Seems like day two of MWC is even better than day one, something we did not think possible yesterday. Today, all the big boys are takin out their guns. I am talking Nokia and Google big boys. So much going on in Barcelona right now, thought I would let you get a piece of the action. So here are the main attractions of the day in video. As always, we are looking at the comments for feedback.

Where better to start than the Web superpower that has gone mobile, Google. They just announced their new G2. Now, as much as I cannot stand these names, The Dream, Magic etc. this device looks like a winner, and a name like Google backing it, wont hurt either. The big letdown here is the lack of a 3.5 mm jack AGAIN.

Here is the first sighting of the HTC Magic:

Next is the very first Nokia 8mp phone, the N86. That is pretty much all I have to say about it, it’s kinda like Nokia said “Oh, you have 8mp phones? We’ll make one too”. And from the looks of it, that is all they focused their energy on, as it looks like every other N Series device.

Next we got a nice video of a new mobile device manufactured by the company that makes my motherboard, Gigabyte. This one is old school in that it is back to the slim form factor with an 11.4 mm package. Check out the video.

As always, saved the best for last. In my opinion, the number one most promising device we have seen so far in Barcelona, as well as the sexiest, is the Toshiba TG01. This phone is less than 10mm thick and has the fastest mobile processor on the planet. I really do not think there is anything I can say about this phone that will do it justice. Watch the insane graphics of this device in the video below. I want one! Now!

-Hillel

With The Mobile World Congress going ahead in full steam, there is no way to cover all the new amazing mobile phones that are being announced. One thing I have noticed is that this year the MWC is characterized by a very unique trait compared to other years; much more video. There are videos available of every new handset that is announced. So I figured, why write about them when I can just show you them in action?

I will say one thing though. I have seen countless articles and tweets over the last 24 hours about how all the big companies are copying Apple’s iPhone, and I have to say, that is just ridiculous. Not every touch screen that is announced is an iPhone Clone. It is time people realized that touch screens are the new “thin” . What I mean to say is that not every thin phone that was announced last year was dubbed a “Razr Clone”. Thin is clearly out as we see all the new phones add on a few pounds, and touch screen is in. So, I recommend that everyone forget the following terms: “iPhone Killer”, “iPhone Clone”, and anything else that compares all the new and unbelievable devices that happen to have a touch screen, to the iPhone.

Yes, you are seeing correctly, Sony Eriscsson announced a 12 mp phone

Now, on to the hands-on videos…

Let’s start with something that has a big question mark over its head, the Modu. I have said from the beginning that this thing has major potential, but some big names out there disagree with me. I will tell  you one thing, they get points for innovation and thinking out of the box, that’s for sure. Tell me what you think.

Next, I thought I would show you a hands-on with one of the coolest phones announced this week, the OMNIA HD. This bad boy is the first phone to shoot video in full real HD quality.  Oh, and it is also one of the finest looking devices I have ever seen.

Moving on, of course we need to give a shout out to the N97, although, I am not sure what it is (um, maybe the fact that it is pretty lame compared to other devices out there, and Nokia still wont let anyone hold it), but I am not as excited by it as I was when it was announced. Still a pretty slick device.

Speaking of Nokia, here is a video of the new E75, not really sure what I think of this phone yet, but I do like the red.

Here is a hands-on with the LG GM730. A nice looking, 5 mp camera phone, with the new S-Class UI from LG, check it out.

Wow, there were a lot of cool phones announced this week. OK, next is the LG Arena. This one had a really cool ad for it, so I decided to share that with you instead of the hands-on, hope you like it.

OK, I am gonna show you two more and maybe have another post with some more videos, this is just never ending. The next device outted in Barcelona was the Samsung Ultra Touch, and just to show you how amazing all the new phones are, this one does not excite me so much. Now, I say that because two months ago, I would have been wowed by this guy, but with all the new phones we saw, this one just gets an “Eh” from me. Check out the video in Spanish.

