Peace on earth or more kick-ass smartphones?

This year, Barcelona will be the mecca to which all smartphone-lovers will flock for the 2012 Mobile World Congress. The city of Gaudi, popularised by Dali, will play host to artists of a different kind when this gorgeous metropolis is overrun by tech bloggers and gadget worshippers. From 27^th February – 1st March, expect to see the #MWC hashtag trending amongst the tech-minded Twitterati.

This year’s ‘Redefining Mobile’ theme is based around the idea that the word ‘mobile’ is no longer limited to communications, but instead has come to mean a lot more. Mobile has become a philosophy, a way of life for those of us who love finding clever new ways to live life ‘on the move’.

What can we expect from the Mobile World Congress? Well, we already know what not to expect, given that the Samsung Galaxy S3 will be announced at a separate and exclusive event later in the year (March 15^th). But have no fear, for with excellent keynote speakers and a dizzying array of innovative exhibitors, the MWC promises a good time for all worshippers at the altar of mobile.

It’s hard to decide who will be the head honcho at the conference; a quick glance at the list of keynote speakers shows some of the most eminent Kahunas from the mobile world plan to attend. Ever wondered what the CEO of eBay thinks about the changing face of technology and the internet? You can ask him at this congress. Or the CTO of Facebook, what’s his deal? Yup, his flight is booked. Alcatel? Ericsson? IPG? Nokia? Yes, yes, yes, and yes.

Some of the most enticing seminars include Mobile Health: Building Trust, Creating Demand; Mobile Cloud: Contending for Content; How Apps Can Change Your Life; and The Future of Voice Messaging. With over 1,400 exhibitors, the event promises an unlimited supply of networking opportunities and free badges. So who’s been invited to the party? Accenture, Opera, AT&T, Cisco, Endstream Communications, Cloudmark Inc., and countless others are set to showcase the newest and best in mobile technologies.

With talks and discussion groups scheduled on a range of topics, this year’s Mobile World Congress promises to thoroughly dissect the latest smartphone technologies. A forum on Augmented Reality is certain to set tongues wagging in the tech blogosphere and mainstream press.

A number of seminars will also be offered to attendees, with topics to include disaster management and the problem of mobile spam. At AppPlanet, the Centre of the App Universe, there will be a Nokia Developer Day running on the 27th.

All this, and we’ve not even mentioned the Global Awards being passed out, the announcement of various new and exciting products in the course of four exciting days, and  the general buzz and excitement that only an event of this scale can create.  One thing’s for sure – this year’s Mobile World Congress promises to be the best one yet.

                          

It seems that manufactures try to bridge the gap between 4 inch phones and 7+ inch tablets by introducing these ‘tablet-phones’. Samsung clearly does not even know how to define the Note when you see their ads: ‘Is it a phone? Is it a tablet?’ so how would the user know what to do with it? As a user trying to decide if I should consider buying a tablet phone, it is important to consider how I would carry one of these things with me. In the case of a Galaxy Note I can’t fit it in my pants where I normally keep my phone so that would mean I had to carry it in my jacket or something, which is not really a practical concept for me.

Because it is a phone, I am inclined to agree that having a tablet phone would replace my ‘small’ mobile phone, but how does it rank when comparing to a tablet? The 5 inch screen is not really big enough to compare to a tablet so the nicest thing about tablets (having a huge amount of screen real estate) does not really go for a tablet phone as well. Thus, browsing and watching movies still work better on a tablet. So a tablet phone can replace your phone but not your tablet, which now means you have to carry a full tablet and a mini tablet with you. Since tablets still can’t replace laptops, you would have to carry one of those as well.

For me this means that the tablet phone is not really something useful. I guess it would be nice to have if you are already used to carrying your phone in your bag or your coat. I am curious to see if consumer will still buy into the tablet phone phenomena and maybe from extended periods of use some new advantages will come out in the open. But until then, I am keeping with a phone that has a 4.3 inch screen maximum.

                          

First, Apple gave the advice of ‘holding your iPhone differently’, which was kind of stupid because the problem would occur when you held the phone in the way you would always hold a phone. So after that, Apple started a campaign that would hand out free bumpers to iPhone 4 owners. These bumpers did alleviate the antenna problem, however, the campaign was only in affect for a few months. After that you were no longer able to get a free bumper.

