Samsung's BEAT DISC slider features hifi Bang & Olufsen speakers

Today at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Samsung Electronics announced the launch of the Samsung BEAT DISC touchscreen slider. With high quality Bang & Olufsen audio technology and an advanced music application for finding, purchasing, and recommending music, the Beat Disc is a great choice for music connoisseurs.

Samsung's BEAT DISC includes much of the fanfare of the the BEAT DJ, the company's other BEAT-branded mobile device that was released today. Although both are touchscreen enabled, the BEAT DISC is noticeably different in that it featuring a slide-out keypad. It also features a smaller 2.6", WQVGA (240x400 pixels) TFT display. B&O external speakers are included, and the BEAT DISC has music recognition technology for tagging and recommendations. The BEAT DISC features a 3 megapixel camera with 80MB of internal memory, along with an external microSD card slot for expanded memory.

The Samsung BEAT DISC features quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900Mhz) support and dual-band UMTS (900/2100MHz) support with HSDPA data for high-speed connectivity. Pricing and availability details are not yet available.

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Samsung Beat DJ hands-on



Touch Wiz in Spanish -- you know you love it. The Engadget Spanish crew grabbed a little time with Sammy's Bang and Olufsen-powered Beat DJ M7600, and sadly, this one looks like it's better in stills -- the interface is a little laggy and unresponsive, and the "scratching" features seem like more of a goofy novelty than anything else.

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LG GM730 hands-on



We had opportunity to check out one of LG's newest smartphones, the LG GM730 at MWC today. We've seen all the specs but knew you all needed a really good look at the new S-Class UI. This phone is not final, so our hands-on shows a few interface hiccups, but, you'll get the drift. So what's the take away here? This appears to be a darn fine overlay on Windows Mobile, access to things from the home screen are simple and quick: mail, messaging, calendar, menus to get at network settings and so forth are a welcome addition. The device feels sturdy (even without a back) and looks just fine in our sleep deprived eyes. Carry on for a video with all the action and a gallery stuffed full of MWC love.

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Recap of Nokia’s day at MWC: four new phones, Ovi Store, N97 in June



A lot is always expected from Nokia seeing as it is still the number one handset manufacturer in the world, but this year has got to be its most stressful to date. A worldwide recession, ever increasing smartphone competition and lower prices combined with higher expectations across the board have surely been keeping the entire town of Espoo up late into the night. Sadly, the company’s day one MWC presentation wasn’t exactly what we’d call a shining example of Nokia at its finest. Beyond the E75, the highlight had to be Nokia’s official announcement of its App Store competitor, the Ovi Store, set to launch in May. Other than that, well, you tell us how the company fared. Hit up the break to see all that’s new in the world of Nokia (aside from the N86 of course).



6710 Navigator - A navigation-centric alphanumeric slider with a 5 megapixel camera, Carl Zeiss lens and dual-LED flash. The 6710 Navigator features Nokia Maps with Ovi and comes with the CR-111 car mount in the box for those glorious road trips we’ve all been forced to take at one time or another. €300 ($383 USD) in Q3.



6720 Classic - Essentially the same phone as the 6710 Navigator but in candybar form. Woo! Look for the 6720 Classic to go for €245 ($313 USD) sometime in Q2.



E55 - Features a “compact QWERTY” keypad (read: SureType) and Nokia claims it is the world’s thinnest smartphone at 9.9mm. The E55 has aGPS and Nokia Maps support, a claimed 28 days of standby and will go on sale in Western Europe this summer for €265 ($338 USD).



E75 - Finally made official after an endless procession of leaks, the E75 will be the first Nokia offering to come standard with Nokia Messaging. The S60 3rd Edition FP2-fueled E75 has a sliding full-QWERTY keypad, 3.2 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, GPS and a 2.4″ QVGA display. It officially ships next month but pre-orders are now being taken on Nokia’s website for a pretty fair €375 ($478 USD).



