on video shows off some of the more impressive features on the device, including multimedia playback and the huge screen.
The Tocco Ultra was good, but don’t underestimate the multimedia prowess of the Samsung Omnia HD! They were showing off the richness and clarity of the handset’s 3.7″ AMOLED screen in quite an impressive way…
Last night saw some of the biggest movers and shakers in the mobile phone industry rub shoulders with celebs like hobbit-faced crooner Jamie Cullum and fashion ‘pioneer’ will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas at the National Palace in Barcelona last night, as the GSMA Awards celebrated the biggest and best innovations over the last twelve months.
Everything from best mobile game to best use of mobile for social and economic development was recognised at the event (Nuance Communications won the latter for their Airtel-T9 India Consumer Vernacular Messaging Campaigns, but you knew that already), so here are the big winners!
Best Mobile Game:
Gameloft’s Real Football 2009 was the runaway winner, official FIFPRO licensing, 3D graphics and console-quality gameplay making it a hit with the judges. How much of the praise heaped upon it was for the iPhone version, I wonder?
An honourable mention went to Digital Chocolate for AvaPeeps: FlirtNation. Looks to me that this game is teaching kids to dress up their avatars and ‘hang out’ in strange parts to proposition other real world underage “peeps”. Social networking of the dirtiest kind…
See the demo video for yourself below.
Yes, you did see “Use your sex appeal” as one of the options for your avatar.
Best Mobile Music or Video Service:
BBC’s iPlayer was the clear stand out in this category, beating out Nokia’s own Comes With Music and Sony Ericsson’s remixed PlayNow Arena. The iPlayer’s is available across all operating systems from the Nokia N96 to the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, and the retention of the desktop version’s functionality has changed how, and where, people watch TV.
Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough:
Ooh, controversial! 2008′s mobile phone Marmite was certainly the Blackberry Storm 9500‘s ‘SurePress’ screen. The SurePress screen clicks like a physical button allowing the user to receive a tactile response from a virtual interface, one thing that has proved difficult thus far for touchscreen manufacturers.
Many felt it offered a unique experience that was the best of both worlds, whilst others found it imprecise and forced.
Nevertheless, the judges loved it!
Best Mobile Handset or Device:
The big one! The shortlist consisted of some interesting phones, all unique in terms of both looks and features. Among them was the ‘my first smartphone’ LG KS360, the ground-breaking T-Mobile G1, the touchy feely BlackBerry Storm 9500 and our Nokia E71 review showed just how good that one was!
Even so, the humble INQ¹ Facebook phonebeat them all! The seamless integration of the popular social networking site, web calls with Skype and killer looks all in one nice device was too good to beat! Congrats to 3 for making a handset good enough to make people change networks to get one!
As the black tie event went on into the early morning, we at Omio were tirelessly toiling to bring you the most interesting stories of MWC 2009. Not least because it cost an arm and a leg to attend, but because we love you loyal readers that much!
What do you guys think of the results? Were the judges crazy to put the INQ¹ ahead of the Storm? Are you amazed a great iPhone game wasn’t at the top of the charts? Let us know in the forums!
One of the most prevalent recurring themes throughout Mobile World Congress this year was one of ‘going green’.
Many manufacturers introduced their initiatives to reduce the harmful effects that mobile phone production has on the environment, whilst Motorola, LG and Samsung have all announced new handsets which are solar-powered.
Charging the device is performed through panels on the rear, offering a great solution to people around the world with little or no access to electricity, as well as allowing people in the developed world feel as though they are playing their part in saving the planet.
Sony Ericsson, however, has other ideas.
Speaking to Mats Pellbäck-Scharp, head of corporate sustainability for Sony Ericsson, he mentioned that adding solar panels to a phone can in fact have a net negative effect on the environment.
We’ve been spending the third day of Mobile World Congress getting a close look at all of the booths, and getting pictures and videos of the most exciting handsets to come out over 2009.
