Open up your mind and say, ahh...

BARCELONA: We didn’t get a new flagship Lumia from Nokia at the Mobile World Congress today, but we did get a low-end model: the Lumia 610.

With only 256 MB of RAM, it’s definitely the least powerful Lumia we’ve seen so far. However, Nokia claims that the good work Microsoft has done with Windows Phone 7.5 has enabled them to expand the platform onto less powerful devices. In other words, the Lumia 610 shouldn’t feel too sluggy in day to day operation, though Nokia is still hiding the rest of the device’s specifications.

Like all Lumias, the 610 comes with a neat bundle of extras. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn integration are all present, as is Xbox Live for those who are into mobile gaming.

The device also comes with Nokia Maps, Nokia Drive, Nokia Transport and Nokia Music.

Nokia Lumia 610 comes in blue, silver, magenta and black, and retails for 189 euros.

BARCELONA: Here at Mobile World Congress, Adobe has unveiled Primetime Highlights, a powerful new tool for converting video highlights into publishable, ad-supported, fully distributed clips in a matter of minutes.

Primetime is part of Adobe Digital Publishing Suite (DSP), a set of turnkey hosted services that allow publishers to create rich digital publications across a variety of platforms (you can get a deeper dive on DSP here). They produce once and deliver to tablets, phones and PCs. Project Primetime adds video as another tool in the digital publisher’s arsenal.

According to Adobe’s Danny Winokur, Vice President & General Manager, Interactive Development, the idea is that you take an important moment from a big game, like a field goal, home-run or touch down, clip it and instantly distribute it to all sources, including web sites, mobile devices and on air. Thos4 clips will all run “with advertising to capture full value of the scene,” said Winokur.

Primetime leverages video tools, as well as it investments in analytics (Adobe’s acquisition of Omniture analytics) and targeted ad services (Demdex). The enterprise tool will initially roll out this year with support for Mac, Windows, iOS, Android and Smart TVs.

Adobe success in the digital publishing space is clearly driving this new push into video. In addition to the 16 million downloaded digital publications mentioned above, Adobe trotted out some impressive engagement figures:

• More than half of digital publication readers spend as much as 2.5 hours a month consuming DSP-produced publications.
• 68% pay for digital magazines and newspapers built in DSP
• Almost half of all interactive elements included in these publications are clicked on at least once.
• Every fifth page of these publications is an Ad (a figure that’s more or less consistent with physical publications).

The Apple iPhone 4 was named Best Mobile Device at the Global Mobile Awards 2011 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The phone was praised by judges, and according to Apple Insider, the judges said they picked the iPhone 4 because it has a “great screen, sharp design, fantastic materials, and phenomenal ecosystem for app developers. In a tight race, the iPhone 4 builds on the success of its predecessors to set the pace for smartphones.”

However, the iPhone 4 wasn’t competing against that stellar group of mobile devices introduced at CES 2011. Up against the iPhone 4 for this year’s awards were the HTC Desire, LG Optimus 7, BlackBerry Torch 9800 and the Samsung Galaxy S. Fair enough, though, because the iPhone 4 is also last year’s model.

Even though an HTC phone was nominated for best mobile device and didn’t win, HTC won the award for Device Manufacturer of the Year. The judges praised the Taiwanese company, saying that it has “built its market presence from nowhere, with fresh branding and marketing and a strong portfolio of devices across many platforms. In particular, it has proven an exceptionally popular and enduring phone manufacturer. With great communication and good customer service, this is a well-deserved award.”

In my opinion, this is a well-deserved award. I tested the HTC inspire 4G, and found its design and construction to be of the highest quality, rivaling that of the iPhone 4.

There were lots of awards handed out at the ceremony, including App of the Year on the Apple platform, Angry Birds. Here’s the entire list of winners.

Did the best apps and devices win?

Verizon Wireless is preparing to offer its customers a better sounding voice network, thanks to the power of 4G.

CNN reports that Verizon will be showing off its new 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution) voice network at next week’s Mobile World Congress. This will allow voice calls to take place over the Internet, rather than using the existing CDMA voice network.

The technology, which is currently known as VoLTE (Voice Over LTE), is basically like VoIP for home or business phones, but it takes place on a mobile network.

Verizon started rolling out its 4G data network back in December and plans on introducing a number of 4G or 4G-upgradable devices by the first half of the year.

Most of those devices, however, will only use 4G for data connections. This can include video chat over Skype, sending and receiving e-mails and playing back video. However, it does not include standard voice calls. With VoLTE, that will change — certain 4G phones will gain the ability to make voice calls over the 4G data network rather than using the older CDMA network.

One of the devices that will benefit from VoLTE is the LG Revolution 4G. The smartphone won’t ship with VoLTE enabled, but future updates will give the phone the ability to make 4G voice calls. If a user drops into an area without 4G coverage, calls will be made over the older CDMA network as expected.

VoLTE will finally allow Verizon to give its users the ability to send data and make phone calls simultaneously.

AT&T will be rolling out its LTE strategy later this year but the company hasn’t made any announcements about its plans for Voice Over LTE.

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One Step Closer to Data-Only Phone Plans

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At the Mobile World Congress last year, Verizon announced that it was partnering with Skype to bring the service to various Verizon smartphones. At CES last month, Verizon and Skype took that partnership one step further and announced that 4G video Skype calls were planned for future Verizon 4G devices.

Last year, I remarked that by partnering with Skype, Verizon was “indicating that the future of the company’s mobile business lies with data services.” Twelve months later this is even more clear.

Traditional voice service has become a commodity, whereas data — especially fast and reliable data — can be sold at a premium. By making plans to place its voice network on top of its data network, Verizon is not only doing its part to soften the impact would-be competitors like Skype might have on its bottom line, it will also have new selling points like “clearer calls” and “simultaneous voice and data” that can be used to sell more expensive monthly data packages.

Of course, Verizon’s CDMA voice network won’t be disappearing any time soon. VoLTE service might not become available until next year (though certain phones will be upgrade ready) and at least right now, sending voice calls over LTE is more expensive than just using the existing CDMA technology. This announcement is merely the first step in a new phase of the overall 4G transition.