The next big battle for consumers is transportation. Forget about living room, your own pocket, your bedroom, the house in general – it’s cars, planes, shopping malls and the way how to interact with the world.

Thus, it is of no surprise that CES 2015 featured an interesting announcement, almost hidden behind the limelight of all the TVs, mobile phones etc. The announcement was that LG Electronics (KRX:066570) will become the default supplier of 4G LTE connectivity systems for General Motors (NYSE: GM). If you ever owned a GM car, you’re well aware of its ‘OnStar’ service.

OnStar Service to get 4G LTE connectivity

After multiple providers, very well known in the consumer space, it looks like LG Electronics won a global contract, to supply as much as 10 million cars (factor in at least 5-10% overhead for spare parts) annually. It is not known who is the chipset provider, but there’s no doubt LGE’s silicon unit will push for as much of their own chips as possible.

LG Electronics is a known automotive supplier, but this is as good as it gets – OnStar 4G LTE is coming to all the cars in General Motors gamma, regardless of are we talking about Cadillacs, Vauxhall/Opel etc. Expanding OnStar globally requires the use of 4G LTE technology, and the way how we will use cars as hotspots only goes to show that Tesla Motors started something big, and incumbents are working hard on catching up.

OnStar used to be a simple telematics service, but now is rapidly expanding its capabilities, bringing a whole new layer of connectivity usage. OnStar will now push key stats from the car, spare parts life, recommended service intervals and many more to consumers, while in case of product recalls etc. the service could notify all the owners of affected vehicles, reducing time to service.

The service originally started in North America, and recently started to expand in Europe. Over the course of next two years, GM will expand OnStar almost globally with focus on Europe and China.

According to Tim Nixon, Chief Technology Officer for OnStar, the company plans to put OnStar in no less than 50 cars across its brands by the end of the year (expect major announcements in Detroit, Geneva, Beijing and Frankfurt).

First vehicle to launch using this new improved service is the brand new 2016 Chevrolet Volt (leaked images courtesy of Motorauthority.com), to be officially introduced at the Detroit Motor Show. The car will also debut as 2^nd Generation Opel Ampera in Europe.

The post LG Electronics Enters Automotive with a General Motors Global Win appeared first on VR World.

With the annual Consumer Electronics Show right around the corner and the industry’s marketing efforts going into overdrive, what is it that we will likely see next week?

It’s a safe bet that if will be a week of opposites.

From hardware going to both larger and smaller designs, Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) G-Sync versus AMD (NYSE: AMD) FreeSync, small displays with massive resolution, and gaming notebooks of both massive and diminutive sizes.

Small form factor hardware as is one of the fastest growing areas in the hardware segment, and no doubt there will be a lot of it on display at CES.  With hardware becoming so powerful and small we are seeing a lot of really powerful builds that can be done.  With even MATX X99 boards we are seeing that there is a move toward making things small and potent.  On the other side there is a lot of huge pieces of hardware showing up on the market, namely 4K and ultra wide monitors.  They are becoming even more prolific and the ultra wide monitors are drawing a lot of interest from gamers and power users who were once planning on going for a 4K monitor or two.  There will be a lot of talk this CES about AMD’s FreeSync for enthusiast gaming monitors as it is the newcomer challenging Nvidia’s established G-Sync.  FreeSync will draw the attention of monitor manufacturers since it is less costly to implement and license than the G-Sync solution.  The LG 34UM67 will be a curved ultra wide monitor that will feature AMD’s FreeSync, and should definitely steal a lot of the spotlight next week.

The mobile computing segment is also something to watch next week as we will see a lot of small notebooks with very high resolution displays.  It is easy to say that there will be a number of notebook models that will feature 3K and 4K screens, even at the 15.6-inch sizes.  There will also be a movement with ultraportable gaming notebooks of small size that can be docked with a desktop graphics card for superior gaming ability while at a desk.  With the shrinking of parts that make up computers we will be seeing a drastic reduction in size and weight of these ulta portable notebooks.  Not only will they be smaller but they will be potent and even come equipped with quad-core Intel i7 processors and decent graphics.  On the other hand you will also see that there is a move to the opposite extreme as there will be new 18″ gaming notebooks that will be the true embodiment of the “desktop replacement” name.  Some of these huge notebooks will even sport gaming grade mechanical keyboards featuring Cherry MX Brown switches.

Be sure to check back throughout next week as CES 2015 kicks off in Las Vegas.

The post PC Enthusiats: What Can We Expect to See at CES 2015? appeared first on VR World.

LG (KRX:066570) has announced that it will start selling 4K TVs with quantum dot technology in 2015. The South Korean manufacturer is set to offer a series of TVs that feature this technology, which is said to offer a wider color palette and improved color saturation when seen against conventional LCD TVs.

LG states that it was able to achieve a higher color gamut by making use of “nano crystals that range in size from 2 to 10 nanometers.” Based on its size, each dot emits a different color. A film of these nano crystals is added in front of the LCD backlight, which results in the improvement of color.

This technology will also be leveraged in LG’s series of 4K IPS screens next year, with the brand stating that there will be as much as “30 percent compared with conventional LCD/LED TVs” in color accuracy by adding a film of quantum dots.

Furthermore, LG mentions that in using this technology, it is able to continue its efforts in green manufacturing as quantum dots do not contain cadmium or any other toxic heavy metals. The new 4K TVs with quantum dot technology will be showcased at LG’s booth at the CES next month, and we’ll be bringing you images of the same.

