Smartphones

BARCELONA -- Motorola Mobility announced today that it has acquired Three Laws Mobility (3LM), which provides security software for Android smartphones targeting the business and government market.

Terms of the deal, which was completed late last year, were not disclosed. The news comes on the first day of the Mobile World Congress 2011 conference here.

The acquisition will enable Motorola Mobility to begin selling device management services in the second quarter of this year, according to Motorola Mobility, which split off in January, said. Motorola plans to incorporate the technology into its devices and make it available to other handset … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--With the exception of the European versions of the Droid Pro and Xoom, it looks like Motorola will be light on the hardware announcements here at Mobile World Congress 2011, but there's still some news coming out of good ol' Moto.

Today, the company announced several enhancements to its Motoblur software, all designed to increase connectivity with your contacts and services.

The first feature is called Connected Music and it's a sharing and discovery tool for music. With it, you can share content with your friends and follow what they are listening to as well.

Connected Music … Read more

Those of you hungry for Android 2.3 Gingerbread on more than just the Nexus S will soon get a taste with the ZTE Skate.

The Skate--announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona today--will have a large, 4.3-inch touch screen (qualifying it as a "jumbo phone," according to HP). However, its 800MHz processor and 5-megapixel camera make it more midlevel than premium. Also onboard is an Adreno 200 GPU.

ZTE credits the skateboard for its inspiration on its 4.2-ounce 3G candy-bar-style handset.

The Skate is expected to globally launch beginning May 2011.

By now we've come to terms with the fact that the Sony Ericson Xperia Play is not the PSP Phone that we were all wishing for, but we still think it's worth comparing it against the game-centric Sony NGP, announced just a few short weeks ago.

The Xperia Play is the first PlayStation-certified smartphone on the market, which means it will be capable of downloading content from the PlayStation Store. Its 1Ghz Snapdragon processor promises 60-frames-per-second performance without wiping out the battery.

We're not sure if the Xperia Play can satisfy the gamer who wants the latest and greatest from the portable gaming scene, but the Xperia Play will probably offer the closest approximation to it of any smartphone around. The real question is whether consumers will find the need to own an Xperia Play in addition to a portable system like the NGP or 3DS.

For a head-to-head look at the Xperia Play and NGP, consult our spreadsheet below.

… Read more

When it comes to conferences, the preshow is often just as important as the opening day, if not more so. Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, is no exception.

Day 0 has already proven Android's virility with five Android 2.3 Gingerbread smartphone announcements and two Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablets, with much more to come.

Even before a trio of press conferences from Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and Nokia got under way, LG announced its 9-inch, dual-core Optimus Pad tablet and spilled more beans on the Optimus 3D smartphone, a lens-less way to view 3D media.

A few hours … Read more

I bought a PSP Go a year ago. Why? Because I believed the PSP could transform, become something more than it's been. Perhaps, even, achieve the promise I first felt when I held the very first PSP in my hands back in 2005. It was a magical device back then. It drew crowds, turned heads. Waiters and subway riders wanted to know what it was that I was holding, how they could buy one. My parents were fascinated. Friends wanted to hold it. A Sony portable device hasn't achieved that original PSP magic since--certainly not once the iPhone … Read more

Dying to get your hands on the highly rated Motorola Atrix 4G? No, AT&T isn't doling out hidden-away handsets from a secret stash, but buyers with their hearts set on the dual-core, Android 2.2 Froyo device that powers a laptop-like accessory can start claiming their units prior to the March 6 sale date by preordering on AT&T's site.

Keep in mind that the Atrix is no bargain--the high-end smartphone sells for $199.99 with a two-year contract. A bundled package gives you the laptop dock as well for $299.99 with a tethering … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Sony Ericsson's Xperia Play wasn't the only new cell phone that the company released at Mobile World Congress. The slim and media-centric Xperia Neo and Xperia Pro also had their official coming out party in Spain.

The candy bar smartphones look very much like the handset that we caught a glimpse of last week. The only physical difference between the Neo and the Pro is that the former has a virtual keyboard while the latter adds a physical keyboard.

On both handsets, the 3.7-inch touch screen supports 16.7 million colors and a 854x480-pixel resolution. Three … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--After months of rumors, a slew of leaks, and one creepy commercial, Sony Ericsson's worst-kept secret is now a reality. On Sunday, the day before Mobile World Congress officially opens, Sony Ericsson finally took the wraps off of the Xperia Play.

Long billed as the "PlayStation phone," the Xperia Play is very much the handset that Sony Ericsson highlighted last week during the Super Bowl. In the United States, it will arrive as a Verizon Wireless exclusive later this spring.

The 4-inch (854x480-pixel resolution; 16.7 million colors) display is up to usual Sony Ericsson standards. Colors were bright and vibrant, and graphics showed up well. From our brief hands-on experience, the display also appears to do the gaming features justice. Below the display are four physical controls for the usual Android functions (back, menu, home, and search). On the left spine you'll find a 3.5mm headset jack and a Micro-USB port; the power control, a volume rocker, and shoulder gaming controls sit on the right spine. … Read more