Pocket Picks goes to the World Mobile Congress and takes photos where it shouldn't

Kia Ora!

Suddenly all becomes clear as to why the hardware news has been scraped from the bottom of the techno-barrel the last week or two – we've just had the World Mobile Conference, and those cheeky manufacturers have been saving up it to schmooze in Barcelona.

Lordy lord, where to begin?

How about a headline that reads 'The best thing I saw at MWC09 was TaT’s LittleBigPlanet style pop-up UI'?

The TaT is question is Swedish company The Astonishing Tribe. It was demonstrating a concept for a user interface that combined a PlayStation-style Crossbar with a pop-up mechanic and the colour palette and handcrafted aesthetic that reminded us of LittleBigPlanet. Just go and check out the video.

Another amazing concept was this example from Japanese operator DoCoMo. It looks like an ordinary clamshell phone, only the top and bottom parts separate. Figuring out quite why this would benefit you is slightly trickier – perhaps it’s for a mix and match system with other devices, or a way to allow it to open in either a portrait or landscape orientation – but it’s novelty value is definitely quite high.

Another neat DoCoMo trick was the three screen configuration of NEC's Prime N-01A phone.

Our Pocket Picks mecha-sleuths also happened to pick up on a bit of surreptitious info while picking at the carrion of Nvidia’s stand. Showing off a few of its Tegra platform, which is an apparently wonderful touchscreen thing that’ll be powering some awesome new handsets in the near future – their eagle eye picked up on an Android sticker on the back of several devices. This is being taken as proof that the Tegra hardware is compatible with and intends to run Google’s Android operating system, which could be quite a coup for the internet giant is the hottest new hardware is sporting its Metal Mickey lookalike logo in the near future.

Some Chinese phone manufacturers were showing off various types of 'Google- phone' too.

Still perhaps the most impressive phone, in terms of build quality, surface finish and all-round lovability, was Nokia's N86, even if the devices on show were badged as N85 8MP.

When it comes to software however, apparently Adobe’s got sick of waiting for Apple, and bypassed the procrastinating giant to release a whole new strain of Flash Lite on the mobile world. This new version of the web application framework can now be downloaded automatically with bundled software, meaning a Flash app will now work on any compatible handset regardless as to whether it’s currently got Flash installed or not.

To say the iPhone has been leading the technological pack since the moment it was released, it’s now about the only handset out there that doesn’t support this vital web browsing system.

Well, there is another phone on Pocket Picks this week that doesn’t have Flash, although that’s not to say that it isn’t quite flash. This remarkable iPod knock-off has somehow made it past Apple’s lawyers to show off its wares in public. Clearly modelled after the iPod – with a small colour screen, click wheel and sleek design work – and provides pretty much all the same functions; including a phone.

It’s not an especially fancy phone, but it makes calls and you could easily make yourself popular at a nerd party by passing it off as the much rumoured iPhone Nano and grabbing yourself a few minutes of geeky limelight.

Competing for the cutest, smallest, lightest, bluest and whatever else-est Bluetooth headset is another feature of these electronic shows.

In this case we’re going to pick the Zivio Boom out of the pack, for not much other reason than the insane smile of the woman modelling it. We have to admit that the concept is rather cool, though, as far too many Bluetooth headsets these days point the mic at your cheek bone, making it no small surprise that they transmit more background noise than actual human conversation.

We’ll leave off with the hot demo of Samsung’s new projector handset, called the Show. Apparently people weren’t supposed to take pictures of it projecting its 50” image, but there’s no stopping a good Pocket Picks technophile. Over on the site, there’s even a quick video of this battery-burning device in operation, so gadget lovers should definitely get over there and check it out.

Pocket Picks is literally bulging at the edges with hot tech news this week, so get on over there and start drooling at all that lovely silicon.

Kia Ora!