We now have a rough idea how much the friendly LG G5 modules will cost

Excited about the launch of the LG G5? We are too, and we bet some of you are also looking forward to trying out these new LG and Friends modules that can slot inside the phone. The only issue is we have yet to receive official word as to how much these magic slot add-ons will cost. Now, thanks to an official Korean press release, we have a rough idea as to how much we’ll need to part with (at least in Korea anyway).

LG will offer a small array of modules that can be plugged into the G5, including a camera (plus extra battery) module and another with enhanced audio chips. According to the Korean press release, these new modules will cost the consumer around $85 (₩ 99,000) and $160 (₩ 189,000), respectively. The spare battery, which most will receive free of charge, will be priced at approximately $35 (₩ 39,000).

It’s worth noting that these are rough conversions and will not likely represent international pricing. That said, we can’t imagine listings to be far off. Would you be looking to invest in a module or two? Let us know your thoughts on the LG and Friends, as well as potential prices, in the comments!

• Will the LG G5 modules matter?

LG G5

• LG G5 hands-on
• LG G5 complete specs
• LG G5 CAM Plus module
• LG G5 B&O Hi-Fi audio module
• The G5 has an always-on display
• LG G5 keeps the SD card, shuns adoptable storage
• Join the LG G5 discussion

Galaxy S6, S6 edge and S6 edge+ receive Marshmallow update in India

Following the launch of the Galaxy S7 in the country, Samsung has started rolling out the Marshmallow update to last year’s flagships. The Galaxy S6, S6 edge and S6 edge+ are all receiving the OTA update to Android 6.0.

As noted by SamMobile, the update clocks in at 1.2GB, bringing Doze, Google Now on Tap, advanced app permissions, and more.

If you’re rocking the Galaxy S6, S6 edge, or the S6 edge+, head into Settings -> About device -> Software update to see if an update is available.

Already on Marshmallow? How are you liking the changes?

LG G5 pre-orders now open at Best Buy, includes spare battery kit and USB-C to microUSB adapter

Best Buy is now accepting pre-orders for the LG G5 on AT&T and Sprint, but Verizon customers will have to wait until March 24 to place their order. The retailer is offering a $100 instant savings when purchasing on a 2-year Sprint contract, or a $100 gift card for those who sign up for AT&T’s monthly payment plan.

All of the phones will come with a sweet accessory package, which at Best Buy includes:

LG G5 for $99.99 After $100 Savings with purchase and activation of 2-year contract with Sprint. Or, get a free $100 Best Buy gift card with purchase and activation of monthly installment plan for AT&T or Sprint. Plus, get a free replacement battery, charging cradle and USB-C to micro-USB adapter. Bundle value $90. Available for pre-order starting 3/18 for AT&T and Sprint; starting 3/24 for Verizon.

Will you be pre-ordering the LG G5, or does something else have your interest? Let us know what your next phone will be!

Join the pre-order discussion in the forums

See at Best Buy

LG G5

• LG G5 hands-on
• LG G5 complete specs
• LG G5 CAM Plus module
• LG G5 B&O Hi-Fi audio module
• The G5 has an always-on display
• LG G5 keeps the SD card, shuns adoptable storage
• Join the LG G5 discussion

You can pre-order the LG G5 in silver exclusively at Carphone Warehouse

LG is prepping pre-orders in the UK for the G5 and Carphone Warehouse is offering the upcoming flagship on a wide array of plans. As is the case with some listings for the LG G5, Carphone Warehouse is bundling a free pair of B&O headphones worth £149.

What’s more is should you be on the lookout for the silver variant, you’ll need to pre-order through Carphone Warehouse as the retailer holds exclusivity over this particular color. Other options are available. Plans also vary depending on chosen carrier, but we quite like the look of the £36 a month contract with an upfront fee of £59.99 and 11GB of data.

See at Carphone Warehouse

LG G5

• LG G5 hands-on
• LG G5 complete specs
• LG G5 CAM Plus module
• LG G5 B&O Hi-Fi audio module
• The G5 has an always-on display
• LG G5 keeps the SD card, shuns adoptable storage
• Join the LG G5 discussion

Nixon Mission eyes-on: Android Wear goes hardcore

Android Wear is tracing a fairly typical timeline through technology. That might sound like a strange thing to say, but it’s true. We first saw it on some fairly basic devices from some companies very close to Android. We’ve seen it develop, evolve, appear in a wide range of watches, until there was a bigger change: the Tag Heuer Connected launched.

