Mobile World Congress is drawing to a close in Barcelona, but announcements of new gadgets and services keep pouring out like a leaky faucet. If you haven’t been poring over your news feed, it’s easy to miss the biggest news. Here’s what happened yesterday.
Ford gives new meaning to mobile
It’s not all smartphones and tablets at MWC 2015. Ford showed off a new electric bike. But do they call it a bike? Of course not. Big companies love acronyms, and Ford is no exception. It calls the ride the MoDe: Pro a “commercial multi-modal transport system,” but we prefer “e-bike.” The result of an internal design competition at Ford, the electric two-wheeler made a strange standout alongside smartphones and wearables at Mobile World Congress this week, but it’s designed to work in concert with both.
This Kevlar-backed phone don’t mess around
The Saygus V2 is an Android KitKat smartphone with a huge list of features including a 21-megapixel camera, waterproofing, and a biometric fingerprint sensor. Excitement has been building in the Android community for the past few months, and we were keen to put it to the test at Mobile World Congress 2015. After all, the Saygus V2 (that’s “V squared” by the way) is one of those devices with a spec sheet that reads like a wish list for Android geeks.
Kudos to Samsung … from basically everyone
Industry execs and enthusiasts around the world have been calling it one of the great ones. The Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge will be available globally and on every major U.S. carrier starting April 10, 2015 with 32/64/128GB storage options available in White Pearl, Black Sapphire, Gold Platinum, Blue Topaz.We got our hands on both, and here’s what we think about the phones so far.
LG Watch Urbane LTE: the best smartwatch ever?
You may never have the opportunity to buy it, but LG’s Watch Urbane LTE is a vital step forward for smartwatches. We were first to find extensive photos of the watch back at CES, and it’s finally come to fruition at Mobile World Congress.
We’ve seen a lot of Android Wear watches over the last eight months, but none of them are lighting up the sales charts. There are a lot of reasons for this, one of which is Google’s confusing, messy watch interface. Android Wear clogs the screen with countless Google Now notification cards that are difficult to control and impossible to predict. You don’t really know what the next screen holds when you’re on an Android Wear watch, and that’s not fun. LG is committed to Google, but has recognized some of its software failures. With the Watch Urbane LTE, LG has gone rogue to fix a few of them.
New selfie tool: bat ears
A company called Elliptic Labs has been working on gesture-control technology that uses ultrasound – the same technology bats use to evaluate their environment — to detect your hand movements. A modified chip inside the phone tunes the speakers to emit ultrasound waves, which then bounce off your hands, and are picked up again by the microphone. The rebounding signals are interpreted as hand motions, which relate to corresponding gesture controls. Why? Why for selfies, of course.
Full coverage
MWC is still in full swing, and DT will stay on top of the news for you. Stick with us all week for all the show’s news, and follow our writers on Twitter for breaking news, photos, and details as they happen.
