CES: LG to Bring Device Remote Control to Your Car Stereo

As I was passing through the LG booth today when my eye caught something out of the ordinary. In the Converging Technologies corner of their booth they have an in-dash screen that was showing Windows Mobile 6.5 on it. This could mean one of two things, either they have put Windows Mobile into the car audio system, or they are doing some sort of remote control / RedFly like connection to the device.

As it turns out, the in-dash unit is running Windows CE and they are doing a remote control session to the device in almost the exact fashion that you would do remote control between your desktop and your Windows Mobile device with SOTI’s Pocket Controller Pro software.

The connection can be made over WiFi, Bluetooth, or over USB connection. They are still working on the USB connection, but expect to have that completed soon. You do need to install a small agent on the device to allow the communication to happen.  They are open to supporting more than just LG devices. Since this is a Windows Mobile client, it will work on any Windows Mobile device. It’s still early, but they are looking at adding other mobile operating systems as they move forward.

Currently this is not something that you can go out and buy.  They are talking with car manufacturers to put this in your next car.  Eventually they would like to see it as a stand along unit that you could purchase and install in your car.

This gives you true hands-off your mobile device while still being able to access and control everything on your device.

How To Hard Reset an Android Phone

If you have an Android phone you may at some point want to hard reset, or completely wipe out the phone to start from scratch.

Why would you want to reset? Well, you may want to start again with a fresh install or are having a problem with an installed app. You may have bought the phone from someone or all selling it. Sometimes it’s just nice to start all over.

When I got this LG Eve phone for review it had already been used by another writer who didn’t bother to (or didn’t know how to) reset the phone. As a result, I could have read her email, chatted with her friend, used her twitter account and so much more. Doh! Well, I didn’t do any of that, just set out to find out how to reset it to start fresh.

Those that have been Windows Mobile users may be looking for some kind of hardware key combination to hard reset the device, but it’s actually built into the OS. It’s just a little bit buried and took me a bit to find it.

Steps to hard reset Android:

1. Go to “Setting”.
2. Select “SD card & phone storage”.
3. Select “Factory data reset” which should be the last option.
4. Press the “Reset Phone” button.

Now you just wait for the phone to restart and you are all set to go. Ta da!

BTW, in case there is any confusion about this; this will wipe out everything from your phone. You should back up all information before going ahead with this. It won’t wipe out the information you have on services such as Gmail, or Google Calendar, contacts and such. As soon as you log in with your freshly reset phone you will have all your information back on your phone.

Post any questions in the comments here and we will help you out.

First Look: LG Eve, Android for Everyone

The LG Eve, available on Rogers in Canada is a new Android Smartphone being offered for just $49.99 on a 3 year contract. I have been given the chance to use an LG Eve (you can call it the “GW620R” if you feel the inexplicable need) for a bit and will be posting some thoughts on it for the next little while.

This is actually my first go at Android, so I was pumped about playing with this phone. I’ll get into more of that in later posts. For now, let’s take a look at the hardware and an overview of the Eve.

Let’s just gets the specs out of the way:

Basic Specification

• Type: Slide phone/Touchphone
• PET NAME: Eve
• QWERTY Keyboard: Yes
• Technology: GSM and 850/1900 MHz HSPA ; Quad Band Operation 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• Dimension: L x W x D (mm) 109 x 54.5 x 15.9mm
• Display: 262K Colour TFT
• Touchscreen: Yes
• Vibration: Yes
• GPRS/EDGE (class) A-GPS / Stand alone

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High Resolution Images of LG IQ

Last week I had a chance to play with the upcoming Windows Mobile 6.5 LG IQ smartphone. Unfortunately, the lighting in the venue was less than ideal for pictures. I snapped what I could at the best I could, but they’re not my finest device shots. Thankfully, I now have some really nice clean shots of the IQ so I’m posting them here for everyone to enjoy.

Click on the images below to view the original size image.

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Up Close and Personal with the LG IQ

Last night I was invited by LG to take a look at their new device line-up, which included the brand new LG IQ, better known under the code name Monaco. While the IQ is not currently on sale, it will be available from Telus before the end of the year. If you consider that it would be incredibly stupid to release a phone 1 week before Christmas and miss the majority of holiday shoppers, then you could assume that the phone would be available in the next couple weeks. LG would not confirm anything more than “before the end of the year”.

So what’s so special about the LG IQ? Well, it’s running Windows Mobile 6.5 and sports LG’s S-Class user interface, which made for a really nice and finger friendly navigation. The S-Class interface was fully customizable allowing you to change which icons are displayed along the bottom and appear in the expanded menu. LG also allows you to turn this off and use the standard Windows Mobile 6.5 interface if you would rather use that. The device has a 1500 mAh battery, 5 mega pixel camera, MicroSD, and a Snapdragon 1 Ghz processor. The finger scanner on the front of the device works as your navigation and authentication to unlock the device. When it comes to navigation, I found the finger scanner worked really well. It was very much like a touch pad on a laptop. Swiping your finger from top to bottom would cause the page to scroll. The S-Class home screen allows you to swipe left and right to alternate “desktops”.

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Palm and Motorola Call it Quits on Windows Mobile

This past week word broken that both Palm and Motorola would stop using Windows Mobile on their handheld devices. That can’t be good news for Microsoft as they struggle to regain market and mind share as new mobile operating systems are moving in quickly. But is really all doom and gloom? Sure, it’s never good to lose customers to the competition, but did Palm and Moto really bring that much to Windows Mobile?

