LG X Power2 is designed for those who hit the battery hard

The LG X Power2, announced today, is not the best specified phone from the company but it does have an enormous battery.

The 5.5-inch, 1280 x 720 screened device has a 4,500mAh battery which LG claims is the biggest it’s put in a smartphone. The company says that it will last up to 26 hours for talk time, up to 18 hours for video viewing or up to 19 hours of web browsing on a full charge.

There’s a 5-megapixel wide-angle camera on the front, with auto shot and gesture interval shot modes for triggering selfies as soon as a face or hand is detected. A 13-megapixel camera can be found on the rear, plus a soft LED flash.

• LG G6 review: The first truly great flagship phone for 2017

The LG X Power2 will be “competitively priced” for a large-screened product although actual, final pricing is yet to be announced and will vary per region.

It will be available in North America from this month, May, with other markets, including Europe, Asia and Latin America to follow.

“The LG X power2 was designed to meet the demands of users who want maximum usage from their smartphones between charges and many of the advanced features found on our flagship devices,” said Juno Cho, president of LG Mobile.

Oukitel K10000 Pro is a phone with a 15 day battery life

Chinese-based manufacturer Oukitel has announced the K10000 Pro smartphone. It’s the successor to the K10000 released in 2015 and there’s just one thing they have in common. A mammoth 10,000mAh battery that claims to last up to 15 days on a single charge.

Oukitel says the huge battery takes three and a half hours to recharge thanks to flash charge technology in the supplied 12V/2A charger.

We recently reported on the LG X Power2, which has a 4,500mAh battery that can last up to 26 hours. The K10000 Pro simply laughs in the face of it and its comparatively puny battery life. 

However, it’s the battery that is the headline-grabbing spec, as elsewhere you’ll find a 5.5-inch full HD 1080p display with Gorilla Glass coating, 1.5GHz MediaTek MT6750T processor with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage. These are all upgrades over the original K10000’s 1GHz processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage.

Design-wise, going by the teaser image, there appears to be what looks like a fingerprint scanner underneath the rear camera and a leather-effect rear panel. There’s also glimpse of what looks like a pen in the image, which could be a stylus, but that one is up for debate. 

Details concerning the camera have yet to be released, but the previous version had an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 3-megapixel sensor on the front. We’d expect the K10000 Pro to have the same or something slightly better. 

It’s also not clear which version of Android the Pro will ship with, here’s hoping it’s a newer version than 5.1 Lollipop that came pre-installed with its predecessor.

Oukitel says the K10000 Pro should go on sale sometime in June, but hasn’t given anything more concrete, and it’s unlikely to be made available in the UK. However sites such as Gearbest.com make it possible to buy foreign phones in the UK, so best to keep your eyes peeled nearer the launch date.

LucidSound LS35X Xbox headset is first to connect to Xbox One and Project Scorpio wire-free

LucidSound is a fairly new company when it comes to gaming peripherals but it is carving a niche for itself quickly.

It has released several quality headsets for gamers, such as the LS40 pair we saw at CES 2017 in January, that can be directly compared to more conventional headphones, such as those from Beats or Bowers & Wilkins.

Now it is breaking the mould further, when it comes to devices designed for Xbox consoles, with the LucidSound LS35X. The officially licensed cans, which will work with Xbox One and forthcoming Project Scorpio, are the first to offer true wireless capabilities. They can be connected wirelessly to either Microsoft machine without any further kit. They do not require a receiver or to be plugged into a game controller.

The LS35X can also connect to a Windows 10 PC.

Each on-ear cup uses a precision 50mm neodymium driver. The headset is also compatible with Windows Sonic for Headphones surround sound technology, which creates a virtual 3D surround effect when in play. Dolby Atmos for Headphones is also supported.

It will debut at E3 2017 where Pocket-lint hopes to go hands-on – or, at least, ears-on. We also hope to find out the final release date and price at the show. We’ll keep you up to date.

The Morning After: Tuesday, May 9th 2017

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

This morning we’re expecting big news from Amazon, and we have a finally have a trailer for the new Blade Runner movie. Oh, and there’s a spray that can put touch controls on anything.

Stay tuned.Amazon’s touchscreen ‘Echo Show’ could be revealed today

If these leaks are correct, we know the name of Amazon’s “touchscreen Echo,” its price and possibly even the release date. The Wall Street Journal reports the company will announce its new device this week, with built-in intercom/video calling features. Separately, a leaked flyer on AFTVnews called the device the Echo Show, saying it will be revealed today with a $230 price tag and shipments starting June 28th.

