Anyway, this wee laptop is only 17.5mm thick and weighs 2 pounds, which makes it considerably smaller than the Z-series. Standard specs: a 2GHz processor, 11.6-inch screen, and a 1.3-megapixel webcame. X-citing!

No US availability right now. It is, as so many things are, Asia-only.

SEOUL, Mar. 7, 2010 –LG Electronics (LG), a global leader and technology innovator in mobile communications, today announced the launch of the LG X300, the ultra-thin premium mobile PC. Its sleek and stylish look wowed the visitors at CES 2010 in Las Vegas.

“Given how demanding and discerning consumers are nowadays, we were delighted to receive such acclaim from the public and media at the CES for our new mobile PC,” said Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “It’s a vindication of LG’s efforts to maintain the very highest standards in design without any sacrifices in high-tech or functionality, and ensure our consumers’ experiences with LG PCs just keep getting better.”

The LG X300, LG’s new flagship mobile computing device for 2010, tips the scales at a mere 970g and is only 17.5mm thick for the ultimate in portability.

What’s more, the LG X300 boasts an array of enticing design features. The sleek but wide 11.6-inch LCD screen maximizes the viewing area by eschewing a bezel. Also, its unique reflective keyboard and borderless touchpad add further elegance to this premium mobile PC. To offer the complete package for the most style-conscious users, the LG X300 comes in two colors, shiny white and light brown.

Fitted with a 2.0 GHz Intel Menlow platform with up to 2GB memory and 128GB SSD, the LG X300 runs Windows 7 Home Premium OS and ships with a spare 2-cell battery to provide up to seven hours of use. Thanks to its fan-less, silent operation, the portable PC is also extremely quiet to run, while the LG Smart Pack – LG’s smartest software suite for PC users – ensures the LG X300 is easy to use, even for novices.

The LG X300 packs multimedia features including a 1.3-megapixel webcam with a You-Cam viewer, and SRS TruSurround HD sound. And thanks to an embedded 3G modem chipset, users can easily get online via GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, or HSDPA networks.

The LG X300 will be available in Asia starting in March, followed by the Middle East and South America. Prices will vary country-to-country and will be announced separately in each market.

What was unthinkable 10 to 20 years ago, has been reality for quite some time now: Not Japanese but Korean electronics companies are dominating the TV hardware market. American market research firm DisplaySearch says regarding shipment value, Samsung has maintained its position as the leader in the global flat-panel TV market last year. And another Korean company is becoming stronger, too.

Samsung now commands a market share of 23.3% (up 0.2 points from last year) in the flat TV segment, which – under DisplaySearch’s analysis – includes LCDs, plasmas and even OLEDs for some reason (the picture shows Samsung’s 40-inch OLED TV prototype).

And for the first time, another Korean electronics company, LG, has managed to climb up the ranking to reach the second position: With 12.4% market share, LG (+2 percentage points) is now on par with Sony (whose share fell 2.9 points). According to DisplaySearch, 2005 was the last year Sony was on top of the TV market.

The research firm says both Samsung and LG have benefited from strong price competitiveness and the weaker won. Apparently, the Korean companies were also more successful in selling LED-backlit TVs last year, an area in which the big Japanese makers (namely Sony, Panasonic and Sharp) are lagging.

Via The Nikkei [registration required, paid subscription]

Who cares if this LG TV is just a 4:3, 14-inch CRT. I still want one. Look at it and tell me that there isn’t a spot in your home for the little guy. The chrome legs, soft styling, rabbit ears. There’s even a little switch that changes the picture to black and white or sepia. It’s all good. Too bad that it’s stuck in Korea and not available here in the States.

If you happen to have a Korean hook-up, you could snag the LG Serie 1 Retro Classic TV in either orange or brown for 249,000 KRW ($216). But don’t expect the rabbit ears and digital tuner to work here the U.S. of A. where we use the ATSC broadcast standard instead of South Korea’s DMB method. You could always hook up a cable box, game system or Betamax player.