That might also seem like a strange thing to say, but Tag Heuer is distinctly different to a company like LG or Huawei. This was followed by Fossil, then Casio, and now we can add Nixon to the list.

While Tag Heuer, Casio, Fossil and Nixon use the same technologies we’ve seen elsewhere, these companies are something else: they are fashionable watch brands. They are also excited about what Android Wear can do for them. We’re beyond that stage of Android Wear being an obscure geeky technology and we’re starting to see it hit the mainstream. We’re now at the stage where companies can design watches knowing that the technology is all there and ready.

Pocket-lint

But where the LG G Watch (for example) was essentially a vessel for the conveyance of Android Wear, the Nixon Mission – like the Casio WSD-F10 – has been designed with a purpose. It’s being pitched as a connected action watch for surf and snow. In doing so, it avoids the vagary of being just another smartwatch, letting Nixon go to town on the design, but also following a line of devices it has worked on before.

This is a big watch, we don’t have the exact size of that display, but the first thing that will strike you is how big it is sitting in a 48mm case. We didn’t get the chance to put it on, but at least you can use the excuse that if you’re using this strapped over a wetsuit, then size is good.

The orange finish is the most distinctive, but Nixon is going to be offering the Mission in a range of options. This isn’t one design fits all, it’s a choice of 20 bands and a choice of 15 bezels. Remember, this is as much about fashion as it is function. You’ll also be able to choose your own case to keep the thing in.

That’s because this isn’t being pitched as a watch you’ll wear day-in-day-out. As we said, this is a watch designed with a purpose. In that vein you’ll find Mission has added to Android Wear with real-time conditions for surf (powered by Surfline) and snow (from Snocountry), as well as a Trace app to track your routes and monitor your sessions.

With sporting ambitions the rugged design fits. The display is topped with Gorilla Glass and the case is polycarbonate, with a 316L stainless steel raised bezel. It’s proofed to 100m, or 10 atmospheres. There’s even a Gore-Tex lining. 

Sitting at the heart is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear 2100. This is the first chipset designed specifically for smartwatches and the Nixon Mission is one of the first commercial devices announced that uses it. How it will perform and how long the battery will last remains to be seen.

There’s still plenty we don’t know about the Nixon Mission – like the price – but it’s expected to be hitting shelves in autumn 2016. Importantly, however, the Nixon Mission goes beyond just being another Android Wear device: it’s a smartwatch with a purpose.

LG G5 pre-order deals for 1 April release date: Here are the prices and amazing freebies

The LG G5 will be available from 1 April but you wouldn’t be a fool if you pre-ordered one from several of the UK’s networks or retailers now. That’s because they are offering some amazing deals for the flagship Android smartphone.

The phone was a real show stopper at Mobile World Congress in February, proving that you can still do something a bit different in a saturated market.

It has a 5.3-inch 2560 x 1440 IPS LCD display, octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of on board storage. And there’s a microSD card slot for expansion.

There’s also a USB Type-C port and QuickCharge 3.0 for superfast charging. The cameras are 16-megapixel and 8-megapixel rear and front respectively.

READ: LG G5 preview: Modular, metal, made for fun

What’s most different about the LG G5 however is that it is compatible with an accessory line-up LG calls “LG Friends”. These are modular add-ons that change the abilities of the phone and include the LG Cam Pro, which adds a better camera, LG Hi-Fi Pro, which improves the audio output dramatically as it’s co-designed with Bang & Olufsen, and an extended battery pack.

These all cost extra but to find out how much you can get the main LG G5 smartphone and what pre-order deals are available, read on. We’ll also update this round-up as other details become known to us.

READ: LG G5: Release date, specs and everything you need to know

LG G5 from Carphone Warehouse

To celebrate the phone’s connection with Bang & Olufsen, Carphone Warehouse is including a pair of B&O Play H3 in-ear headphones worth £149 with every pre-order while they last.

The high-street retailer is offering the phone across several networks, including EE, O2, Vodafone and its own iD provider. One of the most economical price plans is £37.49 a month for a 24-month plan and £29.99 upfront cost.

That’ll get you 5G of 4G data a month and unlimited texts and minutes on EE.

Alternatively, you can get the monthly cost down to £26 a month if you pay £149.99 upfront. That gets you 3GB of monthly data and unlimited texts and minutes on Vodafone.

You can also get deals without upfront costs for the handset from £37.50 a month.

The grey, gold and silver versions of the LG G5 are all available.

