Mall cops caught on camera beating teen

Share This Story!

Let friends in your social network know what you are reading about

Mall cops caught on camera beating teen

Cell phone video shows mall security officers punching a teenager at the mall. The boy's friends who witnessed the incident say the officers also cursed at them.

Try Another

Audio CAPTCHA

Image CAPTCHA

Help

]]>

{# #}

CancelSend

Source: Mall cops caught on camera beating teen

Camera MX: A great camera app for a great price (review)

When it comes to camera apps, I really haven't been the adventurous type. I generally stick with the stock camera app that comes on the device I am using. Why? Well, most of the camera apps I've tried in the past didn't really have much to offer beyond what the stock camera app had. I would use it and then realize that I didn't care enough about sepia tones to keep the app installed on my phone.

Enter Camera MX. As I start to look over the app description on Google Play, I notice something that intrigues me. They have a new feature called "shoot the past". For the first time in years I am intrigued to try out a camera app. Shoot the past essentially creates a buffer of images that allows you to go back a few seconds before the shot to find the "perfect" photo. Color me interested. So, I download the app and the feature lives up to my expectations.

Of course that 's not the only feature that Camera MX offers. They actually have a pretty slick option that renders effects in real time with both still shots and video. I do have to say that it's pretty impressive, but it's more of a feature that I would use to show off what my phone can do. I prefer my photos to look real and just wouldn't use it in my every day phone pics. In this review, I'll be looking at all the main features that the app offers.

Shoot the past:

I don't want to diminish the other features, but for me, this feature is the only reason that I keep this app on my phone. I absolutely love this feature. The feature technically works in any light condition and with the flash. However; only the main photograph will have the benefit of the flash's burst of light. The "shoot the past" photos will be in the lower light conditions, so to fully take advantage of this feature, it's best to take your photographs in well-lit areas. If you like to play with the effects you will be happy to learn that you won't have to sacrifice the "shoot the past" feature. it works just as well with the real time effects enabled. You can also save multiple photos from the "shoot the past" buffer. If you have kids, this is the best feature of any camera app that you will find for android.

Camera MX Effects:

Even though I'm not a big fan of effects on a practical basis, I'm not going to lie. The effects are pretty cool. There are 19 preset effects that have various levels of adjustments for each one. So you can sepia up your pictures and share them to Instagram or add any other effects that you like and add share them with whatever service you like. One of the best parts is that you can preview the effects real time as your taking the photo or video. If you prefer you can add the effects later. The nice thing is, that you can add the effects to anything on your phone. This includes all photos, videos, and even full-length movies (non-DRM'd). As with the camera portion, you can preview the effects in real time without committing to them, even with movies. As I said earlier, these are cool effects to show your friends and maybe share on facebook once and awhile, but for me they are more of a novelty than a practicality. The one practical feature here, at least for me, is that you can also trim the length of your videos. Unfortunately, you can not splice video's together at this point, but with all the improvements that are made to the app over time, I can see them adding that feature in the future.

Other Camera MX notable features:

Scene modes

Supports 16:9 recordings – even if the standard camera doesn't

Tablet compatible – can even be used without a camera

500MB Online Album – Magix

Send photos as postcards – using Pryynt paid service

One shot shortcut on home screen

Areas of improvement:

There is not much to add here. The only feature that I would like to see Camera MX add is, the ability to use your volume buttons to control the shutter. The stock camera app on my Padfone X has it and I'd like to see the developer Appic Labs add this feature in the future.

Overall:

Camera MX is a great app that I would enthusiastically recommend to anyone. Is there room for improvement? Absolutely, but this by far one of, if not, the best camera app for Android. The best part is that it's 100% free.

Source: Camera MX: A great camera app for a great price (review)

Sony Xperia Z3+ First Impressions: Familiar design paired with excellent specs, but a steep Rs 55,990 price point

Sony used to launch two flagships every year, but that pattern has clearly undergone a change, as we did not see any Sony flagship launch at Mobile World Congress. Instead we saw the Xperia Aqua M4 and the Xperia C4 launch at MWC and last month in India. Today Sony announced its flagship Xperia Z3+. This phone will replace the incumbent Z3 as the flagship phone from the Japanese company. We got to spend some time with the device, and here are our first impressions.

Build Quality and Design

Sony has been using a similar design playbook for years now, and with the Sony Xperia Z3+ things don't look that different either. The metallic frame on the sides have become slimmer at 6.9mm. Sony has added in shock-resistant caps around the edges. The metallic frame is complemented by Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection on the front and rear sides.

The microSD card and nano SIM card slots have moved to the left hand side and are protected by a cap. On the right hand side you have the power/standby button followed by the volume rocker button and at the base you have the dedicated camera shutter button. The metallic build on these buttons gives a good feedback. The 3.5mm audio jack is located on the top and the microUSB charging port is on the base.

The Xperia Z3+ comes with IP 65/68 certifications making it water and dust resistant. The microUSB charging port is capless as well.

