LG Confirms Optimus L3 Launch Plans

We got an early look at LG's Optimus L3 when the phone found itself up for pre-order with a Swedish retailer well in advance of LG's official unveiling of the phone in the lead-up to the Mobile World Congress. Since then, we've been expecting the Android to finally arrive sometime in March, but lacked official confirmation. Today, LG takes care of that last bit, confirming the handset's launch details. 

Europe will get the Optimus L3 first, before the end of the month. Russia and Asia will follow, though LG hasn't said just when, and after that the door's open for possible sales in additional markets around the globe. 

The L3 is supposed to be pretty darn cheap, with those pre-orders coming in at under the equivalent of $200. Admittedly, it's a lower-tier phone, but where we might have seen a single-core 800MHz processor in such a device last year, in 2012 we've upgraded to dual-core components. Even with that concession, we're still looking at a relatively small, low-resolution screen. You might want to check out the 3.2-inch QVGA display for yourself before ordering this one, just in case it's a deal-breaker. 

Smart Screen Off Uses the Proximity Sensor to Stop Pocket-Dialing

One of the benefits HTC builds into many of their devices is a feature that turns the screen off based on input from the phone's proximity sensor. Doing so helps save precious battery life and prevents accidental screen taps (no more "butt dialing"!). Additionally, HTC's implementation allows you to turn your smartphone face-down to not only turn off the screen, but silence your alerts as well. Great for meetings! 

Non-HTC phones probably don't have this feature. That frustrated one particular developer, and he decided to do something about it. His app is called Smart Screen Off, and it simply turns your screen off when yourphone is in close proximity to something. That something could be a pocket, a purse, or even being set face-down on a table. 

You're thinking, hey, why not just hit the lock button? Sure, you could do that, but not only is that two actions, it also puts the phone to sleep. This solution simply turns off the screen (both the display and the touch-sensors). Resuming from that condition is MUCH faster than resuming from sleep. Unfortunately, it doesn't mute the alerts like HTC's solution does. 

Even still, it's intriguing, and I gave it a try. 

The app comes in two flavors: "Lite" and "Pro". They're basically the same app, but the "Lite" version doesn't let you save any settings. The "Pro" version costs under US$1.50 and provides the following options that the "Lite" version does not: 

- Start on Boot 
- Disable when in LandScape mode 
- Vibrate when screen is turned OFF 
- Vibrate when screen is turned ON 
- Hide Icon 
- Hide Notification Messages 
- Enable/Disable on shake 
- Don't screen on after screen Off 

If you're curious, give the Lite version a try. If you like it, uninstall it and purchase the "Pro" version. 

Smart Screen Off LITE 

NEW

by AndroidHD

5,000 downloads, 86 ratings (4.0 avg)

Free

Install

Download from the Android Market

HTC Sensation Models Getting Sense 3.6 Along With Their ICS

This time last month, we had just gotten word about HTC's plans for the white Sensation, which would arrive with Ice Cream Sandwich already installed. We noted at the time how odd it seemed that the image HTC had released showed the phone on an older version of Sense, instead of the Sense 4.0 we'd expect. With the white Sensation released, andOTA updates to existing Sensation-series phones starting to trickle out, it's now apparent that HTC is delivering Ice Cream Sandwich updates with Sense 3.6. 

This is understandably disappointing news for Sensation owners, though Sense 3.6 at least offers some of the same features as 4.0. HTC has confirmed that not all of its phones will be seeing Sense 4.0, but it remains committed to bring "as many of the enhancements as possible" to its phones. 

So far, we've only heard of plans to deliver ICS with Sense 3.6 to Sensation-line models, though we've got a bad feeling we'll be seeing similar treatment on additional HTC Androids. At the least, you can always find a custom ROM that integrates Sense 4.0, which is a boat quite a few HTC users could soon find themselves in. 

Has Apple Been Testing iOS 6.0 for its Next iPad?

Ready for your daily dose of iPad rumors? Yesterday, we looked at a couple rumors aboutnew entries in the iPad product family and one claiming that the tablet might end up named the iPad HD. Information supporting the latter arose through analyzing server logs, which also showed evidence left behind by devices claiming to run the 2048 x 1536 resolution we're expecting for the new iPad. Today we see some more log evidence along that line, as well as some that shows signs of the arrival of iOS 6.0. 

After Gizmodo ran its stats for yesterday's news, today's data comes courtesy of Ars Technica. Over the past month, 365 connections to the site were made by devices self-reporting that 2048 x 1536 resolution. That number seems far too high given the poor availability of displays with that particular res, but it would make perfect sense if it could be attributed to Apple employees testing out the new iPad, which we expect to feature a fourfold increase in pixel density over previous models. 

User agent strings revealed a few browsers reporting running on iOS 6.0, as well as featuring an upgraded version of WebKit. We haven't heard much when it comes to Apple's plans for the next major iOS release, but it's worth noting that we've never seen Apple introduce a major version number release of iOS to coincide with the arrival of a new tablet; that's not saying it won't happen, but that there's no precedent. 

We'll look to Apple for answers next Wednesday, March 7, when we expect the company to announce the next iPad. 

Did ASUS Just Confirm Android 5.0 as Jelly Bean?

There doesn't seem to be much doubt going around at the moment that the next major Android release, following Ice Cream Sandwich last year, will be called Jelly Bean. Besides fitting in nicely with Google's naming strategy, the choice also seems to have been tacitly recognized by Google when we saw the company put out a large bowl of jelly beans at its MWC presence. Still, it's far from official, so we keep looking for something a little more concrete – perhaps a Google employee mentioning Jelly Bean in a personal blog or when responding to a bug report. Today we hear from a third party, though one that should certainly be in the loop for upcoming Android developments, and see some support for both the name Jelly Bean and the idea that it will arrive as Android 5.0. 

An ASUS exec recently spoke to Tech Radar regarding his company's passion for being at the front of the pack with Android updates, saying, "Asus is very close to Google, so once they have Android 5.0 I think there will be a high possibility that we will be the first wave to offer the Jelly Bean update." 

It's entirely possible that the exec has just been hearing all the unofficial talk about Jelly Bean like we have, and only adopted the phrase in place of something more awkward, like "Google's forthcoming Android revision". That's definitely a possibility, but we also can't discount the chance that ASUS really has been talking to Google about its future releases and this statement reflects an official naming decision. 

We're hoping to see Jelly Bean, or however it ends up named, arrive by this fall, though there have been suggestions that it might land quite a bit earlier.