Anthony Myers

Microsoft debuted the final beta version of its new operating system, the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. There's no date given for when the final version may launch, but Microsoft showed off some great new features at MWC 2012. Windows 8 is available for download now, and it runs best on tablet devices because of its inclusion of touchscreen technology. Windows is completely redesigned, and with it, interoperability between mobile devices and desktops is closer to reality.

There's so much new gadgetry coming out of the MWC 2012, it's easy to overlook some of the most popular and least expensive gear to debut, namely the apps. Microsoft has run away with the apps crown at this show because they used the conference to unveil the Windows 8 Consumer Preview software. Included in that release is the opening of the Windows 8 store, and the best new apps there are free during the duration of the preview.

iPad is ready for its debut March 7, and one new device many will no doubt be comparing it to is Samsung's new Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet that debuted at MWC 2012. Both are unique, but two of their coolest features are the iPad's new OnLive Desktop app and the Note's digitizer stylus for writing notes and editing artwork.

Huawei announced their Ascend D quad smartphone at the Mobile World Congress, and while it won't go on sale in the U.S. (yet), it will get plenty of comparisons to the forthcoming Samsung Galaxy S3. Samsung declined to introduce the Galaxy S3 at Mobile World Congress this year. Instead, Samsung will hold their own event sometime before July, and that way Samsung gets more media attention. Huawei has a long way to go before they can put on their own big press events, but Samsung is gaining in ...

Apple apps on the iPhone, iPad and iTouch have been attacked for stealing users' contact info, and now it's been discovered they've even had access to users' photos. Given the Feb. 28 Apple announcement about a March 7 press conference, potential iPad 3 buyers may want to know how this latest controversy will affect Apple's newest product launch. There's a loophole that's been discovered for when people give an app permission to access location information.

Mobile World Congress 2012 went into its second day without the Samsung Galaxy S3 or iPhone 5, but there were many other hot new gadgets you won't want to miss. Much of the focus is on smartphones, and rightly so as consumers continue to dump their feature phones en masse, but there were just as many tablets released as company brace for the iPad 3 drop March 7. Sony showed off its Tablet P and let it be known the unique dual-screen folding tablet is coming to AT&T March 4 for $400 on contrac...

Picasso's Guernica painting turns 75 years old this year, and in order to have it restored, Madrid's Reina Sofia museum has designed a robot capable of scanning the entire painting for signs of wear and places where restoration is needed the most. The museum teamed up with Spanish telecommunication company Telefonica to build Pablito, as it's now called, and the robot goes to work every night taking thousands of high-resolution pictures of the famous black and white anti-war painting.

HTC, Samsung and Sony are all gearing up for new AT&T 4G LTE offerings, but so far there has been no dates given or prices announced for releases of the One X or Xperia Ion. HTC only announced the One X Feb. 27, however, so it's not surprising it won't be released for a while yet. But, the Xperia Ion was announced in early January at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Samsung made an early Mobile World Congress appearance to show off the Galaxy S Blaze 4G, and HTC announced the One S, both coming to T-Mobile in the next couple months. Neither have a specific release date, but the Galaxy S Blaze 4G will cost $150 on contract and is reported to go on sale in late March.

HTC led the way at the Mobile World Congress on day one with the launch of its new flagship smartphone, the One X coming to AT&T within two months. There were a few other quad-core devices shown off, but some of them had already been announced like the LG Optimus 4X HD. In fact, LG went ahead and announced their whole lineup a couple days before the conference kicked off.

Best Buy dropped the iPad 2 price by $50 for all models, and big-box department store Meijer reduced the 16 gigabyte Wi-Fi version by $70 in advance of the iPad 3 release date set for March 7, 2012. While Apple could announce the iPad on March 7, it might be another week after that the new tablet goes on sale in the U.S. Whether or not it debuts at $500 for the 16 gigabyte Wi-Fi version isn't yet known, but it could debut at an even higher price than ever before because of its new features li...

HTC announced their new flagship One X smartphone at the Mobile World Congress Feb. 26, and it will be on AT&T in two months or less. It will face off with the Samsung Galaxy S2 Skyrocket and Sony Xperia Ion as the best 4G AT&T phones, but the One X won't be a quad-core device like its international counterpart. That's because the Tegra 3 chip doesn't support AT&T's LTE network, but the 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 has performed well, and should receive a warm welcome from AT&T cu...

Two newly discovered blood proteins may aid in cancer research, and the discovery of proteins ABCB6 and ABCG2 were the first new types found in a decade. Many people may know of common blood types A, B and O, but there are many other ways blood is categorized, particularly when it comes to its compatibility with other types.

Every year Hollywood comes together to celebrate itself at the Oscars, and in 2012 more people than ever will be planning to watch live online coverage. The problem is there is no official stream of the broadcast, so online viewers will have to visit the Oscargo.com Web site for updates and behind the scenes action.