Display

The Sony Xperia Z3+ comes with a 5.2-inch full HD display. Like we have seen in the past, it brings Sony's Triluminos display for mobile with X-reality engine for mobile. The display also comes with smart adaptive display which helps to show you a balanced image even in bright sunlit conditions. While the demo using a steady image looked fine, we will need to try this outdoors to see it in action. The display is bright and colours are vivid. The text appears crisp and there isn't any pixillation that stands out. But the protective cover on the display surface makes it a smudge magnet and you will need to constantly keep cleaning the phone. You are better off removing the protective cover altogether.

Chipset, RAM, Storage

Housing the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC which has an octa-core processor paired with 3GB of RAM, the Sony Xperia Z3+ has impressive internals. While using the phone we did not notice any lag or slowdown. However, the phone did tend to get warm when we shot some sample images or tried playing around with the AR modes. This is an issue we had also faced with the Xperia Z3. Considering the Snapdragon 810 has faced flak in the past for overheating, we will have to really test the Z3+ for overheating issues once we start reviewing it. On the storage front, you have 32GB of which around 18GB was available to the user. It does offer a microSD card slot in case you wish to expand the storage capacity.

OS, Connectivity

The phone comes with Android 5.0.2 along with Sony's Xperia skin atop it. On first glances the layout does not look any different from what we had seen with the Z3/Z3 Compact or even Z2. Apart from Sony's custom widgets, there are also some pre-installed apps and media content, which you can delete or uninstall. On the connectivity front, the Xperia Z3+ comes with a single SIM slot which takes in a nano SIM card. It supports Wi-fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS and supports USB OTG.

Camera

Sony is one of the leading smartphone sensor makers. It has the best sensors for its flagship. The Xperia Z3+ also sports the 20.7MP Exmor RS sensor sporting rear camera with a sensor size of 1/2.3-inch and an aperture of f/2.0. On the front there is a 5MP camera with 1/5-inch Exmor R sensor sporting sensor with f/2.4 aperture. Both the cameras sport 25mm wide-angle lenses. The rear camera is flush with the surface and does not create a bump. Camera interface is similar to what we have seen with older flagships which features such as Intelligent Auto, Manual mode, AR effects, High frame rate shooting and so on. While the image quality looked decent in the indoor shots, we will keep our verdict reserved till we test out the camera of the phone.

Battery 

Sony Xperia Z3 had a 3,100 mAh battery which was impressive. The Xperia Z3+ has a 2,930mAh battery and Sony claims that it can give around 2 days worth of usage. We will have to test this claim, but if past history is any indicator to go by specially with the dedicated power saving modes and Stamina mode improvements, then things look positive. The phone supports quick charge feature which lets you charge the phone completely in 45 mins using Sony charger, a claim we will await testing.

Conclusion

The phone is good looking and has impressive specs. The battery life of Xperia series is known to be good and the Z3+ comes with a newer variant of the Stamina mode. But the price of Rs 55,990 is definitely steep, considering the Xperia Z3 had launched at Rs 51,990 – which we felt was overpriced around the time. So we will need to really test the phone for performance, battery life as well as camera quality to see if it is really worth the asking price amidst able competition from Samsung, LG and Apple.

Tags: Sony Xperia Z3, Sony Xperia Z3 price India, Sony Xperia Z3+ camera, Sony Xperia Z3+ features, Sony Xperia Z3+ first impressions

Source: Sony Xperia Z3+ First Impressions: Familiar design paired with excellent specs, but a steep Rs 55,990 price point

Apple’s iPhone 7 May Have Dual Cameras, Would Fix Protruding Lens Problem From 6/6 Plus Models

Apple typically only releases a refresh of its iPhone line in the year after a major new release, meaning they could be working on some sort of iPhone 6/iPhone 6 Plus tweaks, but a recent acquisition by the company have people looking ahead to what may be coming in next year's expected iPhone 7.

Apple bought camera company LinX in April, which could signify they are looking to give the iPhone 7 dual cameras. While dual cameras are still a relatively new feature, the HTC One released in early 2014 showed why it could be useful. The HTC One reserves one of the cameras for regular image capturing and the other is used for recording depth perception data. The benefits to this setup in Apple's iPhone could allow users to tweak the focus of an image after the fact, simply by using the iPhone's screen. It can also add a 3D effect to images. But perhaps more importantly, it could help Apple solve the problem of its camera lens protruding from the back of the phone like it does in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models.

Business Insider reported that business analyst firm Macquarie said the acquisition should help Apple solve all of its iPhone camera issues and desires.

"LinX is an Israeli CCM maker with leading technologies in multiple sensors, which provides better performance in terms of low light shooting, HDR, refocusing, color fidelity, and shutter lag…Apple should be able to reduce the height of CCM by replacing one large sensor with multiple smaller ones (so no more protruding cameras), reduce noise, improve sensitivity and sharpness in a low-light environment, and enable 3-D object modeling."

If the iPhone 7 uses this sort of technology, it would be an improvement on a camera that is already deemed one of the best on the market. CNET rated the iPhone 6 camera one of the four best on the market so far in 2015 earlier this week.

Slate reported that a Taiwanese publication, Business Weekly, was researching future iPhones and reported that Apple has been working on dual cameras in iPhones for years with no success, but that the acquisition of LinX may change all of that for the iPhone 7. Apple could now have the means to revolutionize their camera produce enough components for an iPhone launch.

