The LG G4 has been officially announced

After many weeks of leaks, rumors, and even official announcements from LG themselves, the LG G4 is finally official. After the Samsung Galaxy S6 and HTC One M9 were released the G4 is the last major flagship phone for 2015. Many people have been waiting to see what LG has to offer, and now we can finally put the official stamp on it.

Check out the full specs

Display

The G4 has a 5.5-inch Quad HD display (2560×1440) with a very slight curve. LG says the IPS Quantum Display is very energy efficient and easily visible in sunlight. The Quantum Display combines colors to make more accurate colors. The display lets more light through, which increases brightness 25-percent from the LG G3, which is how they get the great outdoor visibility.

Camera

One of the best features of the LG G3 was the camera. LG has set out to improve upon that already great sensor for the G4. It has a 16MP camera with f/1.8 aperture, laser auto focus, and optical image stabilization 2.0. What does that mean? You’ll get higher resolution shots which capture 80-percent more light.

The LG G4 is the first smartphone with a color spectrum sensor, which recognizes ambient light and object recognition. You can launch the camera and take a photo in 0.6 seconds. In manual mode you can even save images in RAW format, which is great for people who edit photos with desktop applications. They’ve also improved the front-facing camera to 8MP and improved the gesture shot for better selfies.

Battery & Storage

LG and Samsung are bitter rivals. So when Samsung decided to go with a non-removable battery and eliminate expandable storage you could guess what LG would do. The G4 has a removable 3,000 mAh battery and a microSD card slot (internal storage is 32GB). Disgruntled Samsung fans may be interested in the G4. It also has wireless charging, but not for both standards like the Galaxy S6.

Processor

The G4 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 with 3GB of RAM. Some may wonder why LG hasn’t gone with the newer Snapdragon 810, but the decision is likely due to battery life. The 808 is still a very capable processor.

Design

Last, but not least, is the new design of the G4. LG has introduced six leather options along with three traditional plastic back covers. The leather covers are “high grade” that take 12 weeks to manufacture. The plastic covers come in three colors: black, white, and gold. The leather and the slight curved display make for an elegant and beautiful device.

***

What do you think about the LG G4? Will you be getting one?

Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge have officially been rooted via CF Auto-Root

Not so much surprising, as it simply is just nice to know. Android fans — who are also fans of rooting — looking to buy the Samsung Galaxy S6 or Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge can sleep well tonight. Chainfire announced via his Google+ profile that root for the T-Mobile Galaxy S6 (SM-G920T) and Galaxy S6 Edge (SM-G925T) has now been achieved via CF Auto-Root.

Really, he didn’t have to modify much, only the existing CFAR script and voila: root. He also notes that rooting will probably kill Samsung KNOX’s mobile payments on the device (there’s still Google Wallet). That being said, the phone’s aren’t even available, but you can rest assured that when they are, root is now officially waiting for you.

[CF-Auto-Root repository]

Reddit News has officially been renamed ‘Relay for reddit’ and is still our favorite app for browsing Reddit

Without a doubt, Reddit News was my personal favorite Android app for browsing posts on Reddit. After a request from Reddit to change the name of the app (due to a change in Reddit’s licensing policy to access their APIs), the app’s developers threw together a poll to see what their user’s thought. After much deliberation, the app has officially been renamed to “Relay for reddit” starting today.

There were a few other interesting names in the running too, things like Frontpage, Narwhal News, Upvote, RedNews, but in the end it was Relay for reddit that was ultimately decided upon. Those that already had the app installed on their device will notice the name change happening automatically and possibly moving to a new spot in their app drawer. As for future news, development, help, and feedback, the official Reddit News subreddit will transition over to the new Relay for reddit one.

With a slick Material design and more features than you can shake a stick at Reddit News Relay for reddit is the perfect Reddit browsing app for your Android tablet or smartphone. You can find the free ad-supported version or a “Pro” version in the Play Store right linked down below. I’d strongly recommend everyone check it out if you haven’t already.

Reddit News (Playboard) | Reddit News (Play Store)

Reddit News Pro (Playboard) | Reddit News Pro (Play Store)

“Ok Google” has been removed from the Galaxy S6, and no one knows why

One of the best features of the Google search app is the ability to perform a search from anywhere by saying “Ok Google.” In fact, it was one of our 7 cool tricks every Android phone user should know. Unfortunately, not every Android user is able to take advantage of this feature anymore.

