highlights pictures: Mobile World Congress 2013

Images from the world's largest mobile phone trade show, held in Barcelona, Spain from 25 to 28 February. Manufacturers launching new products included Samsung, HTC, Nokia, Sony and Huawei, which unveiled what it claimed was the world's fastest smartphone, while Firefox maker Mozilla rolled out a new mobile operating system

Huawei's Richard Yu presents the Ascend P2, claimed to be the world's fastest smartphone

 

A visitor holds the new Nokia Lumia 720

   

A visitor holds Huawei's Ascend P2, claimed to be the world's smartphone

Nokia's Stephen unveils the Lumia 720

A smartphone on a Nokia wireless charging pillow

 

A visitor tests a new Samsung 3D device

 

Ericsson's Hans Vestberg gives a press conference

Huawei's Ascend D2 smartphone in a fishbowl

NEC's new dual-screen Medias

Mozilla's Gary Kovacs presents the new Firefox OS mobile operating system

   

The new HTC One X

The new Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet

   

The new waterpoof and dustproof Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2

 

The new Sony Xperia Z

The Sony Xperia Z tablet is immersed in water

   

The new ZTE Grand S Lite

A man speaks on his mobile phone at the Mobile World Congress

Visitors take pictures of a new Nokia device

     

Visitors test new HTC devices as an acrobat performs

 

Visitors look at new Samsung devices

 

Telefónica staff protest against job cuts at the entrance to the congress

 
 Source: Guardian

Spotify strikes Ford deal to fuel its in-car music ambitions

Carmaker bringing its Sync AppLink platform to Europe in 2013 with streaming music on board

Spotify is the latest streaming music service on Ford's Sync AppLink platform

One of the key trends in the automotive industry in 2013 is the desire of carmakers to get into apps, and app-makers to get into cars. Fertile ground for partnerships like the one announced at Mobile World Congress between Ford and Spotify.

 

Carmaker meets digital music service isn't a new phenomenon: in the US, Ford already has Pandora, iHeartRadio, Slacker, Rhapsody, Mog and Amazon's Cloud Player service working on its Sync AppLink platform, which enables drivers to control smartphone apps using their voice and/or dashboard controls.

Its Spotify deal – the first automotive partnership for the Swedish company – comes with a European twist that will see Ford's EcoSport become its first Sync-equipped car to be sold in Europe later in 2013. Ford is planning to have Sync in 3.5m cars in Europe by 2015, too.

"This relationship was a year and a half in development," said Doug VanDagens, Ford's global director of its connected services solutions organisation, in an interview with The Guardian shortly after the announcement.
"With both Sync and AppLink coming to Europe for the first time this year, we wanted to have a great partner. We've been pursuing them, because of their leadership position. They're the leader for streaming music in active subscriptions, paid subscriptions and number of countries, so it's a good deal for us."

The new app is impressive, with voice control working very well for navigating playlists, skipping between tracks and triggering artist-based radio stations – well enough to show how a voice-controlled Spotify could work in the home too, in fact.

Spotify's global head of hardware partnerships Pascal de Mul said that his team focused on making the app quick and intuitive to use in-car, while adding the odd feature – like a single "Road Trip" playlist that drivers can add tracks to by speaking.

This is all part of Ford's push for its AppLink initiative, complete with its own developer program announced at the CES show in January.

Since then, more than 2,500 developers have signed up to make their apps compatible with Ford's system, and the company is looking for more in Europe to join Spotify and three other apps – Kaliki, Glympse and Aha – as locally-developed apps for the European launch of Sync.

As in the US, Ford will review every app created by external developers for quality and safety. The company also says it will appoint a "recommended mobile app development house" to work with developers in Europe, and also to create an app cataloguing Sync-capable smartphone apps, to help drivers find them.

Ford also announced at CES that it was making AppLink open source, so rival carmakers can use the platform too. It's too early to tell how many will, but VanDagens said he was hopeful that pragmatism will dictate that they do – as well as pressure from app developers and digital services.

"The developer community has told us that a lot of these other platforms are really hard to interface with," said VanDagens. "We empathise with them, so we're opening up this very proprietary technology. Since we announced in January we've got three OEMs that are actively working with us."

VanDagens also talks enthusiastically about Ford jumping into hackathons with Spotify, to see what developers can create with its SDK in a matter of hours, let alone days or weeks.

"We've been working with people like Spotify since 2008, and we realised we have a lot to learn from them," he said. "The number of smartphones versus smartphone-enabled cars is really out of proportion."

That's why AppLink is so focused on people plugging in their own smartphones, rather than embedding everything into the dashboard itself, including a modem. "The average development cycle of a car is three years, then it lives for eight years," said VanDagens.

