GSMA Day 3 Wrap-up

Vodafone makes itself known at GSMA.(Credit: Kent German/CNET Networks)

The GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, is winding to a close, but that doesn't mean mobile phone news have stopped streaming in. The third day of GSMA 2008 saw AMD announcing big plans for mobile phone processors, RIM's co-CEO downplaying the recent BlackBerry outage, and the LiMo Foundation possibly giving Google's Android a run for its money with its own effort at an open and Linux-based operating system. And of course, we took the opportunity to look at phones and carriers off the beaten path.

For starters, Senior Editor Kent German explored the large Vodafone plaza (Vodafone is a UK-based carrier) and took a look at phones like the Nokia 5310 and the Samsung SGH-P110, which we'll never get here. He also lamented the lackluster Alcatel presence, despite their big showing in 2007. Lest we forget, NEC is a big phone manufacturer outside of the U.S., and Kent gave us a good look at the NEC FOMA N705i for NTT DoCoMo in Japan, which also happens to be one of the first LiMo Foundation phones.

Nokia's Remade uses recycled and renewable materials to lessen its environmental impact.(Credit: Nokia)

In an effort to go green, Nokia has unveiled Remade, a phone that is made entirely out of renewable and recycled parts. Then Senior Editor Bonnie Cha got a pseudo hands-on with the much talked about Garmin Nuvifone, a touch screen phone with a lot of GPS functionality. Andrew Lim from CNET UK gave us a hands-on look at the luscious looking LG KF600 and KF700 touch screen phones as well.

One of the most unique devices we saw was Polymer Vision's Readius, a phone that is also an e-book reader -- the display can even be rolled up like paper. Another phone that looks very different from the rest is the Modu, which has different "jackets" or "sleeves" that can dramatically add to the functionality of the phone. Even though iRiver is more known for their MP3 players, this year at Barcelona, iRiver Europe is announcing it's breaking into the cell phone business with its first ever mobile phone, called the iRiver W7.

Readius e-book reader that's also a phone(Credit: Crave Asia)

ZTE doesn't have much of a presence in the U.S. market, but it is one of the largest cell phone manufacturers in China, so we had to take a look at the company's phones. Overall, we're pretty impressed -- their phones ranged from the keyboard-equipped smart phone to the simple flip phone, and a lot of them are high-end megapixel phones that support HSDPA-level speeds. As for companies that the U.S. is familiar with, Palm is unfortunately rather quiet at GSMA 2008, but news is that it might debut a white version of the Palm Centro on February 19th.

We'll have more as the week goes on, but please take a look at our complete coverage of GSMA Mobile World Congress 2008 for plenty of product slide shows, videos, and more.