LG has posted its financial results for the third quarter of the year, and it's the third period in a row it's turned a profit.
The Korean company made 157 billion won ($138.57 million, £87 million) - not a staggering amount, and it's actually down on last year. But in these uncertain economic times, any profit is good news.
LG describes its home theatre and mobile businesses as giving "solid" performances. Its mobile side made an operating profit of $19.42 million (£12.13 million), which was up a little on the second quarter. And expect this to get even better, when it reveals its Nexus-branded handset next week.
Sales of LG LCD TVs, 3D and LED sets were also on the rise from last quarter. Again, expect sales to improve in the winter months as more people shun the bad weather to stay in with the gogglebox.
LG also claims it'll increase sales of LCD TVs in this quarter by pushing its CINEMA 3D Smart TVs and its new Ultra HD TV.
Nexus 4
LG is widely expected to announce its Nexus 4 handset next week at a Google event. It's one of the worst-kept secrets in tech, with photos aplenty leaking, and even an exec confirming Monday's launch.
The device is expected to look like the Galaxy Nexus, with a screen around 4.7-inches in size. Inside will be a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, and it's expected to run the latest version of Android.
Google is also expected to open up the Nexus family, so anyone can make devices under the umbrella, as long as they meet the spec requirements.
You may have been mistaken for thinking that there wasn't really a gap between the HTC One V and the HTC Desire C, but you'd be wrong, as the HTC Desire X forces its way between the two handsets.
On paper there's very little to separate the Desire X from the One V, as this new smartphone appears to be an almost carbon copy of its One series brother.
You can pick up the Desire X for around £215 SIM-free, while it's also available for free on contracts starting from £20.50 per month.
This isn't too similar to the One V, which is actually available of cheaper monthly contracts (starting at £15.50), while SIM-free it's a little dearer at £230.
The main difference from the One V it seems is the design, with the HTC Desire X sporting a look and feel which owners of the flagship HTC One X will be familiar with, however the polycarbonate unibody is out, in favour of a rubberised plastic back which you can peel off.
On the front of the Desire X you find the 4-inch, Super LCD display with three touch buttons below it, back, home and multi-tasking, which tells you this handset is packing Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich – but you won't find a front-facing camera here.
The case slightly juts out below the capacitive buttons, and while not as obvious as the "chin" on the One V and the old school HTC Hero, the lip is noticeable when you run your finger down the phone.
The diminutive size of the Desire X - it measures 118.5 x 62.3 x 9.3 mm - means it fits comfortably in the hand, with the rubber coated rear providing a high level of grip, allowing you to keep hold of the phone.
Build quality appears solid, but the Desire X weighs just 114g, meaning it's deceptively light, which certainly isn't a bad thing and means you can slip it into a pocket without issue.
There's not many physical buttons on the Desire X, with a volume rocker switch located towards the top of the right side and a power/lock setting in a central position on top of the phone.
The centralised position of the lock button means reaching it with your thumb is out of the question - your index finger is the digit required to manipulate this key.
While easy to hit, those who may be switching from a Samsung device, which have the power/lock key located on the right side for easy thumbing (when held in the right hand), may find this new movement a little alien at first – but you'll quickly get used to it.
Also up top is a 3.5mm audio jack, while on the left hand side is a microUSB port for charging and connecting the Desire X to other devices.
On the back the 5MP camera and single LED flash are housed in their own oval zone, which evokes the Evo 3D language from a year ago, but fits more slickly into the architecture of the HTC Desire X.
Underneath the back cover there's a relatively average 1,650mAh battery, standard size SIM card slot and a microSD slot which supports cards up to 32GB in size, allowing you to build on the 4GB of internal storage.
Getting the rear cover off however is a little challenging, as there's no obvious indentation which encourages you to slip a finger nail in and peel it off.
Instead you're left trying to prise your nail between the front and back of the Desire X, and we found the best place is you work your way in at the top.
Once you're in you can pull the wafer thin cover off, be careful as it hugs the chin at the bottom of the Desire X, and you'll notice that it feels slightly flimsy.
The power/lock button and volume rocker are attached to the rear case and the construction doesn't fill you with confidence once you've taken the cover off, as the thin plastic feels like it could break very easily.
We'd advise against taking the back cover off the HTC Desire X too much, but apart from that it's a smart, if uninspired handset which should be able to stand up for itself in the middle of the mobile market.
