Sony Ericsson PlayStation Phone to be called ‘Xperia Play’?
We've been hoodwinked by trademark filing and domain registrations before (cough, BlackPad and SurfBook ) so we wouldn't say this is anywhere near definite, but we just caught wind of a Sony Ericsson EU trademark registration for "Xperia Play," and SE PR firm Jung Relations has registered a variety of Xperia Play domain names, including XperiaPlay.com, .net, and .org. Yes, that certainly sounds like a promising name for the PlayStation Phone (although not quite as promising as, you know, "PlayStation Phone,") but honestly we wouldn't bet on anything at this point. We've got a feeling we'll either find out either at CES or at MWC in February -- hold on tight
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: arc, domain-names, mwc, promising-name, result, sonyericsson, station-phone, trademark, xperia-play
Microsoft said to be planning second Windows Phone 7 update for MWC in February
Coming this February, at a Mobile World Congress near you, from the company that popularized the Service Pack : a second major update to Windows Phone 7 . The observant among you will already be leaping out of their seats to point out that the first WP7 update hasn't even been delivered yet, but it seems like Microsoft's calendar stretches beyond the next month and the company's already churning away on enhancing and improving its rebooted mobile OS. Such is the scuttlebutt coming out of WinRumors , and it's kind of hard to argue with the postulation that Steve Ballmer wouldn't be keynoting MWC in 2011 without something significant to announce
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: congress, fri, microsoft, mwc, mwc2011, patch, phone, scuttlebutt, Steve, update, windows
Android 2.3 definitely supports game controls, may (or may not) be PlayStation-related
Google's really been big today on emphasizing that Gingerbread is better than ever for game development, and that's already bearing itself out thanks to a page culled from the Android 2.3 SDK where we see a handful of new keycodes in the system clearly targeted for gaming: L1, L2, R1, R2, Select, Start, and so on. Does it have anything to do with the Sony Ericsson Zeus Z1 and all the PlayStation phone noise, though? We imagine it lays some of the groundwork, but all told, it's hard to say -- after all, PlayStation famously uses shapes for its primary controls, and we wouldn't be surprised if Sony were working on a separate development environment of some sort for PlayStation-branded titles rather than letting it all flow through the official Android SDK proper.
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: already-bearing, ericsson, expecting-news, february-at-mwc, gaming-efforts, gingerbread, handful, imagine-it-lays, keycodes, mwc, playstation, shapes, zeusz1
T-Mobile Garminfone official: Android, 3 megapixels, zero nuvi branding
We've known that Garmin-Asus has been working on a phone with T-Mobile's 3G bands for a while, but now we finally know what it is: meet the Garminfone. Yes, just "Garminfone" -- you won't find an ounce of nuvifone branding here, despite the fact that the device is a dead ringer for the nuvifone A50 announced back at MWC , which leads us to believe that AT&T might hold the exclusive American rights to market the name with its own G60
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone Tags: asus, att, exclusive, garminfone, gold-connectors, mobile, mwc, nüvi, Ringer
Three Windows Phone 7 Series devices, all in a row
Well, there they are, the only three confirmed Windows Phone 7 Series prototype devices that currently exist.
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: asus, check-out-some, debuted-today, engadget, handset, mix, mix10, mwc, prototypes, result, series, three-windows, windowsphone
Pelikon’s MorphPad demoed, combines touchpad, morphing keyboard into one awesome rectangle
British firm Pelikon was showing off its MorphPad technology at MWC this month, undoubtedly hoping to score some interest from representatives of handset manufacturers who just happened to be wandering the show floor -- but this isn't just any old morphing keyboard, you see. Not only can the board be dynamically reconfigured by backlighting different portions of the keys -- the entire surface of the thing doubles as a touchpad, which you can probably imagine has virtually limitless utility in a mobile device where the space for a true touchpad simply doesn't exist.
Categories: Mobile Phone, Other Tags: already-works, british, entry, keyboard, morph, morphpad, mwc, pelikon, prototype, result, showing-off-its, toshiba-on-its, touchpad, true-touchpad
LG GW990 shows up on video, competes with HTC HD2 for camera’s attention
When people say the smartphone market is growing, they don't usually mean literally, but looking at the massive popularity of HTC's HD2 whopper, and the anticipation surrounding Dell's Mini 5 and LG's GW990 , it's pretty safe to say there is a market for oversized and overpowered (is there such a thing?) handsets. The Moorestown-powered GW990 has made another video appearance, this time showing off its multi-screen functionality and not altogether smooth pinch-to-zoom skills. We're reminded this Mobile Internet Device (a title that's inscribed on its case ) will run Moblin (now known as MeeGo ), before a HD2 is whipped out for a showdown between super-sized smartphones.
Categories: Android, htc, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: gt540, lg gw990, lg-gt540, lgminigd800, mid, mobile-internet-device, moorestown, mwc, pinch-to-zoom, showing-off-its
Sonim XP2 Spirit gets hammered with Engadget
At the MWC Pepcom event earlier in the week we bumped into Sonim and its almost indestructible handset, the Sonim XP2 Spirit. The XP2 is a seriously tough set with the display covered in Gorilla Glass from Corning, a magnesium core, and a shell crafted with hardened rubber and fiberglass, all backed by a rather bold unconditional 3-year guarantee: you break it, they replace it. Sonim gave us an opportunity to try to destroy the thing, and..
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: engadget, fiberglass, gets-hammered, gorilla-glass, magnesium-core, mobile, mwc, result, sonim, xp2, xp2 spirit, xp2spirit
Emporia Solid and Elegance hands-on
Emporia landed at MWC with a couple sets geared specifically to the elderly, the Emporia Elegance (pictured left) and the aptly named Solid. Both of these freshly launched phones are targeted squarely at your grannie's generation, that's to say they include large easy to read fonts, huge keys, and a pretty slim feature set. The Elegance will ship in both black and white, features a 1.8-inch OLED high contrast display, an extra loud ringer, hearing aid compatibility, and 900 / 1800 GSM
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: contrast, elegance, emporiaelegance, engadget-mobile, extreme-sports, grannie, landed-at-mwc, launched-phones, mwc, mwc 2010, result, Ringer, solid
Nokia VP: N97 taught company some tough lessons
It's unusual for a company to publicly admit its shortcomings -- particularly a company as big, proud, and resolute as Nokia generally seems to be -- but an All About Symbian / Mobile Industry Review joint interview with Anssi Vanjoki, vice president of markets, at MWC last week painted a very different picture with regard to Espoo's views on the maligned N97 . Though he says that the phone absolutely met the company's goals for sales volume and revenue, it was a "tremendous disappointment in terms of the experience quality for the consumers and something [they] did not anticipate." This isn't a sob story, though: he uses the opportunity to note that they've completely closed the gap on software quality for the flagship device, launching new firmware first in Norway where the response has been positive
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: anssivanjoki, atop-the-lineup, engadget, mwc, nokia, norway, pills, president, quality control, qualitycontrol