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Recapping Mobile World Congress 2009

By Phil Nickinson, Wednesday, Feb 25, 2009 at 3:45 pm

It was the hope of many Windows Mobile users that Mobile World Congress 2009 would make up for the lackluster showing at the CES in January. While some may think different, Barcelona was a cornucopia of announcements, displays and rumors of what the rest of the year holds for Windows Mobile. Coverage of the event by our own EIC Dieter Bohn was logged not in yards but in miles, and it's time to wrap up all the stories he tracked down.

Read on for a breakdown of all that went down in Barcelona.

Acer encore: The DX900

Windows Phone News

By Phil Nickinson, Tuesday, Feb 17, 2009 at 5:33 pm

And, finally, from the Acer booth we have the DX900, which we know as a rebranded, dual-sim E-TEN Glofiish. The specs:

Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
Dual-sim
128MB RAM/256MB ROM
480x640 VGA touchscreen
Samsung S36410 processor
3MP camera
GPS, Bluetooth

The DX900 Dieter saw didn't have the custom user interface on it, instead opting for a custom version of SPB Mobile Shell.

After the jump, the pics.

Acer x960 Muddies the Waters

Windows Phone News

By Phil Nickinson, Tuesday, Feb 17, 2009 at 4:57 pm

What do you get when you take an Acer DX900 and strip out a few bits? The Acer X960. Gone are the DX900's dual SIMS and G-Sensor, here to stay are quad-band EDGE, tri-band HSDPA, 256 ROM/128 RAM, and the 480x640 screen. The processor goes from a Samsung S3C 6400 to the 6410, and what that means is outside our present knowledge.

While not the powerhouse (at least on paper) that the Acer F900 and M900 are, the X960 may just manage to beat them on battery life (we don't yet know the battery size on any of them) by dint of it's slightly smaller resolution screen. The question we're asking is whether the X960 is really differentiated enough from the F900 (likely by price) to find a market.

Welcome to the party, Acer, now let us know when your stuff will ship and for how much (yeah, and where too).

More pics after the break.

Acer F900 and M900 bring the pixels

Windows Phone News

By Phil Nickinson, Tuesday, Feb 17, 2009 at 4:52 pm

We already saw the Acer DX900 Glofiish rebrand, but what we were really hoping for from these guys was something new. They're somewhat delivering with the F900 and the M900. The F900 (that's it on the left there) is your non-keyboarded device and the M600 is a standard horizontal slider. Specs look pretty darn beefy, though:

Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
Tri-Band 3G, Quad-band Edge
GPS, WiFi
G-Sensor, FM Radio, Light Sensor
Samsung S3C 6410 Processor
256 ROM / 128 RAM
480 x 800 WVGA Touchscreen

In addition to all that, the F900 gives you a 3MP camera. The M900 steps it up with a 5MP camera and a fingerprint reader. We were hoping that Acer would make a splash at MWC09 and except for RAM and ROM being a little low, these 900 series devices initially look like cannonballs to us. Will they hold up to a hands-on? Find out after the break.

Two-faced Acer DX650 makes appearance

Windows Phone News

By Phil Nickinson, Thursday, Feb 12, 2009 at 5:43 pm

On Monday, we learn what Acer's got up its sleeve for the future. Today, we're trying to decide where it pulled this idea from.

What you're looking at is the DX650, which has a proper 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreen on one side. On the back (or the front, we guess), is a monochrome OLED display and a full numeric keypad and camera. Why, we ask. Why?

There's also GPS, microSD and mini-USB. And a monochrome OLED display and full numeric keypad on the back. It's doubtful this is what Acer intends to show off at Mobile World Congress next week. Probably. Right?

More recognizable is the Acer X960, seen here at right, which appears to be another step in the newly acquired Glofiish line. It's got a 2.8-inch 640x480 touchscreen, an 533MHz Samsung processor, a 3.2-megapixel camera HSDPA, WiFi, GPS, and microSD.

More photos of what happens with 2008 and 1998 collide are over at SlashGear, as are more on the X960.

Acer to show ... something ... at MWC

Windows Phone News

By Phil Nickinson, Thursday, Feb 5, 2009 at 3:39 pm

Just what *is* that? Is it a phone? Is it a Mobile Internet Device? Is it some sort of crazy communications module left behind by the alien invasion? Nobody's quite sure. But what the Boy Genius reportedly does know is that this is some device that Acer is going to show off in a couple of weeks at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

At this point, your guess is as good as ours as to whether this thing will run Windows Mobile, Android, or something else entirely. We keep squinting at that crazy keyboard to try to find some WinMo telltale, but all we keep seeing is a sailboat. Is that really some weird swiveling screen? Or is it detachable? Feel free to speculate on your own in the comments.

Acer Smartphone Confirmed: Feb 16

Windows Phone News

By Phil Nickinson, Wednesday, Feb 4, 2009 at 7:20 pm

We knew that after Acer's acqusition of E-Ten that it was only a matter of time before we saw an Acer Smartphone. That time will apparely come February 16th at Mobile World Congress. We're hoping for some 6.5 action, but honestly we'd settle for something new and interesting and not just a rebrand of E-Ten's Glofiish series -- devices which are nothing to sniff at, but still aren't really the makings of of a brand new launch.

MWC09 should be pretty exciting, we'll be there.

[Read: Pocket-Lint via BGR]

It's now the Acer DX900, thank you

Windows Phone News

By Dieter Bohn, Tuesday, Feb 3, 2009 at 3:31 pm

We've known for a while that a smartphone is coming out under the Acer brand, we just weren't sure when. And we were kind of hoping that it'd be a new phone -- but hoping in the same way you hope that the dude at Dunkin Donuts will give you change for a twenty even though you paid with a ten.

Turns out Acer took the dual-SIM E-TEN Glofiish DX900 and has re-released it as its own. And that's fair, since Acer bought ETEN last year. Look for the Acer DX900 to be released in the United Kingdom by the end of the month. You can pre-order it now.

What does that mean for the Acer news conference on Feb. 16 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona? Probably good things -- that or they'll just remind us that they have these "new" DX900s. Either way, we'll be there to bring it all to you. In the meantime we're now hoping Acer has some WM6.5 action in store for us, drinking our coffee, abiding.

Via Mobile Tech Addicts

Acer: Smartphone coming sometime, somewhere

Windows Phone News

By chris#wp, Saturday, Jan 3, 2009 at 3:31 am

Back in September we wrote about a Digitimes article that stated Acer was planning on launching a smartphone in the first quarter of 2009, most likely in Western Europe and Russia. At the time, we were a little ho-hum, thinking it was just another manufacturer hopping in the smartphone pool.

Turns out, Acer had acquired E-Ten, a company not well-known here in the states, except for when we write about its Glofiish devices (or Glofish

Smartphone pool may be getting more crowded

Windows Phone News

By chris#wp, Saturday, Jan 3, 2009 at 3:29 am

Samsung does it. Palm does it. Motorola still (barely) has its head above water. HTC is doing better than just about everyone else. HP. Velocity. Toshiba. MWg. The list goes on.

Now, according to Digitimes [via], Acer is set to launch its own brand of smartphones in Q1 of 2009. The first devices would be released in Western Europe and Russia.

Windows Mobile isn't specifically mentioned, though it's a pretty good bet, considering the source.

And it's been a couple of months since we've reported any rumors of Dell getting back into the smartphone game, so here goes:

Michael Dell recently told Engadget Mobile that they eventually could be producing "smaller and smaller devices that have capabilities of the [iPhone]."

There. Feel better? Us, too.