[LG via technabob]

Click for full size, and here’s the little boast that was displayed alongside it. I’ll get more info if I can find it.

Phonescoop grabbed a quick interview with Ms. Blue Lagoon herself, Brooke Shields at the LG booth. While she recited the regular marketing claptrap she had a little bit to say about AT&T and the iPhone:

PS: Why did you get an iPhone?

Brooke: First I got it because it was cool. I felt comfortable with the touch screen. The email was great. Texting was great. I was so happy that I could film my kids and take pictures of them and share them with my husband, The phone was a big problem, though. My time is limited, and when I have a few moments to call my kids, I don’t want the call to drop. That’s what happened with the iPhone.

If Ms. Shields is against you, AT&T, who can be for you?

Congrats to Phonescoop’s Eric Zeman, above, for being allowed to go near women again.

These will be shipping the second half of 2010 to various potentates and oil barons around the world. It’s one of the smallest OLED devices I’ve seen since Sony’s diminutive offering that never really made it into the wild.


Apparently these are also water/weatherproof, which is an interesting idea. Considering they’ll be well about $5,000 when they’re available, I suspect you’d want to keep them from slipping into the drink as you scud across the waves on your superyacht.

Call us crazy, but we don’t think you’d host a “Mobile Launch Party” at CES unless you were planning.. you know, a mobile launch of some sort – and when it comes to mobile launches, companies generally don’t co-host parties unless they’re launching a phone together.

So when we get a heads up letting us know that Sprint and LG will be throwing a party at CES, it’s a pretty clear sign that somethings up. While we can’t be 100% sure what they’re launching, we can make some pretty well educated guesses.

Read the rest of this post at MobileCrunch >>

Grab two SD cards and sandwich them together. Done? That’s how thin the latest 42-inch LG LCD TV is: 2.6mm. My kid would break it. No, I would break it.

Even though the TV is super-duper crazy thin, it still maintains top-tier specs: 1080p, 120Hz, and edge-lit LED backlighting. The set weighs in at only 4 kilograms too, which LG says makes it perfect for wall mounting. That’s light enough that duct tape could hold it up. Or push-pins.

LG will reveal more about the set in a few weeks at CES and we’ll be there to make even more jokes about how thin the TV is. And I thought the TVs were getting too thin last year.

LG is trying to get kids to think before they text. Instead of featuring a cartoon frog and his skateboarding friends, they’ve hired James Lipton and his beard to encourage kids to Give It A Ponder before they text. Well played, LG. Well played.

The spots feature just about everything you could want in quirky advertising – a serious figure, a ridiculous scenario, an afterschool special message. The result? A fairly funny confluence of marketing that makes a sad old man like me think twice before spreading rumors about Matt.

via Forbes

Don’t get me wrong, $99 for a name-brand Blu-ray player sounds great, except it’s missing several key features. The player doesn’t have an Ethernet connection and so it’s only a Profile 1.1 player and cannot display any of the BD-Live content on newer titles. The player also doesn’t have compenent, optical or 7.1 analog audio outputs so your A/V receiver must be able to decode the digital audio from the HDMI stream or from digital coax.

But if you don’t care about any of that and are just planning on running an HDMI cable from the player to the HDTV, this unit seems just fine. Plus, it’s only $99 today.

Well, this LG solar ereader is a biblical revelation. We will probably never see it in this configuration and it was made to pay lip service to green ideals because the engineers at LG believe this is the kind of stuff we want.

The real technology here is the .7mm thin solar panel that can charge the reader in about 5 hours. Obviously you have to leave your book out in the sun for 5 hours and it may or may not work behind windows, so you might as well get cosy on a park bench.

The N2R1 (what a name eh?) is coming out later this year, and features two drive bays, a DVD player/writer, a memory card reader, and most interestingly, a wi-fi connection built in. Unfortunately, LG decided to go with the slower 802.11g protocol, instead of the faster 802.11n, but most users won’t really notice the difference. Priced at $299 for 1 TB, and $399 for 2 TB, it’s looking like a good deal for a nice bit of hardware. LG also states that it is compatible with Windows, Linux, and Macintosh.