LG will also be highlighting a 55-inch 8K TV at its booth that features a resolution of 7680×4320. At 33.2 million pixels, the pixel count is sixteen times more than what is boasted by a standard full-HD TV. With Samsung (KRX:005935) and Sony (NYSE:SNE) not yet showcasing their efforts in the realm of 8K, it looks like LG may get a headstart in this segment.

The post LG Goes With Quantum Dot Technology For Its 4K TVs in 2015 appeared first on VR World.

We’ve made up a list of our favorite Android phones of 2014 and they are all some of the best phones that money can buy in 2014. Now that all of the major phones have launched for the year and the holiday shopping season is upon us, there is no reason not to help you find the right phone for you or a loved one.

LG G3

LG’s G3 is probably one of our favorite Android phones of this year for multiple reasons. This is because The LG G3 has a fantastic 5.5″ 2560 x 1440 display and a laser fast 13 MP (literally uses a laser for focus) camera that grabs fantastic photos in both light and dark scenarios. Any camera that can take great photos in the dark is going to be a great all around camera as a rule of thumb. The thing that makes the LG G3 so great is also the fact that the phone itself has almost no bezel on the sides of the phone which makes it feel like there is almost no phone and all screen. As such, the LG G3 has the same screen size as the iPhone 6+ but a much much smaller body and as a result is more comfortable to hold. In addition to having one of the highest resolution displays of any phone to date, LG also gives the LG G3 expandable memory and a removable battery which is a big deal to a lot of users.

The LG G3 also has a Snapdragon 801 and great battery life thanks to the 3000 mAh battery even though it does have a fairly large and power consuming display. On Verizon’s network the LG G3 easily lasts over a day of normal usage and with Wi-Fi could last you up to 2 days. The only drawback of the LG G3 is the fact that it lacks a good speaker or front-facing speakers like the HTC One M8, one of its competitors. However, the G3’s biggest weapon is also price… even though Samsung and HTC launched before LG did with the LG G3, LG’s pricing was so competitive (both on and off contract) that it forced Samsung and HTC to drop their prices in order to compete which immediately resulted in lower prices for consumers regardless of their choice.

The post Top 5 Android Phones of 2014 appeared first on VR World.

Korea’s LG (KRX:066570) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) have expanded their patent truce until 2023, as LG announced today that it had extended its patent sharing deal with Google — first signed in 2006 — to 2023.

“The two companies’ cooperation was strengthened for innovative product and technology development,” Lee Jeong-hwan, director of LG Electronics Patent Center, said in a press release.

“We’re pleased to enter into this agreement with a leading global technology like LG,” added Allen Lo, Google’s deputy general counsel, in a statement. “With the strategic cooperation with LG Electronics, we will be able to focus more on developing products and services for our customers.”

The agreement allows both companies access to a broad library of each other’s patents. LG will gain access to patents relating to Google’s handling of encryption and data processing on Android, as well as a bevy of other patents related to the tablet PC and Internet of Things (IoT) space. In return, Google will have access to some of LG’s touchscreen patents as well as other undisclosed hardware patents.

The agreement between the two companies has likely been extended to fend off a Apple vs. Samsung mega-suit. But it will also allow the two companies to compete in growing fields beyond the traditional smartphone space.

LG also has a patent sharing contract with Sony’s (TYO: 6758) mobile phone division.

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4K is becoming progressively more mainstream, with vendors such as Xiaomi releasing 4K sets at sub-$1000 price points. However while 4K is becoming more and more affordable, for content creators cheap is not good: they need high-end precision monitors such as LG’s (KRX:066570) new 31MU97.

The 31MU97, or Digital Cinema 4K monitor as LG calls it, is a 31-inch IPS monitor which is capable of displaying 99.5 percent of the Adobe RGB color space which equals approximately 1 billion unique colors. In addition, the monitor comes with a feature called Dual Color Space, which allows users to see how their work would look with two different color profiles — which is useful for creating content that will simultaneously be pushed to print and the web. For users that need to edit 4K video, the display is compatible with 97% of the Digital Cinema Initiative P3 color space.

“LG’s Digital Cinema 4K Monitor presents the company with an excellent opportunity to solidify our leadership in the global professional monitor market,” said Hyoung-sei Park, head of the IT business division at LG Electronics, in a press release. “This monitor’s high-end features and functions make it the perfect solution for professionals who require a top-of-the-line monitor with all the technology currently available.”

The LG 31MU97 is priced at $1,399 and is now available from leading retailers.

The post LG’s New 31MU97 4K Monitor is Big and Beautiful appeared first on VR World.

Samsung’s (KRX:005935) earnings for the third quarter of 2014 were down nearly 50% year over year and 33% from last quarter. The company reported 46 trillion Won in revenues, which comes out to about $45 billion in revenues for all of the company’s various divisions. Samsung reported 4.22 Trillion Won in profit, which translates to about $4 billion in profit, which is still fairly significant compared to most of its competitors (excluding Apple).

However, Samsung saw significant shrinkage of revenue and profits across the board in the third quarter with virtually all of its consumer business divisions seeing shrinkage while their component divisions (Semiconductor and Display) saw growth. When compared to the previous quarter, Samsung’s sales overall were down 9% quarter over quarter and 20% year over year, very worrying numbers for a company that is supposed to be the industry leader. The primary reason for most of this shrinkage has to do with the fact that Samsung is seeing renewed competition in all of their consumer divisions, especially from LG which competes in many of the same consumer goods segments that Samsung does and presents the most challenging products. In fact, LG saw record smartphone shipments last quarter, shipping 16.8 million smartphones which was the most the company had ever shipped before.

