LG has announced a new ultra-short focus Cinema Projector at CES 2013. With the Ultra-Short Focus design, it projects a 100″ Full HD Video experience and as close as 55cm from its projection screen. This soon to be announced projector also features WiDi (Intel Wireless Display) and expected to hit Korea this month at around USD1000.

[via Akihabaranews]

Add one more social event to your October calendar, as Google has just pushed out invites to an Android event in New York on the October 29th where we expect to be introduced to the next generation of Nexus. The LG E960 Mako — which we’ve taken to calling the Nexus G but has also been referred to as the Nexus 4 — seems to be a sure bet to make an appearance after its many leaks, and a 32GB Nexus 7 variant rates as highly probable. There have also been long-running rumors that we will see Nexus hardware from more than one manufacturer, although lately whispers have focused on the possibility of a 5-inch phablet from HTC, and a 10-inch Nexus-branded tablet made by Samsung. Without the benefit of physical evidence we’d take those with a huge grain of salt, but we’ll obviously be ready for anything. Google even promises a live video stream on YouTube.

Rumors have been swirling that LG will get its first crack at a Nexus phone this year. If there’s any merit to that claim, we might have just received an early peek. An XDA-Developers forum goer has posted a collection of photos for the E960, which appears to be a variant of the Optimus G — until you realize that it’s using software navigation keys, doesn’t quite resemble the international or AT&T Optimus G models and is oddly badged as the “Full JellyBean on Mako.” Given that Google likes to name its reference Android phones after fish, it doesn’t take much to suspect that a device codenamed Mako is more likely to become a Nexus than an Optimus. The completely stock but unreleased Android 4.1.2 build of Jelly Bean certainly helps fuel the rumor mill. If the E960 does carry Google’s honorific, though, some may be in for a disappointment knowing that the model that reached the FCC last week doesn’t have LTE. We won’t rule out that this is one of multiple Nexus variants, if it’s a Nexus at all, but the 3G edition’s filing hints that Google may not rock the boat for its 2012 flagship.

SOURCE via Google Group

The world is no stranger to flexible batteries, but they’ve almost always had to be made in thin sheets — that doesn’t amount to a long running time if you’re powering anything more than a watch. LG Chem has developed a flexible lithium-ion battery that’s not just better-suited to our bigger gadgets but could out-do previous bendable energy packs. Researchers found that coating copper wires with nickel-tin and coiling them briefly around a rod results in a hollow anode that behaves like a very strong spring; mating that anode with a lithium-ion cell leads to a battery that works even when it’s twisted up in knots. Join multiple packs together, and devices could have lithium-ion batteries that fit many shapes without compromising on their maximum deliverable power. Some hurdles remain to creating a production-grade battery, such as a tendency for the pack to shed a small amount of capacity whenever it’s put under enough stress. LG Chem is fully set on turning these cable batteries into shippable technology, however, and could ultimately produce mobile devices and wearables that really do bend to their owners’ every whim.

SOURCE via Phys.org

At this point, there isn’t much mystery left surrounding the LG VS930, aka Spectrum 2 for Verizon. Despite the onslaught of rumored specs, however, we still haven’t seen much in the way of the phone’s accessories. That has all changed now, as Engadget has gotten their hands on a few smallish images of the new Spectrum residing in a car dock, home dock and a rugged-looking protective case. We’re still waiting on an official announcement along with availability and pricing (though we imagine all three details will come at the same time), but we try to convince ourselves that each new leak is a step closer to reality.

SOURCE via Engadget

There will soon be a new Optimus L-Series smartphone on the prowl, as LG has just announced the Optimus L9 as a followup to its Optimus L3, L5 and L7 handsets. This series is viewed by LG as a budget lineup that places an emphasis on style, and the L9 will undoubtedly be the leader of the pack, as it boasts both a dual-core 1GHz CPU and a large, 4.7-inch IPS display. The phone will be outfitted with Android 4.0, 1GB of RAM, a 5-megapixel rear camera and a beefy 2,150mAh battery.

New software is also set to ship with the Optimus L9, which includes both a redesigned keyboard and a language translation app. The new keyboard is dubbed the My Style Keypad, which allows users to adjust the key placement for easier one-handed typing — like we’ve seen in Android 4.0 for the Galaxy Note — along with a separated layout for landscape view. Meanwhile, the language translation service is dubbed QTranslator, which leverages OCR to translate sentences and phrases from 44 different languages into 64 native languages. There’s no word yet on pricing or availability, though we’ll be sure to let you know the moment those final tidbits become known.

LG must know that word of the Optimus G has been spoiled, even if it’s not quite ready to put all its cards on the table. While it’s only acknowledging the phone’s identity under a ‘G’ codename, the Korean electronics giant is willing to talk a lot about what’s under the hood. Among the truly new revelations: that uncommonly wide 1,280 x 768 screen, now called the G2 Touch Hybrid Display, is a 30 percent thinner gapless panel that puts the LCD right near the glass in a way that just might be familiar to HTC One X owners. We don’t know for certain if it’s one of those newly-shipping in-cell touch panels, but that name certainly suggests LG is setting aside a few of those cutting-edge LCDs for itself. There’s also a treat in store for those who work their phones to the bone — a newly refined battery can go through 800 full recharge cycles before it gives up the ghost, or about 60 percent more than we’ve seen in the past. Combine these with the quad-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro we already knew was coming, and the Optimus G could be quite the technology showcase for both LG’s native South Korea as well as the US through a possible Sprint model.

SOURCE via LG

While Qualcomm let the Snapdragon out of the bag a little early, LG’s now caught up and launched a (Korean-only) teaser site for its next LTE smartphone. Promising a second-generation quad-core experience, the new flagship device will offer better power management and graphics performance thanks to the Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset beating away at its core. There’s space on the site for another five videos, which should hopefully give us a little more detail than what we’ve been able to glean from FCC filings. Thumb your Korean dictionary ready and check out LG’s first taster after the break.

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Looks like we’ll be finding in-cell touch displays in our devices sooner rather than later: LG Display has confirmed that it’s been mass-producing the thinner LCDs since earlier in August. CEO Han Sang-beom also notes that manufacturing has been going as smooth as, well, glass. Despite the complexity of building touch input directly into a display, the company expects to keep the supply going “without any fail,” according to the executive. As to who’s making the orders? LG Display isn’t naming its customers on the record, and production could be as much for its sister company’s phones and tablets as anyone else’s. It’s hard not to pinpoint Apple as the 800-pound gorilla in the room, however. Apart from Apple representing one of LG Display’s biggest existing customers, multiple rumors and component leaks point to an iPhone with an in-cell display being in the works. The timing raises a distinct possibility that we’ll know more about the screen manufacturer’s clients in less than a month.

SOURCE via Wall Street Journal