Mobile World Congress 2014: Day Zero Summary

The show was supposed to start on Monday, but some people spilled the beans early. Here are all the important news in a nutshell of day 0 at MWC 2014.

Samsung Gear 2 & Gear 2 Neo

(Credit: Samsung)

Ahead of Galaxy S5's launch on Monday, Samsung announced the Gear 2 on Sunday to prevent cannibalizing the grand launch of its flagship smartphone. It comes in 2 variants-- Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo, the latter without camera. Some changes include moving the camera and microphone to its body such that the wristband could be replaced. Samsung also dropped the "Galaxy" moniker to differentiate it from other Android devices. They now run Samsung's in-house Tizen operating system and has 2-3 days of battery life.

The 2nd-generation Gears also picked up a hear rate sensor, pedometer and music player. Full spec sheet below:

(Click here for full article)

Mozilla pushes for $25 Firefox OS Phones

Hold your horses, the mobile OS wars are not all about iOS vs Android. Android might be popular among mid-to-low end smartphones, but Mozilla plans to compete in the niche of low-budget smartphones. Mozilla's current partners include Alcatel, ZTE and Huawei, who showed off some inexpensive smartphones at MWC. Mozilla aims to drive prices down to just $25.

A prototype phone running Firefox OS

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LG brings its flagship phone

LG unveiled its G Pro 2 phone even before the WMC event, but they brought it there to show journalists. It is a quad-core powerhouse with 13-megapixel camera featuring optical image stabilization and 4k video recording capability.

CNET's Roger Cheng also discovered that LG and Google will jointly launch a smartwatch at Google I/O on June 25-56 in San Francisco.
(Click here to read on Google's smartwatch)

Microsoft lays out plans

Microsoft did not bring much hardware, but brought a reference design using Qualcomm technology that makes it faster and easier to make Windows Phones. To decipher that, Microsoft is actually begging other companies to make Windows Phones, as reported by CNET. Microsoft expanded its partners by including LG, Lenovo and some low-cost manufacturers. Facebook Messenger will also arrive in Windows Phone soon.

HP competes with Lenovo in convertibles

Lenovo Yoga clone: HP's Pavilion x360

Lenovo's Yoga has long held the crown in the hybrid laptop/tablet market. The company introduced Yoga Tablet 10 HD+ to improve on battery life and display. However, HP threw its Pavilion x360 convertible and Slate 7 Voicetab tablet into the mix to offer some competition.

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Written by: Kheng Wei Ang