Samsung’s mobile division saw a decrease of 15% quarter over quarter and a decrease of 29% year over year in terms of sales and saw operating profit shrink by a whopping 74%. Samsung’s consumer electronics division, which includes TVs and other consumer electronics barely saw an operating profit in the quarter decreasing by 94% quarter over quarter and 85% year over year.

Only Samsung Semiconductor actually saw growth in both quarterly and year over year profitability and sales while the display division dragged down the whole device solutions segment with almost no profitability as well.

Samsung’s outlook for the next quarter, however, is a bit rosier as it is the holiday shopping quarter and they expect demand to increase across the board for virtually all of its products. However, they did not guide any profitability relative to year over year comparisons. Plus, the fourth quarter will look very good compared to this quarter, which may have been one of Samsung’s very worst in a long time.

The post Samsung Sees Profitability Shrink Across The Board appeared first on VR World.

There were rumors that LG (KRX:066570) was planning on building its own SoC, and it looks like those rumors have checked out today with the announcement of the NUCLUN Qcta-Core SoC.

This SoC appears to be in a big.LITTLE ARM configuration with four A15 cores paired up with four A7 cores. This is an older implementation of an octa-core CPU design, something similar to what we would see from MediaTek (TPE: 2454) or Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) in their last generation of SoCs. For that alone, the timing of this chip seems a bit odd. MediaTek, Nvidia and Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) are all running on 64-bit ARMv8 custom chips (Nvidia) or ARM A57 cores paired with A53 cores or simply four of each.

LG hasn’t stated which company it is fabbing the NUCLUN chip with, but they did state that it is powering the latest “G3 Screen” phone, which is essentially a 5.9″ version of the popular LG G3 smartphone. This phone is specifically designed for the Korean market and as a result also features a Cat6 LTE modem capabale of speeds up to 225 Mbps. Do keep in mind that Qualcomm’s own Cat6 LTE configuration is capable of speeds up to 300 Mbps with 3x CA (carrier aggregation).

There is little to no talk about this SoC’s capabilities outside of the ARM cores and Cat6 LTE capability, such as whether or not it supports 802.11ac or Bluetooth 4.0. Nor do we know what kind of GPU LG has opted to use in this chip since the LG G3 features a Snapdragon SoC and Qualcomm’s Adreno GPU. I would suspect that they would probably default to Mali graphics from ARM, and if they don’t use Mali they might be using Imagination’s GPU IP or even Vivante’s.

LG did, however, list the full specs of the device in their press release and they are as follows (minus some of the wireless connectivity details):

￭ Chipset: NUCLUN Octa-Core (1.5GHz Quad-Core +1.2GHz Quad-Core)
￭ Display: 5.9-inch Full HD IPS
￭ Memory: 32GB eMMC / 2GB RAM / MicroSD slot
￭ Camera: Rear 13MP OIS+ / Front 2.1MP
￭ Battery: 3,000mAh
￭ Operating System: Android 4.4 KitKat
￭ Size: 157.8x 81.8x 9.5mm
￭ Weight: 182g
￭ Network: LTE-ACat.6
￭ Colors: Black / White

Another reason why LG could be doing this is similar to what Samsung does, they could be using these SoCs in their phones, tablets and TVs and give themselves a common SoC across most of their devices or at least narrow the amount of engineering work needed across all their products.

The post LG Releases NUCLUN SoC With Cat6 LTE appeared first on VR World.

In a conversation with Apple’s (NASDAQ: APPL) Senior Vice President of Design, Jony Ive, Vanity Fair’s Graydon Carter sat down and talked to Ive about the company’s latest products and even their competitors.

Ive brought up an interesting point when they were talking about how the iPhone’s design had moved from having curved edges, to sharp edges and then back to curved again. Then, Ive started to talk about the iPhone and numerous prototypes that they had made, including ones with large screens. You can listen right here.

Ive calls competitors’ phones ‘big and clunky’ and says that many of their competitors’ devices are in fact big and clunky when the reality for Apple is actually very similar. In fact, if you were to hold the 5.5″ iPhone 6 Plus and put it up against something like LG’s G3, then you would realize that Apple’s iPhone is actually a bigger and clunkier phone, noticeably so. The LG G3 actually has the exact same screen size as the iPhone 6 Plus, but has a smaller body and a higher resolution display. So not only do you get a smaller phone with the same size display, but the pixel density and image quality of that display is arguably better as well.

LG has done a fantastic job with the G3 and there’s no denying that they have. Jony Ive was smart not to mention any of their competitors, but he’s clearly calling out Samsung here since Samsung is Apple’s #1 competitor and still makes fairly ‘clunky’ phones with their Galaxy Note series of smartphones as well as the Galaxy Mega phones which are even larger and more unwieldy to the normal human hand.

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Last year, LG (KRX: 066570) was rumored to be working on an in-house SoC called Odin, which was said to be featured in the LG G3, the quad-HD smartphone LG unveiled earlier this year. However, that did not materialize, with LG content to use Qualcomm’s offerings in its devices. Earlier this year, it was leaked that the SoC was entering mass manufacturing, and will be available in devices later this year.

It looks like we’re getting close to the eventual launch of Odin, with the latest set of rumors indicating an October release for the first Odin-enabled device.It remains to be seen as to what has changed from the early Odin rumors, which suggested an four Cortex A15 cores and four Cortex A7 cores in a big.LITTLE configuration. LG was said to be using a 28nm process, which, along with the ARMv7 processors, is outdated.

Silicon vendors like Samsung and TSMC have moved on to the 20nm process. Initial Odin benchmarks suggested performance close to that of the Snapdragon 800, which was the fastest SoC in the market at the time.