This is becoming a habit.John Oliver made another net neutrality plea, and the FCC’s website crashed again

Since the FCC seems poised to roll back protections on net neutrality, Last Week Tonight host John Oliver got on his soapbox again. His website GoFCCYourself gave viewers a way to easily submit comments instead of using the commission’s convoluted process, right up until the FCC page collapsed. In a statement, the FCC blamed a DDoS attack for tying up its servers.

A pricey 5cSenator confirms FBI paid $900k to unlock San Bernardino iPhone

Remember early last year when Apple was embroiled in a battle with the FBI over privacy — specifically whether it could (or would) crack an iPhone 5C following the San Bernardino terrorist attack? While questioning FBI director James Comey, Senator Diane Feinstein revealed that the agency spent $900,000 to “hack it open.”

Atari?‘Blade Runner 2049’ trailer teases the replicant dilemma

Blade Runner 2049’s first real trailer has more than vanity footage of Rick Deckard’s return. It leans heavily on nostalgia and some amazing visuals while setting us up for the film’s debut October 6th.

And for photos.Qualcomm’s new mid-tier mobile chips are good news for gaming

With the Snapdragon 660 and 630, Qualcomm is setting us up to expect more powerful mid-range phones later this year. High-end features like 4K video processing, dual rear cameras, speedy LTE and WiFi downloads and AI processing are all onboard. Plus, there’s an upgraded GPU to push polygons faster than mid-range buyers are accustomed to experiencing.

Iconic.Apple wants to sell iPhones out of Washington D.C.’s Carnegie Library

Apple would turn most of the Library into one of its shining beacons of modernity while (hopefully) respecting its 114-year legacy.

But wait, there’s more…

• Microsoft just fixed a serious Windows Defender bug — update ASAP
• ‘Electrick’ spray puts touch controls on anything
• Microsoft VP says there’s no Surface Pro 5 (yet)
• Burger Clan and the weird history of awkward video game promos
• Google’s mysterious Fuchsia OS looks like an Android re-do
• The K10000 Pro Android phone packs a massive, fast-charging battery worthy of its name

The Morning After is a new daily newsletter from Engadget designed to help you fight off FOMO. Who knows what you’ll miss if you don’t subscribe.

3D modeling helps gym climbers replicate real mountain routes

You can create a seemingly endless array of things with commercial 3D printers, but they won’t be very durable. Dartmouth researchers developed a novel method combining multiple fabrication techniques to make robust, custom-made artifacts. The challenge they set themselves to test their new method? Simulating real-world rock walls by recreating every handhold using their process.

The researchers took hundreds of photos from two routes in Utah and New Hampshire and assembled them into 3D models of key “crux” points where climbers would stick hands and feet on the way up. The team made the handholds using rapid prototyping, molding and casting techniques, then arranged the finished molds up an indoor gym’s wall to mimic the specific routes. Then they filmed a climber going up both the original route in the outdoors and the simulated run in a gym — and his sequence of moves and poses was nearly the same in both ascents.

While this artifact creation technique would obviously be useful for indoor gyms seeking to replicate specific popular climbing routes, the Dartmouth researchers envision other potential applications. In their paper, they speculate that recreating specific historic rock features (say, faces with cave paintings) would benefit, as would reassembling a crime scene for forensic analysis. It’s intended for large-scale recreation of objects, but using a process more accessible (and affordable) than, say, 3D printing an entire house.

Source: Dartmouth

Amazon Debuts London Music Show ‘Live Events’ Service Exclusive to Prime Customers

Amazon has started running and promoting its own live music gigs in the U.K. as an extra incentive for customers to sign up to its Prime membership (via Engadget).

Called Prime Live Events, the initiative will offer music concert tickets at iconic London venues by major artists performing “up-close and personal”. Tickets to the music shows will be exclusive to Prime subscribers and all of the gigs will be filmed and released globally through the company’s Prime Video streaming service.

The first Prime Live Event will be on May 23 with a Blondie performance at the Round Chapel in Hackney, followed by shows in June featuring Alison Moyet and Texas, with Katie Melua performing the next month in Chelsea.

The U.K. ticket purchasing service Amazon Tickets – set to launch in the U.S. soon – also got an update today, allowing Prime members to purchase tickets ahead of general public release. Depending on the new initiative’s success, Live Events also could be rolled out to other international markets.