Samsung Galaxy S6 and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge users across the web and in Android Forums have recently been complaining about the removal of “Ok Google” from everywhere. Instead they are only able to say “Ok Google” from within the Google search app, which defeats the purpose of using the voice command.

At launch the “Ok Google” from everywhere feature was working just fine. It wasn’t until just recently that the option was removed. Right now no one seems to know why it was removed, or who is to blame. The obvious culprit would be Samsung. S-Voice is their own version of “Ok Google,” and it still works perfectly in the background from everywhere.

Another theory is that the feature was removed along with the latest update to improve battery life. Yet another theory claims it has something to do with the 64-bit Exynos processor. The only thing we know for sure is that no one knows why the feature was removed. Are you experiencing this same issue on your S6 or S6 Edge? Join the ongoing conversation in Android Forums.

Stay cool: HTC One M9 overheating issues have been fixed, now ready to be shipped

Earlier this week we wrote about the HTC One M9 experiencing some overheating issues. It was reported early on that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 had some problems with overheating, which is why the Samsung Galaxy S6 doesn’t use it. HTC’s Communications manager made sure to let everyone know that the One M9 was not running final software yet, which could explain the issues.

Now, a member of XDA forums is reporting that HTC has solved this spicy problem. His source with a One M9 received an OTA update with the changelog: “thermal improvements and camera improvements.” A Twitter user is also reporting that HTC has finalized software and devices are ready to be shipped. Just in time for the early April time frame.

HTC finalized M9 software for the most of the regions. This means devices are ready to be shipped for the customers.

— LlabTooFeR (@LlabTooFeR) March 19, 2015

This is all very good news, and it’s why you should never freak out about problems before a device is available in stores. When software and hardware aren’t meshing it can create problems like overheating. We’ll test the One M9 for ourselves, but at this juncture the overheating is not something to worry about. Stay cool, everybody.

Google’s self-driving cars have been involved in 11 accidents in 6 years, and none were their fault

“Self-driving cars? Madness! What happens when the cars get hacked? Or the electric circuitry gets all weird? Or, even worse, they become sentient evil beings? These cars must be banned before they even hit the road!”

Those are the lines we imagine many people have had run through their heads when they first heard Google was working on self-driving vehicles, but Google’s cars have actually proven to be much safer than many people could have anticipated. Head of the project Chris Urmson revealed that Google’s cars have only been involved in 11 accidents in the past 6 years.

While that number alone should be low enough to quell fears, this fact should drive that point home: none of the accidents were caused by fault of the vehicles, and they all resulted in 0 injuries and only minor damage. The most common cause of accidents were other drivers rear-ending the driverless cars, which Google says accounted for 8 of the 11 accidents.

Those are some pretty strong numbers to be able to tout, and Google’s sure to keep it in their back pocket should they ever face strong resistance from road regulators due to questions of safety.

Other choice statistics from Urmson’s latest blog post:

• Google self-driving cars have traveled a combined 1.7 million miles in testing combined


• Of the 1.7 million miles, nearly 1 million were autonomous, the rest being manually controlled by the test drivers


• Google is averaging 10,000 self-driven miles per week, which is just less than a typical American drives in a year


• Driver error causes 94% of road crashes


• In America, 660,000 people at any given moment have their attention split while behind the wheel (texting, calling, eating, etc)


• Meanwhile, Google’s self-driving cars have 100% of their attention focused over all 360 degrees of their surroundings

You can read Urmson’s full post over at Medium right now if you’re interested in a deeper look at how their self-driving car project has evolved to become one of the most safe driving experiences on the road today.

Iron Man Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge has been fully revealed — here’s the official unboxing video

Samsung has been teasing the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Iron Man edition for quite some time, but the goods have finally been fully revealed. It’s everything we imagined it would be, with a very nice red chassis accented with some elegant-looking gold (including Iron Man’s logo plastered on the back looking as mean as ever).

What’s even better is that this thing will also ship with an Iron Man-themed wireless charger. It’ll also obviously have Samsung’s Iron Man TouchWiz theme pre-installed (though that’s just as easy to change as any theme).

