Samsung officially retiring Bada, will make Tizen phones instead

What started off as speculation and was soon to be inevitable, is finally official.

Samsung is giving up on the Bada OS but instead of sweeping its remains under the carpet, the Korean manufacturer will integrate its Bada OS into the Tizen OS project. This is first-hand information comeing from Hong Won-pyo, President of Samsung's Media Solutions Center.

Though smartphones running Bada won't be able to upgrade to Tizen when it's ready, the latter will be backwards compatible with Bada apps, which is good news for every new OS with a low profile app catalog.

Following Nokia's decision not to support MeeGo, the Tizen OS emerged as the open source project to realize all that exciting potential. Samsung are clearly hoping to use the platform in a bid to set themselves apart from the Android and Windows Phone crowd.

The Koreans have committed to releasing multiple devices running Tizen this year.

Lumia 720 and 520 are Nokia's latest smartphones

Nokia's event at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is now over and the highlight is the announcement of the Lumia 720 and 520. Both devices pack a dual-core 1 GHz Snapdragon processor (Krait to be precise), run on Windows Phone 8 and share Nokia's many software advancements like Drive, Maps, software lenses, etc.

Nokia Lumia 720

The Lumia 720 sports a 4.3" ClearBlack display of WVGA (800 x 480) resolution with super sensitive touch, which works with gloves, nails, etc. The dual-core processor is coupled with 512 MB of RAM. There's NFC, the battery capacity is 2000 mAh, the phone is 9 mm thick and weighs 128g.
There are 8 gigs on on-board storage and there's a microSD card slot with up to 64GB support. Wireless charging is enabled too.
The camera on the back is a 6.7MP unit with a bright f/1.9 aperture and Carl Zeiss optics.

Nokia Lumia 720

The device comes in a plastic body - in a variety of colors and exchangeable panels - red, yellow, cyan, magenta, etc. The device will launch in Asia (TD-SCDMA version for China) and in select European countries this quarter for a price of €249 (around $330). Since it lacks LTE, is will most likely skip the US market.

Nokia Lumia 520

The Lumia 520 is the lesser of the two smartphones. It also packs a dual-core 1 GHz processor and 512 MB of RAM but the display is a 4" WVGA IPS LCD with super sensitive touch. The camera on the back is 5 MP, which does 720p video capture.

Nokia Lumia 520

The Lumia 520 weighs 124g and is 9.9 mm thick.

 
The Lumia 520

The Lumia 520 will hit the shelves this Q2, too, for $183 starting with China. Later on it will hit the rest of Asia, Europe and T-Mobile in the US.

Samsung to announce Galaxy S IV on March 14

Samsung has announced that they will be unveiling the next generation Galaxy S smartphone, colloquially called the Galaxy S IV, on March 14 at their Unpacked event, confirming some of the rumors we have been hearing right.

Samsung to announce Galaxy S IV on March 14

The Unpacked event is said to take place in New York City, unlike the Galaxy S III launch event which was set in London, and will be the first US launch event for Samsung in three years. Samsung says they were "bombarded with requests from U.S. mobile carriers to unveil the Galaxy S IV in the country", hence the change of venue this year.
As for the phone itself, we are still dealing with rumors that suggest a 4.99-inch 1080p display, quad-core Qualcomm processor and a 13 megapixel camera. We'll see how much of this comes to be true in a couple of weeks from now.
Update: We have the official invite now, as seen above.

Nokia announces 105 and 301 feature phones at MWC

Nokia has announced two new feature phones at the MWC, the Nokia 105 and the Nokia 301.

Nokia 105

The Nokia 105 is the company's most affordable phone to date and is priced at just €15. The phone has basic features such as a color display, FM radio, multiple alarm clocks, talking clock, and the mandatory flashlight - all in a dust and splash resistant body.

Nokia 105

The Nokia 105 will be sold in black and cyan in China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia, Vietnam and other markets in Africa, Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Europe this quarter.

Nokia 301

The Nokia 301 has a slightly more upmarket feel, with a 2.4" display, 3.2 megapixel camera with some camera goodies inspired by the Lenses feature on the Lumia phones. There's a Nokia Xpress Browser on board and 3.5G connectivity.

Nokia 301

The Nokia 301 will be available in cyan, black, magenta, yellow and white for €65. The phone will be available in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, India, Middle East and Latin America starting in Q2. There will also be a dual-SIM version of the device.

Asus MWC event is over, Padfone Infinity and Fonepad announced

It's a busy Monday, but we're continuing to follow the events at the MWC as they happen. We're at the Asus event at the moment and it just started.

If you couldn't make it to Spain, you can watch the livestream of the event below. We will, of course, be writing up anything interesting that happens - and we will be going hands-on with whatever mobile devices Asus unveils.

Security at Asus must be really tight as there haven't been any leaks to give us an idea of what to expect. Well, it doesn't matter now the we can find out first hand in just a minute.

UPDATE:The event is over now. Asus presented their next-gen Padfone - called the Asus Padfone Infinity. We also saw the unveiling of the Asus Fonepad - a 7-inch tablet with telephony. Stay tuned for our hands-on report on the devices.