FIND OUT MORE: Carphone Warehouse

LG G5 from EE

Instead of Carphone Warehouse you can opt to go straight to the networks. EE, for example, is offering even more freebies. It ups the ante by giving away a similar set of B&O Play H3 in-ear headphones and adding a B&O Play S3 Bluetooth speaker – a combination set it claims is worth over £400.

It only ranges the grey (Titan) and gold handsets, but plans start at £29.99 a month for 24 months, with the handset costing £99.99 upfront.

That will get you 1GB of 4G data, 500 minutes of talktime and unlimited texts.

If you want to pay less upfront for the phone, the cheapest deal is £39.99 a month for 24 months with a £9.99 upfront cost. That gets you 4GB of data and unlimited texts and minutes.

Ordering the phone from EE will also get you Wi-Fi Calling and 4G calling, which means that voice calls will switch to data connections if the mobile signal is not strong enough. It will default to your Wi-Fi network at home, for example. You only get that when ordered directly from EE.

READ: Wi-Fi Calling: What is it and which devices support it?

FIND OUT MORE: EE

LG G5 from Virgin Media

If you’re after a new telly and willing to wait until the 1 April release date, Virgin Media has a staggering deal for LG G5 purchases. It is giving away a free 32-inch LG HD TV when customers purchase the phone from that date.

The 32LH510 TV is worth £250 and will be available from launch day, so just hold off from pre-ordering if you want to snag one.

Freestyle price plans will start at £31 a month with no upfront fee for the LG G5 itself. That will include 250MB of 3G data.

Virgin Media’s Freestyle plans also offer the ability to increase or decrease the monthly airtime tariff every month. And the Wi-Fi Buddy app will hook you up to thousands of secure Wi-Fi hotspots around the UK for free.

The phone will be available from Virgin Media’s website and in-store from 1 April.

FIND OUT MORE: Virgin Media

LG G5 from Vodafone

Like Carphone Warehouse, Vodafone is giving away a free pair of B&O Play H3 in-ear heaphones with every pre-order on a Red or Red Value Bundle plan.

The first 2,000 customers who pre-order the phone will get the additional headphones, worth £149, and you need to get your order in by 31 March as the phone ships on 1 April, like with others.

Vodafone is offering the LG G5 in grey (Titan) and gold colours on 24-month price plans, starting at £29 a month with an upfront cost of £49 for 1GB of 4G data, 1,000 talk minutes and unlimited texts.

Alternatively, you can get the phone for a £9 upfront cost on a £34 a month tariff. That includes 2GB of data and unlimited minutes and texts.

Vodafone Red Value plans also include six-months of Netflix, Now TV, Spotify or Sky Sports and inclusive calls to the UK from Europe from £39 a month with a £9 upfront handset fee.

FIND OUT MORE: Vodafone

LG G5 from O2

We’re still waiting for O2 to open its pre-order pages and reveal details.

You can register your interest in the LG G2 at O2 directly on its dedicated webpage.

LG G5 from Three

Like O2, Three is yet to reveal details about its LG G5 pre-orders or price plans.

We expect Three to post details on its webpage at three.co.uk soon.

All Sky customers to get live Sky Sports free… through new Sky Sports Mix channel

Sky is launching an all-new Sky Sports channel that will be free to all of its TV customers and offer a selection of different, live sporting events.

Sky Sports Mix will include live sports including football, golf, cricket and more, and won’t cost anything extra on top of a basic Sky TV subscription.

Like Sky Sports News HQ, it will be available to all.

The new channel will launch this summer and will feature a select number of Premier League and Football League matches from the start of next season. It will also cover some live matches from La Liga in Spain, the US MLS and FIFA World Cup 2018 qualifiers. It will also focus on women’s sports, with live coverage of women’s golf, cricket and netball.

As well as live content, there will be documentaries, sports entertainment shows and other sports programming.

READ: Behind the scenes at Sky Sports News HQ, bringing social, digital and broadcast closer together

“With Sky Sports Mix, we are giving millions more people access to great moments from some of the world’s biggest sporting events at no extra cost. It is a fantastic way for all Sky customers to be able to enjoy some of the great content that has made Sky Sports the first choice for sport,” said Barney Francis, Sky Sports managing director.

“Sky Sports Mix will bring sport to more people and provide many different ways of enjoying our coverage, from high profile live events and fascinating documentaries to clips of incredible moments. Our aim is to offer sport in a way that can engage, encourage and excite everyone even further.”

