14 DAY TRIAL // The second week of February has come and gone, and enthusiasts are certainly looking with high hopes at the next, since the Mobile World Congress will kick off tomorrow in Barcelona, Spain, and there are a great deal of big announcements expected to be made there. Among them, we can count Microsoft's unveiling of the Windows Mobile 7, something that was already rumored, confirmed and re-confirmed during the past weeks, and during the one that ends today too.
Those looking forward to learning what Microsoft has in store for them with the launch of Windows Mobile 7 already had the chance to take a look at a rumored full list of details on the OS, and most probably have heard that the company is set to discuss the platform at more events during this year, along with the fact that the first Pink phones might land in 2010. We have high hopes regarding WM 7, that's for sure, but WM 6.5 should not be ignored either, especially since new handsets powered by it were launched this week, such as the Garmin-Asus nüvifone M10, two smartphones from AnyDATA, or the fresh Pharos 565 PDA.
Other operating systems that should soon see updated versions include the webOS platform from Palm, as the company announced it would soon release the webOS 1.4 flavor of the mobile client for Palm Pre and Palm Pixi devices out there, even if it temporarily halted production of the phones this month. At the same time, we should mention that Android 2.1 is expected to arrive on handsets like Motorola CLIQ or HTC Hero soon, and that Motorola DROID should see it even sooner, as it was expected to receive the OS this week, though Motorola said it would deliver it later.
South Korean mobile phone maker Samsung should announce officially its first smartphone running under the bada OS soon, a handset supposedly called Wave, which emerged in some leaked photos yesterday. Another handset vendor in the country, LG, announced no less than three new phones this week, including the LG Cookie Plus, LG GT350 and LG Mini, and was rumored to be working on a new version of LG Arena, called LG LU9400 Arena Max, which should boast a 1GHz processor inside.
Motorola had a busy week too, as it revealed that it would separate into two companies in the first quarter of the next year. In addition, we saw Motorola's MOTOSPLIT handset in design photos, and the Motorola Devour in an ad featuring Megan Fox. Nokia delivered an updated Nokia Messaging for Email and a new version of Nokia Messaging for Social Networks, will cut 285 jobs at its Salo plant, and is expected to announce a new 12MP handheld at the MWC show in Barcelona, as well as a fresh high-end Nokia N98 smartphone later this year.
Taiwan-based mobile phone maker HTC stated this week that it would develop TD-SCDMA handsets for China in collaboration with ST-Ericsson, made the original Tilt2 ROM available for download, and some rumors on its future devices also emerged. Among them, we had HTC Legend listed on a retailer's website, after emerging in two series of photos, one of them with specs details, the HTC Scorpion was rumored to include a 1.5GHz CPU and Android 2.2, and we learned that HTC Bravo might land at Orange in March. HTC Incredible emerged in new photos, and HTC Dragon was spotted in Dopod's roadmap.
Among the other interesting stories of the week, we can count the release of Google Buzz and of Google Maps 4.0, the fact that Flash Player 10.1 requires for Android to be enhanced, that Garmin-Asus unveiled their first Android phone, the nüvifone A50, or that BlackBerry Storm 2 9520 is now available at T-Mobile UK. Sony Ericsson's Xperia X10 will be upgradeable to new Android versions, and is expected to soon arrive at T-Mobile UK. Facebook Mobile registers more than 100 million users, Symbian and Windows Mobile users can now enjoy Opera Mobile 10 Beta 3 on their devices, and T-Mobile listed on its website the myTouch 3G 3.5mm Jack.
