Mobile World Congress 2013 was, as promised, a boatload of fun and a bucket of hot tech-geek action. While we didn't see everything we wanted to, we were treated to an avalanche of smartphones and tablets running everything from Android to Windows Phone to Sailfish to FirefoxOS. We got a gander at some really impressive form factors too, at sizes ranging from the conventional to the fantastic. If you were off the internet for the duration of last week, or if you simply couldn't deal with the cavalcade of content gushing forth from the tech-news spigot, that's okay. We understand. And we've ...

We've been on-site for a full day in Barcelona, making preparations to cover one of the year's biggest mobile technology shows. Last night, we let you in on the fun and frustration of our pre-show planning on a special episode of the Pocketnow Weekly podcast. Later today, we're hosting a special MWC-focused episode of the Pocketnow Live broadcast. But right now, we'd like briefly to share our predictions, hopes, and dreams for MWC 2013. You know we're serious about this, because we stood out in the rain next to a major Barcelona landmark, and Tony wore his leather jacket. So quit yer ...

HTC christened its new series of HTC One Androids today with the announcements of the One X, One S, and One V. While the X and S are arguably the stars of the show, especially with the One X and its quad-core performance, the One V still managed to make a strong showing as the smaller, budget-targeted alternative. The One V is crafted from a block of aluminum, just like the classic HTC Legend with which it shares many design cues. We've got the same large, angled base, only we've lost the Legend's optical mouse, leaving it looking a bit sparse. HTC's also cut back on the number of Android ...

Virgin Mobile will carry the HTC One V later this year, we've learned. One of three handsets introduced by HTC at Barcelona's Mobile World Congress late last month, the One V is a 1GHz-powered, Android 4.0-based handset sporting a 3.7-inch, WVGA display, 512MB/4GB of RAM/ROM, and skinned with Sense 4.0. The One V will join other Androids on Virgin such as the recently-announced Venture and upcoming Chaser and LG Optimus Elite (also headed to Sprint). Virgin is expected to offer the five-megapixel, Beats Audio-infused One V for under $200 when it arrives in late Spring.

With all the handsets that manufacturers have brought together for display at the MWC, we're learning a lot about what the next generations of smartphones and tablets will have to offer. While we'd heard about a lot of this hardware before, the expo is giving us a chance to flesh-out our knowledge with previously-unknown details. Those are great to have, but even when we get the full picture on the hardware, oftentimes critical launch information isn't available. Sometimes that means waiting for a carrier to make an announcement, but today we get some insight into the release plans for a ...

The LG Optimus 4X HD is LG's top of the line device and was announced a couple of days ago at Mobile World Congress. It's very much a follow up to last year's Optimus 2X, and ups then umber of CPU cores from 2 to 4 thanks to the Tegra 3 chipset. It has an impressive 4.7" 720p screen and 16GB of inbuilt storage. In this hands-on demo, we get to see a look at how the 4-Plus-1 setup of the Tegra 3 works in action with an on-screen CPU meter that changes based on number of cores used. Obviously, when the phone is idle, only one core is active, but when you launch something like the camera, all ...

The LG Optimus VU should be a decent competitor to last year's Samsung Galaxy Note even though it does't come with its own stylus. At five inches it falls in the "phablet" category but LG has tried a different approach. The main selling point of the phone is the 4:3 aspect ratio which should allow for better content viewing and note taking. However, you'll have to use finger input to take notes. The device itself is slim and rather fast thought the unit was running Gingerbread (Ice Cream Sandwich should be installed once the phone starts shipping).

When Samsung released its Galaxy Note, it helped show us how introducing some technology to a plain, old stylus can really make it that much more interesting; adding a side button input to the S Pen opens up a new world of gesture commands. Samsung liked how well that worked so much that it's continuing to offer the S Pen with newer devices. The company's not alone, though, when it comes to finding ways to spruce-up old stylus designs for use with today's smartphones and tablets; Texas Instruments has a technology it's been demoing at the Mobile World Congress that adds a whole new ...