Photograph by David Ramos/Bloomberg

Barcelona, which just hosted the Mobile World Congress, wants to become a major technology hub.

For Barcelona, four days isn’t enough. Spain’s second biggest city, which just hosted the nearly weeklong Mobile World Congress, wants to be a center of technology year-round. And it’s easy to see why.

Faced with a worsening recession, a 26 percent unemployment rate and both local and central governments undertaking spending cuts, cities such as Barcelona are looking for the next bright spot.

If the Mobile World Congress is any indication, that bright spot could come from turning Barcelona into Europe’s next big tech hub. This year’s event drew more than 72,000 attendees, a record, and brought in more than 320 million euros ($416 million), a gain of 6 percent, according to GSMA, the organization that puts on the event. As many as 6,500 temporary jobs were created,  said Barcelona Mayor Xavier Trias.

“The impact is very significant,” Trias said in an interview this week.

Determined to build on the attention the event brings, the city, stamped as a capital for mobile through the foundation Mobile World Capital Barcelona, is in talks to attract investments from technology companies, including Cisco Systems and Huawei Technologies, Trias said.

“There are many companies, and some very enthusiastic ones, interested in setting up offices, facilities or research labs in Barcelona,” he said. “We want to make it easier for companies to invest here.”

But he cautioned: “We still need to see if those intentions finally come into fruition.”

Unlike other major cities across Spain, Barcelona still has some bandwidth to invest in infrastructure, according to Trias, who boasts about a track record of paying suppliers on time. That stability could make companies more confident about coming to the Spanish Mediterranean city, he said.

Still, Barcelona faces the challenge of boosting its image as a financially solvent city, and one that wants to expand beyond its more traditional focus on automobiles, textiles, agri-food and pharmaceuticals.

NXP Semiconductors, Europe’s third-largest chipmaker, is already growing here. The Eindhoven, Netherlands-based company has built a team of eight people that will expand to 12 in the next few weeks, said Pedro Martinez, business development manager at NXP.

“We believe and share that idea and decided to create a center to support this initiative,” said Martinez, whose company is focusing on near field communication technology.

To encourage more mobile innovation in Barcelona and eventually in the rest of the world, the city has also set up a center in its famous Plaza Catalunya square to show off the latest technologies. And in June, the city plans to create a facility for technology startups willing to work on mobile apps, Trias said. Then in September, Barcelona wants to host a mobile music festival. It’s already looking into which bands could participate, including The Rolling Stones.

This year’s big mobile show may be over, but clearly, Barcelona doesn’t want tech’s spotlight on the city to turn off.

 –With assistance from Marie Mawad

Original post is Show’s Over, But Barcelona Wants Mobile Spotlight to Keep Shining by Tech Blog.

Photograph by Bobi/Getty Images

Motion sensors allow users to control the screen of a device without having to touch it.

It’s the latest in mobile technology, inspired by an invention nearly a hundred years ago.

At this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona,  chipmaker STMicroelectronics is showcasing screen technology that works by just hovering your hand a few inches away from the surface. Thanks to motion sensors, users don’t have to touch a screen to flip through an e-book or surf the Web. No more finger smudges.

Little do tech addicts know that a similar hovering gesture was invented about a century ago in Russia. In fact, that is what inspired STMicro’s device, said Benedetto Vigna, the Geneva-based company’s head of MEMS and sensor products.

“There was a nice instrument invented in 1919 by a Russian guy called Theremin,” Vigna said in an interview. “You could play music with your hands by hovering above it, without even touching the device. That’s how we came up with the idea.”

Leon Theremin, also known as Lev Termen, invented what he called the termenvox, an electronic musical instrument built around two antennas. Also known as a theremin, the device has been used to create those eerie sounds found in old sci-fi movies.

STMicro’s hover screen technology will be used later this year in a multimedia tablet, said Vigna, who declined to say which manufacturer will make the device. The company’s clients include Samsung, Apple, Nokia and Blackberry.

Those who can’t wait for the hover-screen devices can try their hand now on the theremin.

Original post is How an Old Russian Invention Inspired STMicro’s Hover Screen by Tech Blog.

