LG's KE850 PRADA official: iPhone says, wha?

Check it Apple, LG just went official with their iPhone look-a-like LG KE850 Prada phone which they proudly tout as the world's "first completely touch screen mobile phone." Er, unless you consider the ones from Motorola, HTC, and others. Still, this is more than likely a dig at the iPhone which they can rightly make since the KE850 will hit select mobile shops and PRADA stores in the UK, France, Germany and Italy at the end of February and parts of Asia before March is through. Sadly, the KE850 is a non starter for the US market since this version is limited to tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900 with EDGE data. It's smaller than its fruity peer at just 98.8 x 54 x 12-mm resulting in a more compact, 3.0-inch display presumably with that 240 x 400 resolution we heard about earlier. In case you're keeping track (and we know you are), the iPhone goes quad-band GSM with EDGE and WiFi in a 115 x 61 x 11.6-mm shell sporting a 3.5-inch, 320 x 480 display. Also, the KE850 seems to lack any significant on-board storage opting instead for microSD to boost capacity. Like the iPhone, it packs a 2 megapixel camera (with Schneider-Kreuznach lens) and LED flash and Bluetooth 2.0. However, there's no mention of multi-touch capabilities, an on-screen keyboard, or the accelerometer and proximity sensors found on the iPhone. The KE850 PRADA's UI is Macromedia Flash-based and opts for a minimalist, white-on-black display as opposed to the more, shall we say, OS Xish GUI we've already seen floated. Feature-wise, the KE850 comes with a video player supporting MPEG-4, H.264, and oddly, H.263 normally used for video conferencing; a document viewer supporting Microsoft's PPT, DOC, XLS formats, PDF and TXT; an audio player with support for MP3/ACC/ACC+/WMA/RA formats; and a "music multitasking function for messaging," whatever that is. How much? €600/$778... that's how much. Still, a compelling choice for those who can't wait for the iPhone's Q4 European introduction or 2008 Asia launch. Click-on for more pics

iPhone & LG KE850: separated at birth?

Two sparsely-buttoned large, touchscreen phones: the Apple iPhone, and the LG KE850 (which already won the International Forum Design Product Design Award for 2007). Separated at birth, or possible lawsuit number two for Apple? You decide.

LG is about to get it right...

So LG has announced their dual-format HD DVD/Blu-ray player? Fantastic. Time Warner goes so far as to create dual-format discs? Pop open the bubbly. But you know something? It didn't take long for my initial feeling of elation to give way to 100% certified organic bile.

Absolutely none of this was necessary. Remember DVD, the little media format that could (and turns ten in a few months)? It seems like ancient history now, but it took some time for the various companies to agree on a single format back then. While it's something of a cliché to mention the Betamax/VHS videocassette format war these days, in the mid-1990s Sony had only just closed up the Betamax shop. I'd like to think that, with Sony still smarting, retailers unhappily clearing out excess Betamax stock and Betamax owners angrily trying to figure out what to do with their machines and tapes, the companies realized things go a lot smoother when everyone agrees at the outset.

It's hard to argue with the result. The DVD format was adopted pretty quickly and has gone on to remake the movie and home video industries; and we've now gotten to the point where DVD utterly dominates the home video landscape.

Then, just in case anyone though that was DVD's uptake was a fluke, there came the DVD+R/DVD-R debacle, where consumers had to decide which format they'd commit their data or video archives to. When Sony came out with the first multi-format burners, consumers breathed a collective sigh of relief.

All of which is a roundabout way of saying that the entertainment and tech industries had plenty of evidence to show that just agreeing on a single format is best for everyone involved, saving a lot of time, energy and money. But no, they had to go off into their separate rooms, and the results of that intransigence -- including the eventual appearance of dual-format players -- were predictable.

Years ago, Simpsons creator Matt Groening related his frustration with trying to make a Simpsons movie in the nineties. As he related it, during one of the meetings with all the%

LG's Super Multi Blue GGW-H10N: a Blu-ray writer and HD DVD reader for the PC

LG is all over the dual-format optical game this next week. In addition to the HD DVD + Blu-ray combo player they just announced, they also touting a new Super Multi Blue dual-format drive for PCs. Not only will the GGW-H10N playback your Blu-ray Disc, DVD, CD, and HD DVD media, it'll also record -- yes record -- up to 50GB of data to dual-layer BD-R/BD-RE media. You also get 4x recording to 25GB single-layer BD-R discs -- doubling the industry's standard rate. The drive is also the first to support "SecurDisc" technology co-developed with Nero. That gives you the ability to secure your burns with password encryption, digital signature, checksum integrity checker for sharing data securely and with peace of mind. Expect the new drive to ship before March in the US for about $1,200 -- a worthwhile, convenience premium when compared to purchasing a $760 dual-layer Blu-ray burner and $199 Xbox 360 HD DVD drive (and all appropriately applied magic) separately. No pictures yet (that's their older, Blu-ray burner pictured) but will slap one up as soon LG sees fit to release them

LG's XNOTE Z1 series of 12.1-inch laptops

LG's offering a new series of 12.1-inch Core 2 Duo laptops in their hometown Korean market with this, their Z1 XNOTE. The Z1-P2007 is touted as the flagship model and ships with a WXGA LCD, 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 256MB of ATI Mobility Radeon X1350 graphics, and 1GB DDR2 memory and 100GB SATA disk. They also pack in an optical disc drive supporting unspecified formats, a 5-in-1 memory card reader, a couple of 1.5W speakers, and support for SRS WOW, and SRS TruSurround. However, unlike LG's ultra-portable 12.1-inch TX, the Z1 brings some relative chunk tipping the scales at 1.89-kg or 4.2-pounds. Still, not a bad all purpose machine for toting around campus on a daily basis. But with a price tag of 1,840,000KRW or about $2,000, you're going to need some help from mom and dad to bring this pup home.

LG's latest slider looks like a snore

Does LG ever take a break? We could practically devote this entire blog to tracking its latest mobile phones alone.

Like the much-hyped Chocolate, its newest model is another slider handset, but we're not sure what this one has to offer over its popular cousins. Akihabara News calls the SB190 a "small phone," but its photos indicate a thicker handset with such fairly standard features as a 1.3-megapixel camera and an MP3 player.

Maybe it's designed for a particular submarket of South Korea, where SK Telecom is introducing it. Or maybe LG just had some old handset casings lying around and needed to get rid of them.