"The last thing we want to do is take one of the coolest pieces of technology now and make people live with it for the next 13 years, although that's what some of our competitors are doing. Embedded modems have their place for things like door unlock and remote-start, but for things like music and entertainment, news and navigation, you want to bring the very latest technology into the car with you."

Music is an obvious choice for apps that work with cars, but what other areas is Ford keen for developers to focus on? VanDagens cited "core services", by which he meant entertainment, navigation and some forms of productivity.

"We don't encourage incremental activity in spaces that people aren't normally engaged in in the car," he said. "We've had people wanting to have auctioning or internet search apps, but we've always reserved the right to focus on automotive services that aren't distracting."

Unsurprisingly, given their partnership, Mul praised Ford's platform, especially as the way AppLink works means Spotify can update its app whenever it likes. Apparently not the case with some other carmakers.

"The software cycle is allowed to spin at a faster rate than the hardware cycle," he said. "Some other companies are trying to force software companies into the same update cycle as the hardware."

News: What can do Snapdragon 800

Qualcomm Snapdragon 800: Hands-on with the Future of Mobile

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When Qualcomm first announced that its next-generation Snapdragon 800 series processors would run at a maximum clock speed of 2.3-GHz, we were instantly blown away. After all, that would make the chip one of the fastest in the land. But the Snapdragon 800 is more than just a speed demon. This processor also packs a wide array of impressive features that sound too good to be true, including the ability to capture and output 4K photos and videos, run high-quality games, play 7.1 Dolby audio and enable 4G LTE Advanced connectivity. To get a closer look at this processing behemoth, we stopped by Qualcomm’s booth here at Mobile World Congress 2013 to see what the future of mobile tech holds.

4K Video Capture and Playback

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The tech buzzword, er, phrase, of the moment is “4K resolution.” TV manufacturers ranging from LG to Samsung are all working on their own 4K TVs sporting the latest in super sharp, high definition technology. At four times the pixel density of a standard 1080p display, 4K images and videos require serious horsepower to run smoothly. And yet somehow Qualcomm has managed to get its Snapdragon 800 to do just that.

Not only that, but the chip is also capable of capturing video and images in 4K and outputting them to a 4K display via HDMI. During one demo, Qualcomm representatives showed us a clip from the film “Life of Pi” in 4K resolution running off of a Snapdragon 800-powered Android tablet, and at no point did we notice any lag. During a second demonstration, we used a Snapdragon 800-equipped phone to capture 4K pictures of a Qualcomm representative and immediately transfer them to a 4K television.

Carrier Aggregation

Next we checked out the processor’s ability to run a 4G LTE Advanced data connection. Such data speeds, which can reach as high as 145 Mbps, are possible as a result of a technique Qualcomm is using called carrier aggregation, which combines a carrier’s radio channels across non-adjacent bands.

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So what can a 145 Mbps data connection do for you? How about stream 4K resolution video as Qualcomm did during our demo? Qualcomm says it’s not just making changes to its chipset to bring users such high data speeds, the chip-maker is also working with carriers to improve their networks efficiently and bring LTE Advanced to market in the not-too-distant future.

Mobile Gaming Powerhouse

Of course, we would be remiss if we didn’t check out how well the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 can handle mobile gaming. So we stopped by the company’s gaming kiosk where we saw the Snapdragon 800 running three games, including the Android game “Modern Combat.”

What really blew our socks off was the number of polygons the processor was able to handle while running a game demo of a group of dragons attacking a castle. At one point during the demo the lead dragon spits out a stream of fire that, when viewing the game as a collection of wire frames, turned into a seemingly infinite number of polygons.

After spending some time with the Snapdragon 800, it’s clear that Qualcomm’s next-generation chip is destined to be one of the most important pieces of silicon in the coming years. From 4K resolution and 7.1 Dolby sound to incredible network speeds and gaming power, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor is in a category all its own.

NVIDIA Hates The Benchmark Game, But Lifts The Veil On Tegra 4 Performance Anyway

Flash back a month or so to CES — NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang officially pulled back the curtain on the company’s new Tegra 4 chipset, and called it the “world’s fastest mobile processor.” It was a hell of a claim to make, but the company did little to justify it at the time aside from pointing to its array of Cortex A15 CPU cores and its “72 GPU cores.”

Fortunately, NVIDIA is much chattier here at MWC, and was eager to show off some rather impressive synthetic benchmarks for its latest and greatest mobile chipset.

Well, maybe “eager” isn’t exactly the right word — NVIDIA really hates playing the mobile benchmark game. I don’t blame them. In many ways the sorts of numbers that these tests spit out just don’t accurately reflect the experience that users will actually have. During our early testing for instance, the Nexus 4 consistently put up some strangely anemic Quadrant scores — which its cousin the Optimus G handily blew past — despite working like a dream.

