mwc 2013

Buzzword Bingo At MWC: The Worst Corporate Slogans We Found This Year [Gallery]

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Throughout the churn of ever-changing priorities and products at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, or at any trade show for that matter, there is one constant: slogans. To be more specific: big banners printed with meaningless corporate gibberish.

This is where the world’s surplus of words like “enabling,” “future,” “innovating,” and “together” go to die, like orange-skinned retirees to Florida.

The Best New Gadgets Of Mobile World Congress [Feature]

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mwc2013bug-coaBARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS – This year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona was pretty disappointing from a gadget-lovers point of view. Samsung was there, but didn’t announce anything new. Microsoft didn’t even have a stand, and even the once-great App Planet section is little but a business-service wasteland (albeit with the best tea, coffee and beer in the show).

Still, even a pile of crap has variations in its texture, and so we bring you the “Best” of Mobile World Congress 2013.

Samsung’s At It Again, Announces Passbook Clone Called Wallet [MWC 2013]

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mwc2013bug-coaBARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS — During a Samsung developer conference here at Mobile World Congress this morning, the Korean company unveiled a new service called Samsung Wallet, which lets Samsung smartphone owners turn tickets, coupons, membership cards, boarding passes, and more into digital cards that they can store in a virtual wallet.

The service probably sounds familiar, and it is — Samsung Wallet is basically Apple’s Passbook, but for Samsung phones. It works in almost exactly the same way, and looks very similar, too.

The Sealabox Case Lets Your Smartphone Swim With The Fishes [MWC 2013]

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mwc2013bug-coaBARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS — Here at MWC in Barcelona, Krussell is showing off its latest lineup of waterproof smartphones cases called Sealabox, which let you take your smartphone swimming to snap pictures of the fishes. Available for almost all common smartphones, the Sealabox is IPX7 certified for water resistance up to one meter, and it’s been carefully designed to allow you to make the most of your smartphone in almost any environment.

Quixey, An App Search Engine That Actually Works [MWC 2013]

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mwc2013bug-coaBARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS – I’m willing to bet that you have – at some point – been frustrated by the App Store. More specifically, you have been driven crazy trying to find apps via search. Even apps which you know are there, which you have used before, and about which you know almost everything but their names.

Quixey is a search engine for Apps, and it will ease your App Store pain.

Elecom’s Rose-Tinted Glasses Cut Out Evil Blue Light [MWC 2013]

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mwc2013bug-coaBARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS – It’s not all announcements of exciting new Android handsets with fractionally faster processors here at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Oh no. You’ll also find rose-tinted spectacles. Yes, Elecom – maker of some of the most accessorial iAccessories ever – now makes some specs that will stop your eyes from being ruined – ruined! – by blue light.

Excito Is Like An Apple TV For Streaming, And It Even Works With Android [MWC 2013]

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mwc2013bug-coaBARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS – Excito is an AppleTV-a-like puck which hooks up to your home network and lets you stream TV, music and movies to any stereo or screen in the house.

So what, right? The Apple TV already does that? The difference is that the Excito only uses your phone as a remote, and streams the content either direct from the internet, or from your own local media server. Oh, and it costs around half the price if the already-cheap Apple TV.

Oh Man I Want An E-Ink Display On My iPad [MWC 2013]

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mwc2013bug-coaBARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS – Here’s something I wish would come to a future iPhone, or — even better — an iPad: e-ink. Imagine being able to switch to an e-ink version of the tablet and read in bright sunlight. Or turn off the various radios and enjoy a battery life measured in months, not hours.

That’s what the e-ink phone can do.

China Brings Its Smartphone Clones To MWC [MWC 2013]

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mwc2013bug-coaBARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS — As I was walking around the show floor at MWC today, I noticed a number of smartphones that looked very familiar — yet they were being paraded by Chinese companies I’d never heard of. I saw what looked like a large iPhone 5, an entire range of Samsung Galaxy devices, and a number of high-end HTC handsets.

Except they weren’t really Apple, Samsung, or HTC devices at all; they were actually cheap clones that were trying their best to look like the real thing. They even had fake accessories that were identical to the originals.

Mobile World Congress Day One: Flamenco, Internet-Connected Coffee And Charlie Joins A J-Pop Band [Gallery]

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Having moved to a new venue. somebody saw the need to recreate the twin towers from Plaça de Espanya. In miniature.
Having moved to a new venue. somebody saw the need to recreate the twin towers from Plaça de Espanya. In miniature.

mwc2013bug-coaBARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS – It’s not all suits, bad coffee breath and identikit Android handsets at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Oh no. The world’s biggest mobile device conference also packs in plenty of cultural insensitivity, corporate dorkspeak, and this writer joining a Japanese pop group. Take a look at our wonderful gallery of today, in pictures.

Waterproof LokSak Lets You Dive, Swim Or Cook With Your iPad Mini [MWC 2013]

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mwc2013bug-coaBARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS – Would you believe me if I told you I’m writing this post from underwater? No? Well, you win, you clever thing you, because I’m totally not. Instead, I’m perched on an ass-numbing stool in the Mobile World Congress press lounge.

But my iPad mini could totally be underwater right now, and it wouldn’t even know. Why? Because it’s sealed inside a watertight gadget bag from LokSak.

Samsung Unveils Galaxy Note 8.0 & We Go Hands-On [MWC 2013]

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mwc2013bug-coaBARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS -Mobile World Congress 2013 is now underway here in Barcelona, and there’s one device we couldn’t wait to get our hands on: the Galaxy Note 8.0 — Samsung’s answer to the iPad mini. In addition to its 8-inch display, the device boasts a 1.6GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, and of course, the Note’s trademark S Pen.

But can it give the iPad mini a run for its money?

Even The Video Pros Have Switched To iPhones At The Mobile World Congress [MWC 2013]

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mwc2013bug-coaBARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS – There mightn’t be anything more telling of the iPhone’s world takeover than this shot of the new Aving mobile video setup.

Anyone who has visited any tech trade-show will have seen the Korean guys in Aving vests hefting huge, shoulder-mounted video rigs and shooting anything and everything (this year at CES Aving put out 1,000 videos).

Now, those rigs have been replaced by the iPhone setup you see above.

What Does Mobile World Congress 2013 Mean For The iPhone? [MWC 2013 Preview]

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On Sunday, Cult of Mac and Cult of Android will be kicking off our Mobile World Congress 2013 coverage.

The Android side of the Mobile World Congress will be — as ever — an orgy of new handsets and tablets of every conceivable screen size. Apple stuff will be limited to accessories and apps, and Killian Bell will be covering that for us over at Cult of Android.

But what is there to get excited about for Apple fans? I’ll be looking for Mac and iPhone-related news, and I wonder what the hell there’s going to be this year.

Since nobody wants to know what I think is coming next week in the world of iPad cases, lets take a look instead at how the rest of the mobile world could (or might not) predict the features of future iDevices.