Mobile World Congress 2012 kicks off Feb. 27 in Barcelona, and smartphones from Samsung, Nokia, HTC and Sony will all be previewed, announced, unveiled and otherwise fawned over by tech geeks the world over. Not all of them will make it to U.S. carriers, but this preview will give a good glimpse of some of the best mobile tech to look forward to for the rest of the year.

Apple won't be debuting a new iPhone at the Mobile World Congress this week, but ZTE is debuting several devices, including the Mimosa X. Previewed only days before the start of the actual conference, there are still a few things we don't know about the Mimosa X, and most important among them are release date and price.

Samsung has designated the Rugby Smart as AT&T's new tough-guy phone, and by that we mean it's made to be waterproof, dustproof and pretty much the most rugged device they make. They're targeting construction workers, people who work outside, that kind of thing.

ASUS has made an over the air update for Ice Cream Sandwich ready for the Eee Pad Transformer Feb. 24, but 3G-enabled models will have to wait. The update is for the Wi-Fi models, and Transformer owners in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the UK all should have access to the new Google Android system. Asus now has two tablets running the new system, and the Motorola Xoom is still the only other tablet out there running the 4.0 update. As to why Asus is the lucky company to be getting the updates so ...

Russian Scientists have successfully grown fruit from 30,000 year old frozen Siberian seeds found buried along the banks of the Kolyma river, a study published in a new issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America reported.

Sprint is selling the normally $100 priced Motorola Photon 4G for $50 on its Web site, the discounted iPhone 3GS is only one dollar from AT&T, and T-Mobile's Nokia Lumia 710 is just $40 (online price). If your smartphone shopping on a budget, or if you need to add a new line to your current contract, these might be the best choices for you. They are all quite different, besides being offered on different carriers. But for the price, they are tough to beat, especially the Photon 4G because it ...

Verizon dropped the price of the HTC Rezound to $99 on contract recently, and it's now the same price as the iPhone 4. The best Verizon smartphone deal can be found here, but it depends on what you're looking for in a new phone. Even though both of these devices cost much less than Verizon's flagship class of $300 phones, they are great choices with excellent features. In fact, the Rezound only debuted at the end of 2011, and it was originally $300.

Asus may be ready to take over the Android tablet world in 2012, and they'll have their chance starting Feb. 27 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. That's when they could debut the Transformer Prime TF300T, a follow-up to the original Transformer tablet.

Facebook admitted to tracking users who weren't even on the Web site last September, and a Baltimore based law firm has now filed a class action lawsuit in a Northern California District court. It's not the first lawsuit filed against Facebook over privacy concerns, but it's the first nationwide class action suit that potentially involves anyone who was a member before Facebook changed their privacy policy. The thrust of the lawsuit filed by Murphy PA, Peter G. Angelos and Gerard Gibbs ...

iPhone 5 could appear in the T-Mobile arsenal in 2013 if indeed Apple's newest handset does include 4G LTE support. There is little evidence iPhone 5 will have 4G capability, but since the iPad 3 is set to debut with the technology, it's logical the next iPhone would have it too. That's actually the easy part because T-Mobile doesn't want to spend the nearly $40 billion Sprint spent near the end of 2011 for the rights to sell the iPhone on contract. T-Mobile will be using that money ...

iPhone users know well how useful the Flickr Web site has been over the years, but while the site hasn't changed much, a new redesign will add features like the Uploadr and Justified View. Uploadr allows batch loading of photos from a computer just by dragging and dropping onto the Filckr page. The new design and other features are part a new look for Flickr, and the result will be a bit like the Google+ photo page layout. Flickr will finally redesign its Web site starting Feb. 28, just as ne...

OnLive, a company known for streaming games, has released a new iPad app that can run the Windows OS at lightning-fast speeds, something the purportedly 4G LTE-enabled iPad 3 could turn into an unstoppable combination. The OnLive Desktop app uses cloud based technology to shrink down the Windows environment into a usable size for the iPad (Android, Macs and PCs too, eventually).

A YouTube video of an LED suit-clad night snowboarder has gone viral with the ghostlike figure garnering nearly one million views in just a few days. Fashion photographer Jacob Sutton put this unique video together in the French Alps, and the unique suit was made by electronics designer John Spatcher.

Mobile phone texting turns 20 years old in 2012, and because the technology was developed first for GSM network mobile communications in the early 1980's, it's widely given credit to have been birthed by German engineer Friedham Hillebrand. Nokia, the worlds largest mobile phone manufacturer, posted on its Connect blog Finnish engineer Matti Makkonen invented the idea for SMS (short message service).

Mozilla, the non-profit company that makes the Firefox Web browser has plans to launch on online apps market in 2012, and possibly its very own smartphone, an idea also reportedly being mulled by companies like Amazon and Facebook.