Upping the smart quotient

The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is an annual showcase of the best that the leading telecoms, hardware and internet players of the world have come up with. This year, while the regular mobile phone giants were there hyping up their new gadgets, there were also a slew of new comers who seem like they might disrupt the party with their new tech. There were also a bunch of surprise entrants, either companies like Ikea, who have never been in the personal tech space before, or predominantly electronic parts and components makers like Huawei and NVIDIA, who have decided to step up the value chain. Here are three top picks from MWC 2015.

Huawei Smartwatch As always, Apple was conspicuous by its absence at Barcelona. But with more details about its much hyped and much awaited watch due out soon (Apple usually has a launch event in March), the talk of the town at this year’s MWC was the Huawei Watch. Looking like a regular chronograph with a round dial, the Huawei Watch can transform into a smartwatch and perform multiple functions. The watch sports a dial is 42mm dial with sapphire crystal glass and a stainless steel body. It runs Android Wear OS and can be customised with multiple virtual watch dials. Huawei is a Chinese telecoms equipment and networking infrastructure brand. Though Huawei has tried foraying into the gadgets market in the past, it has not made a serious dent in the personal tech space. But this smartwatch with its classic design elements could just be what can turn around Huawei’s image.

Ikea smart furniture Another unlikely participant, who made heads turn and brought out the selfie-sticks was Swedish flat-packing furniture giant Ikea. The brand has revealed a new ‘Home Smart’ range at MWC 2015, that’s bound to make life better for those who always forget to charge their phone. Furniture like lamps, bedside tables and charging pads fitted with wireless charging points for devices that can be used on flat surfaces. Fitted with wireless charging standard QI, that’s compatible with about 80 devices as of now, this is bound to change the way the world stays connected.

Fujitsu Iris-scan phone There was a time when mobile phones had just overtaken traditional cameras to become the largest selling…cameras. Then, in addition to satiating our selfie-addiction, mobile phone cameras doubled up as eye-trackers and either paused a movie or put the phone in sleep mode when we seemed to be dozing off.

Now, Fujitsu has developed a concept mobile phone with infrared lasers and cameras that scan the iris in your eyes to unlock the phone and allow access to its stored data.

Working “Mission Impossible style”, the phone is said to scan the iris in both the eyes and is claimed to be a more secure and reliable way of unlocking the phone. The iris is more unique compared to finger prints and there will be no lack of consistency in performance due to wet, sweaty or cold fingers. Fujitsu’s new devices to be launched later this year will sport this new tech.