Amazon has experimented with the concert hosting strategy before. Robbie Williams performed at St. John Hackney Church on December 14, as did John Legend at The Round Chapel the next day. Both were limited to Amazon customers and later released through Prime Video.

Apple has hosted an annual music event in London for several years now. The iTunes Festival was recently renamed Apple Music Festival to bring it under the banner of Apple’s own subscription service, through which fans could view the streamed performances live and on demand.

Tag: Amazon Prime Video
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Chinese Mobile Payment Service Alipay to Launch in the U.S.

Alipay, the mobile payment system offered by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, is coming to the U.S., thanks to a deal brokered with credit card processing service First Data Corp.

The expansion follows limited trials in California and New York, and will bring Alipay into direct competition with Apple Pay, Android Pay, and PayPal. Alongside online payments and money transfers, Alipay users can also hail a taxi, book a hotel, and buy movie tickets directly from within the app.

The partnership will allow Chinese tourists who visit the U.S. to use their mobile phones to complete transactions at 4 million merchants and retailers around the country. That compares to about 4.5 million U.S. merchants that currently accept Apple Pay.

The U.S. is behind China in terms of the proportion of customers using mobile payments, but that’s forecast to change in 2018. As noted by Bloomberg, given U.S. consumer’s relative indifference to mobile payments, Alipay’s entry into the country may actually benefit Apple, as more retailers gear up to offer tap-and-go transactions to shoppers, be they Chinese tourists or U.S. residents.

Alipay has about 450 million customers worldwide, but Alipay’s deal with First Data aims to offset the mobile payment’s loss of ground in China to rival Tencent Holdings, which has successfully leveraged the popularity of WeChat to roll out WeChat Pay. The WeChat app’s dominance in the country is also said to have negatively affected the relevance of iOS features in China.

In February, Apple partnered with China’s state-run bankcard association, China Union Pay, enabling the lender’s cardholders to use Apple Pay.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay
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WhatsApp Quietly Extends Encryption to iCloud Backups of Chat Logs

WhatsApp has bolstered the security of the iCloud backup feature in its messaging platform, in an attempt to protect archived chat logs from being accessed in a readable form (via TechCrunch).

WhatsApp has offered end-to-end encryption on its messaging service for some time, but that encryption did not previously extend to iCloud backups of messages. Given that Apple holds the encryption keys for iCloud, a subpoena of Apple or an unauthorized iCloud hack could potentially allow access to WhatsApp messages backed up there.

However, WhatsApp has moved to prevent that possibility by also pre-encrypting the backup files. “When a user backs up their chats through WhatsApp to iCloud, the backup files are sent encrypted,” a WhatsApp spokesperson told Forbes, confirming the change.

WhatsApp quietly added the encryption to WhatsApp iCloud backups late last year, however the change only came to light last week when professional hackers claimed to be able to circumvent the security measure.

According to Russian-based Oxygen Forensics, third-party hacking tools are able to download the encrypted WhatsApp data backed up to iCloud and then generate an encryption key to decrypt the data using the associated SIM card. The tools could potentially be used by police with access to a phone where the WhatsApp account has been deactivated but the encrypted messages are still stored in iCloud. WhatsApp has yet to comment on the claims.

The encryption debate has been reignited in recent weeks on both sides of the Atlantic. FBI director James Comey revealed earlier this month that his agency had been unable to access the data on more than 3,000 mobile devices in the first half of the fiscal year, despite having legal authority to avail themselves of the contents.

A recent statement by U.S. senator Dianne Feinstein also appeared to confirm that the government had used $900,000 of public money to pay for the third-party tools to unlock the iPhone used by the San Bernardino terrorist. No information of relevance was found on the device, the FBI later revealed.

Meanwhile in the U.K., government home secretary Amber Rudd recently claimed that it is “completely unacceptable” that authorities cannot gain access to messages stored on mobile applications protected by end-to-end encryption, such as WhatsApp. Rudd said she would be discussing the situation with technology companies in the near future.

Since that time, a draft technical paper prepared by the U.K. government has been leaked that contains proposals related to the removal of encryption from private communications. The paper reveals that companies would be required to provide the raw data “in an intelligible form” without “electronic protection” within one working day. Discussions about the feasibility of the proposals are said to be ongoing.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tags: security, iCloud, WhatsApp
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Google Maps gaffe sees tiny Norwegian village overrun with confused tourists

Why it matters to you

You can usually trust Google Maps to give you accurate, reliable directions. But not always …

Google Maps is great, but it doesn’t always get it right, as a small village in Norway recently learned.