If Apple sticks to its typical iPhone release schedule, it may not introduce any of this new technology this year, but could be ready to go with the launch of the iPhone 7, presumably in 2016.

[Image via Forbes]

Source: Apple's iPhone 7 May Have Dual Cameras, Would Fix Protruding Lens Problem From 6/6 Plus Models

More evidence that big changes could be coming to the iPhone's camera

George Frey/Stringer/Getty ImagesThe iPhone 6's camera See Also Everything we know about the iPhone 7 so far Apple may be working on a new buttonless phone A carrier may have just revealed when Apple will release the iPhone 7

Ever since Apple bought Israel-based camera company LinX for an estimated $20 million in April, there's been some speculation that the company could be working on a dual camera for the next iPhone.

Now, a new report from Taiwanese publication Business Weekly claims that Apple has at least been experimenting with ways to fit more than one camera lens into the iPhone.

The report says that Apple has been working with dual camera lenses for the iPhone for three years.

But, it's never actually implemented this technology in any products because it's been facing some technical issues, reports Business Weekly. 

First, the report indicates that Apple's early tests with dual lens cameras resulted in blurry images. Second, the report claims that Apple hasn't been able to find a manufacturer capable of building enough camera modules in the allotted time.

Now, however, Business Weekly reports that LinX's technology will be able to help Apple solve that blurry image issue. And, Apple is also said to be working with Largan Precision Co., a company that supplies camera lens modules for computers and mobile devices. This could help the company produce the necessary number of components needed to actually add a dual camera to its products.

It's worth noting that the HTC One M8 already has a dual camera, which allows the phone to capture images with 3-D effects.

It's unclear what Apple would plan to use the technology for, but a note from the analysts at Macquarie provided some insight about how the company could improve the iPhone's camera. 

The firm looked at what LinX succeeds at in terms of camera technology and applied that to the iPhone, writing the following (emphasis is our own):

LinX is an Israeli CCM maker with leading technologies in multiple sensors, which provides better performance in terms of low light shooting, HDR, refocusing, color fidelity, and shutter lag...Apple should be able to reduce the height of CCM by replacing one large sensor with multiple smaller ones (so no more protruding cameras), reduce noise, improve sensitivity and sharpness in a low-light environment, and enable 3-D object modeling

We won't know what Apple has in store for its next iPhone until it officially unveils it, which will likely happen in September. But, one of the most persistent rumors around the phone, which is rumored to be called the iPhone 6s or iPhone 7, is that Apple is planning some major camera upgrades. 

SEE ALSO: Apple may have dropped a big hint about two upcoming products that could launch this year NOW WATCH: The 12 best new features coming to the iPhone Please enable Javascript to watch this video
Source: More evidence that big changes could be coming to the iPhone's camera

The Smaller, Cheaper, FLIR ONE Thermal Camera Now Works With Other Apps

Thermal cameras that can see a person's body heat were once expensive tools that only police and the military used. But now they're small and cheap enough to work alongside your smartphone. And FLIR's latest model will make anyone feel like the Predator hunting its prey.

Imagine a camera that lets you see what the human eye can't, even in the dark of night. That's what the thermal sensor inside the FLIR ONE is capable of, and the latest version not only introduces a vastly improved compact design allowing it to work with more devices, it's also got upgraded optics and streamlined software. But the most exciting new feature could be FLIR's new SDK allowing third-party apps to finally take advantage of what its thermal sensor can see.

But before we dig into all the improvements, what's even more important to mention is that starting today you can finally buy the new FLIR ONE on the company's website. And come July, from Best Buy, Amazon, and Apple's online stores as well.

Advertisement

The original FLIR ONE was one of the most exciting things we'd seen at CES in recent years, but its smartphone case form factor ultimately proved problematic. It made the FLIR ONE bulky, and in turn the phone it was attached to uncomfortably heavy. But it also meant that it was only compatible with the iPhone 5/5S because adding support for other devices required a custom case to fit each one. Android users were promised a version of their own, but were ultimately left out in the cold—and with no way to visualize it.

At $350 the original FLIR ONE was also expensive, and is still expensive compared to some of the competition. And the thermal sensor used on the original version had a paltry resolution of just 80 x 60 pixels. It was still incredibly fun to experiment with, but all of those limitations meant it probably just wasn't a device you'd be using all the time.

The new FLIR ONE fixes most of those problems. The form factor is now comparable to the more compact Seek Thermal. It's much smaller, much lighter, and now hangs off the bottom of a device which means it can be used with almost any smartphone or tablet. A Lightning connector version lets you use the new FLIR ONE with iPhones and iPads, and, wait for it, there's now a microUSB version that works with Android smartphones and tablets too—arriving in July.

If you choose the iOS route, though, there's an added bonus for you. Because the Lightning connector is reversible, it means you can plug the new FLIR ONE into your device facing either forwards or back. Which of course means that thermal selfies are probably going to become a thing—like it or not.