OK, I saved the best for last. In my mind, the winner of this year’s MWC (this might change after Google’s announcement), is HTC with the Touch Pro 2. This bad boy is one sexy phone if I have ever seen one. I gotta tell you the specs on this monster. It has a 3.6 inch screen, yes that is bigger than… The Touch Pro 2 is said to have 7 hours of talk time, Wifi, Stereo BT, HSDPA, GPS, 3.15 mp camera (you do not need more than that folks), Micro SD slot, and a stunning 5 row full QWERTY keyboard. All that in a 17 mm package, I told you the new phones are packin on a few pounds.

This phone is absolutely stunning in my opinion, and the only downside I can think of here is the Qualcomm MSM7200A 528 Mhz processor, they could have done better, and possibly the fact that it runs Windows Mobile 6.1, although their UI seems to have improved it by leaps and bounds. Oh, and the dude’s voice in the below video, he sounds a little like Bill Gates on this week’s episode of Family Guy.

OK, enough talking, here is the video of the new HTC Touch Pro 2, my personal favorite of the bunch.

-Hillel

With the Mobile World Congress approaching, the list of new mobile innovations just keeps getting longer. There does not seem to be one particular handset that is going to make the most amount of noise, and if there is such a device, it has not been leaked to the press. So I thought I would round up a few of my favorite stories from the last week or so regarding what we will be seeing in Barcelona next week.

Since Nokia still owns the majority of the mobile market, I figure they are a good place to start. TechCrunch reported that Nokia will be announcing their new app store to compete with the Apple App Store, the Palm App Catalogue, and the Android Market.

This is a positive development for all those still using Symbian devices, I know there are a lot of you, but you can keep me out of your club. Nokia lost me with the slowness of the N95 and put a nail in the coffin with the 5800′s horrible interface (as reported by Itamar Weisbrod of Flyscreen).

In any case, a new app store is a good thing, but as I have said numerous times, the experience of installing an app is going to be what matters most. If the Nokia user experience will be similar to Apple’s, their new app store should do very well.

Moving on, Samsung will be redoing their whole TouchWiz interface, which really impressed me when I played with it. According to Mobile Crunch, the enhancements include 3D transition effects, the ability to add more widgets by downloading them, the menu of the widgets, which was previously stuck on the side of the screen can now be moved, you can now assign pictures to contacts, and lastly, they are implementing some sort of voice control.  Sounds pretty cool, although is it just me or were most of those features already implemented in other phones like 3 years ago?

One of the most exciting devices to be announced in Barcelona is the LG Arena, KM900 if you must. With its 3D S-Class interface, Dolby / DivX technology, HSDPA 7.2 Mbps, WiFi, Assisted GPS and more, this should be a show stopper.

Samsung is not staying in the software realm, they are also going to be attracting a large crowd in Barcelona with a few new phones, the most exciting one being the Ultra Touch S8300. With its huge AMOLED WQVGA touchscreen plus a numeric slider keypad, an 8mp camera, AGPS, FM radio, A2dp, Micro SD slot, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, and 12.7 mm package, looks like we got a winner.

Notice someone missing here? A small company named Sony Ericsson? Well, they are not sitting around twiddling their thumbs either. Sony is announcing the new Hikaru, another slider device to join their overpopulated Walkman line of devices. Before I get into the specs, any idea what Hikaru means? Anyway, the new device will boast an 8 megapixel camera (noticing a pattern here?), 2.6-inch screen, WiFi, AGPS,  and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Sounds pretty solid.

That’s enough about new devices for now. However, Barcelona is also supposed to bring big news for another company, not with a new device, but a new OS. I am talking about Microsoft’s new mobile OS, Windows Mobile 6.5. Looks like they will also be jumping on the apps bandwagon with their app store dubbed Marketplace. I am not too optimistic about this announcement, as they have disappointed me one too many times in the past. However, it is not impossible for Microsoft to revive themselves as a mobile Superpower by announcing a really great product here. Palm did it with the Pre, Microsoft even did it themselves with Windows 7. A little piece of advice from me to Microsoft? Two words; bigger icons!! Start with that, then we’ll talk about what comes next.

To summarize, looks like all the big boys will be taking off the gloves for WMC. I don’t know about you, but I am excited.

-Hillel

Update: I did not forget about the Toshiba super phone when I wrote this, I just blogged about it so much already, so I left it out of this post.