We’re live from the LG G4 launch event!
Earlier this year, almost every smartphone maker revealed a flagship model at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. But not LG. The South-Korea based company has been relatively quiet since its introduction of the G Flex2, which was back at CES 2015. Today, though, LG is ready to announce the G4 in an event that’s taking place simultaneously across different parts of the globe. For our part, we’re in New York City and we’ll be bringing you the action as it happens, so stay tuned — the keynote’s set to begin at 11:00AM ET.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, LG
Huawei Honor 4C launched in China and it’s quite a bargain
The Asian smartphone market has been undergoing somewhat of a revolution lately, with numerous local manufacturers churning out handsets that offer incredible value for money. You will struggle to find a better example of just how tightly these Chinese companies are squeezing the margins than Huawei’s new Honor 4C, which has just been released in China.
The Honor 4C is priced at just CNY 799 (around $130) and is available from online Chinese retailers Tmall and Vmall. For this modest cost you will receive a handset with a 720p 5-inch display, octa-core Cortex-A53 powered HiSilicon Kirin 620 SoC, 2GB of RAM, a 13MP rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, 5MP front facing camera and a 2,550mAh battery. The smartphone also comes with 8GB of internal memory, a microSD card slot that supports an additional 32GB of storage and Huawei’s Android 4.4.2 KitKat based EMUI 3.0 software.
The Honor 4C is available in a choice of black, blue, gold, pink, or white color options. Unfortunately, the handset doesn’t look like it will be made available outside of China. However, Huawei’s growing presence in Asian and European markets may mean that a similarly compelling budget handset will appear in these regions in the future.
Spotify streaming comes to Polk Omni wireless speakers
Ever since Spotify announced Connect, a feature that lets you easily play music on various compatible devices, manufacturers quickly started taking advantage of it. Now, following in the footsteps of Libratone, Bang & Olufsen, Samsung and many other audio makers, Polk is finally bringing Spotify Connect support to its line of Omni wireless speakers. If you own of these, you’ll have to use the companion iOS or Android app to start the jams from your mobile device. Unfortunately, Polk’s only letting users stream to a single WiFi speaker at the moment, but the company says that multi-room streaming is coming soon to the Omni sets.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Wireless, Internet
Amazon’s making digital homework easier to assign, ugh
If you’ve ever seen a 6th grader lugging around a 30 pound backpack, you’ll understand the allure of e-readers and tablets as a replacement for traditional textbooks. To help school districts make the digital transition from physical textbooks, Amazon launched Whispercast, a free content management and distribution tool. Schools can buy or rent books directly via the online tool and push them to anything that supports the Kindle app including: Kindles, Fire Tablets, iOS, Android, Mac, Windows and Chromebooks. Today, the free two year-old online tool gets an upgrade with tiered administration, support for purchase orders, an easier-to-use online interface and an assisted setup service for new schools.
Whispercast aims to make distribution of digital media in schools and businesses as easy as a few clicks. The service enables central content administration of e-books, documents, apps and other media on multiple devices.
Today’s update adds more administrative deployment options. Instead of just having the IT department in charge of everything, tiered permissions can be given to teachers and other staff members. Educators can now control which of their classes get which documents with the online tool. “You want the ability to have this centralized, but when it comes to reading material, you want to give schools and teachers the power to deploy,” said Rohit Agarwal, general manager of Amazon Education.
To help those teachers deploy materials, Amazon says the tool itself has been redesigned to make it easier to create groups and distribute items thanks to a new step-by-step setup wizard. Of course, setting up an entire school or school district is another matter. To handle that, Amazon has launched a Digital Transition Service for K-12 and higher education customers. A representative will help get a school up and running.
Finally, the service now supports purchase orders and purchase cards for digital goods — something most schools require to help tracks costs. When it comes to shrinking school budgets, Whispercast could be the solution to buying physical books, especially books available in the public domain. Also, it’ll help reduce the chances of kids having lower back problems.
Filed under: Misc, Tablets, Software
Source: Amazon
Yet another Chinese firm launches an Android rival
If Frank Herbert was around today, the tagline of Dune would probably be “those that control their own operating system, controls the universe.” It’s an idea that China’s tech firms have taken to heart, crafting their own platforms in the hope of toppling Android as the go-to software in charge of everyone’s hardware. Tencent is the latest to throw its hat into the ring with a new OS that’s, unsurprisingly, able to be used on phones, games consoles, VR devices and smartwatches.
The offering itself is broken into two parts: TOS+, a “smart open platform strategy” that leverages the company’s various social services, including QQ, WeChat and Weiyun, sitting above the nuts-and-bolts Tencent OS. The company has pledged not to manufacture its own hardware, but will instead lean on firms like Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo and Qualcomm to help build devices. Information is sketchy as to the foundation of Tencent OS, but it’s highly likely that the system is a fork of Android, at least in some respects. Of course, Tencent isn’t the first outfit that’s attempted to beat Google at its own game, with Alibaba, Baidu and Korea’s Samsung all releasing their own OSes, with varying degrees of success.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Wearables
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Tencent (Translated)
LG to announce the G4 simultaneously in New York, Paris and London later today
Today is April 28th, and we all know what that means, that’s right, today is when LG unveils its latest flagship, the G4. There have been so many leaks, both official and unofficial, about the G4 that you could be forgiven for wondering if there is anything left for LG to show.
