SHOWCASE: One of our intrepid journalists from HWM Singapore travelled to Barca on the pretense of covering MWC but mainly to grab some Lionel Messi T-shirts (we’re kidding). Anyway, the trade show on mobile phones, OSes and apps has just ended and the coverage will be appearing in HWM Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines. Of course, if you can’t wait, hop on over to HardwareZone.com for in-depth coverage on the gadgets. Mobile World Congress 2009 was held 16-19 February 2009 and featured some amazing new phones, announcements, updates and developments.

Windows Mobile 6.5 sports a honeycomb-shaped layout for the Start screen to ease user access to various apps.

Among the highlights of the show was Microsoft’s update to Windows Mobile 6.5, which includes a refreshed Start screen, new Internet Explorer Mobile Browser and the new My Phone service - which allows WinMo users to harmonize all of their online content on their phone (similar to Apple’s MobileMe service). Another highlight was the new HTC Touch Diamond 2, which touts 50% more battery life, Zoom bar and a 5-megapixel auto-focus camera.

Samsung followed up their SOUL launch last year with the UltraTOUCH, a 2.8-inch AMOLED full touch screen phone. At 12.7mm thin, it sports an 8-megapixel camera (Samsung’s 3rd phone with an 8-mega after Innov8 and Pixon) and dual-power LED flash.

Not to be outdone, Nokia’s jumped on the 8-mega bandwagon with the Nokia N86. While sporting a smaller screen at 2.6-inch, it utilizes OLED as well, with dual sliding form factor (similar to N96 and N85), two keys for zooming, 8GB onboard and an expansion slot for a 16GB microSD.

Sony Ericsson upped the ante with a 12.1-megapixel phone called the Idou (pronounced as ‘I do’), which comes with a Xenon flash and intuitive touch features.

For a quick glance of the key phones mentioned, check out our Showcase Gallery after the jump. (Editor opinions: 1)

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CORP TALK: Toshiba Corporation and Fujitsu Limited reached an agreement to transfer Fujitsu’s hard disk drive (HDD) business to Toshiba with the aim to complete the transaction in the fiscal first quarter of 2009. Toshiba will acquire an estimated 80% stake in a new subsidiary within Toshiba, while Fujitsu will hold the remaining 20% over some time to ensure a smooth transition.

With the transfer of Fujitsu's HDD business into its fold, Toshiba's goal to become a leading storage provider in the 2.5-inch space will be further boosted after it announced a half-terabyte (512GB) 2.5-inch SSD hard drive in December 2008.

According to the MOU, Fujitsu will transfer its HDD design, development, manufacturing, sales and all other functions to Toshiba, except Fujitsu’s HDD head and media businesses. The transfer also includes HDD manufacturing subsidiaries in the Philippines (FCPP) and Thailand (FTC), and HDD sales and marketing offices outside Japan.

David Chieng, Editor, HWM Singapore

David (HWM SG): Hard disk drives are notoriously low margin businesses from the retailer point of view; and even more so when it comes to the manufacturer, especially since we’re seeing the total cost of storage dropping like a rock year on year. This is great for the end user, but not so good for the manufacturer, making competition extremely intense. After all, Seagate bought up Maxtor not too long ago, leaving the desktop hard disk drive market dominated by Seagate and Western Digital. (more…)

SHOWCASE: Panasonic Asia Pacific organized a launch and workshop seminar for journalists from all over the world in Sentosa Island, Singapore and the theme of the 2-day event was basically underwater photography and videography with their latest range of LUMIX imaging devices.

Among the products showcased to journalists there, of note would be the Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FT1, its first underwater camera which can go as deep as 3 meters. Its camcorder sibling, the SDR-SW21 is also waterproof up to 2 meters. Other notable features in the LUMIX line-up are 70x optical zoom, Face Recognition and a new AVCHD Lite video recording feature.

For the full details of Panasonic’s latest LUMIX range of cameras and camcorders, check out the expose scooped up by the team from Singapore’s HardwareZone.com, otherwise, have a quick glimpse in our Showcase Gallery after the jump: (more…)

MIT's Fluid Interfaces Group and its conceptual "sixth sense" device

T&A: As the world’s financial system spins out of control, many are now grasping with the idea that less is  indeed more, simplicity is definitely new and our five natural senses are the root of all innovations.

A group of research students from Cambridge’s Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or famously known as MIT, have developed a conceptual 3-dimensional multi-touch interface that is able to harness the power of the Net using a combination of a camera, mobile phone, a micro projector and our five senses to fully “predict” our future, or sort of.

In essence, what the device does is to collect relevant information off what you see, feel and touch, while cross-referencing these information against what’s available about the user online. The result would be projected off the projector for you to view and further interact with it.

Of course, words don’t really explain the concept well enough. So here’s a video off Wired.com to help you see the concept in action: