Since we posted very quickly on the two biggest stories of the show, the Xperia and Android hands ons, you’d figure we were organised. No. We booked hotels late, and apparently, Barcelona doesn’t have too many of these accommodations relative to the size of Mobile World Congress. Rooms were going for 1000 Euros by the time we went hunting, so we ended up with a room in a place about 45 minutes outside of the city. At least in theory.

Our cabbie just wouldn’t shut up. Later, Jesús told me he wouldn’t stop bitching about his wife divorcing him. But while we were driving, all I could notice was that he was talking a lot more than he should have been, especially venturing outside of the city without a GPS or map. He overshot our exit by 30 minutes. And because it was getting late and he was sleepy, he insisted on turning the A/C off. It was freezing, and winding through the mountain roads, in the fog, exhausted and cold, I got motion sick or food poisoning set in. I puked a river at some random junction.

When we got to the hotel, turns out it was a quaint little monastery. To my American eyes, used to strip malls and 100 year buildings at the oldest, the place just looked incredibly similar to the scenery in Resident Evil 4. (The best zombie games of all time. Fact.)

At this point, I was so sick and exhausted that I swore I kept seeing things moving in the dark corner of the room and got an hour of sleep. It sucked.

In other news, Nigel from Red Ferret hit 10k posts. And Adam Frucci is Geek Sugar’s “Geek we love”. Fine achievements on both their parts.

See you Stateside, hopefully with some Airtight package of Spanish Ham smuggled into my suitcase. Shhh!

Samsung’s new F480 full faced touchscreen handset meets a good competitor in LG’s KF700, their best phone released at Mobile World Congress. The phone has a 3-inch touchscreen, a slide out alphanumeric pad, and a scrollwheel on the back which pulls up a shortcut menu. Jesús liked the swiping action between widgets, which he shockingly described to me as “iPhone like.” Folks, the fanboy has spoken. There’s google search, maps, blogs, gmail, and youtube support (!). And non-US spec 3G, as well as a 3MP camera, MPEG4 video recorder, too.

Seoul, Feb 11 (Korea Newswire)– LG Electronics, a worldwide technology and design leader in mobile communications, today announced the launch of its LG-KF700, a new multimedia phone that combines three input methods to create an amazingly intuitive user interface and provides instant access to features.

The world¡¯s first phone with three separate input methods, the LG-KF700 integrates a 3-inch touchscreen, alpha-numeric keypad and Shortcut Dial. Each of these input methods is assigned to the tasks at which it is most efficient, making LG¡¯s highly intuitive interface possible. With its user-optimized navigation, all of the phone¡¯s functions and features are instantly accessible.

¡°Our consumers told us that they wanted a phone that had plenty of multimedia features, but doesn¡¯t take a long time fiddling with menus to figure out. We created the LG-KF700 based their insight,¡± said Dr. Skott Ahn, CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. ¡°Internal research showed that a phone¡¯s multimedia features often lay dormant if they are hard to access. On many phones these features are hidden deep in menus, requiring too much time and effort to find them. The LG-KF700 eliminates these endless menus with its intuitive interface and multiple input methods.¡±

LG has already established itself as a leader in phones with touch technology, and the LG-KF700¡¯s 3-inch full touchscreen provides easy access to features and its wide aspect ratio makes it perfect for watching movies or browsing the internet. From the phone¡¯s main screen users can flip through several handy widgets, including a calendar, scheduler, and memo pad, with the swipe of a finger. The large touchscreen also means that the phone can provide an adaptable on-screen interface, rather than tying users to a fixed, preset button layout.

The Shortcut Dial on the back of the phone quickly scrolls through six user-selected features by controlling a virtual dial on screen, rather than wasting time digging through menus. This can be done at any time, from any application, not just when the phone is idle. The Shortcut Dial can also be used to scroll through web pages or e-mails, adjust volume and perform other functions for which a wheel is naturally best.

