LG teases upcoming G Watch on Twitter

It was just a few days ago when Google announced the Android Wear OS optimized for smartwatches and other wearable devices. LG and Motorola were first to announce Android Wear-based smartwatches, but Google promises even more are on the way.

Today LG UK released a teaser picture of the LG G Watch on its official Twitter account.
LG G Watch features a 1.65″ screen with a 280 x 280 resolution, 512MB RAM and 4GB of built-in storage. It will go on sale in Q2 this year, but exact availability and pricing are yet to be announced.

HTC publishes Sense launcher on the Play Store

HTC is following in the footsteps of Google and released its custom Android launched for free download from the Play Store. Along with the BlinkFeed launcher, the company also put out SenseTV (its remote control app) and HTC Service Pack.

BlinkFeed was first to put a magazine-like UI on the homescreen, something that Samsung has added to its latest TouchWiz incarnations.
The launcher features the same functionality as the native launcher on HTC phones, including showing upcoming calendar events, along with social updates and news, and offline reading mode to save on data usage.
The BlinkFeed launcher is available for free download from the Play Store, but it seems to have limited availability (probably a regional restriction). If you manage to install it – or not – drop a line in the comments with your device model and country.

HTC SenseTV displays the TV schedule with additional info for each show, including scores and stats for sports games. If your device has an IR blaster, the app will also control TV, set top box and home theater setup.

The purpose of HTC Service Pack is less clear, apparently it’s a “support service update that combines previously released updates and helps make your HTC experience more reliable”.

HTC One (M8) battery life test

The HTC One (M8) features a slightly bigger battery than its predecessor (2,600mAh vs. 2,300mAh) and an Extreme Power Saving Mode. That’s only for when you really need to stretch the last few percent though, otherwise it would be a shame to limit the speedy Snapdragon 801 chipset.

Note that for this test we didn’t use the power saving mode – we’re aiming to replicate regular daily usage and these modes limit the phone’s features and performance.
The HTC One (M8) lasted for 20 hours of talk time on a 3G network, a massive improvement over the previous One. It also beats the Galaxy S4 (which also has a 2,600mAh battery) by a couple of hours. Unfortunately we don’t have numbers for the Galaxy S5 just yet.

Talk time

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• Galxy Tab Pro 10.1 (S800) 46:44
• Motorola RAZR MAXX (ICS) 21:18
• LG Optimus G Pro 20:45
• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact 20:42
• Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX 20:24
• Motorola RAZR i 20:07
• HTC One (M8) 20:01
• BlackBerry Q10 20:00
• Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 19:54
• Sony Xperia SP 19:49
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 18:12
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600) 18:03
• Pantech Burst 4:46

Things go the other way around in the web browsing test and the HTC One (M8) lags about an hour behind last year’s model, which was on par with the iPhone 5s. It’s still ahead of the Galax S4 by a couple of hours and matches the Galaxy Note 3 phablet.

Web browsing

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• Sony Xperia C 12:45
• Galxy Note Pro 12.2 (Exynos) 9:33
• LG G Pro 2 9:31
• LG G Flex 9:31
• Galxy Tab Pro 10.1 (S800) 9:16
• Motorola RAZR MAXX (ICS) 9:12
• HTC One (M8) 9:06
• Apple iPad mini 9:05
• Apple iPhone 5c 9:05
• Oppo N1 9:05
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 9:04
• ASUS Nexus 7 (2013) 9:03
• Samsung Galaxy Nexus 3:01

We guess the larger screen took a toll on the battery for the browser test, but it wasn’t the only consideration. The HTC One (M8) outlasts its predecessor by just over an hour, which might be the result of a more efficient video decoder.

Video playback

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• LG G Flex 19:57
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo 11:38
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa) 11:29
• Samsung Galaxy Note II N7100 11:27
• BlackBerry Q10 11:15
• Oppo N1 11:15
• HTC One (M8) 11:14
• BlackBerry Z30 10:35
• Apple iPhone 5s 10:31
• Apple iPhone 5 10:12
• HTC One 10:02
• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact 10:01
• Nokia Lumia 710 3:27

The standby power draw of the One (M8) is quite low, which coupled with good numbers from the other three test work out to a respectable endurance rating of 71 hours. That almost matches the Galaxy Note 3′s rating of 75 hours and phablets are supposed to compensate their extra bulk with bigger batteries. More impressively, the original HTC One scored only a 48 hour endurance rating.