All that said, benchmarks are largely are for the most part inescapable, and the Tegra 4 SoC does a rather nice job on them anyway. Quadrant is one of our go-to mobile benchmarking tools, and the Tegra 4 did not disappoint — it scored in the mid-16,000s, topping out at 16,591. To put that in a little perspective, Samsung/Google’s Nexus 10 (which itself is powered by a relatively new dual-core 1.7 GHz Samsung Exynos chipset) usually scores in the mid-to-high 4,000s. Asus’ Transformer Pad Infinity TF700 (powered by a 1.6GHz quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3) fared about the same, if not a hair higher.

The results were much the same when we looked at AnTuTu scores — while tablets like the Nexus 10 and Asus’ TF700 will yield scores in the mid-8000s to low-9000s, the Tegra 4 demo tablet consistently hit scores above 36,000.

Curious about how the Tegra 4 compares in your preferred benchmarking suite? You can see the full gallery of Tegra 4 benchmark results below:

One of NVIDIA’s most prominent competitors these days is Qualcomm, and NVIDIA Product Marketing director Matt Wuebbling was eager to chat about the performance differential when I let slip the Q word. 

When asked about how much NVIDIA knows about Qualcomm’s updated Snapdragon chipsets, he replied simply enough: “we know a lot.” By his count, the Tegra 4 is about two to three times faster than Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 600 (used in devices like the new HTC One). He went on to say that the top-tier Snapdragon 800 is about 25 to 35 percent faster than the 600, with the implication that the Tegra 4 still comes out on top. 

Though his response has based on Qualcomm’s published Snapdragon claims, I’d still advise you to take that comparison with a grain of salt. That’s nothing against Wuebbling, but these sorts of simple comparisons don’t always paint the most accurate picture. I couldn’t reach Qualcomm for response at time of writing, but I’ll update if/when they respond to these claims.

You would think that this sort of horsepower would suck a battery dry in jiffy, but that doesn’t appear to the be the case. Another Tegra 4 demo had a video running at full resolution on a small 1080p display, an exercise that never drew more 1 watt of electricity at the most. Power consumption typically fell within the 900-950 milliwatt range — devices like the Droid DNA for instance tend to draw around 1.2 watts for similar tasks.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 theater demo at MWC 2013

The false alarm of the super powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 already being in a device, and a ZTE one of all places already rang at MWC, but reality is we are still a few months away from seeing retail devices with the most powerful Snapdragon chip so far.

Being at Mobile World Congress, though, we were privileged to get an early peek at a reference tablet design based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 and running a 4K Ultra HD video.

All of that happened at the Qualcomm Theater booth where only 9 people are allowed to sit and enjoy the Snapdragon 800 experience. You also get to listen to 7.1 surround sound augmenting the experience. Take a look below.

GSMA anounced 2013 mobile awards winners: see who won for best smartphone and tablet here

The Mobile World Congress is the largest mobile show in the world and that’s why the awards given away by its organizers from the GSM Association have more value and weight to them than others. The GSMA has just announced the winners for this year, and Samsung is clearly the big winner.

Other manufacturers also grabbed some of the awards, though, so it wasn’t just about the South Korean company. Take a look at the 2013 GSMA award winners right below.

1. Best Smartphone - Samsung Galaxy S III

 

 

2. Best Mobile Tablet - Nexus 7

 

 3. Device Manufacturer of the Year - Samsung

4. Best Feature phone or entry level phone - Nokia Asha 305

 

5. Best Mobile App for Consumers - Facebook

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. Best Mobile App for Enterprise - Evernote

 

 

 

 7. Best Mobile Enabled Consumer Electronics Device - Samsung Galaxy Camera

MWC 2013: LG lifts the curtains on its 6.9cm wireless charger

LG Electronics today unveiled what it calls "the world’s smallest wireless charger" at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The WCP-300 is only 6.9cm in diameter, and despite its diminutive size, LG claims its charging range is 1.7 times wider than that of the company's previous generation wireless charger. The new model is compatible with a standard 5-pin MicroUSB charger.

The WCP-300 employs an electromagnetic induction technology and is Qi-certified by the Wireless Power Consortium. Electromagnetic induction produces a magnetic field which in turn generates an electric current to charge the batteries in devices placed on the charging pad. Certification ensures that the WCP-300 is compatible with all smartphones that support the Qi standard.

“Wireless charging is the holy grail of smartphone user convenience,” said Dr. Jong-seok Park, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “With the WCP-300, LG was able to deliver both portability with top-class charging capabilities in a device no larger than a typical beverage coaster.”

Both the LG Spectrum 2 and Nexus 4 feature built-in support for wireless charging right out of the box, eliminating the need to purchase separate covers. LG believes that built-in support for wireless charging will be the most critical development in making wireless charging the industry standard going forward.

