Motorola Droid 3, Droid X 2 and LTE-equipped Targa really pictured?

The Motorola Droid 2 and Droid X are both headed toward their one-year anniversaries this summer, which has pretty much become the culling hour for a smartphone of any creed these days. Their successors, ingeniously titled the Droid 3 and Droid X 2, have seemingly made an appearance over atHowardForums, courtesy of longtime forum member wnrussell. He's also kindly provided imagery of a heretofore unknown device, called the Targa, which promises Verizon 4G LTE and has a protrusion on its rear that looks to be dedicated to accommodating an outsized camera sensor. It reminds us most of Motorola's XT720, though it sports a chrome outline to its body similar to what you see above on the purported Droid 3. Click past the break to get an eyeful of this Targa device and its Droid X 2 brandmate.

Verizon offering unlimited LTE data plan for HTC Thunderbolt, don't expect it to stick around

Verizon execs have been clear as crystal that unlimited smartphone data will follow the dodo -- perhaps as soon as summer of this year -- but in the meanwhile you can drink your fill of the best as the HTC Thunderbolt will launch this Thursday with an unlimited LTE data plan. While we've no guarantees how long it will last, or whether you can grandfather the $30 monthly option into bigger and better devices down the road, it does open up a whole new avenue of opportunity for the Thunderbolt. Considering that Verizon's 4G USB modems top out at 10GB of LTE data for $80 a month, the HTC handset just became the most powerful, affordable MiFi you could possibly own. Assuming battery life is decent, of course. Find the full PR below.

About Verizon CTO: 'working through issues' with LTE phones, still on track for first half launch

No blockbusters here -- nothing that's going to give you much insight into an exact launch day for the Thunderbolt -- but Verizon CTO Tony Melone made a few comments about its LTE handset launches at a financial conference yesterday that border on the interesting. Asked whether the company was facing any challengesin getting the phones solid and ready for commercial consumption, Melone responded by saying that they're "facing is what you would expect, and that is a new technology, you are working through issues. And [they] anticipated that, and [they] are pleased at how [they] are working through issues." In the same breath, he reminded the audience that Verizon had said the phones would be coming in the first half of '11 all along and that hasn't changed -- so they're not late by a long shot. Pressed on whether battery life specifically was a concern for the Thunderbolt, Melone said that he thinks the juice "will be acceptable to consumers." Considering what we've been hearing about recent firmware revisions on the test units, we're hopeful he's right -- Verizon has a reputation for testing the crap out of devices prior to release, after all.

HOT ! Mobile World Congress Was Dominated by Google's Android OS

The biggest European mobile technology show of the year has now closed down in Barcelona, leaving a record number of global smartphone premieres behind (as well as a few tablets). What all of these devices have in common is their operating system: the Android OS.

Even though Nokia and Microsoft started the hottest topic of the show three days before the Mobile World Congress even began by announcing their strategic collaboration, as this tradeshow ended it was clear that the biggest star and winner was actually Google. This was the first time in MWC history that there was no premiere of a device with Symbian OS, Windows Phone, BlackBerry OS or any other platform that is not Android.

The story that Nokia would be using the Windows Phone 7 as its main platform for all future smartphones got watered down by the end of the tradeshow, largely because of big spectacles made at the start of the show by Samsung and Sony Ericsson to announce their new Android OS models.

Samsung
First, Samsung presented its Galaxy S II as the successor of a smartphone which has sold over 10 million units all over the world. The Galaxy S II will have a bigger screen, even though it is going to be slimmer and lighter than its predecessor -- it might even be the world's thinnest smartphone as well, but that is still in question. It will also have a dual core processor, a Super AMOLED Plus display and TouchWiz 4.0 user interface.

More information on this model is available in this preliminary review:

• Samsung Galaxy S II Hands-On Preview

Sony EricssonStraight after this, Sony Ericsson revealed three cell phones with Google's operating system: the XPERIA Play, XPERIA neo and XPERIA pro.

By far, the one that garnered the most attention was the "PlayStation Phone", XPERIA Play, which represents the first actual gaming console and cell phone hybrid with its 4-inch 480 by 854-pixel screen, 1GHz processor and Adreno 205 GPU. XPERIA Play will be released by Verizon this spring, and about 50 games will be available for it at launch.

A first-look review of this smartphone can be found here:

• Sony Ericsson XPERIA Play Hands-On Preview

The remaining two models from Sony Ericsson, the XPERIA neo and XPERIA pro will use Android OS 2.3 (Gingerbread) as their platform with the Timescape/Mediascape user interface, as used by previous Sony Ericsson phones supporting Android. Both will have 3.7-inch capacitive screens, 8-megapixel back-facing cameras, and Qualcomm 1GHz Snapdragon processors. The difference between these two devices will be that the XPERIA pro is a slider with a QWERTY keyboard.

LG
All of these announcements came before the Mobile World Congress had even officially started. On the first "real" day of the tradeshow, LG unveiled the Optimus 3D, which lives up to its name with a  4.3-inch 3D display, for which special glasses are not necessary. A 3D camera is also going to be included. 

For a more in-depth look at this Android-based smartphone, read this first-impressions review:

• LG Optimus 3D Hands-On Preview

HTC
Not to be outdone, HTC announced five smartphones -- all running the Android OS.

The Desire S, Incredible S and Wildfire S will only receive minor upgrades hardware-wise compared to their currently-available predecessors which do not have the "S" in their name. This left MWC attendees more interested in guessing why the Taiwanese manufacturer chose to add this letter to their names than in the actual devices themselves.