Again, we didn’t use the Extreme Power Saving Mode. With it, HTC promises that the last 20% of charge in the battery will last 60 hours. With three full days of medium usage, you’ll need to resort to that mode only when you forget to charge your One (M8) before leaving for your summer holiday.
Speaking of, the phone supports Quick Charge 2.0 that charges the battery 75% faster. However, the charger included in the box supports only Quick Charge 1.0, which is “only” 40% faster than regular charging.

LG unveils Smart LED Bulb, works with iOS and Android

LG has unveiled its first ever smart LED light bulbs. Called the LG Smart Bulb, it’s able to connect to Android 4.3+ and iOS 6+ devices using Wi-Fi, allowing you to control it from your smartphone or tablet.

The LG Smart Bulbs are low wattage with LG claiming they’ll run for more than a decade. The company has also baked some interesting features in the software controlling them. One of them is a security-oriented and turns the light on when you’re not home.
They also boast a so called “party mode”, which will make them flash in different colors in correspondence with the music that’s playing. At launch, this is enabled only for Android devices. LG has also worked out a way to make the bulbs flash when your phone rings.
LG is launching the bulbs in the coming days and one Smart Bulb will cost about $32 (35,000 KRW).

Oppo Find 7 variants benchmarked

Oppo’s latest flagship phone, the Find 7, was recently announced, and it’s been revealed that the phone will come in two variants: both QHD and full HD versions.

There are some other differences between the two versions that extend past just their respective resolutions. Hit the break to find out what they are.
The Find 7A is the full HD version of the phone, and it comes with a 5.5” screen with 401 ppi. It’s also packing a 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 CPU, 2GB RAM, and 16GB internal storage with a microSD card slot.
The Find 7 is the QHD version, which has a 5.5” screen with 534 ppi. It’s insides are slightly different: the Find 7 has a 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801 with 3GB RAM, and 32GB internal storage with a microSD slot.
Even though the 7 has a faster processor and more available RAM, the 7A was able to get better benchmark scores, most likely due to the lower amount of pixels that the latter model has to deal with. The Find 7 scored a 59.61, while the 7A nabbed a 61.19 on Basemark.
Although the Find 7′s QHD screen has a greater pixel density than the 7A’s FHD unit, there are some differences between the two that extend beyond resolution; namely image tones.


The Find 7′s screen tends to produce “colder” colors, leaning more to a blue-ish tint. The 7A’s screen produces slightly warmer, more vibrant colors. So prospective buyers should take this into consideration before making a decision between the two phones.

Nokia Glance gains support for Windows Phone 8.1 in its latest update

With the Windows Phone 8.1 moniker being confirmed a couple of times already by Microsoft, Nokia has been quick to update its cool Glance app and make it support the upcoming update of the OS.

The update now lives in the Windows Phone store and the only thing that Nokia has added is “Support for Windows Phone 8.1″. We don’t know if Nokia had to do a lot of modifications to the app to make it work, but certainly the Finns have made Glance play nice with any new APIs that WP 8.1 might bring along.
Thanks to the latest Windows Phone SDK that Microsoft released not to long ago, we know that Windows Phone 8.1 will bring a lot of new things to the table. The update will bring Windows Phone closer to Windows RT and will introduce support for VPNs, new battery optimization features, camera burst mode, updated Internet Explorer and new on-screen buttons.
Microsoft is also going to release its own virtual personal assistant a-la Google Now and Siri. It’s called Cortana and requires a Microsoft account in order to work. Microsoft is going to reveal all the features of Windows Phone 8.1 at its upcoming Build 2014 conference on April 19. There, we might even see the Nokia Lumia 930 and Lumia 630 get announced, if latest rumors are to be believed.

Microsoft once again confirms Windows Phone 8.1 name

Microsoft has almost spilled the beans on the upcoming Windows Phone 8.1 update. Recently it updated the Windows Phone store compatibility section with the Windows Phone 8.1 name thus confirming its official name.

Today Microsoft has updated its official Windows Phone website with “Windows Phone 8.1 Features” section.
Unfortunately the webpage was there only minutes and was most probably either empty or not available because no one has managed to snap a shot of its content.
Microsoft is going to unveil the Windows Phone 8.1 update on the annual BUILD conference on April 2. It is supposed to bring the OS up to speed with brand new intelligent voice assistant known as Cortana, plus it will finally give the users the long awaited action (notification) center with toggles.