LG calls it the world's smallest wireless charger

In addition to the buzz at MWC 2013, there is a lot of noise around LG's February 27 event. We have received press invitations to an event LG is hosting on February 27. A representative from the company informed us that the event is indeed concerning LG’s smartphones. We're guessing this could possibly be the long-awaited launch of LG’s flagship handset—the Optimus G— in India. The smartphone was launched in the rest of the world last year, but we have yet to see the handset on Indian store shelves.

However, LG announced its Optimus L Series II earlier this month. It's possible this event could be for launching this smartphone in India, and not the Optimus G.

Of course, since we’re feeling especially speculative, we're also wondering if the company may actually launch the Nexus 4 here. This idea, however, is far into the Wild Mass Guessing territory, as the last Nexus device we saw being launched in India was Samsung’s Nexus S. But since we don't know anything else about the event or what it'll entail, we can't really say what will be launched or announced.

The Optimus G is loaded with a plethora of features that will surely entice anyone remotely interested in smartphone technology. It is equipped with a 1.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 SoC and an LTE chip. The device also promises longer battery life, a thinner profile, a brighter display and a new touchscreen panel technology as a result of the vertically-integrated development process. This smartphone is almost the same as the LG Nexus 4, except for the LTE chip, the camera and some minor differences.

The Optimus L Series II will be following the same design philosophy of previous phones in the L series, but with some new design elements, including laser-cut contours, a radiant rear design and LED lighting on the home button.

Intel announces dual-core 'Clovertrail+' Atom processors

Intel has announced a new generation of their Atom processors for smartphones and tablets. Better known by the Clovertrail+ codename, the new range of SoCs promise a notable improvement over the previous generation Medfield and Clovertrail processors.

Clovertrail+ SoCs will be available in three SKUs, with similar parts but varying clock speeds. The fastest is the Atom Z2580, followed by the Z2560 and the Z2520.

On the CPU side, the new Clovertrail+ adds an extra Saltwell CPU core, which is based on the same 32nm processing, while maintaining Hyper Threading (so now you get four threads). The clock speed on the Z2580 goes up to 2.0GHz, whereas on the Z2560 and Z2520 it's 1.6GHz and 1.2GHz respectively. With the extra core, Intel promises 2x faster CPU performance over Medfield chips.

The biggest improvement, however, comes on the GPU side. Intel gets rid of the previous PowerVR SGX540 in favor of the significantly more powerful SGX544MP2. To put it into context, this GPU is actually slightly more powerful than the one in Apple's A5X, which was found inside the third generation iPad with Retina display.

Once again, the clock speeds differ across the SKUs, with the Z2580, Z2560 and the Z2520 getting 533MHz, 400MHz and 300MHz respectively. Intel claims the GPU in Clovertrail+ is thrice as fast than the previous PowerVR SHX540. The faster GPU also means the supported resolution now goes from 1,024 x 768 to 1,920 x 1,200.

The memory interface in Clovertrail+ is still 2 x 32-bit LPDDR2 but at a faster 1,066MHz instead of 800MHz.

The baseband has been updated from XMM 6260 to XMM 6360 and now supports 3GPP release 9 with 42Mbps DC-HSPA+ (Category 24) and HSUPA category 7 (11.5 Mbps). However, there is still no LTE support.

Lastly, there is a new reference design for OEMs. It uses the Z2580 chip with 2GB of RAM, XMM 6360 baseband, 16 megapixel rear camera and 2 megapixel front camera. It runs stock Android 4.2, which can be modified by the OEM, as is often the case.

The first phone to be announced running Clovertrail+ is the Lenovo K900.

MWC 2013 in Picture

Mobile World Congress is the world's largest trade show for the mobile industry. The 2013 show began in Barcelona yesterday and closes on Thursday. Around 60,000 people are expected to attend throughout the week.

There are keynote addresses, product launches and a trade fair that covers 240,000 square feet, spread across eight exhibition halls.

One company that isn't there this year is Google but the search giant can be confident that its Android operating system will feature heavily across the show, as this mascot demonstrates.

Nokia announced four new handsets including a budget smartphone, the Lumia 520, and a cheap feature phone with a 35-day battery life.

Sony was one of many companies touting new tablets. The Xperia Z tablet is waterproof and dust resistent, like the Xperia Z smartphone, announced in Las Vegas last month.

However, Samsung did announce another model in its Note range. The Note 8 is an eight-inch tablet that will site between the Note 2 (five inches) and the Note 10.1 in the Samsung range. All three come with Samsung's S-Pen stylus.

Also on show was Samsung's Galaxy Camera - a compact camera running the Android operating system.

Vuzix will hope that its M100 smart glasses will attract attention in a year sure to be dominated by Google's Glass launch.

Strangest gadget of MWC 2013 is sure to be this wireless pet feeder - it can be operated by email or mobile app.