That isn’t the case, and all major vendors are now actively looking to offer 64-bit ARMv8-based SoCs. LG’s first Odin-powered device is claimed to be a 5.9-inch phablet, which could turn out to be the successor to the LG G Pro 2. Samsung has already launched its phablet this year in the Galaxy Note 4, and now it is time for LG to offer a device that goes head to head with Samsung’s offering. While the first Odin SoC was meant to be a high-end offering, there is no indication that LG will be sticking to its original plan.

Korean business publication Money Today posits that the upcoming 5.9-inch phablet may be the first in an entirely new product line. LG is also rumored to be focusing on emerging markets, so Odin may turn out to be a mid-tier SoC. There isn’t enough concrete information about the SoC as of now, but what is clear enough is that LG will look to offer new products next month, which is when we should have a better idea as to what Odin is all about.

The post LG Once Again Rumored To Be Working On In-House SoC appeared first on VR World.

First introduced at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, manufacturers are pushing curved displays as the next step in immersion.

At next month’s IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, LG plans to launch the first curved PC display — the LG 34UC97. The display has a 34 inch curved screen with an aspect ratio of 21:9 an resolution coming in at 3440×1440.

In the press release LG didn’t mention what connectivity protocol the screen would require, but did say that it would support Thunderbolt 2 for high-speed data transfers.

It’s unclear at this time what enthusiasm the market has for curved displays. While this may provide an additional immersive effect for gamers, those who need the display for professional video or photography editing might prefer a traditional “flat” panel. LG also launched a series of curved phones earlier this year, but said launch was met with a collective “meh” from the market.

LG is also planning to launch two other displays at IFA.

The 31-inch 31MU97 has a 4K capable display (4096 x 2160) and a ratio of 16:10.

LG’s 24GM77 (seen below) is targeted at gamers and has LG’s proprietary Dynamic Action Sync technology which aims to keep gameplay smooth at 1ms  with its 144 Hz refresh rate.

It should be interesting to note that LG did not try to incorporate existing technology such as Nvidia’s G-Sync which attempts to do the same thing.

Pricing and availability have yet to be announced.

The post LG to Launch Supersized 21:9 Curved Screen at IFA 2014 appeared first on VR World.

LG’s turnaround appears to have completed with today’s earnings results. According to LG’s very own earnings announcement for the past quarter (2Q 2014), the company shipped 14.5 million smartphones, a record high for the company. This is primarily driven by the fact that LG finally knows how to not only make a great smartphone, but also how to market it and sell it to consumers, something they kind of lacked with previous phones like the LG Optimus G and the LG G2. Both the Optimus G and G2 were fantastic devices and pretty much owned the competition whenever they were introduced. However, with the G3, LG clearly learned their lessons from the Optimus G and G2 and were able to capitalize on those lessons to sell more smarphones than ever before. It also helps that LG is still the manufacturer for Google’s Nexus 5 which is still a quite popular phone.

LG has also learned quite a few lessons on how to make software and how not to ruin the Android operating system like some of their competitors have done (ahem, Samsung). So, when people take the LG G3 in their hands, they don’t feel like its a ‘slow’ phone relative to the others. LG’s decision to also go with a higher resolution display also helps the display look much sharper than the competition, which is a big factor when people are looking at a phone.

Obviously, $400 million in profit on $15 billion in revenue is nothing to run around the streets cheering about, as that is still a profit margin of less than 3%. However, it still reflects a 165% increase in profitability from the same period a year ago and is a result of stronger mobile and TV sales (LG’s profit numbers include all divisions together). The mobile unit alone, however, managed to pull in $3.5 billion in revenue and squeeze out about $83.4 million in profit. In fact, LG’s strongest business unit was their air conditioning and energy solutions company, which means that LG’s mobile and TV businesses still have a lot of room to improve upon, but clearly they’ve made some serious progress because $400 million in profit is still quite good.

This is a good turn around for LG’s mobile division and it will be interesting to see how they build on it after the G3, especially with Samsung and HTC following their every step. What I can tell you, though, is that LG is bringing some serious competition to Samsung and HTC and is forcing them to be more competitive on pricing as well. After all, the G3 actually launched at $99 on contract, forcing the Galaxy S5 and One M8 to also drop down to that price if they weren’t there already.

The post LG Posts Record Quarter, Ships Nearly 15 Million Phones appeared first on VR World.

In a somewhat unsurprising move, Verizon will be offering the LG G3 on their network starting July 17th. They will also be offering LG’s G Watch as an accessory to the LG G3 as well. However, thanks to the awesome 2-year contract price of the LG G3, of $99.99 the LG G Watch will actually cost most consumers more than double the money up front.

The LG G Watch (below) will retail on Verizon’s network as an accessory to the LG G3 (or any Android phone) for $229. Both this watch and the smartphone have been highly anticipated since their initial launches a month ago. Details about the LG G Watch have been slowly trickling out thanks to Google, as LG appears to have been holding a lot about the watch back until Google talked about Android wear features at Google I/O.

LG G Watch on Verizon

This means that LG’s G3 is likely going to bring some serious competition to Samsung and HTC who both currently sell their phones on Verizon at $99.99 as well (after originally selling for $199-ish back in April). The awesome part is that the G3 is already coming in at a lower retail price ($599) which enables it to come in at a more competitive on-contract price of $99.99 at launch. Additionally, you can also get this phone on an Edge plan for $30 a month, but then you’re basically paying a ton of money not to even own the phone. And yes, it will be XLTE (carrier aggregation) which will combine Verizon’s 700 MHz and AWS spectrum to deliver more download capacity.