Despite its smaller size, the new FLIR ONE maintains the unique dual side-by-side camera setup that made the original version so unique. It captures both regular and thermal images and combines them in real-time, with enhancements, so that it's always clear what exactly you're looking at.

The image on the left shows the real-time overlay the FLIR ONE app creates using images from both cameras, while the image on the right is just what the thermal sensor sees. Without the overlay, figuring out exactly what you're looking at in an image is often a mystery.

But FLIR has actually upgraded the thermal Lepton sensor inside the new version of the FLIR ONE to 160 x 120—a four times boost in resolution. It doesn't sound like much compared to what your smartphone's main camera is capable of, but the improvements are very much noticeable.

The giant blobs of color on the right represent the limited level of detail in thermal images that the original FLIR ONE could capture. While the shot on the left, clearly revealing what parts of passengers are cool, and which are warm, is what the new FLIR ONE's thermal sensor is capable of distinguishing.

Another feature that FLIR has kept on the new FLIR ONE is its built-in 350 mAh battery that's rechargeable through a microUSB connection. It gives the camera about an hour's worth of battery time on a 40-minute charge, and ensures that while you're using it the FLIR ONE isn't leeching power from your smartphone. A simple power button turns it off and on, but it will automatically shut itself down after a few minutes if you exit the app to help maximize battery life.

The FLIR ONE's accompanying app has also been improved. When the original version of the FLIR ONE was released, additional camera functionality like shooting thermal panoramas was confusingly broken up into several simpler apps. They're now completely unified in the main FLIR ONE app and the various shooting modes are accessible using the same swipe gestures you'd use in the native iPhone camera's app. We weren't able to test the Android version of the app, but presumably it will borrow its UI elements and Material design cues from the latest versions of the OS.

And despite all those improvements, upgrades, and miniaturization, FLIR has still managed to shave $100 off the FLIR ONE's price tag. The new version is now $250 which makes it a little easier to justify.

That was the probably the biggest drawback of the original version—figuring out what you'd actually use it for to justify the cost. You can only visualize how hot your burrito is so many times before the novelty starts to wear off. But FLIR has actually managed to fix that too.

Along with the availability of the new FLIR ONE, the company has also revealed the FLIR ONE Developer Program, an SDK for the iOS version, and a soon to be available SDK for Android. These tools will finally give third-party developers access to both sensors in the FLIR ONE, letting them come up with new uses for the hardware besides just taking interesting photos of dinner.

They're not available quite yet, but FLIR has teased a handful of these new third-party apps for the FLIR ONE as part of today's announcements. For starters, Owens Corning is actually working on an app that will allow home owners to not only spot areas in their home where heat is leaking in or out, but also give suggestions on how to deal with the problem.

Using the FLIR ONE for detecting temperature leaks in your home is something FLIR has been suggesting since the original version first came out. But with the added functionality in the new Owens Corning app, you'll actually have a better idea of what you can do about the problem.

Security-based apps like Manything—which turns your old iOS devices into smart surveillance cameras—are also planning to take advantage of the FLIR ONE hardware. For night vision to work there needs to be some source of infra-red light for the camera to detect. They just don't work in complete darkness. But thermal vision does, which means Manything will soon be able to keep an eye out for intruders all night long. They might be able to hide in the shadows, but their body heat can't.

There's even some genuine fun to be had with the FLIR ONE now. A Zombie Vision app uses the camera's thermal vision as a sort of real-time keyer to recognize a person's exposed skin (distinguishing it from clothing) and automatically add real-time zombie effects like green rotting flesh and glowing red eyes.

And this is just what's been created from a handful of developers working with the beta version of the FLIR ONE SDK. Now that it's available to anyone, the app floodgates are officially open.

With its new cheaper price point, upgraded optics, much-improved form factor, and the potential for apps that will take advantage of the thermal sensor in wonderful new ways, the FLIR ONE now has a much better answer to the question; "what would I do with this?" The only question it still can't answer, though, is why that sushi place at the mall is still selling meals that have obviously been improperly refrigerated.

[FLIR]

Source: The Smaller, Cheaper, FLIR ONE Thermal Camera Now Works With Other Apps

How LG's Garbage Phone Evolved Into My Favorite Ever

Two years ago I wrote one of the harshest reviews that has ever appeared on Gizmodo. It was for the LG G2, which was supposed to be the company's flagship Android phone for the year, but it was just bad. I wasn't shy about saying so. I was so unshy, in fact, that LG tried to get me fired for it.

But now here I sit, two years later, with LG's G4 in my pocket. And guess what? It's the best phone I've ever used.

Credit where credit's due—you've come a long way, baby.

Advertisement

Preface

For the record, at the time, I was generally considered one of Gizmodo's nicest reviewers, and this mudsling really surprised my colleagues. I am in no way malicious, and I truly want everything I test to be good and to succeed. I know that a lot of hard work from many individual people went into making a product, and I hate crapping all over that. Writing bad reviews makes me feel lousy and angsty.

But sometimes I have to. And sometimes I will use direct and rather fiery language to make sure you understand exactly what I'm saying. Jawbone didn't like it when I called their UP3 "a fitness fiasco" and HTC didn't appreciate it when I called their Media Link HD "the HTC Suck Puck," but hey, if they didn't want me to say that, then they shouldn't have make a puck that sucked.