From the press release:

ATLANTA, Sept. 10, 2009 – LG Electronics introduced a new Network Attached Storage option for consumers looking to protect their multimedia entertainment files, this week at Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association (CEDIA) EXPO 2009 (Booth #2623).

To help safeguard treasured family memories, photos and music, LG’s Network Attached Storage (NAS) model N2R1 uses a proven system of multiple hard drives used for sharing and replicating data to prevent possible damage or loss. Called RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Discs), this system automatically backs up and restores files for added security in the event of a hardware failure.

With up to two Tera-bytes (TB) of storage, the N2R1 provides a wealth of storage capabilities, allowing consumers to continue building their digital libraries of music, movies and other multimedia files. For an enhanced level of convenience, the N2R1 includes a DVD Re-Writer and Playback feature for additional back up or file sharing options.

“Consumers continue to create digital memories, from photos to family videos and it’s important that these irreplaceable moments are saved in a secure place,” said Peter Reiner, senior vice president, marketing, LG Electronics USA, Inc. “With LG’s Network Attached Storage, consumers now have a virtual ‘Library on Command’ that allows them unlimited access to their favorite memories, whether at home or on the road.”

Connectivity and Compatibility

For consumers who cannot be tied down by wires, the N2R1 has integrated WiFi connectivity for easy connection to any 802.11g wireless home network. The MyMedia feature allows consumers access to videos, photos and music through a DLNA-certified media player, placing digital entertainment libraries within easy reach of the big-screen. For music aficionados, the N2R1 also has iTunes™ connectivity for a networked music option.

The Network Attached Storage is compatible with a variety of operating systems such as Windows, Linux and Mac operating systems, allowing for installation in any home entertainment environment. It also provides remote support with easy access to files from anywhere an Internet connection is available, allowing consumers to show off their favorite pictures or movies even when they are away from home.

The N2R1 will be available online and at national retailers early this Fall for the manufacturers suggested retail price of $299 for 1TB of storage and $399 for 2TB of storage.

The LG marketing on this literally showed TVs with no border – the TVs looked like they went from edge to edge. However, that marketing has been swallowed up thus far and it looks like LG is backing away from the borderless concept, at least when it comes to talking about the TV. A quick search of the LG website shows that the borderless model aren’t being marketed that way anymore.

LG’s theme for this year, LIVE BORDERLESS™, will instantly make sense to anyone who sees the company’s BORDERLESS™ TVs, which appear to be a single, uninterrupted sheet of glass. These are the first TVs to completely eliminate the seam between the screen and the surrounding bezel.

So it’s obviously a philosophical “borderless” than a physical “borderless.” However, I suspect the average consumer will think “borderless” borderless, meaning without a border. Come on, LG. What’s up with this?

Here are the specs on LG’s baby:

• 1366×768
• 347.938×210.293×1.70mm (screen only)
• Number of colors: 16.7 Million
• Luminance (Peak/cd/m²) 200/440
• Contrast Ratio: >100.000:1
• Colour Gamut NTSC %: > 87
• Viewing Angle: 180 degrees
• Response Time: < 0.01ms (is that right?)

I’m sure these things are also going to be mighty expensive when they come out for you and me, so don’t get too excited yet.

[Update: Engadget notes that the TVs will be coming out in early 2010 and the 15-incher should cost about $2500. Yeah, I might have to wait a little while before I pick one up.]

That’s a lot, but look at it. It’s a fraking watchphone that has a front-facing camera, Bluetooth, and even HSDPA connectivity. The vast majority of “smartphones” don’t have all three of those specs.

LG hasn’t announced plans to sell the watchphone here in the States just yet. I would wager that this generation of the phone will not be officially available here, although importers are likely already dreaming of the crazy margins they can get away with. Perhaps we’ll get the next gen when our economy is a little better and the watchphone’s price a little lower.

cellular-news via SlashGear