LG Optimus 4X HD unveiled: Quad-core Tegra 3, Ice Cream Sandwich, 4.7-inch display

If LG failed to impress so far with the Android 2.3 phones it's shown off in the run up to MWC 2012, perhaps the Optimus 4X HD can turn things around. This 4.7-inch beast will hit Europe in the second quarter and is its first to feature a 1.5GHz quad-core Tegra 3 as its benchmark destroying CPU, a 4.7-inch True HD IPS LCD (1280x720) plus what appears to be a lightly customized version of Ice Cream Sandwich. Perhaps the only logical followup to its Optimus 2X that kicked off all the dual-core madness, it also includes a 2,150mAh battery, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. Despite that huge screen, at a depth of 8.9mm it's only slightly thicker than the superwide 4x3 Optimus Vu. Just like the Fujitsu prototype we spent some time with at CES, the Tegra 3 features a 4+1 "Companion Core" design, with a fifth low power unit available to take care of more mundane tasks without draining the battery. This is all pretty close to the leaked "X3" specs we'd heard, however there's no mention of NFC or HSPA+ just yet, only DLNA and MHL. Check out the full press release after the break for a few more specs.

LG'S QUAD-CORE SMARTPHONE MAKES
DEBUT AT 2012 MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS
LG Optimus 4X HD Takes Desktop Performance to the Mobile Space

SEOUL, Feb. 23, 2012 – LG today unveiled its first Quad-Core processor smartphone, LG Optimus 4X HD. Combining NVIDIA's latest 1.5GHz Tegra 3 with True HD IPS display, the LG Optimus 4X HD delivers PC-like performance in the palm of one's hand.

"LG introduced the world's first Dual-Core smartphone exactly one year ago and today we're announcing the next milestone," said Dr. Jong-seok Park, President and CEO of LG Mobile Communications Company. "But speed in itself isn't what makes LG Optimus 4X HD unique, it's the benefit we're bringing to customers with the HD multimedia experience in a mobile form factor."

The NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor is the world`s only 4-PLUS-1™ Quad-Core mobile processor designed for high-level multimedia performance but utilizes a fifth battery-saver core to handle less demanding tasks such as active standby and music playback. When running at full speed, the 12-core graphics processing unit (GPU) in Tegra 3 delivers a visually rich experience and console-quality game playability.

Equipped with the True HD IPS display, the Optimus 4X HD guarantees the finest viewing experience with high resolution, clarity and no color or shape distortion. The Optimus 4X HD includes 16 GB internal memory and runs on the latest version of Android OS, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Besides the smooth and fast performance, the Optimus 4X HD boasts a 8-megapixel BSI (Backside Illumination) Sensor camera with LED flash and advanced multimedia features to enrich the overall multimedia experience.

And LG designers made sure that looks didn't take a back seat to performance. The 8.9mm slim and sleek smartphone features a "prism-edged" design with enhanced materials and finish.

Additional information on the revolutionary new Optimus 4X HD will be available at LG Stand (Hall 8) at MWC 2012 from February 27 to March 1.

Key Specifications:
o Chipset: 1.5GHz Quad-Core processor (NVIDIA Tegra 3)
o Display: 4.7-inch (1280 x 720) True HD IPS
o Memory: 16GB eMMC and 1GB LP DDR2
o Camera: 8.0MP BSI Sensor (Rear) and 1.3MP (Front)
o OS: Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
o Battery: 2,150mAh

BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 review

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the world of email. Yes, email! Sure, many of you have given up on the stuff in favor of more instant means of communication, but don't worry, because that's here too! Yes, the BlackBerry PlayBook, which was released 10 months ago, is now finally able to send messages all by itself. Sure, BlackBerry Bridge is still there and more useful than ever, tying the PlayBook even closer to your work-issued smartphone, but the 7-inch slate finally feels like it can stand a little more solidly on its own two feet.

Thankfully that's not all -- this recently refreshed tablet has a few other tricks up its sleeve, most notable being the ability to run some (focus on the some) Android apps without having to resort to any messy tweaks or hacks. The experience isn't entirely clean, nor does it quite feel like the refresh the "two dot oh" moniker implies, but it is a nice step forward. Click on through to see what you get.

BlackBerry PlayBook 2.0

Messages

No, the biggest point of discussion at the PlayBook's launch was what it couldn'tdo.