That said, I was especially rough with the G2, because it could have been so good. From a hardware standpoint it looked poised to blow everything else out of the water, but man, it really did the opposite, and there's nothing more aggravating than unrealized potential.

The Shitstorm

Here are some highlights from the LG G2 review, the headline of which called it "A Braindead Hercules."

LG G2 Review: A Braindead Hercules LG G2 Review: A Braindead Hercules LG G2 Review: A Braindead Hercules

You could put a helicopter engine on a motorcycle and fill it with rocket fuel, but if you put a… Read more Read more

("Who's It For?") "People who root their Android phones. Masochists."

"The software is a poor imitation of Samsung's TouchWiz (which is, itself, bad). LG's software is much, much worse. It's flooded with even more useless "features," it's even more cluttered, even less intuitive and the overall look is that of a early 2000s feature phone. It's almost begging you to hate it."

"A fiasco from start to finish."

"I don't even know where to start with the software. It is so insanely, universally bad across the board."

"We're used to seeing bad keyboards made by third parties, but this one was absolutely unusable."

"you know how Google Now is really pretty good at understanding voice commands and giving you what you want? Wouldn't you rather use LG's barely functional "voice mate guide" powered by a company called Maluuba?"

"This is, overall, the most frustrating phone I've tested in the last two years."

"Bad software made what could have been one of the year's best phones into a big dumb idiot."

And I made this video of the G2's default alarm tone:

Here's the thing, though: I stand behind every word of that. The software was just horrendous and it rendered what should have been a very good phone utterly unusable.

Our editor-in-chief at the time received a barrage of angry emails and phone calls from LG, the details of which are better left unsaid. Luckily he stood behind both the article and me and free journalism survived another day. But LG was done with me. When the G3 came out the company would only send Gizmodo a review unit if we promised that I wouldn't touch it.

Again, I bore no ill-will toward LG. Hell, I wrote a love letter to one of their TVs just a few months later, but the damage had been done and I haven't reviewed an LG phone since.

Rebirth

A few weeks ago I got an email from my contact at Verizon asking me if I'd like to review its version of the LG G4. I told them Gizmodo already had a G4 review up and that we wouldn't be doing another one, but if they were up for sending it to me, I would love to try it for a little while. They did, and for the last few weeks I've been playing with it.

LG G4 Review: The Past Is Worth Preserving LG G4 Review: The Past Is Worth Preserving LG G4 Review: The Past Is Worth Preserving

Evolution is tedious work. It fashioned us out of primordial goo into the smartest species in the… Read more Read more

Holy crap, I love this phone. I mean, the experience of using it compared to the G2 is absolutely night and day, and it's almost entirely because of the software.

LG had put a skin over the G2 that was truly dreadful. It replaced very good Google apps with very bad in-house apps. It was cluttered and unintuitive. It was slow and ugly. I still remember how annoying it was to use and the feeling of my cortisol levels rising.

The G4 is an entirely different beast. Now, when you tap on the phone's screen to wake it up, it actually wakes up! There's almost no LG-installed bloat-ware on this phone at all, and what few apps there are aren't usually the default apps and are quarantined into their own little folder of exile.

But the biggest change is that it runs a version of Android that is incredibly close to stock, and that's a good thing. Android Lollipop (5.1) is really good-looking and extremely intuitive to use. LG got its ego out of the way and let Android do its thing, which is what the best Android phones do (see Motorola's Moto X and co.). But it goes one step beyond that...

The LG G4 runs Android better than Google's own Nexus line. Much better, in fact. Lollipop is beautiful software, but it has some performance problems. Open apps and processes seem to accumulate until there's just no RAM left, and then the phone slows down to a crawl. I mean, switching between apps will take forever and even typing becomes an exercise in futility. And I'm talking about using the Nexus 6, the Nexus 9, the Nexus 7, the Nexus 5, and even the HTC One M8 Google Play Edition. They have all of the same major slowdowns. The G4 doesn't have that problem. That's huge.

The excellent LG G4

There's more to love than that, though. The G4 doesn't feel nearly as gigantic as the Nexus 6, and as a result it's infinitely easier to use one-handed. And then there's the camera which takes some truly gorgeous photos.

No, it's not perfect. I'm still not into having my power button on the back, which makes it really hard to reach when it's, say, in my car mount, and the dialer app is still kind of a cluttered mess, but these are small offenses that I can live with, because it runs Android better than any other phone I've used, it has solid battery life, and a camera that I love using.

It's a massive turnaround. Way bigger than we usually see. Usually when a company is as out-to-lunch as LG was when it made the G2 it takes many generations before it even start getting its stuff together. It took LG two. Two iterations. It's really impressive.

I'm writing this because I hope other companies will see this example and follow suit. We see so many products that could be great if the company that made them had just had the wherewithal to get out of its own way. With the G4, it seems as if LG was finally willing to strip its ego away and let go of the compulsive need to make the phone all about them. Instead they made the phone that people wanted, and I'm willing to bet that they'll sell a whole lot more of them. I hope you're paying attention, other consumer electronics companies who shall remain nameless. I hope you know who you are.