Overall it should be great to see the smartphone companies competing with another and giving consumers really good choices. And it is also good to see that the carriers are also giving more affordable on-contract prices, which may make selling something like an iPhone 6 even more difficult at $199 or even the rumored $299 on contract.

The post Verizon Gets LG G3 and G Watch July 17th appeared first on VR World.

LG has finally announced their new LG G3 smartphone/phablet. As many had expected, the LG G3 does indeed sport a 5.5″ QHD display with 2560 x 1440 resolution, resulting in a 539 PPI pixel density. LG, however, rejects the claims that this phone is a phablet as they believe that the overall smaller bezel size makes this phone feel like a standard 5.1″ phone. It also has the expected Snapdragon 801 (not the faster Snapdragon 805 we just benchmarked) and LTE and 802.11ac/b/g/n connectivity. It will ship with Android 4.2.2 just like the LG G2 that came before it, and frankly I wouldn’t expect it to run much if any faster than the Snapdragon 800 in the G2 because of the much higher resolution display.

The LG G3 in many colors

LG has also improved the camera on the phone greatly by reducing the focus time to 276 miliseconds, so essentially in 1/4 of a second. They also improved the camera’s optical image stabilization (OIS) by 20% which means that it will be even more stable in taking long exposure photos or when recording videos. The G2 already did this pretty well with the 13 MP camera it had (which the G3 also apparently has). There are also some software improvements in the G3 to make using the LG G3 more photography friendly, but merely in incremental ways.

The back of the LG G3, with the dual LED camera and buttons and speaker

The LG G3 also sports the same battery as the G2 had, with a 3000 mAh battery, however, LG opted to include MicroSD card support in the G3, which means that you can use an SDXC memory card up to 128 GB in your phone if you absolutely find it necessary. Just keep in mind that SD card corruption is possible with Android phones and any data you have on there that isn’t backed up elsewhere could easily be lost and be completely unrecoverable. The phone will come in 16GB and 32GB variants, still without a 64GB variant, which is fine considering that users that really want serious capacity can spring for a microSD card slot.

LG G3

In terms of design itself, the phone is still made of plastic but has a ‘polished metalic skin’ that makes the phone appear as though it is made of metal like the iPhone or HTC One M8. It also follows HTC’s design cues by making the back of the phone curved so that it fits more comfortably inside of users’ hands and simultaneously provides for more space to fit things inside of the phone. This is a welcome improvement from the G2, but isn’t necessarily anything groundbreaking in terms of design or functionality. The buttons are still on the back of the phone, and they are also improved over those that were found on the G2.

LG also completely redid the software on the LG G3, by completely overhauling the G3’s UI to appear much cleaner, refined and simple. They’ve added some unique features to the phone that are designed to compete with some of their competitor’s unlock features. The LG G3 features a knock code feature which allows you to unlock your phone with a specific series of taps. This is obviously more complicated than HTC’s double tap, but it also allows for the phone to be completely unlocked from a sleep state. However, this is still not anywhere as nice as Apple’s or HTC’s simple fingerprint sensor which works with a single swipe. The LG G3 will also feature a Kill Switch, which we’ve been opposed to from a perspective of misuse by security agencies, but you can kill your phone remotely if you lose it or it gets stolen. While many details about the LG G3’s Kill Switch weren’t given, they did say it would allow for the phone to be ‘disabled’, locked, and wiped remotely but didn’t talk about how such features would be managed.

And yes, the LG G3 will have wireless charging capabilities, which means that even though the phone has a ‘metalic skin’ it will still be able to charge and may actually be one of the reasons why LG went with a plastic body and metal skin instead of a solid metal construction like HTC and Apple. Speaking of that, today we also got news that LG is officially the third largest smartphone manufacturer in the world as of Q1 2014, which indicates the company’s efforts are paying off and that their quality products and design are resonating with a global audience. Hopefully we’ll get our hands on a G3 soon so that we can review it and let you know how fantastic that display really is and whether or not the Snapdragon 801 inside of the phone is capable of coping with a 2560 x 1440 display.

The post LG Announces LG G3 with Stunning 538 PPI Display appeared first on VR World.

Motorola already changed the world quite a bit when they released the midrange Moto G for $179. Now, they’re trying to change it again by releasing the Moto E for $129 and at the same time release an LTE version of the Moto G for $219. The Moto E is Motorola’s attempt to lure the ‘dumbphone’ crowd into the smartphone era without making them commit to anything major in terms of cost or complexity and making sure it will ship with the latest version of Android. They even started a campaign called #GoodByeDumbphone and tried to promote their launch of the Moto E with the idea that people can throw away their dumbphones in favor of this cheap and simple smartphone.

Moto E Cases

The Moto E comes in black or white, but allows you to basically grab any color shell that you want to customize the overall look of the phone to your desires. Additionally, they’ve gone with a very low cost Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 SoC, which is basically the slowest smartphone chip that Qualcomm offers today. And considering the overall goal, which is price, it would seem that nobody would expect this phone to work as quickly as a much more expensive Moto X. What’s very smart on the part of Motorola is that they’ve opted for a fairly large 1980 mAh battery, even though the Snapdragon 200 is a very low power chip. This, combined with the Corning Gorilla Glass and the water resistant design of the phone and you’ve got a pretty sweet little phone in the Moto E. Not just that, but the Moto E can double as a perfect backup phone if anything were to happen to your current Android phone without costing an arm and a leg. The Moto E also comes with a microSD card slot that supports memory cards up to 32GB, which supplements the phone’s existing 4GB of meager storage capacity.