One of the most exciting booths is from Japanese network NTT DoCoMo, which has a wide range of services that we will never see!
Mobile television, an Oyster card-style top up system to pay for food and services, even arcade perfect versions of popular video games! However, the most exciting stuff was from their concept handset, a modular magnetic device that….just watch this video!
Also, the people looking after the booth were immaculately turned out…
…as was a line up of all of their pretty phones!
We will be bringing a comprehensive booth round up for all the major manufacturers, and some of the cooler surprises too! Stay tuned to Omio!
Today, Vodafone and HTC announced their HTC Magic smartphone, available from spring of 2009 and an exclusive to the Vodafone network.
The device is the second handset powered by Google’s Android interface and offers a similar, yet more refined experience than the T-Mobile G1, with a 3.2 inch QVGA touchscreen whilst losing the slide out QWERTY keypad that made the G1 such a striking device.
A 3.2 megapixel camera, MP3 player and scrolling trackball are all present and correct, and yet all carry-overs from the G1 device it so closely resembles…
The user interface however, is an major advancement over the original Android device, offering many Google powered applications including Maps and Search, as well as many touted features like a virtual QWERTY keypad for typing (a necessity now that the physical one is no more!), as well as access to Vodafone-specific online services.
Some of the odd shortcomings like a lack of video recording are thankfully no longer present, but there is a multi-purpose HTC ExtUSB port instead of a normal old 3.5 mm audio jack. Weird.
This video offers a much closer look at what the HTC Magic can do for Vodafone, and you!
The only question that no-one seems to be asking is why on Earth is this not the T-Mobile G2? It looks like the G1, works like G1, is a network exclusive like the G1, was even called the G2 on the leaked HTC roadmap, what gives?
Perhaps the G1 underperformed, perhaps HTC wanted too much money this time. Whatever it was, T-Mobile’s loss is Vodafone’s gain as the HTC Magic looks to be the one to watch this quarter!
Still not sure about quite why the slick new S-Class User Interface makes the LG Arena streets ahead of the competition? Check out the official demo video (WARNING: icons not alive in actual handset).
It seems that Nokia weren’t the only ones to benefit from Skype on their mobiles, Sony Ericsson is soon to receive free voice calls over wi-fi and instant messaging via the unique Panels interface on the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1!
Due to be released on the 31st of March 2009, the Xperia panel offers a unique ‘balloon’ interface on a skyline, where each of your contacts is represented by a floating icon. Online, and they will be vibrant and in the air. Offline, they will be greyed out and fall into the background.
A quick demo of some of the other Panels on the Xperia X1 followed, and it is safe to say they are leaps and bounds ahad of the stuff available at launch. Check out the new CNN.com Panel, complete with geographically relevant news!
Great to see the Panels interface coming into it’s own, and the power of the Xperia X1 being applied in new ways.
We rocked up to Nokia’s stage at the Mobile World Congress, ready to be blown away by all their new handsets…but came away a tad underwhelmed. The Nokia N97 was a tad broken but the UI was way closer to the concept videos from way back, Matt’s potential new love the Nokia E75 wasn’t quite as sexy when fiddled with up close (video to follow!), and the newly announced Nokia N86 was just…not!
Despite the nice booth lady’s constant reassurances that the handset before us was in fact an N86, the phone itself told a different story… As you can see in the above shot, it was actually liveried up as the N85 8MP, an upgrade to last year’s N85 handset, with a bigger camera than the 5 megapixel offering first time around.
So what’s the deal? A truly new addition to the N-Series family, or last minute costume change to beef up an otherwise unassuming handset? You be the judge!
We’ve just come out of the Skype Press Conference, reeling from the news that the Nokia N97 will come preloaded with Skype! The world famous web chat client will be seamlessly integrated to your contacts and messaging, in a way previously only seen in dedicated devices like 3′s Skypephone and the quirky INQ1!
Presented by Nokia’s Vice President of N-Series devices, it makes the N97 even more of a must-have handset, and that Q3 release date seem even further away!
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