Agreeably, a class-action lawsuit was started against Apple, representing 25 million people in the US. Well today that class-action lawsuit has resulted in a settlement and Apple has agreed to give these 25 million people 2 choices; or you get $15 dollars cash or you get a free bumper. This means that if 25 million all use their option, it could cost Apple 3$75 million. Now that’s a lot of cash, probably more that the entire research and development of the iPhone 4 cost. And all that just because they tested it only with a bumper, instead of mimicking all real world scenarios. At least now there is some consolidation for the people who have suffered from the issue and could not enjoy their new phone as much as they wanted to.

                          

Click here to view the embedded video.

                          

Who else thinks that this nonsense should stop? Competing should be done in the marketplace, not in the courtroom. Why sue a competitor over stupid little things like selecting a phone number in an e-mail? This kind of functionality should be considered as basic functionality and not as a patent-able innovation.  This in turn proves how ridiculous the patent system has become, any company can take claim on a certain functionality if there is no existing patent for that functionality, regardless if the functionality has been implemented earlier in other products. This is nicely illustrated by Apple getting a design-patent related to the iPad, with the claim that only Apple has the right to produce a tablet shaped device with rounded edges. Hmm, pretty weird when you think about the fact that tablets with rounded edges were around 10 years before the iPad.

Another patent Apple is claiming that Samsung infringes is using voice-assisted search, patented by Apple when it introduced Siri. However, did Google not introduce voice-search around 2 years ago in their Android OS? Just the fact that Google did not patent all the little innovations they have put out means that if someone else patents them, they can no longer use it themselves without being sued.

I am anxious to see when this whole debacle reaches a climax. Will Sammy stop supplying parts to Apple for their devices? Probably not because they make a hell of a lot of money from it. Will Apple stop suing every company that uses Android as a platform for their hardware? Probably not because they have a hard time keeping up by just competing in the marketplace…

Source: Engadget

                          

Gmail

The new native apps mimick the clean look of Honeycomb, a style that is continued in ICS. The Gmail app looks cleaner, shows more information in the inbox list and it directly shows menu options in a bottom-placed action bar. The app now also comes with a redesigned widget that takes design cues from the Honeycomb widget, and is now also resizeable and scrollable on your phone’s homescreen.

Calendar

The calendar app also looks a lot like the Honeycomb tablet app and brings it clean and sorted look to your ICS phone. The most noticeable change is that the calendar supports pinch to zoom functionality to zoom in and out of your planning. A nifty little feature as well is that it shows the weeknumber you are currently on, which is a great feature that is undervalued in calendar apps. You now also have the option of a scrollable and resizeable calendar widget for your homescreen.

Youtube

The ICS youtube app is not as much a copy of the Honeycomb Youtube app as the other ICS native apps. It uses a tabbed view to switch between screens, not unlike the Gingerbread Youtube app, although the tabs are styled differently. The functionality is not different from older Youtube apps but the new styling does fit within the ICS framework and works responsive and fast.

                          

When it comes to choosing a new smartphone, it helps if there are more than just rumours upon which to base your decision. However, when the phone in question has only been announced since mere days ago and has never actually been seen, it’s a little more understandable.

The Samsung Galaxy S Advance has smartphone fanatics in a tizz with excitement despite the fact they know very little about it. In fact, all we really know is that the handset is now available from the likes of Three and O2 for pre-order. Everything else is just rumours.

But, like most smartphones, the rumours are usually rather close to the truth. So what can we predict about the new Samsung Galaxy S Advance? Well as the name suggests, the Advance is a new and improved version of the Samsung S, although it should be mentioned that this new smartphone takes aspects of Samsung’s best sellers the Nexus and the Galaxy S2.

Looks-wise it has the same 4-inch super AMOLED screen as its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S. Perfect for browsing the web and watching videos on YouTube, this massive screen with its exceptional pixel quality will make viewing similar to that of an HD television rather than just a phone.

One aspect that the new Galaxy S Advance does take from other Samsung models is its shape. Much like the Nexus, the new Galaxy S Advance comes armed with a curved screen that will make long phone calls all the more bearable, thanks to its ergonomic shape. At 9.7mm wide, the Advance is set to be a slender little beauty with a wafer-thin profile.

Of course, this is all superficial. When it comes to smartphones what really matters is what’s packing under the hood. Well, in the case of the Samsung Galaxy S Advance, there’s set to be a lot of impressive machinery.

