Looking forward to new Android phones in 2009 for the U.S. market can be disappointing. We have the G1, and maybe the HTC Magic if it ever comes around here. Other than that, there’s not too much that we know about. What we can know is that Huawei, a Chinese mobile manufacturer, is making a new Android phone that will come to T-Mobile in Q3 2009.

The phone actually looks really good. The G1 is a phone that has to grow on you. Looking at it now, there’s nothing wrong with it, but when it was first introduced, it was hard to say that the G1 was actually a good looking phone. The Huawei phone looks almost iPhone-like, which would make it possibly the best looking Android phone so far. It’s hard to say how well it will actually work with Android, but it will be a new option.

Reportedly, LG has released some information to TechRadar that they are going to come out with a cell phone, which boasts a 12MP camera. For those of us who like taking good quality pictures on the go, having a cell phone with a high end camera is a necessity.

Jeremy Newing, LG’s Mobile Head of Marketing in the UK has released some statements, which describe what LG has in store in this phone. In order to start promoting the 12MP phone, Newing begins with an analogy that “when you’re buying a car, if you’ve got two equal cars then you’ll obviously go for the one with the bigger engine.” Makes sense, who doesn’t want the ability to drive faster? In addition, he goes on to make a statement that is very true, he says “when taking 12MP images, they’ll be using huge amounts of data, and it will be more difficult to do things like send such files.” As you probably know if you own a fairly new digital camera, these images take up a good amount of memory, so you can imagine how long it would take to send these kids of pictures.

The Mobile World Congress was abuzz this week when GSMA announced the possibility of having one standard charger for all mobile types. Instead of having a specific charger for each type of mobile phone, manufacturers can create one type that will charge all devices. This should not be too difficult to achieve since most cellular phones are 5 volt devices.

Benefits of having a universal charger is that it will be very convenient for consumers as well as create less waste for the environment. The organization Green Plug feels that this goal is not only attainable with mobile phones, but other electronic devices as well. The company has proposed a universal plug that will power not only mobile phones, but other devices like notebook PCs, printers, game controllers, power tools, portable DVD players, wireless routers that run off of different voltage. Their device converts the power source and communicates with the device in order to provide function without wasting energy.

Exhibitors included Novotel, which created a lot of buzz by introducing MiFi, a device that runs off of a SIM card and turns a smartphone into a wireless hot spot. Meanwhile, Alcatel-Lucent showcased new 3-D content that mobile users can download onto their phone for a broader media experience. Other top mobile companies that presented at ShowStopppers included: Phoenix Technologies, Cellusys, Openmind, iSkin and Sentry Wireless.

Nokia and Skype are working together to build in Skype on certain Nokia cell phones. The Nseries will feature Skype and it will be built into the phone’s contact manager. The first phone to feature Skype pre-installed will e the N97. Nokia uses the Symbian S60 OS in its phones which should allow the application to run in the background so you can get your Skype calls on the go. The app will run on both Wi-Fi and on 3G.

Currently, Verizon Wireless is the largest of all North American cell phone carriers and based on today’s announcement, it seems they want to keep it that way. Verizon is currently testing 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) networks in Minneapolis, Columbus, Ohio, and Northern New Jersey and in Budapest, Dusseldorf, and Madrid in Europe. LTE uses more »

The BlackBerry Storm. Nokia E71. LG KS360. Any one of those hot new phones should have taken home the coveted “Best Mobile Handset” from this year’s GSMA in Barcelona. Alas, they all fell short of the INQ phone that looks like it is straight out of 2002.

INQ, who the heck are they?

This small company has not received a lot of press, until now. The company’s products are online for sale in the UK, Ireland and Australia, but more are on the way. The INQ1 is their first offering.

How upset must other makers be? They lost to this?

On paper this phone isn’t much: 3.2MP camera, 50mb of memory; no Wi-Fi, no GPS, no video calling, no voice dialing. The phone’s design is a rather simple slider, a d-pad and some buttons grace the phones front side. Certainly nothing we’ve not seen before. So how can this thing best the big names? Keep reading.

Palm is showing off the UMTS version of the Palm Pre for European networks at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. This version one-ups the US model I got to play with at CES with simultaneous data connection and voice connection. The US model can only do one of those tasks at a time.

But, but, but, why?

The easy answer is thank Sprint. Their EVDO technology requires a temporary disconnect from the data connection when moving to activate the voice connection. UTMS technology like those in Europe and AT&T in the US does not require this “hiccup.” This is common to all EVDO and UMTS phones.

Cheat the system?

We all know about jailbreaking the iPhone to use it on other networks, but what about the Pre? Would it be possible to purchase a UMTS phone in a foreign land and bring it home to the US to get maximum multitasking out of the Pre? Technically, yes. It is unclear if an unlocked version of the phone will be sold outside the US. I have to assume one will not be sold in the US as their exclusive agreement with Sprint should forbid it.

Digicel’s put together a pretty smart design by adding a solar panel to the back of its newest phone, the Coral-200-Solar (manufactured by ZTE). It appears to be a very simple phone, so I wouldn’t expect any fancy bells and whistles like a touch screen or camera.

First the pros: The phone is relatively sleek. It can use solar power to charge the phone, and if you have access to an electrical source, you can charge it the conventional way. It’s a good start.

We got to give it to LG for bringing their new netbook, the LG-X120 at the ongoing Mobile World Congress. Whereas everybody else is launching new mobile phones, LG demoed its netbook instead. But we certainly understand the logic for this.

LG wants to market the X120 netbook as part of the mobile world, plain and simple. And what better time to show off a device being marketed as a mobile device but during an event where mobile phones take center stage. So, if our previous hands-on report about the LG-X120 left you longing for more information about this new netbook, let’s dig deeper into LG’s announcement and see what more new things we could get from it.