Everything else is the Galaxy S6 Edge as you know it, with this particular variant coming with a standard storage count of 64GB.

Unfortunately availability for this thing won’t be widespread for now, with Samsung  only confirming launches for China, Hong Kong and their home turf of South Korea. The earliest landing date will be May 27th — that’s tomorrow — so if you’re keen on importing one you’ll want to look into it as soon as possible because we’re sure this limited run won’t last.

[via Samsung]

Is the Samsung Zenzero the Galaxy S6 Active we’ve all been waiting for? [RUMOR]

There is a vocal collective of folks out there refusing to buy a Samsung Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge because it isn’t waterproof. But what about an “Active” variant? We’re all patiently waiting and hoping for Samsung to announce it, and we may have just gotten our first indication that it’s being readied.

A trusted source of ours revealed that a “Samsung Zenzero” device has been spotted in the visitor logs of a wide-known Android app. The details on the device are scarce, though the hit did reveal that it was running Android 5.1, has a screen resolution of 2560 x 1440, and a pixel density of 560. That would figure to be around 5.2 inches of display if our math is right, which is not quite large enough to be the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 that’s been spotted as the Samsung “Zen” in separate leaks.

Another interesting fact to consider is that the device has “zero” in its codename. If you don’t remember, Samsung’s plans to revamp the design and build of their smartphones starting with the Samsung Galaxy S6 was internally referred to as “Project Zero.” Could be a mere coincidence, though it could be evidence of a new variant of the original “Project Zero” device hiding in plain sight.

The timing is also interesting considering we have recently seen supposedly official renders of an AT&T-branded Samsung Galaxy S6 Active from a separate trustworthy source. The device we were shown looks like your typical rugged Samsung smartphone, complete with bolts on the rear and physical navigation buttons. Our source also tells us it’s a bit underwhelming to be a Galaxy S6 variant, noting that it’s more like an improved Samsung Galaxy S5.

It’s not out of the question to suggest Samsung is quietly working to introduce this thing in the near future, and it’s not strange that we haven’t heard anything official about it. Samsung has kept quiet on plans to make “Active” variants of previous models up until weeks before availability, so there’s no reason to believe they aren’t going to do the same thing this time around.

That’s the extent of our knowledge for now, but we’ll certainly be digging for more. Let us know if you’ve been holding out on buying the Samsung Galaxy S6 in hopes that Samsung is working on something that can take a beating or two.

A 7-inch mid-range HTC tablet has been spotted at an online export database

HTC has taken their time to reenter the tablet market (not counting the Nexus 9, of course), but recent murmurings have suggested the company would look to test the waters of the mid-range sector of the still-iffy product category. And now we have our first indication that those rumors were true.

A mid-range 7-inch HTC tablet has been spotted at online import/export database Zauba. The database surprisingly lists a few detailed specs, such as the fact that it has 16GB of internal storage and sports a 1.2GHz quad-core chipset. It will also support dual-SIM cellular connectivity and has 1GB of RAM inside.

Those aren’t the makings of an iPad or Galaxy Tab killer, but if HTC can get this thing onto the market at a respectable price point (around 0 is our guess) then they might have something compelling on their hands. Of course, the company has more important things to worry about in the meantime so we’ll have to see if this device ever sees the light of day.

[via PhoneArena]

Nest’s first camera has been leaked ahead of June 17th event

Our sources have been telling us that Nest will be making their own-branded camera following their acquisition of Dropcam, and that they’ll tie all their products together with a new multi-functional app. That information seems to have been spot on, if this leak is to be trusted.

What we’re getting is a very Dropcam-esque camera, except more slim and sleek than prior models. The camera will have a suction and swiveling base for flexible placement, and there’s a clean nest logo placed firmly beneath the lens. We also learn that the camera will use Bluetooth and QR codes for easy pairing (its recent FCC appearance confirms Bluetooth), as well as the ability to support 1080p video streams.

We’re also getting a first look at the new Nest app, which will no doubt allow you to control your Thermostat, Protect and Camera from one convenient location. The app doesn’t appear to show any hints of  between Nest’s products, but there’s a chance we could  be in for a surprise come June 17th (the day the announcement is scheduled to go down).