Firstly, this phone comes with a 1GHz dual-processor. For most people, this is more than enough to keep you happy and your new phone working to your satisfaction. If, on the other hand, you like to run multiple apps, this may be a little disappointing. Especially since it does nothing to challenge the likes of the Nexus.

The Galaxy S Advance will also come armed with Android’s trusty Gingerbread OS. Although easy to use and smooth in operation, it would have been nice to see the phone come equipped with Android’s latest OS, Ice Cream Sandwich. That being said, there might be a choice to update the OS in the not-so-distant future.

All the rumours point to the Samsung Galaxy S Advance being a rather promising smartphone, aside from a few niggles. Best of all, its supposedly wallet-friendly price tag ensure you won’t need to secure an advance to secure an Advance.

                          

The inteface of MobileVOIP is simple and easy to use, while still looking sleek. It resembles in much sense the stock Phone app of Android, providing easy access to existing contacts or calling new numbers. However, MobileVOIP also combines text messaging in their app as well, which makes it a combination of the stock Android Phone and Messaging app. The interface consists of 4 tabs at the top, history, contacts, call and settings. In the history tab it loads up your recent call history as well as text messages, however it does load all the phone calls made (also the ones not made through MobileVOIP), it only shows the text messages you have actually sent from within MobileVOIP. In the contacts tab you see a list of all your contacts and get the option to either call them or text them over VoIP. The rates are pretty cheap, only about 6 eurocents for a text message and calling is about 6 eurocents a minute with a starting fee of 0.039 euro. So it is in fact much cheaper than calling over your normal plan.

So how does VoIP calling with MobileVOIP compare in quality to a normal GSM call? Well it fares pretty well actually. I have made some calls over WiFI in my apartment where I normally can’t get a decent cell reception and the voice quality was nice. I must say that it took some time, around 30 seconds, for the connection over WiFi to stabilize and in that first 30 seconds, the caller on the other end of the line could hear her voice echo. But after the connection cleared up the call was crisp and clear. There was almost no delay in the transmission which made it feel like just a regular phone call. Text messaging went without a hickup at all, being received instantly. I also like the caller ID setting, where I could send my normal caller ID (as if I was calling/texting over my regular cell line) so the recipient of the call/message registered it as coming from my cell phone, not knowing at all it was coming over an internet connection.

Overall I can say that MobileVOIP is a great app for VoIP calling and messaging. It is just as easy to use as your normal phone app and even combined text messaging in the app as well. The rates are cheap and because you are not dependant on a cell connection to make the call but rather an internet connection (3G/WiFi), you can make the call from places where you normally don’t get cell-reception like I do in my apartment. Also for people that have a low amount of minutes and text messages available to them through their cell phone plan, this is great way to make some extra calls during the month and paying less for them than you would if you would take another cell-phone plan with more minutes or text messages.

Go ahead and drop over to the Android Market to check the app out and try for yourself. It works with almost all the existing VoIP providers, making it easy for you to use your existing call credit within the app.

                          

Besides syncing bookmarks, Chrome for Android has a new design which sets it apart from the stock Android browser. It looks very crisp and clean and fits nicely in the new ICS design language. It offers a new way of browsing tabs by means of a card-view which works very well. You can easily switch tabs and remove them by swiping them to the side. Even pinch to zoon is applied in the tab-view which allows you to view more of a certain tab.

Another new application of the connection between desktop and mobile Chrome is that you can view on your phone which tabs are open in the desktop client. This function did not work properly when I tried it out but I have seen it work on video. It seems like a useful function which creates an easy workflow when you want to show a website from your desktop to someone in the house, you just take your phone and without doing anything you have all the open tabs with you.

The speed of browsing is even in this beta state quite impressive, full websites are loaded quicker than in the stock ICS browser and pinch to zoom is smooth. I did notice some artifacting issues when scrolling however I am confident that these issues are to blame on the beta state of the app. The only let down for me is that it does not support Adobe Flash. So forget about streaming flash videos in the browser, however I guess we are going to have to get used to Flash dying out…

Overall Google has put out a great browser for mobile which provides nice integration functions between desktop and mobile. I recommend you try it out yourself, if you are on ICS yet that is. Availability is restricted at this point but Google has let us know that it will quickly roll out to more countries. If you can’t wait, just grab an .apk over at Android Police.