Moto E Black

The Moto E also has a slightly smaller 4.3″ qHD display compared to the 4.5″ display on the Moto G, which may actually be more attractive to some because it results in a smaller phone and a higher pixel density since they both have the same 960×540 resolution. Ultimately, Motorola is making  a very simple incremental step up from each of their phones, even though I don’t think the Moto X should be priced at where it currently is and they need a real flagship phone that can compete with Samsung, LG and HTC’s flagships.

The Moto G is also getting an upgrade, primarily with a $40 price premium for the LTE version, enabling cheap phone shoppers to gain fairly good performance on a cheap phone without compromising on cellular connectivity.

The post Motorola Moto E Dumbphone Killer Arrives for $130 appeared first on VR World.

It seems as though May is going to be a pretty busy month in the smartphone industry, much like April was. This month we saw the Launch of the HTC One M8 as well as the Samsung Galaxy S5, after their announcements in the months before. Now, it appears to be Motorola’s and LG’s turn as Motorola is rumored to be announcing the Moto E and Moto X+1 on May 13th and LG is expected to launch the LG G3 on the 27th, an update to the G2 from last year. The G2 last year was a fantastic phone and really cemented LG’s platform in a way that got Google to borrow from it for the Nexus 5, which is made by LG for Google. The G2 is actually a renaming of the original line’s naming as the Optimus G series, but LG had already made an Optimus G2 phone, so they dropped the Optimus name and now we’re coming up on the G3.

LG G3 Launch Invitation

With LG’s G3, the expectations have mostly been that the company will launch a phone in the 5-5.5″ ballpark since the LG G2 is already a 5.2″ nearly bezel-less phone. The expectation is that LG will continue this trend with the G3, which means no buttons on the sides of the phone and all of the buttons on the back of the phone. The big deal about the G3, however, is that it is rumored to be bringing a 2560 x 1440 (or 2560 x 1600) resolution display to the smartphone formfactor which is eagerly awaiting a phone with that kind of resolution from a mainstream manufacturer. OPPO’s Find 7 is supposed to have a 2560 x 1440 display, but that phone isn’t quite available yet in most markets and it isn’t necessarily a mainstream/tier 1 manufacturer. It will probably have a pretty impressive camera like the G2 did and it will probably have an even bigger battery than the G2 did, which was already a massive 3100 mAh lithium polymer battery. I don’t really know what LG can do that’ll be considered innovative outside of the new display, but anything they introduce should be received well, even if their phone does come a bit later than Samsung’s and HTC’s. I think the 2560 x 1440 resolution is worth waiting for, purely because of the quality of the display and because it may also mean a Snapdragon 805 as opposed to a Snapdragon 801.

Motorola Launch Invitation

In terms of Motorola’s announcement, the rumored devices that are expected to be announced are the Moto E and Moto X+1 which are essentially a new budget phone (Moto E) and a new flagship phone (Moto X+1). However, one must remember that Motorola is technically now a Lenovo division and this may affect where they try to position the Moto X+1 because frankly, the Moto X was overpriced for what it offered and as a result, I don’t think they sold as many as they had thought. Perhaps they’ll realize this with the new Moto X+1 and offer it at a lower price like the current Moto X is, at $299 tomorrow. Their business model should be to offer the bare experience at $299 and then to offer various premium experiences of that phone at $349, $399, $449 and $499, encouraging people to spend more money for a better looking phone but lure them with the base price. Heck, its what all the car manufacturers have been for decades.

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When it comes to computers, analogy of supercars applies to high-end computers. People that criticize high-end computers mostly do so because they can’t afford one, instead of putting in an effort to acquire one. After assembling the computers for the better part of my life, I wanted to see how it is to get the final thing, assembled by well-trained professionals. Reviewing a system is quite a big difference compared to evaluating just one system component. We judge everything, from packaging, how easy it is to set it up, and look for issues each and every step of the way. Regardless are you buying system for $600 or $6000, everything has to work.

We have heard quite a lot about enthusiast PC vendors that overclock their machines, but at the end of the day, one question remains – is the system stable? With all kudos to enthusiast overclockers who will shed no tear when a graphics card or a CPU gives up the ghost after being soaked in gallons of LN2, purpose of this article is to see can a boutique vendor deliver on its promise and deliver 100% stable operation on a part that costs several thousand dollars.

Enter Biohazard’s Annihilation F.A.T.E. – this machine features Intel Core 2 Extreme processor and triple GeForce GTX 280. As you can guess, price is heaven’s high – but is it really worth that money?

The System
We have received the system based on following components:

Intel Core 2 Quad QX9650 – 3.8 GHz clock, based on 45nm Harpertown core
EVGA 790i Ultra SLI – motherboard based on nForce 3 790i Ultra SLI chipset
2GB OCZ DDR3-10666 – OCZ’s Reaper memory proved its quality, but only 2GB?
3x EVGA GeForce GTX 280 1GB – Stock clocked cards 
Western Digital RaptorX 150 GB – Oldie but Goldie… one of fastest hard drives out there
PP&C Turbo Cool 1.2 KW ESA – Monster of a power supply that feeds the whole system
LG SuperMulti Blu-ray SATA Rewriter – DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-ray in one place
Lian-Li PC-V1110B – Aluminum case polished to perfection
SilenX 120mm fans – Fast spinning series
Windows Vista Ultimate – we had 32-bit version on our hands.

Taking a look at components, we can see that Biohazard did not save a dime – every component in the system just calls for one thing – speed. We spoke with Josh Smith (CEO), who explained to us that the guys at Biohazard Computers tweak their systems using S.H.O.C. This is abbreviation for Stable Hyper Over-Clock, series of steps that ensures achieved clocks are sustainable in a 24×7 period throughout life of the system. As of November 2008, Annihilation F.A.T.E. features Core i7 platform, so motherboard and memory were changed.

