LG Optimus Pad LTE tablet 8.9 inch screen and ditch anaglyphic 3d

LG has unveiled the Optimus Pad LTE, its first 4G-enabled tablet. The device will have an 8.9-inch screen and measures only 9.3mm thick.

At the Consumer Electronics Show last week, we began to wonder if LG had abandoned the tablet market. After all, it’s been more than six months since its first and last tablet, which was marketed through T-Mobile as the G-Slate last year, which is a lifetime in the fast-paced mobile industry. It looks like the company was merely waiting. LG today unveiled the Optimus Pad LTE, its first 4G LTE-enabled tablet.

Like the G-Slate (review), the new Optimus Pad will have an 8.9-inch screen, but this model will be a lot thinner and lighter at only 9.34mm thick and about 497 grams (1.09 lbs), which is slightly thicker than an iPhone 4S, and fairly light for a tablet, though the Galaxy Tab 8.9 (review) weighs slightly under a pound.

Under the hood, the Optimus Pad LTE runs Google’s Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) operating system, with no announced upgrade plan to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) yet. It also has a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm processor, 1280×768 pixel IPS LCD screen (wide angle viewing), 8MP rear camera, 2MP front camera, 32GB of internal storage, and a Micro SD card slot. Software for editing pictures and videos is also being included.

Though no US distribution has been announced, LG will have to target an LTE-capable wireless carrier, which means either AT&T or Verizon, though Sprint is rumored to be launching its own LTE network sometime before summer.

Nothing about the Optimus Pad LTE seems particularly standout, but most tablets seem to blend together lately. We’re excited that LG has dumped the silly anaglyphic 3D video recording mode that was on the G-Slate, which forced you to wear red and blue glasses to see your 3D videos–you know, like a movie in the 1950s.

Microsoft windows 8 release date

"One of the things that I think is a good guideline though is we've always said that Windows releases come round about every three years and this year will be three years in October since we launched Windows 7. So I think that's a good guideline to consider."

Now, Microsoft has been hinting at this three-years-after-7 thing for a while. In fact, it used the same tactic to talk about a Windows 7 launch date, citing a three year gap from Vista. What's new is that instead of saying "Fall," or 12 months from BUILD, Microsoft is actually saying the word "October" out loud. Still, that's no guarantee of an October launch; there's plenty of leeway in this quote. The gap between Vista and Windows 7 wasn't exactly three years: Vista came out in January 30th. Also, there's a difference between the Release to Master date, Microsoft's volume licensing release to manufacturers, and the actual consumer availability, so even if "October" is true, it could be any one of those slots.

Microsoft has been disappointingly mum here at CES about any launch plans for Windows 8, only mentioning the upcoming "milestone" public beta release in February, so at least we have this hint now. In the middle of last year dates were as wide ranging as mid-2012 and back-to-school 2013, so at least we're honing in.

HTC Titan 2 16MP Camera | A smart phone windows phone with LTE

We sit down and spend some time with HTC's new Titan II, coming soon to AT&T's LTE network with an impressive 16-megapixel camera.

Though there weren’t dozens of new Windows Phones shown at the Consumer Electronics Show this year, Microsoft may have had a more impressive showing than Android. Nokia finally debuted its first 4G LTE Windows Phone 7.5 device, the Lumia 900, and HTC quietly announced a sequel to its newly released 4.7-inch Titan phone. Oddly, the manufacturer didn’t have a presence on the show floor, but Microsoft let me play around with one during our Windows Phone meeting. My impressions are below.



A more stylish design

From a design perspective, the Titan II is quiet similar to its predecessor, but HTC has improved the look of the shell with a few lines and curves. The new design looks very similar to the HTC Sensation, an Android phone that hit shelves in the middle of last year, and a lot of HTC’s lineup since.

If you’ve held a Titan, then you know how the Titan II feels. Both phones have a huge 4.7-inch screen (about the same size as a Galaxy Nexus, though ever so slightly larger) and a camera that protrudes from the back just a bit. We’re not a huge fan of a stick-out camera, but I’ll address that in a bit. The Titan II is slightly thicker than the original, as you can see below. Much like the Galaxy Nexus, these phones are usable, but we wouldn’t want a device much bigger than this. Already, I have to stretch my thumb quite a ways to do anything on the upper or lower left side of the screen. If you hold phones in your left hand, reverse that problem.



4G LTE, finally

The Titan II isn’t dual-core, unfortunately. Windows Phones still haven’t breached that barrier, though we expect Microsoft to begin allowing more powerful processors in the coming months. But the Titan (along with the Lumia 900) does operate on AT&T’s 4G LTE network, which may is enough to tide us over for now. No Verizon release date has been announced, but it would be great love it if Verizon got on board the WP7 train a bit.

A 16-megapixel camera

I thought the 12-megapixel camera on some of the Fujitsu phones was impressive until I took a look at the Titan II. I didn’t get a chance to give the camera a proper test, but I did snap a few pictures and it appears to be at least on par with other recent HTC devices, which have had some of the best cameras on the market outside of the iPhone 4S. Like the Amaze 4G and myTouch 4G Slide on T-Mobile, the Titan II also comes with a wide-angle lens, a number of advanced filters, a “Burst Mode” for taking a bunch of pictures in a row, a panorama mode, and others. However, it still retains the same simple look and design that all Windows Phone camera apps have. Like all WP7 devices, the Titan II also has a full camera button, which can be activated without unlocking the phone—a useful feature. An upcoming Sony Xperia phone has mimicked this feature, but Windows Phones still seem to do it best.



A good phone

It may be too big for some, but with a fast 4G LTE connection and an impressive 16MP camera, the Titan II is looking like a great choice if you’re on AT&T. It will be even better if and when Microsoft updates Windows Phone to allow more flexibility in homescreen modification. With such a large screen, it would be nice to be able to fit more information on it than Windows Phone 7.5 currently allows. Still, it’s hard to complain, as it’s still a step up from Android and iOS in a number of ways. The HTC Titan II will be released on AT&T in the coming months for a price we expect to be between $200 and $300 with a two-year contract.