The biggest point of discussion at the launch of the PlayBook wasn't the thing's stout build
quality, its stoic good looks or even its finger-friendly gestures. No, the biggest tale was what it couldn't do. It lacked a dedicated email app, had no concept of a calendar and couldn't even keep track of your contacts. Sure, there was a Gmail icon sitting there next to the other apps, but that was just a link to an optimized version of the web interface. It didn't fool anybody.

As we mentioned, more and more people are forgoing email for other means of communication and those still down with POP are largely sending their missives through some online service or another. But, for a platform that made a name for itself by producing the most email-friendly smartphones on the planet, producing a tablet by the same name that's completely ignorant to the stuff was a glaring oversight.

Of course, the PlayBook could send emails, but only when paired with a willing BlackBerry smartphone via the Bridge app. That 'ol Bridge is still here, which we'll discuss in just a moment, and now users are swimming in a wealth of messaging options. Both Bridge and Messages let you send and receive emails and, should you configure the same email account in both you'll get not one but two notifications with every email you receive! That is every bit as annoying as it sounds.

Thankfully Messages is much more than just email. Through it you can aggregate messaging from Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn -- the most important social network for suits -- though you are limited to only one of each. (Sorry, Twitter schizos.) You can, however, have as many email accounts as you like, coming through Exchange, Hotmail, Gmail, IMAP, or POP.

Add a bunch and everything will be all jumbled together into a single view of what's going on. Every friend request, every Twitter DM and every desperate "Know of any openings?" message from that guy you used to work with that summer who quit in a huff and quickly had second thoughts. The integrated view is nice if you're a casual communicator, but if you're the social sort things quickly become overwhelming. Thankfully, with a tap in the list of accounts on the left you can display only content from that source, and you can also filter by folder (or label, in the case of Gmail).

While you can view other content, this is not a replacement for the various other social apps in there. For example, unlike the (generally quite good) Facebook app, in Messages you can only view messages, friend requests and events. No status updates here.

The email sending interface is clean and simple and pretty much everything you would expect. There's a box for "To," a box for "Cc," a third for "Subject" and, finally, the place where you type in the body itself. No, Bcc is not supported, but attachments thankfully are, and you can choose any file you like.

Contacts and Calendar

Yes, there are new applications to manage these things, too. We signed in with our Gmail and Facebook accounts and the tablet made quick work of our pending appointments, listing them all in a simple, straightforward calendar view. You can create new events and push them to any of those accounts, but the functionality is somewhat limited compared to the real thing. For example, you can create an event on your Google Calendar, but you can't specify anything more than a simple pop-up reminder.

The Contacts app is similarly functional, pulling down whatever your social networks want to serve up. However, it's not particularly smart. For example, we have plenty of friends in LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter who appeared two or three separate times in the list. You can manually link them together if you're so inclined, but that sounds only marginally more entertaining than manually defragmenting your hard drive bit by bit.

Android

Happening across an Android app in the App World is a bit like winning the lottery: you're unlikely to do either by chance.

As nice as it is to finally have some proper integrated messaging, the most talked-about feature here is the ability to run Android apps right out of the box. You'll find them in the App World -- well, you might find them. RIM didn't want to make these stand out beyond the standard apps, so happening across an official APK is a bit like winning the lottery: you're unlikely to do either by chance.

So we specifically went looking for some clues on what to search for, and we had the most luck poking around the CrackBerry forums for posts by lucky winners. In this thread we found a short list of available apps and downloaded two: the Dolphin HD browser and Pool Break Lite.

The apps download and install quickly and smoothly enough, like any other app, and they're listed right next to any native apps with nothing untoward about their icons. Just make sure you save up a little extra patience the first time you run them. Select one and you'll be presented with a black screen telling you that the app is "initializing" and ask that you "please wait."

It's basically like rebooting the tablet, but thankfully that's just a one-time thing. Android apps will later load more quickly and, once in memory, seem to run well. We prefer the (still excellent) stock PlayBook browser to Dolphin HD, but that's not to say the other one doesn't swim very well in these unusual waters. It does.

We wanted to try out a little game performance, and are happy to report that Pool Break Lite too ran well. It admittedly isn't the most polygonally demanding of all titles in the world, and the multi-touch navigation in the app was a bit jumpy, but the tablet had no problem emulating the Android calls to make it run.

Developers will be glad to know that, after submitting their apps to App World, they can charge money if they wish, and indeed many already are. In-game ads are also supported, but RIM provides no Android support for its own BlackBerry ad services.

