mwc2012

BARCELONA, Spain--Today at Mobile World Congress, Ericsson CEO Hans Vestbeg, saunters over to a bicycle on the far edge of his keynote stage and touched a spoke. Instead of hopping on the bike, like many in the audience undoubtedly hoped he would, the leader of the Swedish network equipment giant announced that this particular bike is a connected device.

The Copenhagen Wheel, as he called it, is capable of uploading information as diverse as traffic, weather, and pollution details all from atop a set of rubber wheels.

Yes, the bike is a shining example of the innovation that lays in … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--I don't tend to take much stock in promises of zero shutter lag; I've seen too many examples of hold-ups where there shouldn't be were all claims true.

So when I got the HTC One phones in my hand for some short and sweet camera tinkering, I was pretty surprised to see the camera capture and store the shot in--yes, really--the blink of an eye.… Read more

Apparently, new phones, tablets, and other hardware aren't making the only news coming out of Barcelona, Spain, this week, as popular social discovery engine StumbleUpon has just released its newest Android app.

A featured developer at the Google Android booth, StumbleUpon got to show off its updated Android app as well as its new logo and color scheme at Mobile World Congress.

If you're not familiar with StumbleUpon, it's basically a Web site that helps you discover new Web sites. It gets to know you through your profile and your Web browsing activity, then uses the data … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--App developers and consumer advocates are unhappy with news this week that AT&T may be considering a plan that would allow data-heavy service providers to pay upfront for the bandwidth their customers may use.

Earlier this week, AT&T's CTO John Donovan told The Wall Street Journal at the Mobile World Congress here that the carrier is considering a kind of toll-free calling for mobile data. The idea is that mobile-app providers whose services consume a lot of data, such as video streaming, could buy 1-800-like service from AT&T so that their users … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--University students reportedly protesting education spending cuts held a rally in front of Mobile World Congress today, choking traffic to and from the venue.

A large row of students stood in the roundabout in front of the Fira Barcelona, the event space for Mobile World Congress. Between the protesters and the Fira was a two-deep row of policemen decked out in riot gear.

The protests come as the wireless show--the largest such industry confab in the world--begins to wind down, with it's official end tomorrow. It had already narrowly missed a transit strike that would have halted subway … Read more

When should you buy a laptop? That's always a very difficult question--buy too soon after new technology hits, and you miss out on refinements and price drops. On the other hand, you certainly don't want to spend upwards of $1,000 on a device that feels outdated just months later. It's an even more difficult decision in the wake of Microsoft's look at Windows 8 in Barcelona, Spain.

For Mac users, the decision's generally simple: wait for the new version, and buy, buy, buy. MacBooks, like iPhones and iPads, only come in so many versions, and they rarely drop in price anywhere.

Windows PCs? Well, that's another story. … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--H.264 is today's leader when it comes to mainstream video encoding technologies, but it will have to share the stage in 2013 with a successor called H.265 that can squeeze a video into nearly half the file size.

H.264, also known as the Advanced Video Codec (AVC), defines how a video can be compressed for reduced storage requirements and--very importantly given the online video explosion--for streaming across networks. H.265, also called High Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC), uses new techniques to compress video even more.

Qualcomm, a San Diego-based chipmaker that's on the international standards group developing H.265, … Read more

Microsoft today held a jam-packed session at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, detailing Windows 8 and its plans for the future.

Throughout Microsoft's nearly two-hour showcase, the company often used the term "fast and fluid." Steven Sinofsky, Microsoft's president of the Windows Division, as well as a few of his colleagues, slung around the term to show how seamlessly Windows 8 performed tasks, like opening applications and letting users interact with multiple apps at the same time.

The speed and fluidity of Windows 8's new design, along with the many differences consumers will find … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--T-Mobile has a plan. The smallest and weakest of the four top U.S. wireless providers may be bruised after a breakup with would-be spouse AT&T, but it isn't beaten. So goes the company line.

It all starts with investing $4 billion to upgrade its network and roll out 4G LTE, which it expects to launch in 2013, behind Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint. It's also wooing wholesalers to jump on its network, and will rededicate itself to providing the best customer satisfaction.… Read more