Top image: The LG G2 that I dumped all over

Source: How LG's Garbage Phone Evolved Into My Favorite Ever

LG G4 (Verizon Wireless)

editor rating: good

Comments

June 23, 2015

Pros

Excellent camera. Gorgeous screen. Includes microSD card slot and removable battery.

Cons Runs too hot. Mediocre call quality. Lots of bloatware. Slower processor than competitors.

Bottom Line

The LG G4 has a beautiful screen and a terrific camera, but some heating issues can make this Android smartphone too hot to handle.

By Sascha Segan

When I asked for a hot new smartphone, this isn't what I had in mind. The LG G4 has a big, bright screen, tons of storage, solid battery life, and an absolutely terrific camera. But mediocre voice quality and an epic amount of bloatware hold it back, while poor thermal tuning causes it to run uncomfortably hot. There's a lot to like about the LG G4, but it's difficult to recommend over Editors' Choice winners like the Samsung Galaxy S6, the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, and the Motorola Droid Turbo.

Physical Form and Call QualityThe G4 is a sizeable slab of phone at 5.9 by 3 by 0.4 inches (HWD) and 5.6 ounces. It's noticeably bigger than the Samsung Galaxy S6 or the Apple iPhone 6, but smaller than the Galaxy Note 4.

The 5.5-inch, 2,560-by-1,440-pixel display is strikingly vibrant and saturated, but it also has a noticeable bezel. LG is using quantum dot technology to improve the color gamut, and it seems to have struck the perfect balance between LCD crispness and OLED-style saturation, with excellent blacks.

As with the past few generations of LG phones, the power and volume buttons are on the back of the G4, rather than on the side. The volume buttons are textured and recessed so that they're relatively easy to feel. You can also wake the phone by either tapping sharply on the screen twice, or using a "knock code" of patterned taps that you set, another carryover from previous LG devices.

The G4 has a range of back cover designs. I've heard good things about the natural leather option, but I wasn't sent one for review. Instead, I got a plastic back with a subtle diamond pattern, which gives the phone an all-plastic feel without any of the metal or glass touches on the latest Samsung, HTC, Sony, or Apple phones. I really like metal and glass, so I consider that a minus, but plastic is more durable, and a scratched plastic back is easy to replace.

Call quality on the G4 was surprisingly mediocre in my tests. The G4 supports Verizon's new HD voice calling over LTE, which recent tests by research company P3 have shown improves call quality. Here, though, our test calls had an annoying buzz at top volume, with considerable muddiness. The bottom-ported speakerphone wasn't tremendously loud, although it was usable outdoors. Transmissions through the phone's mouthpiece were muddy and occasionally echoed my own voice.

The phone has a meaty—and removable—3,000mAh battery. That helped it go for a solid 7 hours, 29 minutes of video streaming in testing, which is similar to what the Galaxy S6 offers on its smaller screen. You can't replace the S6's battery, though.

The phone supports Verizon's CDMA and LTE networks, along with foreign GSM and UMTS 3G networks. With only LTE bands 2, 4, and 13 on board, the G4 can't roam on LTE networks in most other countries. It will work on AT&T and T-Mobile, but not ideally, as it's missing some of those carriers' LTE bands as well. Bands aside, all of the other new wireless technologies are on board, including 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, and a bunch of GPS technologies.

Performance and AndroidThe G4 runs Android Lollipop 5.1 on a 1.8GHz/1.4GHz hexacore Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor. The 808 is supposed to be the calmer, more reliable brother of the troubled Snapdragon 810. It's certainly calmer, turning in relatively low raw benchmark results for this generation of flagship phones.

Antutu benchmark scores stayed in the 46,000-47,000 range. That's lower than the HTC One M9 and the Galaxy S6, and on par with the Galaxy Note 4. For real-life applications, Browsermark scores also fell behind the Galaxy S6, but were slightly ahead of the Galaxy Note 4.

See How We Test Cell Phones

Average system performance isn't the G4's biggest flaw, however. Once the phone got hot—say, by playing an intense game, downloading a lot of data, or running a benchmark—it stayed uncomfortably hot, even while sitting in my pocket. When you turn the screen brightness up to max, a dialog box appears with the warning: "High brightness setting may increase the temperature of your phone." That's not good. 

With the screen at maximum brightness, the earpiece was an unpleasant 102.5 degrees, with the bottom of the phone coming in at 95 degrees at rest, to 99.5 degrees while running a heavy graphics task. The Samsung Galaxy S6 runs at 93-95 degrees at max, and 86-87 degrees on average. That's significantly cooler. 

I'm not ready to blame this entirely on Qualcomm, which has had heating issues with its latest chips. LG is using a new screen technology, for instance, and that could be the culprit. But the fact remains that this phone can literally be too hot to handle.

It's also laden down with undeletable bloatware. There's so much of it! I counted 21 preloaded, non-Google apps: eight from Verizon, five from LG, five from Amazon, and three others. That helps the system software take up 9.38GB of the phone's 32GB storage (Verizon only sells the 32GB model). So it's a good that the G4 has a microSD card slot, which can handle up to 200GB cards.

