3GSM

The wonderful and torturous thing about GSMA Mobile World Congress is that you get to see handsets from a number of international manufacturers that are beyond imagination but will most likely never make it Stateside.

Take ZTE for example. It may not be a recognized cell phone brand in the United States, although the company does offer a couple of its handsets through MetroPCS, including the ZTE C79 and the ZTE C88, but it happens to be one of China's largest handset manufacturers.

ZTE will, once again, make the voyage to Barcelona this year and revealed on Tuesday that … Read more

We're still one week away from the official start of GSMA Mobile World Congress, but Samsung's getting the party started early by introducing its revamped TouchWiz user interface.

Making the announcement in Korea on Monday, the company revealed that it will show off its updated TouchWiz UI in Barcelona, highlighting new features like flashy 3D effects, new gesture controls, better integration of photos and contacts, and more haptic feedback.

There will also be a new widget dock from which you can manage and download widgets for your home screen. This is something we're particularly excited to hear, … Read more

Getting an early start on the competition, LG Electronics announced Sunday that its new Arena KM900 smartphone will debut at the upcoming Mobile World Congress.

LG is touting the touch screen's user interface as featuring a 3D cube-based layout with four customizable screens for accessing the phone's features.

"The direct, intuitive, and dynamic S-Class UI will be unlike anything that has appeared on a mobile phone before," Skott Ahn, president of LG Mobile, said in a statement.

The Arena features a 3-inch WVGA touch screen with 800?400 resolution and a 5-megapixel camera that promises "… Read more

On Wednesday, Garmin and Asus announced a strategic alliance to develop and distribute co-branded GPS-enabled smartphones to be known as the Garmin-Asus Nuvifone series. This includes the original Garmin Nuvifone, which was introduced over a year ago, and will now be rebranded as the Garmin-Asus Nuvifone G60.

The partnership isn't a strange one, considering that Asus has been working on the original Nuvifone for over a year as the ODM (original device manufacturer). Both companies still plan to ship the Nuvifone G60 in the first half of 2009. In addition, Garmin-Asus said it will offer several Nuvifone models this … Read more

Apparently, Nokia just can't wait for the GSMA World Congress next month. On Thursday, the Finns introduced three new phones: the 2700 Classic, the 6303 Classic, and the 6700 Classic. The three GSM models all sport candy bar designs, but vary a bit in functionality.

The 2700 Classic offers a 2-megapixel camera with video recording, quad-band world phone support, a music player, an FM radio, voice commands, messaging and e-mail, a speakerphone, PC syncing, a voice recorder, USB mass storage, a 3.5mm headset jack, Bluetooth, a microSD card slot, a wireless Web browser, and personal organizer options. It … Read more

Nokia has yet to announce its Nokia E75 smartphone, but there's mounting evidence that the device will soon become an official member of the family, perhaps at GSMA Mobile World Congress in February.

CNET Asia first reported on some leaked video (which has now been taken down) of the Symbian handset, as well as the Nokia E72, back in September 2008, but on Friday, the buzz kicked up again after the Swedish site Daily Mobile posted some pretty legitimate-looking photos of the E75.

The Nokia E75 looks to be similar in design to the HTC S743 in that it … Read more

I'm back from Barcelona and the GSMA World Congress. For five days I was up to my ears in cell phones and tapas (not at the same time) but I came away with some fresh insights into our global mobile world. As the largest cell phone show on the planet, GSMA produced a lot of news this year. Samsung, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson all announced new models, and hundreds of other companies jockeyed for the spotlight, as well. Senior Editor Bonnie Cha and I were just two of 55,000 GSMA attendees, but we manged to track down the … Read more

After attending CES four times, CTIA eight times, Macworld two times, and several smaller show in between, I thought I have the whole trade thing mastered. You spend the day meeting with companies, wandering the show floor, and battling crowds before returning to your hotel for a night of work. You also go a few days without enough sleep or a decent meal. As I prepared for the GSMA World Congress, I knew it would be different--a different continent, a different culture, a different language, and an international focus. I had no idea of just how different it would be. … Read more

Yesterday, I finally got a chance just to walk around the vast halls of Fira de Barcelona and really take in the sights of 2008 GSMA Mobile World Congress. While doing so, I stumbled upon NTT DoCoMo's booth and ended up spending a fair bit of time there, wandering in awe. For those of you who don't know, NTT DoCoMo is Japan's leading cell phone provider, and they have got some amazing devices. There are ones that you can fully submerge in water. There are gaming and mobile TV handsets, and I know we've got those … Read more