The first official information about the BL40 “New Chocolate” feature-phone from LG has emerged, complete with several glossy shots of the 21:9 aspect touchscreen device. As expected, the BL40 has a 4.0-inch 800 x 345 “cinema-like” display, which LG suggest is ideal for viewing full-width webpages without zooming. Elsewhere, the company has introduced a “Dual Screen UI” which splits the display in two for showing multiple content-types simultaneously.
VUDU have announced that they have partnered with LG to put their on-demand IPTV system into the latter’s HDTVs. Rather than demanding a separate VUDU box, the LG “NetCast” range of TVs will be able to access on-demand rental or purchase of HD and 1080p Full HD titles, with a system that VUDU promise will see no stuttering or buffering delays.
You can’t accuse UK carrier Orange of under-promoting the upcoming LG GD910 watch phone; the wrist-worn video phone isn’t expected to hit shelves until August, but they’ve released a demo clip of the device in action. Nothing groundbreaking is on show, but it’s still impressive to see a two-way video call on such a small handset.
Video demo after the cut
After the rather controlled first set of leaked LG BL40 photos we’ve now got a second set, and these show the 21:9 aspect feature phone frolicking in a slightly more public place. The team over at Sina had a chance to grab a BL40 prototype for a couple of shots as well as some glowing feedback.
Well another week has come and gone as time steadily marches on and like every other week here on SlashGear, it has been a busy one. Poor old Toshiba took the old adage “if you can’t beat them, join them” seriously on Monday and announced that it would be launching its own Blu-ray player by the end of 2009. That had to be hard to swallow for the execs who bet it all on HD DVD only to be defeated by Blu-ray. Also on Monday the slick HP Mini 5101 netbooks tipped up starting from $399. I’m not convinced we need another netbook on the market right now personally.
Samsung has answered the question of how its S9110 watch phone might compete with LG’s upcoming GD910 in the UK, by deciding not to launch it at all. After revealing that the S9110 – which has a 1.76-inch glass touchscreen and measures just 11.98mm thick – would land in France later this month, Samsung confirmed that it had no plans to release it in the UK “for the foreseeable future”.
LG Korea have announced a limited edition of their X120 netbook complete with Levi’s branding and a denim laptop sleeve. The LG Xnote Mini X120 Levi’s Special Edition uses the same Intel Atom N270 processor, 1GB of RAM and 160GB hard-drive as all the rest of the company’s netbooks, but throws a Levi’s sketch onto the side of the cream lid.
Apple, Microsoft, Bang & Olufsen and iriver are among the defendants named by Tsera LLC, a company claiming to own a touchpad patent which has been vigorously infringed. The lawsuit concerns Tsera’s patent “Methods and apparatus for controlling a portable electronic device using a touchpad”, and basically describes recognizing different touchpad swipes without requiring visual feedback.
Some in-depth sleuthing of LG’s website has thrown up details of an unannounced Android device from the company, the LG GW620. Tipped to support UMTS/HSDPA and GPRS (though with no sign of which bands it supports), the GW620 also has a QWERTY keyboard and a half-VGA 320 x 480 display that we presume is a touchscreen.
Interestingly, the handset has also been spotted previously by Cellpassion at the WiFi Alliance [pdf link], where it went by the name of the LG Eve. They had no other details – at the time it was unknown that the Eve was to be an Android device – but its presence on a testing site does indicate that the GW620 may be close to release.
After already committing to releasing a 15-inch OLED TV potentially as early as December 2009 in Korea, LG have now revealed their plans to have a 32-inch OLED display on the market in 2012. Suggesting that OLED would provide a new source of revenue, LG Display CEO Kwon Young-soo told press that the company’s focus is on larger panels rather than cellphone-sized versions.
This, the executive claimed, is because “the larger the display, the more efficient the OLED technology.” It’s certainly given the company’s HR department a boost: LG Display have apparently taken on 1,700 new staff in research and development this year.
JP