Thanks to Unlocked-Mobiles.com for getting the HTC Desire X to us in super quick time!
For several years you had a choice when it came to in-car navigation. Factory-fit or dedicated device.
But now there's a third option: Full-function, turn-by-turn sat nav apps for smartphones. TomTom's just added to the party with its somewhat belated app for Android.
In theory you get all the advantages of a dedicated nav device, but without the need to buy an extra device or pay for an additional data plan and all that jazz that comes with a high end sat nav device. It's got to be a win, surely?
The proposition only gets stronger when you consider that TomTom is one of the very best nav specialists and Android the most popular smartphone platform. And with the app you get free map updates... for life. What's not to like?
For one thing, there are plenty of alternative navigation apps for the Android platform. Oh, yeah, and lest you have forgotten, Google Maps for Android does the turn-by-turn thing for free. So TomTom for Android needs to be a bit special.
Death to navigation devices?
Indeed, this app could be important as the nav industry is in a critical transitional phase. Dedicated devices, otherwise known as personal navigation devices or PNDs look like an endangered species. So it's quality of mapping and associated services that really matter.
TomTom knows this and is very progressive. But partnership with Apple with iOS has hardly started how they hoped. Anyway, interesting times. let's have a look at what tomtom's new app for android actually delivers. First the theoreticals.
Available to buy now from Google Play (Android App Store on devices with older versions of Android), a wide range of map packs are available. We tested the pan-European map pack.
You pays your money...
Yours for £30.99 it's a big old download, clocking in over 3GB, so you'll need plenty of available storage on your device. Note also we couldn't find any options for choosing the storage location, which could be a problem if you've maxed out your internal memory and we're hoping to stick TomTom onto a storage card.
That said, the download is a one-time hit and critically means you have those maps stored locally. You're not dependent on an internet connection for basic navigation, in other words, though you'll need one for some of the live services, including HD Traffic.
Also, for the record the UK-only map is under 400MB in size, so if you're not planning on a Euro tour, storage needs are far from excessive, and it's cheaper to buy that option compared to the full UK & Europe version.
Screen test
As it happens, it's at this installation stage that the TomTom app's biggest problem appears. At launch it only works with 800 x 480 and 854 x 540 screen resolutions. So the latest generation of 720p HD handsets with 1,280 x 720 screens are totally incompatible.
That rules out pretty much all of the hot handsets out there at the moment. Hmmm.
Anyway, beyond simple mapping, the app delivers TomTom's funky connected features. For starters, this means HD Traffic that's miles better than the RDS-TMC data that most built-in navigation devices rely on.
Then there's TomTom IQ routes, which takes into account things like historical data for traffic flows to work out the best possible routes, rather than just relying of theoretical information like posted speed limits and simple distances.
Rounding the feature set out are usual TomTom suspects like Google-powered Local Search, an offline POI database and of course seven-digit postcode support. The latter is something you may be surprised to learn still isn't supported by some factory-fit navigation systems.
Performance
First up, the TomTom app benefits from smartphone installation straight away thanks to the capacitive touch screens and responsive interfaces on Android devices. It makes for a much slicker, less frustrating experience than the resistive screens users of TomTom's own devices know all too well.
As for the actual graphics and mapping quality, that's never been a TomTom strength if you're looking for Hollywood style 3D visuals. But what matters here is clarity and legibility and just like TomTom's dedicated devices, the app absolutely delivers.
It's not absolutely identical to TomTom's own devices. But where it differs, it's usually better, with a drop shadow here or a transparency there giving the app a slightly more contemporary feel.
Fully functional
Critically, however, the stuff you really need, things like time to destination, distance to destination, your speed and the local speed limit remain available to be overlaid on the map.
TomTom's familiar prompts and cues for upcoming exits and junctions, too. They're probably the best in the business. Certainly, you're much less likely to misinterpret and TomTom guidance cue than that of most built-in navigation solutions.
As with TomTom devices, the POI and Local Search setup is a bit confusing. It's not immediately obvious to new users why you'd use one over the other and can be tricky to use to find things that ought to be easy, like train stations and major airports.
A better search solution
We'd like to see all this unified in a much cleverer single context-aware search function. Elsewhere, extras like the speed camera database and HD Traffic work just like they do on TomTom devices, which is to say pretty well.
Problem is, you have to pay extra for both. HD Traffic is £3.99 a month or £26.99. The numbers for the camera database are £1.49 and £16.99 respectively.