I guess we will see if LG has held anything back in a few hours time when the G4 is revealed to the world. The media event is being held simultaneously in New York, Paris and London and is scheduled to start at the following times:
- New York – 11am
- London – 4pm
- Johannesburg – 5pm
- Hong Kong – Midnight (Wednesday)
- Sydney – 3am (Wednesday)
Until then, this is what we expect to see from LG’s latest flagship handset that will go head-to-head with the best that HTC (One M9 review) and Samsung (Galaxy S6 review) can offer. Remember to join us closer to the time for more news from the G4’s media event. You can also keep track of when the announcement will begin by keeping an eye on LG’s countdown page.
Come comment on this article: LG to announce the G4 simultaneously in New York, Paris and London later today
Sprint’s LG G2 is receiving its Android 5.0 Lollipop OTA update, Changelog below
LG might be on the verge of announcing its latest flagship smartphone, the G4, in just a couple of hours, but that doesn’t mean that the G2 has been abandoned. Indeed, the venerable G2 has seen some carrier versions updated to Android 5.0 in recent times, and now it is the turn of Sprint’s G2 variant to receive some Lollipop goodness via OTA. We have the changelog below.
If you haven’t received the notification prompting you to update your G2, don’t panic. Go into Settings, General, About Phone and tap the Update Center to see if the update is ready for your handset. If the update is still not available, don’t worry, Sprint has said that it will be rolled out over a period of days.
If the Android 5.0 Lollipop update is available, just follow the onscreen instructions. Besides the usual lollipop goodness, the update will also update the FM Radio software on your device.
Source: Sprint
Come comment on this article: Sprint’s LG G2 is receiving its Android 5.0 Lollipop OTA update, Changelog below
Retail packaging of the LG G4 leaks before official announcement
LG may be about to officially unveil its latest flagship, the G4, in just a couple of hours time, but that doesn’t mean that the leaks have stopped. In this latest leak to hit the net, we can see the retail packaging of the LG G4.
As you can see from the main image, the top of the packaging is plain white with a slightly glossy finished and a circular indentation with the model name printed inside. It really doesn’t give much away at all. The bottom part of the packaging is more interesting, showing off some of the handsets specifications that include:
- 16MP F1.8 aperture Main camera
- 8MP Front (Selfie) camera
- a 3,000mAh removable battery
- a 138.8mm IPS Quantum Display (translates to roughly 5.5 inches)
- Quad-Beat 3 earphones
Also mentioned is the expected Qualcomm processor, although no specific model number is shown. It’s pretty much what we’ve been expecting to see, although it remains to be seen if LG has a surprise or two in store for us at the official G4 announcement later.
Source: PhoneArena
Via: UnderKG
Come comment on this article: Retail packaging of the LG G4 leaks before official announcement
Will the Xperia Z4 be rebranded as the Z3+ for international markets?
Could this device be released as the Xperia Z3+ when and if it sees international release?
When Sony announced the Xperia Z4 last week, it was met with disdain from almost everyone, some of our staff included. While the device arguably makes perfect sense for the Japanese market it’s intended for, the international community has been in a heightened state of agitation. The Z4, as it stands now, has some minor internal updates over its predecessor (namely the Snapdragon 810) but uses the exact same camera sensor as the Z3 along with a design that many feel is rehashed despite (admittedly subtle) changes.
Sony has yet to announce the Z4 for an international release yet, and if a new leak proves to be accurate, it seemingly won’t be for some time yet. Take a look:
The above picture allegedly comes from one of the packaging inserts contained with an official accessory for the Z4, the SCR30 Style Cover Window. As can be seen at the top, an “Xperia Z3+” is listed. Provided this leak is accurate, it would suggest that Sony is planning to rebrand the Z4 when it hits international markets.
The name change actually makes perfect sense, as fans have been hearing that the company is planning to make a major move with its next mainstay flagship, as well as reduce the release cycle to an annual basis. Just last week, we took a look at what such a “premium” flagship might look like when we asked readers to design it themselves.
Still, many will be quick to argue that this new naming nomenclature will create confusion within the company and its home country: what happens if the “real” Z4 releases in a few weeks or months? The solution is quite simple, really: All Sony has to do is rebrand the product in Japan. It could be called the “Xperia Z Neo” or “Xperia Z DX” and, assuming it’s the radically redesigned product so many are hoping for, the new name might be the perfect way to distance itself from the “Z” of old. The reverse might also be true: perhaps there will be no Z4 at all overseas and the new product will have a totally new name.
While many Sony fans are no doubt still a bit sour with the latest and greatest, assuming the name change is the real deal, would it reduce some of the resentment?
Hugo Barra guides us through the inside of a Mi 4i
Last week, Xiaomi’s Hugo Barra took to the stage in New Delhi to unveil the new Mi 4i smartphone, a compact and even more budget friendly version of the company’s flagship Mi 4. Somewhat uncharacteristic of a company vice president, Barra recently picked up a screwdriver to teardown the Mi 4i and talk us through a number of key design points.
Barra offers an interesting perspective on some of the engineering decisions taken with the Mi 4i. Such as making room for the rather large 3,120 mAh battery, avoiding compromises on the position of key components, and how the company stops the rear camera from protruding from the phone’s back.
The compact nature of the motherboard and accommodating dual-SIM slots explains why the Mi 4i doesn’t feature a microSD card expansion port. Barra also clarified that the 16GB internal memory leaves 10.9GB available for user apps and media. The company is also looking at user feedback to see if there’s demand for a 64GB model in the future. The phone also doesn’t feature Gorilla Glass 3, but has a custom glass solution designed by Corning for equal scratch resistance, but perhaps not quite the same strength, given its thin depth.
You can catch the teardown and talk in the video below.
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