Also, as it tends to do, LG redesigned most of the built-in software, usually in function-filled but cluttered ways. Take the company's Smart Bulletin widget. It gives plain-English weather-related suggestions (although some of them are a little weird, like "avoid direct contact with the sun"), then pops down into a few too many panels of task assistant ideas. The phone also has both dual-window and mini-app multitasking, and a fully customizable quick settings bar, all things I've always liked from LG.

Multimedia PerformanceThe G4 takes gorgeous photos. It sports a slightly larger 1/2.6-inch, 16-megapixel image sensor when compared with the S6's 1/3-inch sensor, and features a slightly wider f/1.8 aperture lens to the S6's f/1.9.

Two taps of the volume button launch the camera from a screen-off state in about three seconds, quicker than the Galaxy S6, which takes four seconds. Outdoor shots with both the 16MP main camera and the 8MP front camera were beautiful in outdoor lighting, although be aware that the camera mode defaults to 12MP and 6MP. The photos are sharp without looking sharpened, and they have great color balance. A manual mode gives control over white balance, ISO, shutter speed, and even the option to save RAW image files (DNG format) for post-processing

Low light performance is very good for a phone camera, although it doesn't beat the Galaxy S6. The G4 tries very hard, pumping up its virtual ISO to heroic levels and using three-axis optical image stabilization to squeeze some images out of very low-light conditions. However, when compared directly against Galaxy S6 photos taken side-by-side, low-light images on the G4 were considerably softer and did not show usable additional details.

The G4's front-facing camera is a touch brighter than the S6's in low light, but the G4's "selfie flash" trick (which lights up the screen to use it as a flash) really made a difference when I turned it on. Video recording stayed at 30fps for 4K video with the main camera, and 30fps for 1080p video with the front camera, in all lighting conditions.

Music and video playback are excellent as well. The G4 supports hi-fi 24-bit, 192kHz audio files natively, and the back-ported speaker is suprisingly loud and rich. If you watch a lot of videos, the high-quality screen and sound here are definitely factors to consider.

Comparisons and ConclusionsThe LG G4 needs to chill out a bit. While it's loaded to go for days with multiple batteries and memory cards, its heat problem and heavy bloatware load make it one of the less appealing flagships in Verizon's lineup. If you're all-in for a removable battery and microSD card slot, the Galaxy Note 4 is still a better-balanced alternative. Worried about running out of juice? The Droid Turbo, a Verizon exclusive, doesn't have a terrific camera, but it does have a terrific battery and it won't get too hot. The 64GB model of the Samsung Galaxy S6, meanwhile, is the current performance leader, and our Editors' Choice on Verizon.

By Sascha Segan Lead Analyst, Mobile

PCMag.com's lead mobile analyst, Sascha Segan, has reviewed hundreds of smartphones, tablets and other gadgets in more than 9 years with PCMag. He's the head of our Fastest Mobile Networks project, one of the hosts...

More Stories by Sascha Segan Login or Register

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.

blog comments powered by Disqus State Country

Automatic Renewal Program: Your subscription will continue without interruption for as long as you wish, unless you instruct us otherwise. Your subscription will automatically renew at the end of the term unless you authorize cancellation. Each year, you'll receive a notice and you authorize that your credit/debit card will be charged the annual subscription rate(s). You may cancel at any time during your subscription and receive a full refund on all unsent issues. If your credit/debit card or other billing method can not be charged, we will bill you directly instead. Contact Customer Service

Source: LG G4 (Verizon Wireless)

This is Likely the New Moto G (3rd Gen) With Tweaked Design, 13MP and 5MP Cameras

Over the weekend, a random leak of what appears to be the new Moto G (3rd gen) showed up in a 2-minute video and series of pictures. The unit made public is clearly an engineering test model that lacks most Motorola branding, but does have all sort of identifiers to help Motorola track down whoever's unit this was supposed to be. 

The video shows, through a variety of benchmarks, all of the phones specs, along with the shape that the phone may take on when it's finalized. According to this video, we are looking at another 5-inch 720p display, Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916) processor, 1GB RAM, 13MP rear camera, 5MP front camera, Android 5.1.1, and LTE connectivity.

It looks, well, a lot like last year's Moto G only it has a redesigned back panel that features a silver panel that houses the Motorola dimple, camera, and flash. We have seen this same shape leak in purported pictures of the new Moto X (3rd gen) as well.

Assuming Motorola sticks to the same Moto G formula as it has for the past couple of years, this phone should be well-priced at under $200.

This phone will likely launch around the time of the new Moto X.

Source: This is Likely the New Moto G (3rd Gen) With Tweaked Design, 13MP and 5MP Cameras

Kylie Jenner tells fan to ‘get the f--k’ out of her face after he calls her Kendall, ask sexual question

Kylie Jenner had a mouthful for a disrespectful fan with a cellphone camera.

"Get the f--- out of my face," the 17-year-old reality star said when a man approached her too closely with his cellphone camera in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Saturday.

