LG G Flex Is Coming To European Markets

In a quest to dominate the smartphone market, LG will soon be introducing the curved LG G Flex to a few European markets in the coming month. It will be interesting to see how curvy it may prove to the dominanting curved smartphone makers.

As a high-end smartphone, the LG G Flex actually has much to offer except its 6- inch display that has a 1280x720 pixel resolution which may break hearts of many High Definition lovers. The rest of the hardware is really worth trying. LG Flex is powered by a 2.3 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 running on 2 GB of RAM, with 32 GB of data storage, 13 megapixel rear camera, and a 3500 mAh Curved battery.

Beyond the top-notch specs and curved shape, the G Flex also offers of a self- healing back cover that can magically make scratches disappear.

Currently The G Flex is actually available in only a few markets, namely Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore. And it will be making its way to US soon. Smartphone lovers can pre-order this curved gadget via T-Mobile and AT&T's Contract Policy.

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LG to Unveil webOS- Powered TV

South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc. will soon take the veils off a television model that will run on the “webOS” operating system, highlighting its ambition of creating a prominent operating system for so-called smart TVs.

LG bought webOS, a mobile-device operating system, from Hewlett-Packard Co. earlier this year. The operating system was originally developed by Palm Inc. to power smartphones that would compete with the likes of Apple Inc.’s iPhones. H-P acquired Palm in 2010 and used webOS to power a tablet and its smartphone models. But the system failed to gain traction with the developers who write apps for devices and the devices didn’t sell well.

Despite H-P’s struggles with the operating system, LG had said in February, when announcing the deal, that it was drawn to webOS because of its technology and because the company wanted its own operating system.

LG now plans to showcase an Internet- connected television model powered by webOS in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, a person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.

He didn’t elaborate on the features of the operating system, but said it would retain the “cards” system, or a stack of pop-ups that allows users to navigate multiple applications, originally used in the webOS mobile devices launched by H-P.

The person didn’t comment on the company’s plans to market the webOS-powered TVs but said the operating system may be developed and later adopted for LG’s other consumer electronics, including smartphones.

LG, the world’s second-largest TV market after Samsung Electronics Co., has been busy churning out new premium TV models this year to spark interest in a segment that accounts for nearly 40% of its revenue. The company is also set to showcase a whopping 105-inch curved-screen television at CES, with a similar model expected from Samsung.

While the market for operating systems for mobile devices is dominated by Google Inc.’s Android, there is no such leader for smart TVs.

Samsung has long been working on a new operating system, together with Intel Corp., dubbed the Tizen that is expected to power smartphones and TVs. Tizen’s expected debut next year will likely intensify the competition between the two Korean conglomerates.

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LG Odin processor shows up in Antutu benchmarks

A few days ago information surfaced regarding possible specs for the new LG G3 smartphone expected to be released during 2014. Among those specs was a reference to LG’s Odin processor, their own in-house chip that has been in development for a while now. The ability to produce component parts in house will be a key part of LG’s strategy if they want to challenge Samsung’s supremacy. Results have now surfaced that seem to indicate the Odin chip have been run through the paces with the Antutu benchmark, though we may be left still wondering just what Odin is capable of as well as whether the test device was an early prototype of the LG G3.

According to the Antutu benchmark, the Odin chip was only running at about 1 GHz. Despite the slow speed, the Odin posted results similar to several other popular chips though certainly not at the top of the heap. The question now is whether LG had the chip slowed down for these initial tests or have they figured out a way to squeeze respectable performance out of a chip running at only 1 GHz. If the latter, that could be a sign of significant power conservation characteristics for the chip. Earlier reports indicated the quad-core version of the Odin chip could run at 2.2 GHz. An octa-core version is supposedly in development as well.

The results also indicate the graphics processing unit is part of the PowerVR Rogue series. This is the same family of graphical chips that powers the iPhone 5S. A good gpu will be needed if the LG G3 comes equipped with a 2k display, although the unit in this current test was only running at 1920×1080 resolution.

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LG G3 Specs: Leaked

The LG G3 probably won’t be released for at least 8 months, but it’s never to early to speculate what the hardware will be.

According to “unidentified industry sources,” the LG G3 will support a 2,560 x 1,440 IPS LCD display, an octa-core processor, and a 16MP rear camera.

We presume the octa-core will be LG’s own processor codenamed “Odin.” The big question is if this processor will be widely available for all regions or be similar to Samsung’s situation, in which most of the world doesn’t get the Exynos octa-core?

Like I said, there is a still a lot time before we see the G3, so these specs could easily change.

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LG's HomeChat will let you command its latest smart Appliances via SMS

LG really, really wants you to have a good chat with your washer/dryer and robotic vacuum cleaner. It just announced you'll soon be able to use the Line messaging app and a new service called HomeChat to give natural language commands to its 2014 Smart Appliance lineup. If you tell the system "I'm going on vacation," for instance, it'll put your refrigerator into power-savings mode and program the robotic vacuum cleaner.
The app will also update you as to what's in the fridge, show a history of your robotic vacuum's cleaning trips and recommend recipes via the smart oven, to name a few other features.
LG also announced NFC tagging and smart diagnoses for its upcoming smart appliance lineup, a scheme that'll help you avoid unnecessary repair visits, download new washing machine cycles and more. All of this will arrive in the flesh at CES 2014 , but if you're interested, maybe avoid seeing Maximum Overdrive in the meantime.
Source: LG

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LG G Pad 8.3 News & Reviews

If you've been eyeing the LG G Pad 8.3 , your decision just became more difficult. Yesterday Google announced -- and began shipping -- a Google Play edition of the tablet for $350 in the US, which makes it the very first slate to receive the stock Android treatment. What does this mean, exactly? Google Play editions come with Android 4.4 KitKat without any manufacturer or carrier customizations, so it looks precisely the way Google intends it. This can be good or bad, because there are a couple tradeoffs you need to consider: The good news is that these types of devices typically get upgrades to the newest version of Android far earlier than the vast majority of smartphones and tablets, but you also need to give up a few features that were unique to their skinned counterparts.
In the case of the G Pad 8.3, this means you won't be able to enjoy the Knock On (aka, "double-knock") feature, nor will you have Slide Aside or access to a litany of LG's Q-branded functions like QPair, QRemote or QSlide. None of these missing services are crucial to the functionality of the G Pad, although we must admit that we've grown rather fond of Knock On. The camera interface is also quite different, but the only thing that might frustrate you is the lack of manual settings; if you only rely on automatic mode to make the photo magic for you, this likely won't be an issue of concern. Just like we saw on the Z Ultra Google Play edition, the G Pad also doesn't come with the native Android gallery app, as it appears that the Google+ Photos app has taken its place as the default. You'll also have the stock camera UI to deal with, rather than LG's, so you won't be able to make many manual adjustments. Of course, this probably isn't a huge concern for a lot of tablet users who may only use their camera for basic needs.
Aside from software changes, you're not going to see anything different on the outside. The dimensions are all the same as the original model, as are the actual hardware components. It's only available in black (the back strip is fitted with brushed metal, with black plastic ends), but it's offered for the same price as the model we reviewed last month.
Source: Engadget

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