N97 - What can’t we say about this thing? It probably would’ve been a serious contender for the greatest phone of all time had it been released, say, last year - but its ship may have already sailed. Up for more bad news? Today we learned that despite a rumored release slated for the end of March, the N97 will be available in June. Sad, we know.

Ovi Store - All set to launch in May, the Ovi Store is where Nokia users will retreat when Apple’s mighty App Store gets them down. While the N97 is the first phone that is fully compatible with the Ovi Store, Nokia maintains that a bunch of existing S40 and S60 users will be able to hand over their money to Nokia in exchange for some Mosh, Download! and widget love. The Ovi Store supposedly caters its suggestions over time as it learns what you’re in to, something the App Store should learn to do as we’re sure you’re all tired of seeing 15 fart apps each time you look at what’s hot. Two more words for Apple that Nokia will surely peg: TRIAL VERSION.

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Toshiba TG01 hands-on



While we weren't originally cheering fans of the Toshiba TG01's somewhat odd "stripey" interface, checking it out in person tells a different tale. It actually makes sense and works surprisingly well, and really, there is a reason why we've seen so many Windows Mobile skinning efforts, the shipped interface needs it. Most functions you need can be found in Toshiba's homescreen UI or can be added -- the video demos some of the options for making changes and panel color choices if the default isn't tickling your fancy. This handset is thin and light and makes the iPhone we used for some scale pics look positively chubby -- it's like having a PSP-sized display in your pocket. The 4.1-inch Regza-inspired screen is clear, the resistive touchscreen is typical hit and miss with fingertips, video and gaming are fast on the 1GHz Snapdragon processor and look gorgeous. You know, if Toshiba sees fit to add some 3G bands other than the 2100MHz included in the first effort, we could easily see this living -- almost unnoticed -- in our pockets. We're still pretty far out from the rumored summer launch of the TG01 so we're expecting to see some changes between now and then, and we also have some concerns about battery life while driving a screen like this, but for now, wow. Video walkthrough, some gaming action, and a big gallery are just past the break.

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Acer M900, F900, X960 and DX900 officially announced

MWC 2009 is not only about Nokia, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson or HTC.

There’s also Acer, for example, the Taiwanese computer maker which has just unveiled four of its new smartphones: Acer M900, Acer F900, Acer X960, and Acer DX900. All of them run on Windows Mobile 6.1 and are part of Acer’s Tempo series of handsets. 

The real novelties here are the M900 and F900, since we’ve already seen the X960 and the DX900.

Let’s start off with Acer Tempo M900, which seems to be the company’s flagship model.

Built “for all your communications on the go”, the M900 has a full sliding QWERTY keyboard, a large touchscreen display and several other nice features. 



The smartphone’s full list of specs includes:

    * Quad-band GSM connectivity (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
    * Tri-band HSDPA/HSUPA connectivity (850/1900/2100 Mhz)
    * 3.8 inch TFT touchscreen display with 800 x 480 pixels
    * Acer Shell 2.0 UI
    * G-sensor (i.e. accelerometer)
    * Fingerprint sensor
    * GPS
    * Wi-Fi
    * 5MP autofocus camera with flash
    * 533 MHz Samsung S3C 6410 processor
    * 128 MB SDRAM, 256 MB flash memory
    * microSD card slot
    * Talk time: up to 5 hours
    * Stand by time: up to 160 hours
    * 119 x 62 x 17.1 mm
    * 188 grams

Next on the list is Acer Tempo F900. The F900 doesn’t have a keyboard at all, thus it’s slimmer than the M900 (117.5 x 63.5 x 12.85 mm).



The features of Acer F900 are similar to the ones of M900, save for the fact that it has a 3MP camera instead of a 5MP one.

Acer Tempo X960 (previously spotted in some leaked live images) also comes with quad band GSM and tri-band HSDPA connectivity.



However, its display is only a 2.8 inch VGA (640 x 480) one. Other than that, the handset has a 3.2MP camera, GPS and Wi-Fi.