The world’s first 512GB microSD card has been revealed at Computex

Looks like SanDisk’s streak of pushing the boundary of microSD card storage has come to an end. One manufacturer attending the Computex tech show in Taiwan has revealed a 512GB microSD card.

That company is Microdia, which is a fairly unknown name when it comes to flash storage. They’re promising a UHS-2 card that has read/write speeds of 300 megabytes per second. We’re not sure we can believe that claim as even SanDisk has yet to achieve those speeds on their smaller range of cards.

But that’s the claim, and we definitely can’t say otherwise until we give it a spin ourselves. The card was built on the microSDXC standard, so it stands to reason that it should work with any phone that can support those cards (which tend to list lower maximum storage capabilities even though higher capacity cards work just fine).

There’s one other uncertainty. Well, it’s less of an “uncertainty” and more of a “holy crap, that’s a very good reason not to buy this card”: it’ll retail for ,000 once it’s on store shelves. That’s absurd for mobile flash storage from an unproven company that might not even last you that long. Do yourself a favor and spend  on a portal 512GB hard drive, and pocket the rest for something actually worth the coin.

[via CNet]

Google Hangouts has been pre-installed over 1 billion times

When an application crosses a billion installs on the Google Play Store, it always sounds like a big deal. It’s an illustrious club that few belong to. Apps like Facebook, WhatsApp and more recently, Facebook Messenger, have all joined the 1 billion downloads club and that’s saying something. Most of those apps had to be physically downloaded (not all the time, but mostly) by Android users before they could hit that milestone.

Then there are a handful of Google apps that are also apart of this club. Apps like Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps, and Google Search. You know, the apps that stand in the back of the room with their embroidered blazers, smoking their pipes, telling stories about how they easily joined up because of their family name. These are the apps that already come pre-installed on your Android device before you even take it out of the box. It should come as little surprise to anyone that another app from Google’s software suite is joining that list, with Google Hangouts now crossing the 1 billion downloads mark.

If nothing else, this milestone — which, by the way, means nothing — points a spotlight directly on an app that is in bad need of an overhaul. With more than a billion “installs,” we think it’s time Google finally gives Hangouts a little TLC. Giving the app a new coat of paint with Material design and bringing it up to speed with its iOS counterpart (which has the ability to send video clips) would be a nice start. Can you think of anything else you’d like to see in a Hangouts refresh?

Hangouts (Playboard) | Hangouts (Play Store)

Plex has been hacked, so be sure to change your passwords

Quick PSA this morning, folks: Plex, the multimedia server that lets you stream your digital content to most internet connected devices, had its servers compromised. The company fell victim to an attack that fell on their blog and forums server, which — if your Plex account is linked to it — exposes your account’s passwords (which is stored in a hashed and salted algorithm that’s tough to crack).

That’s comforting, but the company will still require you to change your password, and you’ll want to do it as soon as possible. Apparently they will only ask you to change your password if you’ve ever linked your Plex.tv account with your forum account, butt we’d change passwords even if you don’t fall under that category. Also consider changing your password for other services if you happen to use the same one (which you shouldn’t be doing, by the way).

Plex was clear to note that other sensitive customer information — such as your payment and billing information — exists on an entirely different server and hasn’t been compromised in any way. We sure hope so.

[Update]: Well, things are about to get interesting. We’ve uncovered a message from the malicious hacker left on the server. It was since removed by Plex, but a cached version of Plex’s website still shows the goods.

The culprit apparently wants ransom. It’s simple: someone forks over 9.5 bitcoins (about ,400) or all the data the hacker stole will be released for anyone to see. If it doesn’t happen by July 3rd, they’ll ask for another 5 bitcoins. And if no one comes through? They say they’ll simply release the data anyway, and alleges that “there will be no more Plex.tv.”

We’re not sure how strong that claims is as Plex’s forums and blog systems are supposedly on an entirely different server than the one they use for payments and infrastructure, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens either way.

The no-gooder also suggests they’ll remove individual data from the database as long as they pay, though we’d strongly advise against doing that. In the meantime, just be sure to change those passwords like Plex recommends and hope for the best.

[via Lifehacker]