Still no iPhone killer in sight?

Phew! After four days of intense handset coverage both on the showfloor and back in the office, and more than 35 phones later, the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is finally drawing to a close today. Of the new phones, several models looked very promising, including Sony Ericsson's slick Windows Mobile-based PDA-phone, Nokia's souped-up N96, HTC's feature-packed Advantage and Samsung's innovative Soul.

But as much as some of the phone features and designs are truly impressive, sadly, none of the new offerings made us go "wow" like the iPhone did with its revolutionary user interface back when it was announced in mid-2007. Which makes you wonder if this is all the mobile world can conjure up without Apple in the picture? And does this leave the marketplace wide open for the Cupertino company to dominate this space, like it has done with the iPod? Tell us what you think?

S60 Touch UI still has a long way to go

Now I'm sure we're all pretty excited (or maybe it's just me) about the upcoming S60 Touch user interface, but if it's anything, I'd go so far as to say that the software still has some ways before its launch in the second half of the year. If the iPhone had not existed, then yes, I'd probably be amazed by the whole finger-swiping action to browse Web pages and scroll entries in the contacts folder and pictures in the albums. But who are we kidding? Enough talk. Hit the read more link to check out the YouTube video posted on the S60 blog.

» Mobile World Congress 2008 show report
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EazzzY USB camera

This little concept idea from Korean designer Sungwoo Park harks back to the funky plastic toy cameras that run on ISO film, are dirt cheap and plenty of fun for impulse shoots that test your creativity and imagination. This is nowhere near a Lomo camera, however. It's so stripped-down, there's no buttons save one, a pinhole viewfinder and, gasp, no LCD display.

Try framing a decent group shot with this! That said, this tiny snapper ingeniously utilizes USB connectivity to directly download images, which means there has to be some memory onboard (no specs given) and a battery to power all this. Which also means you can conveniently plug-and-play your efforts on any device with a USB port anytime and hit the Del just as conveniently. Smile, and say Simple Simon.


Via Yanko Design

Sony Ericsson's most powerful Cyber-shot phone yet

It's true when they say the best stuff can usually be found in Japan only. While the rest of the world is ogling at the latest mobiles from Sony Ericsson at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the Japanese-Swedish phone maker has already announced in Japan the W61S--possibly the most feature-packed Cyber-shot to date.

Set to debut with operator KDDI this March/April, the W61S is loaded with an extensive camera feature set that puts it almost on par with some midrange standalone cameras. Onboard are a 5.11-megapixel CMOS sensor (employing the same "Exmor" technology as the Sony Alpha dSLRs) and 3x optical zoom lens. In addition to anti-shake and autofocus, the camera-phone also comes with Kaokime Lite (auto brightness with face detection for natural skin tones) and Smile Shutter Lite (similar to the Smile Shutter for the T200).

What's noteworthy about the W61S is that its cutting-edge features extend beyond its camera profile. For instance, it comes with onboard GPS which allows geotagging of images. A 2.8-inch WVGA (480×800) screen equipped with Bravia technology will also be something worth looking out for, not to mention a microSD card slot, Bluetooth, TV-out, LED flash and automatic lens cover. Unfortunately, the W61S will work on only CDMA 1XWIN networks supporting EV-DO Rev.A technology. So until a GSM version comes out, if it ever does, this remains pretty much a Japan-only handset for the rest of the Asia and the world to get green-eyed over.

Nokia Maps 2.0 live demo

What is the big effing deal about Nokia Maps 2.0? Though much has been written about the Walk mode as well as its ability to display satellite images, we were not convinced that these improvements were that fantastic.

So, like any persistent journalist with a body weight in excess of 18 stones, we kidnapped the product manager for the new Nokia 6210 Navigator in Sydney after a media dinner and forced him into a quiet pub for a quick video demonstration. We wanted to do it outdoors, but the city noise was a little harder to mute without Adam Sandler's special remote.

So instead of boring you with more words about what Map 2.0 can do, we present our impromptu video of the new application instead.

» Mobile World Congress 2008 show report
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