BlackBerry Remote

BlackBerry Remote will turn your Bold into the best HTPC remote on the planet.

The biggest new feature in the 2.0 version of BlackBerry Bridge, which ties your phone to your tablet, isn't actually directly related to Bridge at all. It's Remote, which adds the ability to use it as a very smart, very expensive remote control. Pair the two and you can use the phone's display like a trackpad, moving a cursor about the tablet and performing gestures on the edges. You can also use the phone's keyboard to type or enter a Presentation Mode for easy navigation through a PowerPoint hosted on the tablet.

It's really great, but what's even more great is that this works with any device -- any device that can talk to a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, at least. We've seen this hooked up with PCs, Android tablets and more, so even if you don't have a PlayBook you'll be wanting to install the new Bridge app. It will turn your Bold into the best HTPC remote on the planet.

Print To Go

Docs To Go has been around since the beginning, giving simple viewing and editing for Office-like documents. New in 2.0 is Print To Go, which you're probably thinking gives the ability to print from your PlayBook. Actually it's the other way around. If you install the Print To Go client on your PC (no Mac support currently) you can print documents directly to your tablet, wirelessly. It shows up like a printer and anything sent through it can be easily viewed offline later. Nice and simple -- if you have a PC.

BBM

It's clear that RIM doesn't even want to bring it to its ownplatforms, and so we're going to go ahead and stop wondering about when it will show up on anyone else's.

This is the part where we'd like to write about how great the new BBM integration is with the PlayBook 2.0 OS but, sadly, we can't -- because there still isn't a BBM app outside of BlackBerry Bridge. Yes, you can BBM on the tablet if you have a tethered smartphone, but it's time to be able to do it without.

For a long time we wondered when, not if, BlackBerry would bring BBM to other platforms -- iOS, Android, we knew people who would pay real money to use it. Now, though, it's clear that RIM doesn't even want to bring it to its own platforms, and so we're going to go ahead and stop wondering about when it will show up on anyone else's.

Wrap-up

The PlayBook was clearly designed at the outset to only be used with a crutch, and that crutch is a smartphone. Using the tablet just felt a bit uncomfortable without a reassuringly blinking blue light from a nearby BlackBerry. With the 2.0 release the PlayBook is rather more independent, less codependant, but still far from a strong figure when stacked up against the competition. This is a positive refresh that current owners will want to apply as soon as is readily possible, but it won't bring many new users to the fold.

The Messages app fills a void and the Android app support is a nice plus, but the former is simply something that should have been there at the beginning and the latter offers far too limited selection now to be a proper selling point. Both feel like too little and both have arrived far too late. Sadly, the best new feature here is not on the tablet at all -- it's the BlackBerry Remote app for smartphones.

Samsung's GT-i9300 is probably not the Galaxy S III, as revealed by its low-res screen

Straight from the Dana Scully school of debunking, Android Community has poured cold water on the notion that the GT-i9300 is the quasi-mythical Galaxy S III. Having happened upon the user agent profile of the device bearing that codename, the stats reveal a lackluster 1024 x 600 resolution display that's easily beaten by the Galaxies Nexus and Note. We'll be keeping our eyes peeled at Mobile World Congress and hope that Samsung isn't planning to ruin the pedigree of the handsets that have previously born that code: the i9200 was the Galaxy S II and the i9250 was the Galaxy Nexus, after all.

LG busts out a trio of L-series phones in the run up to MWC

LG's gotten all excited and spilled even more beans ahead of MWC as to what offerings we'll see at the big Iberian shindig. The L-Series is a trio of phones we're already part-way familiar with, given that the budget L3 was leaked back in January. The L5 and L7 are aimed at the mid-range and premium ends of the market, running ICS and packing 4-inch and 4.3-inch displays respectively. Whilst there's no further detail about specs, we know that the L-series shares the same DNA as the Prada Phone 3, so we'd imagine that as a good benchmark. The PR boasts of "five aesthetic elements," all of which seem to emphasize that the phone's going to be quite thin. After the break we've got that brief statement in full and the nagging sense that there's no surprise forthcoming when LG takes to the stage next week.
LG'S NEW DESIGN STRATEGY FOR MOBILE DEVICES TO BE REVEALED AT 2012 MWC
LG Takes Design Philosophy to the Next Level
with Line-up of Stylish Smartphones

SEOUL, Feb. 21, 2012 – LG Electronics (LG) makes its boldest move yet in its strategy to attain smartphone leadership with the launch of its new design identity, L-Style, at the 2012 Mobile World Congress (MWC).

