What's big at Mobile World Congress 2013

New hardware, gadgets, and business partnerships are creating buzz at Mobile World Congress, and it's only day one.

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Android tablet by HP

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Hewlett-Packard introduced the Slate 7, a 7-inch tablet running Android 4.1. This is the first tablet HP has released since the HP Touchpad, which it discontinued less than two months later, according to TechCrunch. The Slate 7 is expected to go on sale in April with a price tag of $169.

HP hopes that printing will set the tablet apart in the eyes of consumers. The company has enabled printing from most apps through drivers and HP’s ePrint technology.

Ars Technica says the tablet looks attractive for the price, but that it might not be able to shut out the Nexus 7 and its higher-quality specs. The Nexus has a quad-core Tegra 3 processor, a higher resolution, and more internal storage. The Slate 7 has 2.4 GHz processor, 1 GB in RAM, 8 GB of internal storage.

Chris Velazco of TechCrunch says the Slate 7 functional and affordable, but not much else: “Swiping between home screens could be a little jerkey (if it worked at all; quick swipes didn’t always get the job done), and there was a bit of delay as I went to fire up new apps — though some non-final software probably has something to do with that.”

Mobile pay?

Visa and MasterCard are trying to make mobile pay happen with their new digital services. While MasterCard introduced its digital service, “MasterPass,” Visa announced that the Samsung Galaxy S4 will incorporate the company’s PayWave mobile payment applet.

Samsung has worked on improving the connection technology for mobile pay, near-field communication, but the partnership with Visa suggests it will finally worked out the kinks, CNET suggests.

The MasterPass service will support NFC, QR codes, tags, and mobile devices used at points for sale, according to ZD Net. One plus of the product, according to Master Card at least, is safety. MasterPass is expected to store personal information through a secure cloud.

Galaxy S4 to launch elsewhere

Samsung will launch the Galaxy S4, the successor to the world’s most popular smart phone. Just not at MWC, ZD Net reports. Instead, Samsung will host its own launch event on March 14 (also known as Pi Day) in New York.

The company decided on a New York venue after receiving numerous requests from American carriers to reveal the devices in the US, according to a Reuters report.