Most of the new touchscreen phones currently available eliminate some formerly universal features like the alpha-numeric keypad. LG consumers said that consumers still wanted this particular feature, not only for its familiarity, but also because it simplifies the process of making phone calls and is excellent for typing text messages. For this reason, LG incorporated a slide-down alpha-numeric keypad into the LG-KF700.

Used together, the LG-KF700¡¯s input methods become even more powerful and efficient. When browsing the internet on the wide touchscreen, the shortcut dial zooms in and out on websites. When sending text messages, the alpha-numeric keypad provides all of the letters, while frequently used symbols are readily available on the touchscreen. These symbols change based on users text messaging habits.

One of the LG-KF700¡¯s powerful multimedia features is a full featured Web browser that provides full access to Google Search, Blogs, Gmail, Maps and Youtube. Support for HSDPA 3G networks* makes web browsing extremely fast and makes other features like video telephony possible. Other features include an MP3 player, MPEG4 video player, 3.0 megapixel camera, Bluetooth connectivity and more. All of these multimedia features are packed into a slim and stylish package with a clean, minimalist look.

LG will introduce the LG-KF700 at the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2008 on February 11 in Barcelona, Spain during its press conference. The phone will be available in Europe in mid March and will become available in other markets in the months following.

We played a bit with the new Nokia N-Gage service, which will be one of the core services on all the new Nokia phones presented here at the Mobile World Congress 2008. As we already knew, it’s a very similar philosophy to Xbox Live, a social-oriented game service with N-Gage points, pictures, reviews, scores and rankings, so you don’t have to play against a friend live, but you can still compete. The experience was smooth, the games themselves fast and crispy, all of them playable before purchasing them. Could Nokia make it work this time?

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Note: The back of the phone has a new designer texture that we like a lot more than the now generic velvechron grip coating you see on a lot of handsets. We didn’t get to play N-Gage on this phone to test out the gaming-specific button backlights (another upgrade from the N95) but we’ll have some video of that next. I would not recommend it as an upgrade for existing N95 owners, but those interested should be reminded that the DVB and the non-US frequency 3G won’t help you much.

The phone has a slightly smaller 2.8 screen at 240 x 320, it has quad band, 3G (but not the US flavors), haptic feedback on the touchscreen and a 5MP camera. It also has a limited set of widgets for the front page, including a birthday reminder, world times and that’s pretty much it. (It’s not open source, so you can’t add to it, or write your own, either.) The phone’s touchscreen supports swipes through menus, but in the opposite fashion you’re used to on the iPhone. (Swiping down moves the cursor down, not up, as you can see in the video.)

Android is Dead

—One nameless, faceless, exec to another

The Samsung Soul tries, and largely succeeds at making a touchscreen 5 way navpad. Like the Maximus Optimus keyboard, the controller is backlit by an OLED screen (this one is a two colour deal) that changes icons depending on the context:

In the media player, you get FF/RW and play/pause controls; in the calculator, you get plus, minus, subtract and divide buttons. The soul patch (my name) even vibrates when you click it, thanks to the same Immersion tech found in Playstation and Wii rumble controllers. Congrats to Samsung in making a touch UI that overcomes some of the shortcomings of touchscreen controls in a nice looking package.

Key features
* Size: 108 x 58.3 x 15.7 mm
* Weight: 122 g
* Connectivity: GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
* Operating system: Windows Mobile 6(R) Professional
* Display: 2.8-inch QVGA flat touchscreen
* Camera: 2 megapixel with macro focus
* Internal memory: 256 MB flash, 128 MB RAM
* Removable memory: microSDTM slot
* Bluetooth: 2.0 with EDR
* GPS: GPS
* Interface: HTC ExtUSBTM (mini-USB and audio jack in one; USB 2.0 Full-Speed)
* Battery: 1100 mAh
* Talk time: GSM: up to 350 minutes
* Standby time: GSM: up to 240 hours
* Chipset: TI OMAP 850, 200MHz

Cellphone provider Orange will be launching the P3470 in Europe next month in the UK, France, Spain and the Netherlands, for 449€, or $720. [Mobile Tech Review]