DTNS Briefing - Mobile World Congress
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| DTNS Briefing - Mobile World Congress | |
| Number | 2693.5 |
| Broadcast Date | FEBRUARY 21, 2016 |
| Episode Length | 10:44 |
| Hosts | Tom Merritt |
A quick look at the latest announcements from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Headlines
- LG announced the 5.3-inch G5 smartphone Sunday. It has two rear lenses, one 16-megapixel and an 8-megapixel 135-degree wide angle one. It also supports modules that LG calls Friends. Modules can be replaced by pulling out the bottom section and battery and then fitting the battery in the new module and reinserting. One of the first two Friends is LG Cam Plus that adds a physical shutter button, dedicated video recording key, and a jog dial for zoom as well as extra battery from 2800 to 4000 mAh. The second is the Hi-fi Plus which adds Bang & Olufsen 32-bit digital-to-analog converter and amp for higher quality sound. All of it is available early April globally but no price was announced.
- LG also announced the LG 360 VR headset and LG 360 Cam for 360-degree video. The 360 VR with dual 1.88-inch 960x720 displays that connects to the LG G5 with a USB-C cable for processing and control. It will support YouTube 360 and Cardboard. The 360 Cam is a dual-sensor spherical camera that captures 16-megapixel stills or 2K video also with support for YouTube 360. And LG announced the Rolling Bot, a spherical robot that has a camera, mic, speakers, IR blaster and laser pointer and can be controlled remotely by a phone app.
- LG announced the 5.3-inch G5 smartphone Sunday. It has two rear lenses, one 16-megapixel and an 8-megapixel 135-degree wide angle one. It also supports modules that LG calls Friends. Modules can be replaced by pulling out the bottom section and battery and then fitting the battery in the new module and reinserting. One of the first two Friends is LG Cam Plus that adds a physical shutter button, dedicated video recording key, and a jog dial for zoom as well as extra battery from 2800 to 4000 mAh. The second is the Hi-fi Plus which adds Bang & Olufsen 32-bit digital-to-analog converter and amp for higher quality sound. All of it is available early April globally but no price was announced.
- Ars Technica reports HTC will announce its Vive VR headset will sell for $799 with preorders starting at 10 AM Eastern February 29th for shipping starting April 1st. That price includes two hand-tracking controllers and two Lighthouse laser tracking boxes for headset tracking. The Vive will also connect to phones by Bluetooth to allow answering calls and reading texts and calendar invites in the headset.
- Samsung announced the Galaxy 5.1-inch S7 and 5.5-inch S7 Edge Sunday. Both come with IP68 water resistance, 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage and microSD slots with some regions getting 64 GB options. They use micro-USB not USB-C and Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820. Batteries increase to 3,000 mAh for the S7 and 3,600 mAh for the S7 Edge. The camera is 12-megapxels not 16 but larger pixels to let in 56% more light. An always-on screen shows clock, notifications, calendar or image at all times unless covered in a bag or pocket. Both phones are available in the US on all major carriers March 11th with preorders starting February 23rd. The S7 comes in black or gold and the Edge in black, gold or silver. No pricing was announced but you can get a free Gear VR if you order by March 18th.
- Samsung also announced the Gear 360 spherical camera. The dual-lens 360-degree camera has a flat bottom to rest on surfaces and a microSD card slot that supports up to 128GB cards. You can handle images with the new S7 or S7 Edge or a Windows app. Support for more Samsung phones is coming. It shoots 30-megapixel stills and 3840 x 1920 video. It will be available in Q2 but no price was announced.
- Nokia Chief Executive Rajeev Suri told the press Sunday that Nokia plans to sell smartphones again but there's no rush. "It could happen in 2016, it could happen later." Nokia is just looking for the right partner. Suri said, "We want to be in a position to design the devices in question with appropriate control measures."
- Huawei announced a competitor to Microsoft's Surface with the Huawei MateBook. It's a 12-inch convertible Windows 10 laptop/tablet with a 2160 x1440 display weighing 640 grams with a built-in fingerprint sensor and a fanless design. A 128 GB version with 4GB of RAM and a Core m3 processor starts at $699/€799. A 512 GB version with 8GB of RAM and a core m7 processor runs $1,599//€1,799. It comes in black and silver body or white and gold keyboards in black, brown, orange, and beige. The MateBook will launch in Asia, Europe and North America in the coming months. The keyboard case is $129/€149. Huawei will also sell a stylus called the MatePen for $59/€69. The MateDock with ethernet and one USB-C, HDMI and VGA ports for $89/€99.
- HP announced its Elite x3 Windows 10 phone. Yep. Phone. It has a Snapdragon 820 processor, 64GB storage and a 5.96-inch 2560x1440 AMOLED screen. It also has a fingerprint reader, iris recognition microSD card slot, USB-C port dual SIM and a 4,150mAh battery, and support for Qi and PMA wireless charging. Oh, and IP67 water Security features FIPS 140-2 cryptography, 256-bit key full disk encryption, TPM 2.0, protection against firmware rollbacks. It also has 5 Pogo pin contacts on the back to meet multiple industrial applications. You can also get a Desk Dock with displayPort 2 USB-A and 1 USB-C port and ethernet. There's also a Mobile Extender that gives the phone a laptop form factor. HP says pricing will be "competitive" and availability "summer."
Links
| Preceded by: "Encryption Depiction" |
DTNS Briefing - Mobile World Congress |
Followed by: "Sweet Fiber Alabama" |