2010 Mobile World Congress
Martyn Williams: Welcome to World Tech Update, I'm Martyn Williams and this week we’re coming to you from Barcelona in Spain at Mobile World Congress.
It’s the annual get together of the world’s cell phone industry and the big news this week has been new cell phones and new operating systems—in particular, Microsoft’s debut of Windows Phone Seven Series the new version of Windows mobile.
The new OS represents a complete rewrite and redesign of Windows mobile. The home consists of live tiles, icons that update with information from the internet. . Six of the tiles lead to what Microsoft calls Hubs. Menu areas that collect data together data based around functions.
For example the people Hub consolidates things like phone contacts, friends from Facebook and Windows Live, e-mail addresses and information about this people. Phone numbers, mellow dresses and social media status updates are really pulled in another Hub does the same for images.
Joe Belfiore: I'm going to touch the Pictures tile right here, and navigate in. And this part of the hub is the gallery, where I can view all the pictures that are available for me to look at on my phone.
I'm going to pan to the right, and the phone has picked the latest album of pictures that I synched from my PC or that I've taken with the phone camera, so they're available for quick viewing.
I'm going to pan to the right and, again, a What's New feed that shows you all of the activity of my friends as it relates to photos
Martyn Williams: Windows Mobile has been showing its age in recent years and the new OS steps up the competition against rivals like Apple and Google.
Steve Ballmer: I'm enthusiastic about the direction that we’re headed. It’s a step, it’s a big step. But together with top talent inside Microsoft and the best talent that we get a chance to work with, the companies like Orange, and AT&T and other, I think we really get a chance to have a major impact on the market.
Martyn Williams: Nokia and Intel announced plans to merge a Dale Mobile operating systems together into mEgo a Linux based open OS that will be targeted at everything from cell phones to set up boxes.
Renee James: mEgo blends the very best of Moblin and MIMO software into one Linux based computing platform.
Martyn Williams: The first version of mEgo will ship during the second quarter and it’s targeted of much more than just phones.
Renee James: mEgo will be targeting a wide range of devices. This includes pocketable mobile computing devices as well as Netbooks, Tablets, connected TVs, Media Phones and in vehicle entertainment systems.
Martyn Williams: That would be Mobile World Congress without lots and lots of new cell phones. A couple of the big announcers of the week Sony Ericsson had new versions of its X10 Xperia cell phone. Sizes are what sets this two android base phones a part.
The X10 Mini comes in two versions, one with the QWERTY keyboard and one with out and will start shipping in some markets outside the US in the second quarter. US launch plans are yet to be decided.
The Xperia X10 Mini will cost around €350 that’s around $475 and probation about €20 more. Sony Ericsson has purchased four application buttons on the small screen, one in each corner to make them as easy to reach as possible.
Male: There are four corners and just with your thumb you can use all the functionality of the product.
Martyn Williams: The phones also have time scope. Sony Ericsson’s application for keeping track of text messages, miss calls and Facebook and Twitter updates. As you can imagine there's a lot of competition for the attention of journalist here, but exactly the same time as Sony Ericsson’s pres-conference. Samsung was unavailing wave a phone based on its better platform.
The phones most eye catching feature is a 3.3inch LED screen that offer richer colors than the LCD screens found on many other cell phones. The screen is protected by a piece of tampered glass that has an anti smudge coating. So you usually have to spend too much time cleaning off finger prints. The S8500 Wave will cost €320 that’s around $435 and will begin shipping in April in Europe and in most other parts of the world in May. However availability in the US is still to be decided.
And during a Mobile World Congress key note Google CEO Eric Smith and has plans to put flash into Google’s android operating system. With it the companies hoping to get a leg up over Apple which doesn’t include flash in the iPhone and Microsoft which won't have flash in Windows Phone 7 Series when it ships later this year.
Eric Tseng: So what I want to give you a sneak preview of today is Flash running on Android. And here you see an image that many of you have probably read from New York Times. But as you scroll around, you can see that all the components are there including the videos.
And I'm just going to zoom in here, take a look at this video of a logger. And why don’t we start playing that video? So one tap, this is just actually just now buffering. Everyone here get off WiFi, that’s great. Well as this is buffering—
Martyn Williams: While the New York Times demo never did run properly but flashed in another demonstration so we know that it was in the phone.
So far, some of the only thing in the news this week, there has been more happening and Nick is in Boston with the rest of the week’s news, Nick?
Nick Barber: Thanks Martyn. We’ll start with the new concept car announced by Swiss Auto Tuner Rinspeed that it plans for the upcoming Geneva Motor Show in March. The UC or Urban Commuter is a small 2.6 meter electric vehicle designed for city driving. According to Rinspeed drivers can expect a range of around a hundred and five kilometers and a top speed of a hundred and twenty kilometers a hour.
Fifty kilometers of driving will take about two hours of charging or 20 minutes on a higher voltage outlet. In place of a steering wheel drivers will find force feedback joystick connected to a drive by wire system. The cockpit is set around the large 3G enabled touch screen computer that supports voice over IP, video chat and e-mail. For longer trips out of the city drivers can book train passage for their UC right from the 3G dashboard.
While Rinspeed said it would like to bring the car to market. They haven't announced any plans. The 2010 Toy Fair was on this week in New York City and here’s a quick look at some of the coolest stuff we found. First stop we saw the Shirt Guitar from Think Geek.
Male: Wow that’s pretty amazing. How does that work?
Male: There's a little magnet with in its pick and there's a detector here around the pickups that detects every time you—
Nick Barber: The shirt makes you play all major chords and included is a mini guitar amp that you can clip to your belt. The shirt goes for $30 and is available now. Next stop is the Spy Video Tracker which is a remote control car that relays video and audio back to the remote. It captures and records VGA video, has night vision and motion detection that is also completely open source and programmable.
Female: So they can go to our program modulator. They can tweak and modify apps that already exist or they can completely build their own. We’re going to have a development kit that takes them to the programming language. It will be in C and C++ and once they make their apps there's going to be online community where they can post them. There's no charge or download on the people’s apps. We’re not monetizing off that.
Nick Barber: The Spy Video Tracker will hit shelves in October for a $120. Well that’s all for me here in Boston. I’ll be on vacation next week so Martyn will be back. Although I may be making a special appearance so stay tuned. For now it’s back to Barcelona.
Martyn Williams: Thank you Nick. Now that’s all the time we have for you this week but come back to World Update Next week and we’ll be taking a look at some of the other cell phones that were unveiled here at Mobile World Congress and then in a couple of weeks we’re on the road again in Germany at - so watch out for that.
On behalf of everyone at the ID Genius Service I'm Martyn Williams saying thanks for watching and good bye from Barcelona in Spain.
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