The HTC ChaCha and Salsa show a bit more innovation -- the two HTC "Facebook Phones" will include Gingerbread and a special key with the Facebook logo. When it is pressed, the phones are going to automatically bring up Facebook to the very segment of this social network that is associated to what the user is doing. For instance, if they were taking a photograph, a punch of this key would automatically upload the image to their Facebook profile.

The ChaCha will have a 2.6-inch screen, a 600 MHz processor and a QWERTY keypad, while Salsa will not have a physical keyboard, but it is going to include a 3.4-inch display. Both of these models are headed for AT&T.

Tablets, TooMobile World Congress 2011 was about more than smartphones, as this has become a venue for tablets, too.

Samsung presented its Galaxy Tab 10.1, its first Android OS 3.0 (Honeycomb) tablet. It comes with a touchscreen measuring 10.1 inches and weighs in at just 1.23 pounds, making it noticeably lighter than the iPad and Motorola XOOM. The secret behind it all is that it is entirely crafted out of solid plastic.

A preliminary review can be found on Brighthand's sister site,TabletPCReview.com:

• Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Hands-On Preview

In addition to its 3D smartphone, LG also presented a tablet which has 3D features -- the Optimus Pad, also known as the G-Slate. This is going to be an 8.9-inch tablet with Android OS 2.3 (Honeycomb), a stereoscopic back-facing camera for recording 3D video which can be watched on its screen with 3D glasses.

A first impressions review is on TabletPCReview.com:

• LG G-Slate/Optimus Pad Hands-On Preview

The tablet which got the most exposure in Barcelona was presented during the second half of the show, the HTC Flyer. It will come with a 7-inch display and Android OS 2.3 (Gingerbread) and HTC's Sense UI, adjusted for tablets. The Flyer will have an additional level of functionality due to the N-trig pen and HTC`s Scribe technology.

• HTC Flyer Hands-On Preview

LTE Was MIA
Apart from Google's Android OS, all of the devices presented in Barcelona have one more thing in common: they do not support LTE. Given that several smartphones and tablets that will use this up-to-date 4G technology were presented at CES in Las Vegas last month, Europe continues to lag behind the United States when it comes to LTE expansion.

Two of the biggest hits of the show were the Samsung Galaxy S II and the HTC Flyer support HSPA+ technology, but, it is clear that Europe will have to wait a while for new devices that support LTE.

US Air Force raising concerns over LightSquared's LTE network messing with GPS

Following a navigation system's instructions without driving into a ravine is hard enough as it is -- can you even imagine how hard it'd be if you kept losing GPS reception every time you drove within range of an LTE tower? There have been a few anecdotal concerns raised over the last several weeks thatLightSquared's proposed LTE network -- which would repurpose L-band spectrum formerly used for satellite -- is too close to the spectrum used by the Global Positioning System, leading to unintentional jamming when the towers overpower the much weaker GPS signals. Things have gotten a little more interesting, though, now that the US Air Force Space Command has officially piped in. General William Shelton has gone on record saying that "a leading GPS receiver manufacturer just ... has concluded that within 3 to 5 miles on the ground and within about 12 miles in the air GPS is jammed by those towers," calling the situation "unbelievable" and saying he's "hopeful the FCC does the right thing."

Presumably, the USAF thinks that "the right thing" would involve pulling LightSquared's license, but for its part, the company says it believes Shelton is referring to a test conducted by Garmin (possibly explaining that recent outage in the Southeastern US?) using simulated interference filters -- not theactual filters that it has spent several million dollars developing and perfecting. Regardless of how effective the filters might be, the idea that the only thing standing between a functional GPS system and a constellation of space-borne paperweights is a private company's privately-developed, privately-operated filtering equipment... but then again, we love LTE. Decisions!

Sony Ericsson CTO: first LTE device will come 'pretty soon,' also considering Android tablets

Back in late 2008, Ericsson boldly predicted that 2012 will be the year of LTE; and fast forward to today, one year shy of the big one-two, said company's joint venture with Sony is already teasing its first LTE device. In a recent interview with Fierce Wireless, Sony Ericsson CTO Jan Uddenfeldt talked about SE's renewed focus on the US market, and how its relationship with Google helped securing its first-ever deal with Verizon. While emphasizing that SE's been in the CDMA business for years in Japan, Uddenfeldt also referred to the TD-LTE demonstration with ST-Ericsson and China Mobile at MWC, which featured a prototype LTE device developed by his own gang. Looks like SE's all set to enter the game, but the question is when will we see its first LTE device on the market? Uddenfeldt said "pretty soon," and he further fuels speculation by mentioning a potential collaboration with Sony on some Android tablets (maybe the S1?). Oh, such a teaser this man is.

Sprint evaluating switches to LTE over the next four to six months

Sprint has had an on again / off again relationship with LTE for some time now, but it looks it may finally be nearing a commitment one way or the other. Speaking in a roundtable discussion at Mobile World Congress this week, Sprint's Senior Vice President of Networks, Bob Azzi, said that the carrier would be studying the rate at which its customers migrate from EV-DO to mobile WiMAX over the next four to six months, and that it would evaluate the best way to use its existing spectrum before it reaches a firm decision on a possible switch to LTE. As we've heard previously, that switch would be a fairly straightforward one from a technical standpoint due to the carrier's recent upgrades to its network, which allow it to upgrade its gear to LTE simply by swapping in a new baseband card and issuing a software patch.