Photograph by Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Gary Kovacs, CEO of Mozilla, with the Firefox logo during a news conference at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

While many European technology companies have pared back their presence at this week’s Mobile World Congress, Silicon Valley’s Mozilla is leaving a noticeably bigger footprint.

The maker of the popular Firefox web browser sent about a hundred employees — which is a sixth of its staff and a 50 percent increase from last year — and prepared a much larger stand to help it showcase its new open mobile operating system.

The hope? That by letting loose its fox in the smartphone world, it can steal some of the spotlight from Google’s Android, which dominates the market.

“We have made a more significant investment this year because we have more to say and show,” Peter Scanlon, senior director of global branding at Mozilla, said Sunday in an interview in Barcelona.

Mozilla’s new marketing message, “blaze your own path,” shows the fox from its logo unleashed and following people as they move around to explain how they can access the Internet regardless of where they are.

The question remains whether that campaign, which included a lavish presentation in front of hundreds at the luxurious Hotel Arts Barcelona, was convincing. Mozilla’s mobile software, first discussed a year ago, has been a long time coming. Phone buyers looking for a bargain may be tempted to see whether a new generation of feature phones — such as Nokia’s 105 — may do the trick and be available faster.

Mozilla does have some big names in its corner. As I wrote about yesterday, more than a dozen wireless carriers including billionaire Carlos Slim’s America Movil are supporting Mozilla’s open mobile operating system to make a range of cheaper smartphones. Firefox-based devices may arrive as early as the second quarter, Mozilla said.

We’ll see how fast and far this fox can run.

–With assistance from Cornelius Rahn.

Original post is Mozilla’s Fox Tries to Steal Spotlight and Outrun Google’s Android by Tech Blog.

When a government is buried in debt, making money from thin air sure sounds like a good idea.

The U.K. and the Netherlands were among the latest European countries to sell wireless frequencies — the right to use certain airwaves for mobile-phone voice and data — cashing in almost $8.6 billion since December.

But it’s wrong, says Deutsche Telekom AG Chief Executive Officer Rene Obermann — because it eats up funds that phone companies need to build faster networks.

“Are you aware what’s going on?” he asked an audience at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. “Spectrum is the scarcest resource, and auctions are designed to maximize the outcome. But for whom? For those who auction the spectrum.”

Wireless frequencies “should not be used to compensate for state deficits. I’m getting very nervous about this,” he fumed.

Wireless veteran Obermann surely remembers that a decade ago, when few had any doubts as to the ability of Greece to pay its debts, phone companies dished out much larger amounts for wireless frequencies — 50 billion euros ($65.3 billion) in Germany alone. The 3G auction in U.K. in 2000, during the height of the dot-com boom, raised 22.5 billion pounds ($34.1 billion).

Now, when both sides are having financial trouble, words easily turn bitter.

Original post is Europe’s Airwave Auctions Wrong, Says Deutsche Telekom Chief by Tech Blog.

But what happens if you forget to charge it?

“At least now, if I don’t charge my phone, I can still go home,” Vittorio Colao, chief executive officer of Vodafone Group Plc, told reporters in Barcelona today at the Mobile World Congress, where attendees were encouraged to use their NFC devices to get into seminars and pay for snacks.

Battery life isn’t the only challenge. The technology has been constrained as carriers, handset makers, retailers, credit card companies and banks try to come to an agreement on the best platform to market the technology.

On that front, Visa Inc., the world’s largest electronic payments network, said today it has teamed up with handset maker Samsung Electronics Co. to provide a financial program to enable handsets to be used like a credit or debit card. Visa’s PayWave application will be a standard feature on Samsung’s NFC-equipped devices.

“The Visa-Samsung global alliance is a first of its kind between a leading NFC handset manufacturer and payment network that is paving the way for the implementation of large-scale mobile payment programs,” the companies said in a statement.

No doubt, features and applications will help pave the way for broad adoption of the digital wallet. But if the charging issue isn’t resolved, users of the technology may find themselves stranded at the wrong end of their subway line or without money to pay for lunch.

Until that’s addressed, consumers may want to carry around both wallets for now.

Original post is Paying With Your Digital Wallet? Don’t Forget to Charge Your Device by Tech Blog.