As Mobile World Congress 2011 draws to a close, it's time to take stock of the plethora of smartphones and tablet PCs we saw for the first time. Tomorrow, we'll bring you the best tablet PCs of MWC 2011, but here, in no particular order, are smartphones that stood out at MWC 2011. Sadly, they didn't include a Facebook phone or an iPhone nano - but when and if such things exist, you'll read it here first.
There are a lot of things about Google's Android operating system that appeal to geeks. It's open source, it offers a lot of flexibility when it comes to customising your handset, and, despite not yet matching the iPhone when it comes to the number of apps available, the Android Market continues to grow.
Tablet application developers can rejoice now that Google has released its software development kit for Android 3.0, the new edition of the platform designed specifically for tablets.
The Telstra T-Touch Tab and the Optus MyTab are two of the first low cost tablet devices launched in Australia that attempt to provide an alternative to the Apple iPad. Both of these Android tablets are smaller than the iPad, sitting somewhere between a largish touchscreen phone like the popular HTC Desire and the iPad tablet.
The first phone to ship with Android 2.3 (also known as "Gingerbread") as the well as the follow-up to last January's Nexus One, the Nexus S is a joint effort between Samsung and Google with some impressive features. The hardware is gorgeous, and Android 2.3 delivers some useful enhancements; but with no support for HSPA+ or expandable memory, the Nexus S falls short of its potential.
The possibilities seemed endless when Google began hyping near-field communication for Android phones last month. Now, we've got some hard details on what the NFC capabilities in Android version 2.3, known as Gingerbread, will do in the near future.
Costing just $299, Telstra's T-Touch Tab is the first budget-priced tablet released in Australia. While the Apple iPad, Dell Streak and the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Tab could be described as competitors, their higher price means the T-Touch Tab Touch is effectively alone as an affordable, entry-level tablet that doesn't skimp on too many features.
Information workers are increasingly demanding to use consumer-friendly Android and iOS devices on the job, so it stands to reason that IT administrators would value such flexibility too.
Hardly a week goes by without some fresh evidence of Android's growing success.
Now that business users have begun clamoring for Android phones in earnest, it's a better time than ever to take a fresh look at the Android apps now available for enterprises.
If you're hoping to get your hands on the Droid 2, the anticipated refresh of Motorola's popular Android-based device, you may not have much longer to wait.
Rather than bore you with an opening line about how Android phones outsold the iPhone last quarter, I'm going to begin with an anecdote:
Froyo is coming.
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, which mobile operating system is fairest of all? That's a common question, given the many contenders in the mobile arena--and the well-publicized glitches that have recently come up.
The more I use the HTC Incredible, the more I like it. And the thing that really makes the Incredible, er, incredible is its operating system, Android<.