Mobile World Congress 2008 Diary - Wednesday

The sun is blazing on Congress but there's desperation in the air as exhibiting companies everywhere pray the air conditioning in their hospitality suites holds up for two more days.

Welcome to day three - the day of the clammy handshake.

You can practically hear the panic: It'll all be over in but a handful of hours! Did we get the message out? Will anyone remember us? Why didn't we think of rustling up a Google Android demo to reel 'em in?

First stop is with RIM to find out what co-CEO Jim Balsillie has to say about mobile services after bagging an early morning video interview with Symbian CEO Nigel Clifford. A very personable chap indeed. The Symbian PR team were no less personable, asking me and my cameraman if we wanted any "Symbian goodies"? Goodies? Of course we wanted goodies! We trailed away from the stand clutching a miniature Rubik's cube and a stick of lipbalm.

RIM's Balsillie gets to the point: "My partner and I Mike Lazaridis have been doing the BlackBerry thing for 16 years," he begins, establishing his credentials before moving off to talk about Facebook.

Facebook! Truly, times have changed.

Yep, CIOs are going to have to get down with the kids because social networking is going to get real big in business circles, says Balsillie.

I also catch Yahoo! executive VP, Marco Boerries, who shows off a new product called OneConnect - due to launch this spring - which allows users to aggregate all their social networking comms in one place. Going to multiple websites is simply getting tooooo complicated. This is the age of the one-button phone after all (not counting the touchscreen).

Boerries' presentation is a veritable masterclass in Steve Jobs-isms. "Boom!" he says, demonstrating OneConnect's 'one-click' philosophy to this web 2.0 life.

"And Boom! We're now launching the Flickr service."

"Boom! I'm now launching MySpace on the mobile phone."

"And Boom! It's that easy!"

Boerries eventually whips out an iPhone and talks about how Yahoo! intends to get OneConnect running on said device. At this rate, Jobs will have to come up with a new party trick.

I depart the auditorium to be greeted by a smell of fish. Which is hardly ideal but a lot better than some of the scents wafting around Barcelona at the moment. The press room is a hive of manic, mobile working activity as hacks bristle with all sorts of mobile hardware - a vision of the future perhaps? Sadly it doesn't smell that nice either.

In the afternoon I trip over to Texas Instruments to get my own goggle at Google's Android. They have it running on a rather fetching prototype Qwerty handset - it's white and has rounded, toy-like edges as if to say: 'I'm a kitten, not an iPhone killer... purrr!'

Qualcomm also has an Android demo up and running - though not in physical phone form. It's just a screen attached to a motherboard so really does look like some kind of robot.

Back at the press room the activity is slightly less manic but copy deadlines and late night mobile-related events (parties) are clearly beginning to take their toll. One chap has put his head on his neatly folded jacket and gone to sleep on the corner desk.

Tonight BlackBerry is having its flagship MWC party - the hottest ticket in town. Last year they had Buena Vista Social Club playing. This year I am reliably informed Jamie Cullum will be plinking his piano. The biggest anticlimax of the day, however, is the revelation around Green Porno.

These made-for-mobile short films - starring Isabella Rossalini - are about the sex lives of insects. Talk about spinning a web of deceit...