It is not known as yet whether other TV services, such as Virgin Media, will also offer Sky Sports Mix as part of their subscription or bundled into a sports package.

Domino’s has built an autonomous pizza delivery robot

For a pizza chain, Domino’s actually has a pretty rich history of innovation. It’s embraced social media, created a one-click Easy Order button and even built a delivery car that has its own pizza oven. Now it’s looking at robots. More specifically: delivery robots. What you see here is DRU (Domino’s Robotic Unit), an autonomous delivery vehicle built in collaboration with Australian technology startup Marathon Targets that Domino’s says is the first of its kind. It’s filled with thousands of dollars worth of military robotics tech, but its covert mission has been to deliver fresh pizza to the residents of Queensland.

DRU is still in the prototype stage, but that doesn’t mean that it hasn’t been busy. Domino’s worked with the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads to ensure it met all the requirements to be set loose on the streets. It uses LIDAR, the same technology utilized by self-driving cars, to identify the surrounding environment and has built-in GPS tracking technology that syncs with Google Maps. It’s actually very similar to Starship Technologies’ eponymous delivery robots, which will soon hit the streets of London.

Lifehacker Australia reports that the robot’s first deliveries customer were made in a number of restricted streets permitted by the local transport authorities. It’s locked to prevent people from snagging some fresh pizza, so when it arrives at its destination, customers need to enter a mobile code that opens DRU’s insulated storage (which has both hot and cool compartments).

Although DRU will initially be tested in Australia, Domino’s says it’s working with “global partners” to ensure the delivery droid meets the necessary requirements to be tested on roads and footpaths. Vehicles will start appearing in stores within the next six months, but it could take up to two years for pizza delivery shuttles to become a regular sight on the streets of Queensland.

Source: Domino’s, Maraton Targets

Watch tissue-based robots move in response to light

Researchers have modified muscle cells to move in response to light, which could eventually result in “bio-bots” useful for health or environmental applications. The breakthrough was made possible by the rapidly expand field of optogenetics, in which algae genes are spliced with muscle tissue from mice to make it sensitive to blue light. The team from the University of Illinois started with a 3D-printed hyrogel skeleton, then looped a ring of the modified tissue around. By firing a flash intermittently, they were able to make the muscle move, and even “exercise” it to become stronger.

The researchers previously stimulated bio-bots with electrical signals, but those can adversely affect a biological setting and don’t allow for selective control. “Light is a noninvasive way to control these machines,” says the school’s bioengineering head Rashid Bashir. “It gives us flexibility in the design and motion.” By strategically positioning the rubber-band like rings of muscle on the backbone, the team was able to make bio-bots that perform a variety of functions. “We can have multiple legs and multiple rings. With the light, we can control which direction things move,” says Bashir.

Previous bots used thicker pieces of muscle, but the thin tissue can more easily absorb light and nutrients. The researchers also exercised the muscle daily using light, making it stronger and able to move farther when contracted. The next step will be to design different types of 3D-printed skeleton designs and use them as “building blocks” for larger bots. “People can now use this to build higher-order systems,” says grad student Ritu Raman. Not too high-order, though, please.

Via: Gizmag

Source: University of Illinois

Sky to offer Premier League matches on its basic TV packages

In its latest bid to stand out from broadcasting rival BT, Sky is launching a new sports channel that will be available to subscribers who don’t pay for a Sky Sports bundle. It’s called Sky Sports Mix and it’ll feature live football, golf and international cricket, as well as more coverage from women’s sporting competitions.

It allows Sky, which already licences its sports channels to rival broadcasters, to keep its content behind a paywall and open its Premier League coverage, which is normally reserved for Sky Sports customers, to all of its TV subscribers. La Liga, MLS, FIFA World Cup 2018 qualifiers will also be shown, as well as a select number of Football League matches.

BT has made it hard for Sky in recent years, after it secured Premier League, Champions League and Europa Cup rights and began bundling its channels with its broadband packages. However, the provider is required to show some European games for free to meet UEFA requirements. Sky’s new channel will host some of the 126 live Premier League games it bagged for almost £4.2 billion over the next three seasons.

“With Sky Sports Mix, we are giving millions more people access to great moments from some of the world’s biggest sporting events at no extra cost,” says Sky Sports Managing Director, Barney Francis. “It is a fantastic way for all Sky customers to be able to enjoy some of the great content that has made Sky Sports the first choice for sport.”

Source: Sky