With all the handsets created by both Palm and Moto, only 1 device ever made Microsoft’s million plus sellers list – only 1. That device was Motorola’s Q, a ground breaking device for its time, even if it had a hard time making it through a day on a charge. Just like the RAZR, Moto has tried to recapture their success with similar styled follow-up devices without much luck.

As for Palm, their users a very loyal and typically love their handhelds. However, Palm was never able to get their popular Treo handsets into the million plus sellers club. It’s no surprise that once Palm was able to release their new, long awaited follow-up to the Palm OS, dubbed the WebOS that they would toss in the towel on Windows Mobile. The new Palm Pre running the WebOS is getting mediocre reviews on the street, but Palm.afford to continue working with 2 mobile operating systems. They need to curb the cash flow and cutting the mobile license fee that Microsoft asking for Windows Mobile is one sure fire way to save a little money in the short term. Can they last purely on their WebOS? We’ll have to wait and see on that one.

For me, I’m more looking forward to what Samsung, HTC, HP, etc… are going to release next, and what LG is going to bring to the table when they get their first devices out of the gate later this year.

LG Announces the GW550 Messenger Smartphone

Earlier this year, LG committed to making Windows Mobile the main operating system used on their smartphone devices and over the next 4 years they would ship a whopping 50 devices based on Windows Mobile. With that in mind, the other day at CommunicAsia, LG announced a new business oriented smartphone called GW550. While the name is less than inspiring, the device looks like it could be a winner. It’s a Windows Mobile Standard based device, which means that the device does not have a touch screen. The GW550 is a typical messenger style device with a QWERTY keyboard below the screen. It features a 2.4 inch display with QVGA resolution, a 3 megapixel camera, HSDPA 7.2 Mbps, HSUPA 2.0 Mbps, Quad-band GSM with ‘global’ 3G support, and a 1300mAh battery. There’s no information provided about when the device will be available for purchase or what the expected price will be.  We also don’t know what sort of customizations LG has done to the software on the device.

It’s still very early and hard to say if this device is going to be a smashing success or not.  If LG has packed it with a powerful processor like HTC and Samsung are doing, along with a GPS and WiFi, I can’t see any reason why this device won’t be a hit.  Hopefully we’ll learn more about this device in the coming weeks. I would love to get my hands on a unit and give it a run through.

(Source=PhoneArena.com)

HTC Responsible for 80% of Windows Mobile Device Sales

It shouldn’t come as a big surprise to hear that HTC has sold 80% of all Windows Mobile smartphones sold to date. After all, they dominate the Million+ sellers list with 7 out of the total of 11 devices. But when you start to break down the numbers, it really starts to get interesting.

Microsoft announced at Mobile World Congress that they sold 50 million Windows Mobile devices to date, with 20 million in the last year. HTC then announced that they have sold 40 million Windows Mobile devices since they started building Windows Mobile units. And remember, they have been with Microsoft since the start and for the majority of their existence, they built devices for other companies, only bringing their brand out in the last couple years.

50 million sold, less the 40 million that HTC accounts for, and that leaves 10 million devices. Of that 10 million, we know that Samsung has 3 devices in the million sellers list. Assuming, which we all know is a bad idea, that they only sold exactly 1 million units, that means Samsung is good for 3 million out of that 10. Motorola also, has a device on the million sellers list, so they account for another 1 out of that 10. That leaves us with 6 million units. Those 6 million units are divided across the rest of the device manufacturers like Palm, Asus, LG, HP, etc…

I’m not sure if having one company control so much of the Windows Mobile devices sold is a good thing or not. It’s nice to know that they are successful in what they are doing, and that clearly shows in the quality of their devices. We all know that competition is good for the consumer. Samsung is clearly in the best position in terms of competition, but they’ve got a long way to go if they’re going to threaten HTC. The recent announcement by LG to make Windows Mobile the primary OS for their smartphones could be the competition that the market needs. LGs plans to bring 50 different Windows Mobile devices to market over the next 4 years. Even with 25 of those coming in 2012, that still leaves just over 8 devices a year over 3 years. As much as HTC has done, 8 different models could be a strong push into their market.

Ah, the times are changing! I’m looking forward to seeing what these companies can do to innovate and bring new and exciting devices to the market over the next couple years.

[from InformationWeek via MocoNews ]

LG Makes a Serious Commitment to Windows Mobile

Today at Mobile World Congress, LG announced their support for Microsoft’s Windows Mobile in a strong way. LG will make Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system the primary operating system for their smartphone devices. Over the next 4 years, LG will produce 50 different mobile devices powered by Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system. The bulk of these devices, approximately 25, will come in the 4th year. Leaving 25 other devices over the course of the next 3 years. If divided evenly over those 3 years it would be 8.3 units per year. I would expect that production would ramp up over the course of 3 years.

LG’s Windows Mobile news doesn’t stop there. They are also showing off 2 new devices. The first is a device called “HQ” that features a SureType QWERTY keyboard. From the information that I’ve been given, the HQ will have a 528MHz processor, 256MB ROM / 128MB RAM, a 240×320 non-touch screen, Quad-band with GPRS, Edge and UMTS. As well as 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, and a 2 mega pixel camera.

The second device is called the “Eigen” and features the same 528MHz processor, a 240×400 touch screen, Quad-band with GPRS, Edge and UMTS. The Eigen also has 266MB ROM / 128MB RAM, FM Radio, 3G, WiFi, a 5 mega pixel camera, and of course, Bluetooth.

You can check out some pictures of both of these devices below. [ ..Read More.. ]