Android Wear-running LG G Watch gets a July launch date

LG jumped onto the wearable bandwagon with the announcement of its first smartwatch, the G Watch, in March.

The LG G Watch runs Google's Android Wear, a software project that extends Android to wearables and the South Korean company had revealed that its first smartwatch will be released in Q2 2014.

Now, LG has confirmed to Pocket-lint that the G Watch will be released in UK priced below GBP 180 (roughly Rs. 18,000) and will be available before July. As of now, the company has not revealed the complete specifications of its first smartwatch. The LG G Watch is expected to feature a 1.65-inch display with a 280x280 pixel resolution, 512MB of RAM and 4GB of built-in storage. Further, there is no word on global rollout of the LG G Watch.

Earlier, LG teased its G Watch wearable device via a single clear image in a Twitter post. The post stated "LG #GWatch - Coming Soon!" followed by an image. The image showed the G Watch featuring a square screen. The screen showed Google Hangout chats along with time on the top-left corner.

Notably, Motorola also announced its Moto 360 smartwatch running Google's Android Wear. The former Google-owned company had announced that the smartwatch would be available in a variety of styles globally in summer 2014, starting in the US. However, the company is yet to reveal the pricing of the Moto 360.

Google however, besides LG and Motorola, is also teaming-up with other firms for its Android Wear project, out of which some key manufacturers are Asus, HTC, LG, Samsung and the Fossil Group.

Huawei confirms dual-OS Android and Windows Phone smartphone for Q2 release

Huawei has confirmed that a dual-OS smartphone will be available in the US in Q2 2014, running Android and Windows Phone operating systems.

Huawei's chief marketing officer, Shao Yang in an interview with TrustedReviews, has shed some light on the company's upcoming smartphone plans.

Yang was quoted as saying, "We are still committed to making Windows Phone devices. Compared with Android, the priority of Windows Phone is much lower but is still one of our choices of OS. We are definitely using a multi OS strategy."

It seems that despite Microsoft's desperate push (evinced by co-marketing reports in the past), device manufacturers like Huawei still consider its Windows Phone OS a secondary option to Google's Android.

Yang further said, "With Windows Phone, one direction for us - and one that we are now following - is dual-OS. Dual-OS as in Android and Windows together."

Yang claimed that the dual-OS device could be a new option of consumers who have been offered Android or Windows Phone on a device, and not both operating systems in a single device.

"If it is Windows only, maybe people will not find it as easy a decision to buy the phone. If they have the Android and Windows together, you can change it as you wish and it is much easier for people to choose Windows Phone," added Yang.

The technical details of the dual-OS implementation are not clear as of now, whether the Android and Windows Phone operating systems would be offered through a dual-boot menu at the start-up of the Huawei smartphone, or if the user would be able to switch between the two operating systems at any point.

Huawei might have confirmed its dual-OS smartphone for this year; however, Asus seems to have cancelled its plans for launching a dual-OS tablet which was expected to be launched this year.

Wall Street Journal in a report has suggested that the Taiwanese manufacturer had to suspend its plan under pressure of Google and Microsoft.

An earlier report had claimed that Microsoft, in an attempt to promote its mobile and tablet ecosystem, was considering offering free versions of Windows Phone and Windows RT to device makers

LG L90 with 4.7-inch display, Android 4.4 KitKat launching this week

LG has announced that the L90 smartphone will begin rolling out starting this week. The South Korean giant has announced that the biggest smartphone in the L series III family, the L90, will be initially available in Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region followed by other markets.

The company has not yet revealed the pricing of the LG L90, though it notes that more details about the availability will be revealed at the time of launch.

According to LG, the L90 is the first L Series III device to offer Knock Code, which is company's evolution of the KnockON feature that first debuted last year in the LG G2.

LG expanded its 'L' series range of smartphones by introducing three new third-generation devices in the L Series III range, named LG L90, L70 and L40, ahead of MWC 2014.

The LG L90 runs Android 4.4 KitKat out-of-the-box. It features a 4.7-inch IPS display with qHD (540x960 pixels) resolution. Besides being powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor with 1GB of RAM, L90 comes in two market-specific variants featuring 8-megapixel or 5-megapixel rear cameras.

The LG L90 also houses a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera. It comes with 8GB inbuilt storage, which is further expandable up to 32GB via microSD card. A 2540mAh removable battery backs the device. The LG L90 measures 131.6x66.0x9.7mm in dimensions, with no word on weight.

Commenting on the announcement, Dr. Jong-seok Park, president and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company said, "With its competitive specs and exquisite design, we expect the L90 to continue the success of the L Series in the global marketplace. It offers the very best of LG in design, hardware, OS and UX features so 3G smartphone users worldwide will be able to enjoy a truly first-class smartphone experience."

LG L90

• KEY SPECS
• 
  

Display

4.70-inch

Processor

1.2GHz

Front Camera

1.3-megapixel

Resolution

540x960 pixels

RAM

1GB

OS

Android 4.4

Storage

8GB

Rear Camera

8-megapixel

Battery capacity

2540mAh

Android KitKat, Jelly Bean under cyber threat; users' data could be compromised

A "critical flaw" has been detected in the virtual private network offered by Android operating systems in the Indian cyberspace leading to "hijack" of personal data of users.

Internet security sleuths have alerted consumers of this web-based service to guard against the spread of this virus which affects computer systems and mobile phones using the Android system.

The suspicious activity has been noticed in two Android versions - 4.3 known as 'Jelly Bean' and the latest version 4.4 called 'KitKat'.

A critical flaw has been reported in Android's VPN implementation, which could allow an attacker to bypass active VPN configuration to redirect secure VPN communications to a third party server.

"A critical flaw has been reported in Android's (virtual private network) VPN implementation, affecting Android version 4.3 and 4.4 which could allow an attacker to bypass active VPN configuration to redirect secure VPN communications to a third party server or disclose or hijack unencrypted