Fossmark, a tiny fjord community about 170 miles south-west of the capital Oslo, has reportedly been overrun with tourists thinking they’ve arrived at the striking and very beautiful Preikestolen cliff, also known as Pulpit Rock. Trouble is, the scenic spot is 18 miles away on the other side of the water.

The culprit appears to be Google Maps, which has been sending travelers to the settlement, their cars and minibuses apparently clogging up its narrow roads.

One resident told local media they’ve sent “hundreds of tourists away in no uncertainty that they’re on the wrong side of the fjord.” Another said some tourists get “quite upset” when told they’re a good 30-minute drive from their intended destination.

Several residents even have fun handing the lost visitors a pair of binoculars so they can see everyone having a lovely time on the scenic cliff. On the other side of the fjord.

Google encourages users of its Maps app to let it know about any issues so that it can fix them for greater accuracy and to prevent unnecessarily long drives to the wrong destination when using Directions.

With Google Maps covering the entire planet, it’s no surprise that errors like this hit the headlines from time to time. Many years ago the app was sending hordes of drivers to some poor guy’s driveway instead of a state park in New Jersey. And just last year the app was blamed in a case where a demolition firm knocked down the wrong house. Oops!

Such hiccups also bring to mind the embarrassing start Apple made with its own Maps app nearly five years ago. Within hours of its launch, users quickly realized it really should have stayed in the workshop for some fine tuning. The mobile software, which replaced Google Maps as iPhone’s default mapping app, mistakenly put an entire city in the sea, labeled a farm as an airport, and even did away with Shakespeare’s home city of Stratford-upon-Avon. Thankfully the app’s troubled days are now far behind it.

Amazon Echo Show: Release date, specs and everything you need to know

Details about a new Amazon Echo device have leaked online in recent days. Called Echo Show, the new device will be the first Echo product to feature a screen and should usher in some new features previously unavailable on Echo devices. Here’s everything you need to know about it.

• Amazon’s touchscreen Echo with video calling could launch this week
• Amazon Echo tips and tricks: Getting to grips with Alexa

Amazon Echo Show: Design

• 7-inch touchscreen
• Built-in camera
• Black and white colour finishes 

Thanks to a couple of leaks, we already have a pretty good idea as to what the Amazon Echo Show will look like. It will be much larger than the Echo, Echo Dot and Echo Look, but that’s because it has to house what is likely a 7-inch touchscreen.

Rather than adopt a cylindrical form factor of current Echo devices, the Echo Show will be much squarer in shape, with the touchscreen at the top and a speaker underneath. There should also be a camera just above the screen which could be used for video calls (more on that later).

• This is what Amazon’s touchscreen Echo device probably looks like

Finally, we expect the Echo Show to be available in black and white finishes, since there have been image leaks showing it in both colours. The current Echo is also available in black and white, so this is entirely plausible.

Evleaks

Amazon Echo Show: Features

• Smart home control
• Voice and video calls
• Possible fashion advice, similar to Echo Look

The Echo Show will of course arrive with Alexa onboard. It will be able to carry out the same functions as the current Echo devices, such as controlling smart home products, creating shopping baskets and telling you the day’s news and weather.

It might also be capable of making and receiving phone calls and video calls, thanks to the camera in the top. It’s currently not clear if the video call feature will be available at launch, or will be added with a future software update.

Amazon is also rumoured to be testing intercom capabilities between Echo devices, so if you had the Echo Show in your kitchen and your children had Echos in their rooms, you could tell them dinner was ready without having to shout up the stairs.

• What is Amazon Echo Look and how does it work?

The camera may also let the Echo Show perform the same or similar functions as the recently announced Echo Look, that analyses your fashion choices and gives you advice. The big difference between the two is that the Echo Look is only available in the US on an invite-only basis, whereas the Echo Show should receive a wider launch.

Amazon Echo Show: Release Date and Price

The Amazon Echo Show is expected to go up for preorder on 9 May 2017, with a US launch set for 28 June. In the US it’s expected to cost $229.99, which isn’t too much more than the Echo’s original $179.99 launch price.

The Echo Look should make its way to the UK and Germany, but a specific launch date hasn’t been set. When it does arrive, it should cost £219.99 and €239.99 respectively.