That said, we're happy to report it runs pretty smoothly on a rather stately, two-year old Samsung Galaxy S. In fact, even on such an ancient handset it calculate routes pretty niftily.
Verdict
Exactly how it runs on the latest HD uber phones, we'll have to wait and see. As we mentioned, that's because the app is not currently compatible with 720p HD screens. When it is, it'll be a much more popular option and we'll take another look at it.
We can imagine the route calculation tearing along at quite a lick on the latest dual and quad-core CPUs. Still, it's a very odd oversight from TomTom to launch without HD handset support.
Oh, and don't forget you'll need some kind of cradle and charger to use the app properly, which will add to the cost. But assuming your handset is compatible, you can now have the full TomTom experience without a standalone device.
Just a couple of days before Microsoft's new Surface tablet begins landing in the hands of expectant consumers, the Redmond-based company posted a video explaining a little bit about the development of the tablet's optional keyboard/cover, the Touch Cover. The company has been highlighting the attachment almost as much as the tablet itself.
So as not to leave consumers in any doubt that it’s the Touch Cover that makes the Surface special, Microsoft has posted a video on the Web telling us a little bit about how it came together.
The 100-second production features a bunch of Microsoft developers sitting around a table in a workshop, fiddling about with old Touch Cover models and prototypes while poring over notes and diagrams scrawled on a whiteboard
“We spent months and months with our designers and engineers to perfect how this attachment works,” one of the video’s participants says, adding, “We’ve been able to create a pressure sensitive keyboard 3mm in thickness that has the performance of a laptop keyboard, and that’s incredible.” The first coming-together-of-tablet-and-Touch-Cover occurs at the 30-second mark, producing that now familiar ‘click’ sound. Yes, familiar – that’s pretty amazing considering the Surface and Touch Cover haven’t even launched yet, but hey, that’s marketing for you.
In fact, Microsoft is singing the praises of the Touch Cover to such an extent that you could be forgiven for thinking it’s the tablet part which is the add-on.
In a recent interview with Microsoft’s Next blog, company co-founder and chairman Bill Gates was beside himself with unbridled joy when it came to the subject of the Touch Cover. “When you show people that hinge….you can’t appreciate it without seeing it,” he enthused, before insisting that people “get to a store and play around with this thing….the way you put that keyboard on and off…”
In addition, newly released ads from Microsoft appear to focus as much on the Touch Cover as the tablet, with the clicking noise forming a key part of one of the ads in particular.
Despite Microsoft doing its best to get consumers excited about the Touch Cover, the purchase page for the Surface RT, which launches this Friday, appears to indicate that at this stage consumers are going for the $499 32GB tablet-only option, with shipping time listed at three weeks. The $599 32GB version with the Touch Cover, and the $699 64GB version also with the Touch Cover, currently have shipping times listed at between one and two weeks.
If you purchase a Surface without the Touch Cover, and the Microsoft marketing machine later works its magic, you can pick one up for $120. Alternatively, you can also get a Type Cover, offering a slightly more conventional typing experience, for $130.
Nokia has unveiled its next super-cheap Windows Phone for the emerging markets – but it's stuck on last season's platform.
The new phone will be launched with Windows Phone 7.5, but at least there will be a choice of five colours at launch.
The expectation was that the new phone would at least be popping out with the 7.8 iteration of Microsoft's platform, but it seems Tango will be sticking around for a while in the absence of Windows Phone 8.
Core power
In terms of specs, we're looking at a device that's running an 800MHz single-core CPU, a WVGA touchscreen (that's curiously coming in at 4-inches, making it larger than the Lumia 610) but here's the bad news: only 4GB of storage, of which apparently only 2.2GB is actually usable, although you do get 7GB of SkyDrive storage from Microsoft.
The rest of the specs are as you'd imagine on a Windows Phone handset, meaning 3G, GPS and Wi-Fi are all present and correct, along with a 1,300mAh battery.
The new phone will initially be going to the emerging markets, such as South America, India and China, but sadly we've had confirmation from Nokia that this phone won't be launching in the UK, with no word on launches for the US or Australia.
We've also got no word on price, as you'd expect for something seemingly not destined for these shores – but given that the Lumia 610 is a much more attractive proposition when it comes to spec (the screen size aside) we wouldn't recommend you lose too much sleep over this one.
