I’ve written a fair amount of reviews, mostly of Android mini PCs and development boards, and I intend to continue, but there are currently a few things I’m unable to test: S/PDIF and HDMI pass-through, and 4K video output, 3D videos, and HDMI-CEC. The main reason is that the AV receiver and TVs required to test this are rather expensive, and these are not something I really need personally, since I seldom watch movies myself, I purchased a new Full HD TV last year, and I don’t expect to access 4K content for a few more years. Yet it would be interesting to prospective buyers to find out if advertized features such as audio pass-though of 5.1 & 7.1 codec does work, and whether 4K output (listed and real), HDMI-CEC, 3D videos and other features not supported by my current Panasonic can work properly. It would also be fun for […]
LG NUCLUN Octa-core ARM SoC Powers G3 Screen Smartphone
LG has been making mobile devices since 1997, has entered the smartphone market in 2010, and they’ve now decided to foray into mobile SoC, with their very first SoC being an octa-core Cortex A15/A7 processor called NUCLUN, and found in their latest G3 Screen smartphone running Android 4.4.4. Details about NUCLUN processor are sparse, but the company did provide some specifications for LG G3 Screen smartphone: SoC – LG NUCLUN (LG7111) Octa-Core big.LITTLE processor with four ARM Cortex A15 cores @ 1.5GHz, four ARM Cortex A7 cores @ 1.2GHz. System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 32GB eMMC + MicroSD slot Display – 5.9″ Full HD IPS touchscreen Camera – 13MP OIS+ rear camera, 2.1MP front-facing camera Network – LTE-A Cat.6 for up to 225Mbps download speed. Battery – 3,000mAh Dimensions – 157.8x 81.8x 9.5mm Weight – 182g The phone, also codenamed as LG Liger F490L, F490K or F490S (depending […]
Google Releases Android Wear SDK, LG G Watch and Samsung Gear Live Smartwatches Are Now Available
I’ve just covered what’s new in Android L?, and I’m going to focus on Google I/O 2014’s announcements related by Android wear starting with hardware with LG G Watch ,and Samsung Gear smartwatches, followed by some details about the first official release of Android Wear SDK. LG G Watch Specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 @ 1.2 GHz System Memory – 512MB RAM Storage – 4GB eMMC Display – 1.65” IPS display (280 x 280) Connectivity – Bluetooth 4.0 LE Sensors – 9-Axis (Gyro / Accelerometer / Compass) IP Rating – IP67 dust and water resistant Battery – Li-ion 400mAh Dimensions – 37.9 x 46.5 x 9.95 mm Weight – 62.5 grams LG G watch will run Android Wear (as it’s the subject of this post), and it currently available on Google Play for $229 (US only?) with shipping scheduled for early July. Samsung Gear Live Specifications: Processor – Unnamed […]
Firefox OS Smartphones, Tablets and Reference Designs at Mobile World Congress 2014
Beside the $25 smartphone, Mozilla has also announced a number of smartphones and tablets running Firefox OS during an event at Mobile World Congress 2014. The first devices such as ZTE Open featured a single core processor, the new models come with more powerful dual and quad core processors, mostly from Qualcomm, but also WonderMedia and AllWinner, together with better screen and features. Let’s have a look. ZTE Open C and Open II ZTE Open C smartphone features a 4″ display (800 x 480 resolution), powered by Qualcomm Snadragon 200 SoC @ 1.2 GHz, 512MB of RAM, a 2MP camera, as well as a 1,200mAh battery. Engadget has an hands-on video. ZTE Open II sports a 3.5″ (HVGA -> 480×320) display, with a dual core Snapdragon processor @ 1.2 GHz, 256 MB, 2GB flash, a 2MP camera, and a 1150 mh, according to CNet. It also supports 3G networks. Both […]
LG Announces Chromebase, an All-in-one PC running Chrome OS
LG has put out a press release announcing the company will unveil the first-ever Chromebase, an all-in-one computer powered by Google Chrome OS, at CES 2014. So after the Chromebooks and Chromeboxes, we now have a new category of Chrome OS device: Chromebases. LG computer will come with an Intel Celeron CPU, but future Chromebase computers might also run on ARM platform. Technical specifications: Processor – Intel Celeron CPU System Memory – 2 GB Storage – 16GB iSSD Display: 21.5″ Full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS monitor Video – HDMI-in USB – 3x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.0 Connectivity – LAN Camera – 1.3MP 720p Audio – 5W speakers + microphone The computer will come with a keyboard, a mouse, and a cable organizer. LG will showcase their Chromebase in Las Vegas Convention Center, Central Hall #8204, during CES 2014, from Tuesday, January 7 through Friday, January 10. There’s no […]
Google Announces LG Nexus 5 Smartphone with Android 4.4 KitKat
Google has partnered with LG and Nestle to bring to market the latest Nexus 5 smartphone featuring Android 4.4 “Kitkat”, the latest, and brand new, release of Android. Let’s first have a look at the device, and then we’ll go through the new features and improvement brought by Android 4.4. LG Nexus 5 Nexus 5 has the following technical specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 @ 2.26GHz with Adreno 330 GPU @ 450MHz System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 16 to 32 GB flash, but no microSD slot Display – 4.95″ touchscreen display with 1920×1080 resolution, Gorilla Glass 3 Connectivity – Dual band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WiFi (2.4G/5G), Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, and GPS Celullar Networks – 2G/3G/4G LTE. GSM, CDMA, WCDMA, and LTE in North America, and GSM, WCDMA, and LTE for the rest of the world. Camera – 8MP rear camera with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) and 1.3MP front camera […]
LG Optimus L4II is a Triple SIM Smartphone Powered by Mediatek Technology
There’s already an impressive number of mobile phones with dual SIM card slots, but LG and Mediatek went a step further with the Optimus L4II that sports triple SIM card support thanks to Mediatek 3G Triple-SIM technology. All three SIM cards can be “used simultaneously, and receive calls, transmit data, send SMS messages and remain in standby mode concurrently without consuming excessive battery life”, according to Mediatek. If case you wonder why people would ever need multiple SIM card use cases include roaming between different countries (e.g. Hong Kong, Macau and China) where you don’t want to change SIM cards each time you cross the border, using prepaid SIM cards from different telco to benefit from promotion, etc… I could not find the other specs for the device, but the company has recently launched LG Optimus L4II Dual (dual SIM card support) which may be similar, with the following specifications: […]
Android Jelly Bean 4.2 SDK, Source Code and Binary Images Are Now Available
As the Nexus 4 smartphone and Nexus 10 tablet became available for purchase yesterday, Google released Android 4.2 SDK for developers and pushed Android 4.2 to AOSP. The Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) SDK platform (API level 17) brings the following key improvements: Performance – Renderscript computation can be run directly in the GPU on the Nexus 10. This is a first since Exynos 5250 is the first ARM processor capable of supporting GPGPU (via Mali-T604 GPU). See the chart of the right showing results between CPU and CPU+GPU computation of some multimedia benchmarks. Lock screen widgets – Users can now place interactive lock screen widgets directly on their device lock screens. This only requires a small update to adapt existing widgets to run on the lock screen. Daydream – An interactive screensaver mode that can be used when the device is charging or docked to a desk dock. Better external […]