mwc2012 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Mar

[Video] The Android Team Shows Us What Mobile World Congress 2012 Looked Like From Its Point Of View

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Android OS, News, Videos

It takes a lot to put together something amazing for an event like Mobile World Congress. Countless hours of planning have to go into designing an amazing booth, and days of construction likely take place just to get everything set up. All for three days worth of mobile-packed awesomeness.

The Android team got us psyched the week before Mobile World Congress by showing off its 2011 booth; and now, in a similar fashion, it has created a video to show off what everyone who couldn't make it Barcelona missed this year.

Looks like a whole lot of fun with a whole lot of Android.

Feb

[Poll] What New Device Announced At MWC Are You Most Looking Forward To?

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Polls

Mobile World Congress means different things to different people. To marketers, it means reaching new audiences, to company execs, its their chance to make us of those public speaking lessons. For us gadget nerds, it means one thing: shiny new toys! What are you most looking forward to adding to your personal arsenal of gadgets? A shiny new HTC One device? Do you have a need for a projector phone that's gone unfulfilled until now? Or are you eager to get your hands on a phone/tablet/netbook with 14,000 mAh worth of battery?

Once you're done voting in the poll, head to the comments to let us know why you're drooling for them.

Feb

[Poll] Who Made The Biggest Splash At MWC This Year?

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Polls

Things are winding to a close in Barcelona, but the effects of what happens at this event will ripple out through the tech industry for the rest of the year. We gadget nerds do enjoy our idle speculation. Who do think made the biggest impact this year? Is it Samsung with its Galaxy Note 10.1 that's nipping at Wacom's heels? Or is HTC poised to take back the high-end smartphone market with its HTC One series? What about ASUS? With four different lines of tablets for every price point, not to mention the Padfone, ASUS seems to be leading the way in Android tablet design and experimentation.

Feb

[MWC 2012] For Those Just Joining Us, All The Best MWC Stories Are Right Here

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News

You're busy. We get it. You don't necessarily have time to keep up with the flood of stories coming out of MWC this year. You've got things to do. Well, this is all we do. So allow us to make things easy for you. Here's a roundup of all the best, most interesting things that happened at MWC this year.

Samsung Galaxy Beam And Galaxy Note 10.1

Continuing Samsung's recent foray into niche markets, the leading Android manufacturer announced the Galaxy Beam, a 4" Gingerbread phone with a built-in projector. Sammy touts it as an easy way to share with friends and family.

Feb

[MWC 2012] Hands-On With The Toshiba 7.7" AT270 Tegra 3 Tablet

Posted by David Ruddock in AT270, Toshiba, Videos

We trotted on over to the NVIDIA boot at MWC in Barcelona this morning, and happened upon the newest tablet offering from Toshiba, the AT270. Officially unnamed at this point, the device is packing a 7.7" SAMOLED 1280x800 display, a Tegra 3 processor, Wi-Fi, and 32GB of storage (it's unknown if this is the standard amount). It's also running Android 4.0.

Playing with the device was a fairly pleasant experience - though an attendee using the AT270 right before us managed to lock up the device on the unlock screen. So, it's definitely still in the development stage. However, Ice Cream Sandwich performed well, and everything generally seemed pretty snappy.

Feb

[MWC 2012] Hands-On With The Qualcomm S4 Transformer Pad Infinity (TF700KG): Hey, Look - An Antenna Window

Posted by David Ruddock in Eee Pad Transformer Prime, Transformer Pad Infinity, Videos

While at the Google booth earlier today, ASUS was kind enough to let us take a look at the upcoming Transformer Pad Infinity (basically, a beefed up TF Prime), albeit a version we had not yet seen.

The TF700KG is likely going to be a Europe-only device (unless it were to be picked up by a major carrier here in the US), as it has a 4G LTE SIM slot on it, and runs on a Qualcomm S4 MSM8960 dual-core processor. The Infinity also has a 1920x1200 IPS display, significantly higher than the resolution of the Prime. However, one of the biggest changes many people noted that would be coming to the new-and-improved Transformer was the antenna window.

Feb

NVIDIA Announces New Tegra Zone Games Including Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode 2, Exclusively For Tegra 3 Devices

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Games, News

What good is four-to-five cores if you're not going to crank out some high-quality games to go along with it? That's the question NVIDIA had to ask itself. Thankfully, we're getting the answer in the form of some brand new quad-core-optimized games coming to the Tegra Zone. Perhaps the most recognizable name on the list is Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II

In a follow up to Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I, available on the Market now, the sequel is bringing a new set of effects and updated graphics to the classic console games.

Feb

[MWC 2012 Fun] This Robot Will Make You A Custom Galaxy Nexus Case While You Eat Your Ice Cream Sandwich [Video]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Off-Topic, Videos

Out of all the fun things going on today at the big Android booth Google set up at MWC, one cute little guy stood out from the pack. Want a custom-made Galaxy Nexus battery door while you ogle suspicious-looking jelly beans and scarf down free ice cream sandwiches and delicious smoothies? No problem - just walk up to a conveniently located tablet, order up a design, and watch it make one for you live with utmost precision of a true Android. You know you want this bad boy cooking you breakfast every morning:

Sure, they're sparkly and possibly girly, but how cool is this?

Feb

[MWC 2012] Hands-On With The ASUS Padfone: It's A Phone In A Tablet On A Keyboard - With Over 14000mAh Of Juice

Posted by David Ruddock in ASUS, Padfone, Videos

When I first heard about the ASUS Padfone, I thought the idea was a bit laughable. When I tried in person today, my opinion changed substantially. ASUS definitely seems to have done this right - particularly considering it's still a prerelease piece of hardware. My primary concern was in how seamless the transition from phone to tablet would be, and how much the phone's hardware design would suffer because of the docking mechanism.

Addressing the first concern, the transition is quite smooth. Just snap in the Padfone, and the dock lights up and goes to Android 4.0's tablet interface in a matter of seconds.

Feb

[MWC 2012] Samsung Galaxy Beam Hands-On

Posted by David Ruddock in Galaxy Beam, Samsung, Videos

Earlier today we got a chance to play with Samsung's Galaxy Beam (though photo opportunities were limited by lighting), and I have to say - for a projector phone, it's not bad.

The 1GHz dual-core processor hums along through Gingerbread (I know, I know - but an ICS update is surely in the works) nicely, and the 4" WVGA display gets the job done. While it's no flagship device, for such a niche piece of hardware, Samsung has done a pretty decent job here. The yellow banding highlight is a nice, unique touch, and holding the Beam is little different than using almost any flagship Android phone from 2010 or 2011.