Once I had decided that I was going to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Spain, I knew that one of my biggest “hidden” expenses was going to be what appeared on my mobile phone bill well after I had returned home. I fully expected to spend as much as $500 – 600 on top of my usual monthly bill during a week abroad between phone calls, text messages and whatever data I didn’t put on the Spanish SIM I had just purchased on eBay. Even though I had added AT&T’s $5.99/month “World Traveler” International Voice Roaming package (which meant that I would pay 99¢/minute to call home from Spain versus the… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Beyond hamming it up with wandering oompah bands at Mobile World Congress, Helena and I managed to  get hands-on time with some of the new devices and technologies that will be causing a stir in 2011 and beyond! HTC’s New Android Devices HTC won me over with their lovely new ChaCha. After using the BlackBerry Bold for a week, with its tiny little keys that I never got used to, the generously sized keys on the ChaCha, along with its softly curved body … I so wish that my Tru SIM had been installed in one of these babies. Continue reading on Gear Diary …

A number of us here at Gear Diary quite like HTC products.  Heck, I even had one myself for a while before I got my iPhone.  Apparently, though, we’re not the only ones:  GSMA has chosen HTC the “Device Manufacturer of the Year” award, beating out rivals like Samsung, Apple, Nokia, and all the rest.  Pretty impressive, honestly.  I’d go on about HTC devices, but heck, why don’t you just read about the award below? HTC Corporation, a global designer of smartphones, has been honored this week with the highest industry honor as ‘Device Manufacturer of the Year’ by the GSMA at its Global Mobile Awards ceremony in Barcelona.  The award follows a year of global Continue reading on Gear Diary …

As you know, Judie is in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress. It has been a quiet week for her… NOT. She literally hit the ground running and has not stopped. Yesterday she had the chance to preview some of the devices that are coming from HTC in the next months and today… today she got a close look at Samsung’s new barn burners- The Samsung Galaxy S II and the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Read on and make sure to check out all the pictures in the gallery that follows. The Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Helena and I were able to spend some time at the HTC VIP lounge this afternoon, time that was well spent fondling the six devices introduced by HTC earlier today. Of course the one that most captivated us was the 7″ Flyer, HTC’s new tablet device. It will be shipping with Gingerbread instead of the newer Honeycomb, which seemed odd given that all of the other tablets and the majority of new phones we’ve seen have featured the newer version of Android. If it means that we can get our hands on it sooner (and that there might be a future update possible), then I suppose I can’t complain. Contrary to what I… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

As expected, HTC made a big showing this morning by introducing six new Android devices — the  HTC Flyer, HTC ChaCha, HTC Salsa and next generation HTC Desire S, HTC Wildfire S and HTC Incredible S phones. I hope to have hands-on pictures and impressions direct from the MWC showroom floor later today, but in the meantime, here are the press releases and stock photos. I’m a little worried about the Flyer tablet; it looks a bit thick in the included photo, but I love that it will have a 7″ aluminum unibody … HTC Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The partnership between Nokia and Microsoft that was announced the other day has caused some speculation that the Intel powered AppUp store in general, and the MeeGo in particular might be the losers in this story. Helena and I spoke with Peter Biddle, General Manager to AppUp Products and Services, and he said that despite this partnership, AppUp and Meego will thrive. Proprietary systems have a place in the ecosystem, and so do open ones. Further scaling the development of flexible, open software platforms and applications for all mobile devices, Intel demonstrated a compelling new MeeGo tablet user experience to be made Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I wanted to put in a quick mention for Tru, the service that offered to send me an international BlackBerry Bold 9700 to use for Mobile Congress Week along with their Tru SIM. The ultimate goal is that we’ll compare what I would have spent on the same amount of Tru usage versus AT&T’s best international rate (since they are my regular carrier) after Mobile World Congress is done. Here’s where it gets even better, though. DHL came through and got the BB Bold to me before I left. Because Tru was worried that it wouldn’t arrive in time, they also sent a BB Bold via DHL to Helena’s and my hotel in Barcelona. When… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

CES saw the release of the new Sony Ericsson Experia Arc, but tonight we got to see three new Experias: the neo, the pro and the long-awaited PLAY — the Playstation phone. Oh my. I had a chance to attend the press conference where these were introduced, and a moment to fondle all three. The Experia neo: The phone I am most excited about personally is the neo; it has a beautiful screen and an amazing camera that works well in even the worst lighting situations. This phone is very media focused, and it comes equipped with HDMI support, an 8 megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash, and a 2 megapixel front-facing camera. The camera… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’ve been to CES 9 times in the last 10 years, and for discovering or covering consumer electronics, there is no better show. But for really digging into the latest mobile phones and the technologies that power and differentiate them, there has been one show that has long been on my radar: Mobile World Congress. Last year, I was talking to Helena from Chip Chick, another long-time tech blogger who has never been. When the subject of MWC came up, we both got reflective, remarking upon how we had both always wanted to go. Without much thought for how we were going to… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

There’s nothing like boarding an international flight with the worry of whether or not your battery will die become you are done working, or if you’ll luck out and have a charging port under your seat. Swiss Air takes a proactive approach and sticks a USB charging port at eye level; its the perfect solution for people traveling with Mobile devices!… Continue reading on Gear Diary …