The core essence of L-Style involves a timeless design with finer details that further differentiate LG's mobile devices from the competition. LG's design leadership has been well established in the past with a successful track-record that includes the Black Label Series phones such as the Chocolate and Shine.

"Design is consistently the top or second most important factor for customers when choosing a mobile phone," said Dr. Jong-seok Park, President and CEO of LG Mobile Communications Company. "With smartphones, we sometimes took a more functional approach to design but with L-Style we're going back to our roots as a company focused on how our products fit into the lifestyle of our customers."

L-Style's design philosophy is comprised of five aesthetic elements: Modern Square Style for a comfortable grip, Floating Mass Technology for a slimmer look, Seamless Layout for a more intuitive arrangement of keys, Harmonized Design Contrast utilizing metallic accents and Sensuous Slim Shape that naturally draws one's attention.

Three new smartphones to be unveiled at MWC will initially feature the L-Style look. The Optimus L3, with a 3.2-inch display, will first launch in Europe this March. This smartphone will be followed by two other devices in the first half of the year running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich: Optimus L5 with a 4.0-inch display and Optimus L7 featuring a 4.3-inch screen.

Market availability and additional hardware specifications of all three models will be announced at a future date.

BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 now ready for download

After touring the exhibition circuit for what seems like an eternity, PlayBook OS 2.0 is finally ready to settle down and make itself available for download. Check for updates via Settings on your tablet and you should see it sitting there, wearing last season's fashions but nevertheless looking every inch the major OTA update that it is. Expect improvements like native email, calendar and contacts, integration with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, some newfangled Bridge functions, and access to the first crop of Android apps in BB App World. You'll find more details in the PR after the break and how-to demos at the More Coverage link. Enjoy! 
BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 Available Today

New OS delivers an enriched user experience for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet users

Waterloo, ON - Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) announced that the new BlackBerry® PlayBook™ OS 2.0 will be released for download today. BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 delivers an enhanced tablet experience and allows you to use the BlackBerry PlayBook in new ways throughout the day - at work and at play. "Building on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet's proven web browsing, multimedia and multitasking strengths, the new BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 introduces a range of new communications and productivity enhancements as well as expanded app and content support," said David J. Smith, SVP Mobile Computing, Research In Motion.

New BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 features include:

• Integrated email client with a powerful unified inbox: With BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 you have the option to use a unified inbox that consolidates all messages in one place, including messages from Facebook®, LinkedIn® and Twitter®, as well as personal and work email accounts.

• Social Integration with Calendar and Contacts apps: The built-in calendar harnesses information from social networks and makes it available where and when users need it. Contact cards are also dynamically populated with updated information from Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to create a consolidated view of contacts.

• Updated BlackBerry Bridge app: BlackBerry® Bridge™ is a unique app that provides a Bluetooth® connection between your BlackBerry PlayBook and core apps on your BlackBerry® smartphone (including BBM™, Email, Contacts, Calendar and Browser) in order to let you view the content on the larger tablet display. With BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0, it's easier and quicker than ever to take documents, web pages, emails and photos that appear on your BlackBerry smartphone and display them on your BlackBerry PlayBook for an optimized viewing and editing experience. The updated BlackBerry Bridge app also provides a new remote control feature that allows a BlackBerry smartphone to be used as a wireless keyboard and mouse for a BlackBerry PlayBook.

• Improved mobile productivity: Updated document editing functions, the new Print To Go app, and increased control and manageability of corporate data with BlackBerry® Balance ™ allow you to get more out of your BlackBerry PlayBook every day. Plus, an updated virtual keyboard with auto correction and predictive next word completion learns how you type to enable faster, more accurate typing.

• New apps and content: Thousands of new apps are being added to BlackBerry App World™ today (including a range of Android® apps that will run on the BlackBerry PlayBook). A new BlackBerry Video Store1 is launching today. Enhanced web browsing capabilities are also available with BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0.

In conjunction with the release of BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0, RIM is making available an initial release of BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion that will include support for managing BlackBerry PlayBook tablets and BlackBerry smartphones2 in an enterprise. The full release of BlackBerry Mobile Fusion (with mobile device management capabilities for iOS and Android devices) is planned for general availability in late March 2012. For more information about BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, please visit www.blackberry.com/mobilefusion. Availability The BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 software update is now available as a free download for all BlackBerry PlayBook tablets.