Last year, in the midst of the pandemic, LG revealed and launched an interesting face mask called PuriCare. The mask shares that name with LG's lineup of air purifiers, and for a good reason, as it's essentially an air purifier you strap to your face. The LG PuriCare Wearable Air Purifier - its full, official name - is back today, as LG has made some updates to the mask.
LG's rolling OLED TV is up for sale, but if you want to put a piece of tech magic in your living room you need to brace yourself for a seriously eye-watering price tag. Revealed last year, the LG SIGNATURE OLED R has a 65-inch display that rolls up into its base when not needed, but you'll have to find a whopping $100,000 in order to buy one.
It's not easy to determine which smart TV platform is really leading the market. Smart TV sales don't exactly correlate to the popularity or quality of the software that runs on them. Despite having been a close Google partner back when it still made smartphones, LG has opted to pave its own path with a proprietary spin of webOS made especially for TVs. It has opened up that platform to more TV makers and is now giving its own competitors one of its exclusive features, the ability to speak to Amazon's Alexa, even without an Alexa-powered speaker.
LG's new flagship TVs will go on sale in July, the company has confirmed today, packing up to 8K resolution, Quantum Dot NanoCell color, and Mini LED backlight technology. Announced at CES 2021, the new line-up of 8K QNED99 and QNED95 series plus the with 4K QNED90 series run up to a whopping 86-inches in size.
OLED displays have been praised for their power-efficiency and deeper blacks, but LCD technology used to have one important advantage, at least for a short while. Until recently, only LCD screens could boast of refresh rates that went higher than 60Hz, let alone 120Hz or more. OLEDs, however, are catching up and it's not unusual nowadays to hear of phones and TVs with OLED screens with high refresh rates. Proof of that is LG's latest update to its top-of-the-line OLED TVs that are getting three of the biggest buzzwords in the industry: Dolby Vision, 4K, and 120Hz.
LG's exit from the smartphone market evoked mixed reactions. On the one hand, it wasn't exactly surprising given the company's ailing mobile business, but, on the other hand, it was still a sad fate to befall one of the former giants of that industry. Despite its best efforts, LG wasn't able to make its last phones a reality, including what would have been the world's first commercial rollable phone. It also canceled the more "normal" LG Velvet 2 Pro, codenamed LG Rainbow, which suddenly popped up out of nowhere to give LG fans a glimpse of what could or should have been.
With LG's formal withdrawal from the smartphone market, there have naturally been questions about the company's ability to support the phones it already has out in the wild. Of course, LG promised that it would indeed continue to update at least some of its phones but that remained to be seen. As if to dispel those doubts, LG has finally launched the LG UX 10 with Android 11 update for the LTE-only version of the LG Velvet, almost half a year after the LG Velvet 5G received it.
Almost anyone and everyone have a streaming service these days, mostly revolving around brands and properties. There are, of course, some that are focused on specific themes, especially sports. Among those, FuboTV is probably at the top of the list for its selection of sports live TV streaming content but, despite its popularity, it has been noticeably absent on at least one platform. That has finally changed and owners of LG's latest smart TV will finally have accesso to FuboTV, if they're willing to pay the price, of course.
As one of Samsung's eternal rivals, it wasn't really a surprise that LG would also roll out its own mobile payment system with almost similar capabilities as Samsung Pay. Of course, LG wanted LG Pay to be able to do more but the system's rather troubled beginnings seemed to prefigure its untimely demise. Although less than four years in the US, the company announced that it will be shutting down LG Pay in stages, which isn't exactly surprising since it is also shutting down its mobile business anyway.
LG is known for a wide range of products, including TVs, appliances, and home theater equipment like sound bars. The company has confirmed US pricing and availability for its 2021 lineup of sound bars. LG's line has new models promising a premium audio experience, versatility, and convenient control.
It would appear that Google has a new way to share files in the mix with Android. Per the latest version of Google Play Services and some creative work looking at the code for the system, Nearby Share with "everyone mode" is nearly ready for the pubic. This update would add "Everyone" to device visibility right next to "Contacts" and "Hidden" in Nearby Share.
GM and LG will build a new electric car battery plant together, the two companies have confirmed today, settling rumors of an expansion of the joint Ultium Cells venture as the automaker tries to maximize production of cheaper EV power packs. The new facility will be in Spring Hill, Tennessee, and see General Motors and LG Energy Solution pump in a further $2.3 billion in investment.