Hasta La Gadget!

Bizarre concept phones, USB-enabled soccer balls and a solar-powered phone named after a shoe company are some of the stranger things the mobile phone industry has up its sleeve for the coming year.

All those and more were on display at the Mobile World Congress, a big, annual cellphone tradeshow in Barcelona, Spain, that ended on Thursday. Windows Phone 7 Series and Google’s Android OS stole the headlines, but there was a lot more going on this week than just boring, sensible product launches.

As the booth babes danced their last humiliating dance and the suits squeezed off their last, unnecessary and job-justifying e-mails, we took a look at the best of the rest of the show.

The photo above shows the flags at the entrance to La Fira, the venue of the show, which is turned into a swirling hub of chaos for a week every year. Even the roads around the exhibit halls are fenced off to give more space to conference-goers and their gadgets.

The Puma Phone is a joint project between the sneaker company and Sagem, and it’s more about the fun than the phone. It’s solar-powered by a cell-covered back panel, and the menus are actually enjoyable to use: Dimming the screen involves using the touchscreen to push a cloud icon over a sun icon, for example.

But the best part is the pet Puma that lives inside, and pops up onscreen from time to time. Why do we like this? His name is Dylan, just like silky voiced Gadget Lab editor Dylan Tweney. (Editor’s note: I’m totally getting this phone.)