Biohazard guarantees that the delivered system will work in temperatures that are “worst case scenario”, such as 100% load in a room with air temperature at 100+ degrees Fahrenheit. Given the demands, we were not surprised to see modifications that Biohazard did on the case in order to ensure uninterrupted airflow inside the system.

 This setup was equipped with F.A.T.E. cooling. FATE stands for Forced Air Thermal Exchange is their name for designing the system with not “as much fans as possible”, but putting fans in optimal places to ensure top cooling. For instance, Graphics cards are cooled with two fans that are discretely placed, and 3-Way SLI works with no problems. For the record, I’ve experienced a lot of instabilities with 3-Way SLI and CrossFireX setups in cases from other system vendors. Seeing a GPU at 100degC is just too much – and it looks like Biohazard nailed this one.

How we test
In order to see how this system will breathe, we tested the system using series of synthetic and real-world benchmarks. We separate our testing to “everyday” and “gaming” application suite, and comparing it to our reference platform.

Our “Everyday” section is consisted out of audio encoding, video transcoding, rendering action and two synthetic benchmarks: Everest and PCMark Vantage. Encoding audio is based on using iTunes 7 to transform CD audio into AAC format. Video section is covered by transcoding a 1080p MPEG-2 video clip into MPEG-4 and from AVI to WMV-9. For transcoding the video, we’re relying on Adobe Premiere, while AVI to WMV-9 is being handled by Windows Media Encoder 9. Rendering tests are handled by Cinebench R10, which became benchmark of choice for this purpose.

Gaming suite is consisted out of optimal mix between different genres. Age of Conan is our take on world of ever-popular MMO genre, Crysis represent shooters, Company of Heroes: Opposing Forces takes the role of strategy genre, while Race Driver: GRID is something we all love to do: speedy driving. In all cases, we maxed out in-game details and see can you play the game or not.

Our target resolution is 1920×1200, and we expect that high-end systems work flawlessly in this resolution. If you use computer for gaming or movies, there is a good chance that you will connect it to a 24/27″ display or 1080p capable projector/LCD/Plasma.

Here comes the culprit. If you’re wondering why a 1920×1200 resolution, and not 2560×1600 on oh-so-many 30″ displays out there, the reason is simple. Dell 3008WFP will set you back for $1999 and yeah, it is awesome display. But for equal amount of money, you can buy a gigantic 52″ Sharp AQIOUS LCD TV screen. This screen supports 120Hz resolution, and this is very, very important feature in 2009.

Nvidia is set to launch its 3D technology next year, and this technology requires 120Hz displays. Secondly, if you want ultimate gaming experience, don’t settle for second best and sit by the computer. Biohazard Annihilation is actually an ideal computer to showcase games to friends in the living room, and the feeling of playing Fallout 3 or racing in Race Driver GRID in 1920×1200 with 16xAA and 16xAF is priceless.

Our reference platform is based upon following components:

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 – 65nm Clovertown at 3.00 GHz
EVGA nForce 680i – brilliant old-school motherboard using nForce 680i chipset
2GB Corsair PC2-9136C5D – DDR2 running at 1066 MHz
PALIT GeForce GTX 280 1GB – the non-squealing GTX280
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250 GB – yep, I know it’s only 250GB, but I kinda like it. 64/64GB config for WinXP/Vista and 114GB for stuff
Thermaltake TR2 900W PSU – excellent power supply
Sony BWU-100A BD-DL Burner – Two years down the line, still the best Blu-ray burner on the market.. I wish I had SATA model
CoolIT Freezone Elite – No questions asked, this is by far the best TEC water-cooling setup that appeared on the market. Simple, and works like a charm

This platform was recently updated with GeForce GTX 280 graphics card, but in essence represents a high-end system from 2006 and just proves just how awesome job was delivered in Santa Clara – both Intel and Nvidia created a platform that is able to take on any computer manufactured today. This is also an answer regarding Annihilation. Our configuration was launched in May 2008, and it is well capable of providing a compelling gaming experience for years to come.

Experiences
Biohazard installed latest drivers on the system, and it was good to see ESA interface in action. Nvidia System Utilities were filled with details, since even the power supply supports ESA. Your geeky soul will die a little every time you see at all the gory details at how this machine works.

Bear in mind that this system emits a lot of heat, since three GTX 280 cards and quad-core CPU at 3.8 GHz can melt the polar ice. Thus, it is highly recommended that you keep this system in a room that is able to sustain decent room temperature. Having quality AC will help you out. But even with AC, this system was cooled down by fans, and even though their name alludes to silence, system was significantly audible. Thus, ideal companion for this system are either good headphones such as one by Audio-Technica or Logitech/Klipsch 5.1 surround system.

When it comes to our tests, we started off with iTunes and decoding the Audio CD. Not so nice part is the question are we going to use an actual CD or mount an image? In real world, you will not have hundreds of CDs mounted on your system and then using the power of CPU to encode the audio, but you will take a CD or a DVD and put it in the drive. In our test, we took the CD, placed in LG SuperBlu burner and saw that 94 seconds are needed to encode the whole CD. In comparison, our reference system equipped with Sony DWU-100A Blu-ray burner took 98 seconds. Advantage: Biohazard. If we would cheat and just mount the CD image from a hard drive, it would take just 24 seconds compared to our 33 seconds, clearly showing advantage of 3.8 GHz clock over our reference 2.93 GHz.

