The all-metal LG Zero Smartphone

LG Electronics (LG) will commence the global rollout of its slim metal smartphone, LG Zero¹, starting this week in Taiwan followed by other key markets in Asia, Europe and Latin America. First introduced to Korean customers in September, the LG Zero inherits the advanced camera technology and exclusive UX features of the LG G Series and introduces a full metal body for a more advanced and modern experience.

The exceptional build quality of the LG Zero is highlighted by its solid aluminum body which gives the LG Zero a premium look and feel. This newest smartphone’s smooth metal body is enhanced by the “Arc Glass” design of the edges which create a slimmer profile. Complementing the solid aluminum exterior is a 5.0-inch In-Cell Touch IPS display which delivers faster recognition, better outdoor visibility and crisper images.

LG Zero offers best-in-class camera features adopted from the highly acclaimed G4, resulting in maximum photo resolution, shutter speed and sharpness. The 8MP front camera allows for brighter and clearer selfies while the 13MP rear camera delivers many of the same attributes of a standalone camera. Fans of popular G Series features such as Gesture Shot, Gesture View and Gesture Interval Shot will be delighted to find these options in the LG Zero as well. 




“At LG, we do not believe in limiting our best technology to just our flagship devices,” said Juno Cho, president and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “The LG Zero exhibits innovation not only in its design but in its ability to offer premium features at a competitive price point.”

Prices and participating carriers will be announced locally at the time of availability.

Key Specifications²
Display: 5.0-inch HD In-cell Touch (1280 x 720, 294ppi)

Chipset: 1.2GHz Quad-Core Processor 

Camera: Rear 13MP / Front 8MP

Memory: 1.5GB LPDDR3 RAM / 16GB eMMC ROM / MicroSD

Battery: 2,050mAh

Operating System: Android 5.1 Lollipop

Size: 142 x 71.8 x 7.4mm

Weight: 147g

Network: LTE / HSPA+ / GSM

Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b, g, n / Bluetooth 4.1 / USB 2.0

Colors: Silver / Gold

Li-Fi Probably Won’t Be The New Wi-Fi For Most People

Long restricted to the academic domain, Li-Fi, a light-based data delivery method is suddenly getting all sorts of attention. An Estonian startup Velmenni recently tested an commercial implementation and found it to be superior to Wi-Fi in almost every way – except as something you and I will probably ever use.

Velmenni’s technology, called Jungru, uses an LED bulb and transmits data at gigabit speed. It has a theoretical speed of 224 gigabytes per second, the BBC reported. While the Jungru product is commercially viable, it is still based on what seems to be a laboratory-grade MATLAB and Simulink setup paired with photodiodes as opposed to a final product which must transmit data in real world environments full of light pollution and other variables.

University of Edinburgh Professor Harald Hass first demonstrated Li-Fi as a part of the D-light project at the school’s Institute for Digital Communications back in 2010. He gave a 2012 TED Global talk about it but but despite several companies being interested enough to start a Li-Fi consortium, the technology is still not a commercial contender.

The technology uses protocols similar to the RF-band 802.11 protocols, with additional standards to eliminate the impacts of interference and impacts of ambient lighting. Despite this, however, the technology cannot be deployed in outdoors in sunlight or in other odd conditions.

While Li-Fi does come with the advantage of not interfering with radio signals, a lot of the benefits are overpowered by the simple fact that visible light cannot travel through walls, an essential factor which gives old-school Wi-Fi a huge advantage. This line-of-sight limitation does make the system more secure and gives better control over emissions, but it’s unclear what the minimum distance for signal reception would be if clear line-of-sight is achieved. With that in mind, it is easy to imagine the signal being intercepted by someone with a telephoto lens and an optical sensor tuned appropriately. While Li-Fi was touted as a possible channel for wireless communications on airplanes, widespread adoption of onboard Wi-Fi on most US airlines makes this use case less and less pertinent.

LED lightbulbs that use the technology don’t appear visually different – information is encoded in pulses of light that are small and rapid enough perturbations to be undetectable to the naked eye. While it’s attractive to envision a network of connected lightbulbs all being used to transmit data between nodes, it’s not clear if the benefits of faster wireless communication will outweigh the costs of constantly-on LED lights, as well as the cost of optical detectors requiring clear line-of-sight.

There certainly is room for Li-Fi and other visible light-based communication systems to grow in niche areas, but router manufacturers can rest easy for a while. Wi-Fi isn’t going anywhere soon, and neither is that router you bought on Black Friday and offers “piddly” 1300 mbps speeds with all the benefits of RF.

Samsung’s New Patent Shows Off a Foldable Tablet that will Turn into a Smartphone

Samsung has filed a new patent with the UPSTO which shows off a tablet that can be folded and used as a smartphone. The patent drawings are clear on the intentions of the design, Samsung wants to offer a smartphone and a tablet in a single clever packaging. The patent attributes the design to the Korean IP authorities, since Samsung is a Korean based company plus also depicts the various forms this design innovation can be implemented in.

The project has been dubbed the Project V and it comes with the model number SM-G929 which is a slight increment over the SM-G928 a.k.a Galaxy S6 Edge+. As we said earlier, a slew of configurations have been depicted in the drawings and the horizontal clamshell which opens up like a book seems to take the precedence.

The patent has however just outlined the design and not the specifications of the screen. If the two display are hinged, then the chances are that even when unfolded, it won’t be that easy to use. We feel that Samsung might use a flex like screen which is completely foldable. It makes much sense since the patent also contains drawings of rollable screens.

Another possibility is that the display will be running across the entire breadth and will be glued to the device. This is something that Samsung had already showcased as a concept in a 2014 video. The plot twist comes in the form of an iPod icon, we are well aware of the strained relations Apple and Samsung share when it comes to patents but still the iPod logo doesn’t make much sense.

The Valley is expected to be sold across the European market inclusive of UK, Germany, Italy, France and Poland. It goes without saying that Samsung will also be releasing the device in South Korea. The foldable phone is still in concept state and it will take ample time to see the light of the day, the concept might also die out prematurely owing to the bottlenecks Samsung might face in the project. That being said such innovative designs are a welcome change to the rather drab looking smartphones being sold currently.