And finally, Acer Tempo DX900 is that re-branded Glofiish DX900 we saw not long ago.



Its main attraction is the dual-SIM capability: SIM 1 works on quad-band GSM and tri-band HSDPA frequencies, while SIM 2 is for the 900/1800/1900 MHz GSM bands only. Plus, the handset also has a VGA touchscreen display, GPS, Wi-Fi and a 3.2 MP camera.
 
Acer didn’t say when its new smartphones will be on sale, but this should probably happen starting the next few months.

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LG doesn't rock the WinMo boat, launches S60-powered KT770 on the downlow



In light of its fresh tie-up with Microsoft, we can understand how any LG smartphone not running WinMo might be perceived as a black sheep this week. Still, it bums us that the the company has launched its latest S60-powered handset -- the KT770 slider -- at MWC this week with little more than a brief mention on LG's official MWC site and a couple of forlorn demo models stuffed in the corner of the company's booth. The good news is we decided to make good on LG's oversight and give this little beauty the love it deserves with a mention, a gallery, and a quick video of its tweaked S60 3.2-based UI in action.

The faux carbon fiber back is a little cheesy -- particularly for a device that otherwise looks fairly businesslike -- but with 7.2Mbps HSDPA, GPS, a WQVGA display, and a 5 megapixel camera on board, it's hard to argue that this device can't be competitive (put this up against the far bulkier, uglier N95, for example). The UI seemed reasonably responsive, and though we weren't able to test the browser without a connection, we imagine the stock S60 apps work every bit as well as they do on Nokia fare. Check out the video after the break!

Gallery: LG doesn't rock the WinMo boat, launches S60-powered KT770 on the downlow

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Yahoo intros new Yahoo! Mobile app, teams up with Opera

Alongside a myriad of new handsets (Nokia N86 8MP, HTC Touch Diamond2, Sony Ericsson Idou and so on), MWC 2009 has also brought us important news on the software side.

For example, here we have Yahoo’s brand new Yahoo! Mobile app, which will be available for iPhone, Android (via the WebKit browser), Symbian, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile, as well as for many handsets manufactured by Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Motorola.
 
In Yahoo’s words, the new app is “a highly-personalized mobile starting point to the Internet”, which provides “an open environment within which consumers can bring together their favorite content and services.”

The application will be outed in two versions: a mobile Web one and a smartphone one. The latter features widgets, as well as Yahoo! oneSearch with Voice (you can launch searches by  speaking).





mong the features that Yahoo! Mobile brings together, we must mention:

    * Quick Yahoo! mobile search
    * New maps tools
    * Easy access to email and social network accounts
    * Instant messaging
    * Address book & calendar tools
    * The latest news, stocks, RSS feeds, weather, horoscopes etc

Yahoo has also announced a partnership with Opera, following which, the Opera Mini 4.2 browser will be integrated into Yahoo! Mobile for smartphones.

For the moment, Yahoo! Mobile is available as a managed beta program – and those interesting in participating should access this address via their handsets.

The application will be generally available for download starting March 2009, initially in the following countries: US, Canada, India, UK, Germany, France, Indonesia and the Philippines. Other countries will get it later this year.

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Hyundai's phones are creatively ridiculous



We associate the Hyundai name more closely with cars and ten-year warranties than we do phones in these parts of the world, but Hyundai Mobile does a little business selling low-cost phones in parts of Europe, the Middle East, and Asia (cars... phones... right, makes sense). We had a chance to check out some of the offerings today, and yeah, let's just put it this way: some of these devices are a bit off the beaten path. Pictured above from left to right are the MB-400 (bearing absolutely no resemblance to any existing device), the MB-910 touchscreen watch phone, and the lovely MB-105 "Chico" (which -- interesting fact -- features a whopping 50-message SMS storage capacity). The Chico wasn't functional for us, but follow the break for some hands-on time with the unfortunate iPod rip and one of the nicer watch phones we've seen come to market. Odd couple, isn't it?

Gallery: Hyundai's phones are creatively ridiculous

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