On the other hand, transcoding video was quite fun – our version of Premiere was enhanced with Elemental Technologies GPU plug-in, meaning  that our scene was encoded in just 32 seconds. This is quite impressive, since it took 4min37 seconds using Biohazard’s CPU. Our reference machine took almost six minutes.

But the biggest evidence how Biohazard’s 45 nanometer CPU demolished our old 65nm Core 2 Extreme is Windows Media Encoder 9. It took only 36 seconds to do test file encode, while our 2.93 GHz CPU took 73 seconds. This is almost twice as fast, so if transcoding is your thing, this baby ran our testbed to the ground. Sadly, GPU-accelerated plug-in does not recognize more than one GPU, so our 3-SLI setup was not exactly loaded. Elemental Technologies recently stated that they’re working on a multi-GPU support, meaning that the three GTX280 cards will eat up any transcoding in the future.

When it comes to games, we have nothing but words of praise for this system. Age of Conan was playable at 1920×1200 with settings maxed out. That includes visibility of 3500 meters and grass all the way to 1000m. You could leave VSync on and enjoy in 60fps with no major glitches with 8xAA and 16xAF. Sadly, at 16xAA, we saw framerates dipping down to mid-40s. 45 fps is still enough for a smooth gameplay in MMOs, but our target was average of 60fps and above. And this is the first time we saw a 2GB bottleneck.

Company of Heroes was quite enjoyable. In 1920×1200, you can turn AA all the way to 16xQ, leave Anisotropic Filtering at 16x and still have framerate at 130fps. Of course, we’re talking about DirectX 10 mode. Just for kicks, we loaded the game at 2560×1600, and at 16xQ/16x settings, the game barely dipped below 100fps (97.5 fps).

On the other hand, Crysis showed to us that even 3-Way SLI is not enough to get 4xAA working flawlessly at 1920×1200 with all the details on Very High. With details on High, you can freely push the game to 4xAA/16xAF and even turn the VSync on – you will have stable 60fps. Please note that our Crysis testing is actually a timedemo of last level of the game, thus it is pushing graphics cards to their maximum. Here, we have to complain about the fact that system was delivered with only 2GB of memory. We’re certain that 4GB would help this game a whole great deal, since system has more video than system memory (3GB vs. 2GB).

Race Driver: GRID gave out high framerates all the way to 1920×1200 with 16xQCSAA/16xAF, when framerates finally dipped under 60fps. If you play the game with regular 16xAA/16xAF – you will enjoy 71.11 fps at 1920×1200. At 2560×1600, we could enjoy average of 51 fps at 16xAA/16xAF.

We also tried titles such as Call of Duty 4: Warfare, Mass Effect and Unreal Tournament III. In every case, Annihilation ran the games in 1920×1200 with highest settings at comfortable VSync 60Hz and 120Hz levels.

Do the scores justify price difference... it all depends on how you look. One thing is certain - they both don't have enough RAM.

When it comes to GPGPU performance, I decided to check Folding@Home. Recently, Stanford changed the packets for Nvidia cards, and they’re now folding much more complex packets. These 511-point packets decreased the performance by roughly two packets a day, so you’re looking at around 7000 PPD from a single card. In the case of Annihilation F.A.T.E., we measured 23.350 PPD using old 480-point packets and 21.100 PPD on the new ones. This is highest number of points I’ve seen in a shipping system – and it is a very impressive number by any account. With this system, you can simulate two miliseconds in a life of a protein (per day). Hopefully, with next generation hardware, every card should be able to do a mili-second… or just order Cryosphere system and achieve that today (with three vapor-chamber chilled GTX280 cards).

Stability
For our temperature torture, we put the system in a chamber with air heated to 44C (110 degrees Fahrenheit). Then, we started anti-virus running in the background, loaded GRID and played for the next 60 minutes. System did not crash, even though the temperature of GPU2 and GPU2 went to 94 and 98 deg Celsius (201-208 degrees F). With we concluded that the setup will survive such a torture without crashing.

During our three weeks of evaluation, we saw no crashes.

Conclusion
At the end of the day, we have to say that we were extremely satisfied with the system. It passed all the tests with flying colors, and seeing that gaming with 16xAA / 16xAF at 1920×1200 became a reality for Call of Duty and GRID. Seeing playable settings in Age of Conan only makes us feel warm at heart.

However, at a price tag of around $6500, seeing a system with 2GB of memory and 32-bit operating system leaves a lot of question marks above our heads. Biohazard recently updated the system specs with Core i7, but the 2GB memory is just slowing the 3-SLI setup. 

In closing words, Annihilation F.A.T.E. is a great system, but if you decide to go for it, make sure you pick 8GB of memory and 64-bit operating system. One thing is certain: if the money was no object to us, this baby would end up on my desk, that’s for sure.

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It’s not exactly that One sleeps over at my house (that’s reserved for one blondie

The clock isn’t stopping there. In 10 hours time, Jim Jannard and RED team will announce more details about EPIC and Scarlet, 5K and 3K cameras that will set the world on fire in 2009. My assumption would be that RED will announce the availability dates and the performance of these cameras, but there might be something even bigger, as Jannard stated on Reduser.net forums. You can expect a massive price drop for both cameras, and vastly improved capabilities when compared to the parts Jannard announced earlier this year, at NAB in Las Vegas. It looks like RED has found the secret sauce to vastly increase the capabilities of their own sensor, while decreasing the price. If you’re wondering what LG Scarlet and RED Scarlet have in common, the answer is quite simple: the color red and lawsuit that RED filed against LG (for stealing Red’s trademark name). But on a bright side of things, I can’t wait for this 10 hours to pass.

So, head over to RED.com and wait…

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