Not only did the man get way too close to Jenner's face, but he also called her "Kendall" and asked a rather sexually charged question.

"What that mouth do Kendall?" he said before the teen cussed him out in a calm but curt manner.

A Kim Kardashian fan site posted photos to prove how awkward the interaction was with the aggressive fan.

"#perspective This is how close this guy (who took the video in the last post) stands and the phones literally on her face and he finds this funny," the photo posted to fan Instagram account @ultimatekimkwest was captioned. "Some find Kylie rude telling him to f--- off but this is what they need to see."

The youngest of the Jenner-Kardashian clan was in Miami the night before to attend the opening of the Sugar Factory where she and sister, Kendall, have their own line of couture lollipops. She rocked a daring sheer, low-cut black dress with a thigh-high slit to the event.

WARNING EXPLICIT LANGUAGE

"There's a lot of duct tape under this dress holding these suckers up," she joked about her cleavage in an Instagram post.

She quickly returned home to Los Angeles for the Father's Day weekend, the first the family will celebrate since the clan's patriarch came out as Caitlyn Jenner.

Despite the unfortunate incident with the rude fan, Kylie was out shopping for her dad.

"Gotta make it home in time for Father's Day," she tweeted Saturday.

ON A MOBILE DEVICE? WATCH THE VIDEO HERE.

Follow @RiveraZayda

Source: Kylie Jenner tells fan to 'get the f--k' out of her face after he calls her Kendall, ask sexual question

LG G4 first impressions: Elegant design, Snapdragon 808 SoC, 16MP camera makes for a good package

LG launched its latest flagship phone – the LG G4 – at the NSCI Sports Complex in Mumbai which was relatively packed by media persons and guests, despite the heavy Mumbai rains. LG G4, which was first announced towards the end of April in the Korean market, will be the successor to the LG G3. LG managing director Soon Kwon, present at the event stressed on the fact that he expected LG G4 to do as well as the previous two generation flagships such as the G3 as well as the G2. The phone's innovative features were presented by Indian superstar Amitabh Bachchan, who also showcased some of the pictures he had clicked with the LG G4.

Post the event, we got to play around with the LG G4. Considering the demo zone was placed in an area which had harsh lighting and with promo music playing in the background, we didn't really get a chance to check out the image quality of the camera or the audio performance of the speakers. But nonetheless, here are our first impressions of the LG G4.

Build and Design

LG G3 had a beautiful design and the LG G4 just builds upon it. The slim arc aesthetic around the edges, paired with the hand-crafted leather back, gives the phone a good grip, something we felt was missing in the LG G3 with its slippery grip. According to LG, it uses vegetable tanning on the leather which helps keep the quality immune from future damage by either moisture or hot weather. The stitched centre with the G4 embossing on the bottom right hand corner adds a bit of class to the already good looking phone. Apart from a leather back, you also get a plastic back cover. There are three colour variants with the plastic as well as leather backs and they are removable.

The button placement, which has become a standard with LG phones since the G2, is on the rear side. The power/standby button in the centre is surrounded by the volume rocker buttons. Just above this is the camera which we will come to later. On the front, you have a 5.5-inch IPS Quantum display and just like we have seen with the G3, the bezels are thin at the top and bottom thereby giving a higher body to screen ratio.

Display

LG G4 has a 5.5-inch Quad HD display which gives you a high 535 pixels per inch. The colours appear vibrant and there was no pixelation whatsoever even on close observation. The text also appears crisp, without any dithering on the fonts. According to LG, this is an IPS Quantum display which tends to improve on the contrast ratio and vibrancy of the display over competition. We will have to check that for ourselves when we test the phone. But overall, the display looked quite good.

Chipset, RAM

Powering the LG G4 is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 chipset which has a dual-core ARM Cortex A57 and quad-core A53 with processor with 64-bit support and also houses Adreno 418 GPU. This chipset is one-tier below the Snapdragon 810, but during the brief time that we used the phone, the response was buttery smooth despite the custom skin, application launches were quick, camera launched quickly and so on. So hopefully there should be little to no issues with lag, but we will have to use it in real world cases, run the relevant benchmarks and put the phone through the rigmarole of tests to arrive at a final conclusion.

The processor is paired with 3GB of RAM which will be more than enough for all your tasks as well as heavy apps. The LG G4 comes with 32GB storage and out of this around 20.4GB is available to the user, but LG has added in a microSD card slot in case you feel the capacity isn't much.

OS, connectivity

LG G4 comes with Android 5.1 OS and naturally you will get LG's custom UX 4.0 skin atop the Android OS. The iconography and the flat design theme is the same as was seen on the LG G3 and its variants. But swiping to the left most home screen will get you to the Smart Bulletin screen. This basically has a lot of LG specific app data such as pocket calendar, Music settings, LG health, Quick remote and so on. Once set up, you can access data relevant to these apps in the Smart bulletin run down or else you can also get it as part of Smart Notice which will send you birthday reminders, appointment data, weather alert, LG health notifications and so on. If this sounds familiar, then it is. Hint: Google Now.

The phone comes with Qualcomm X10 LTE chipset for 4G LTE SIM cards. It has a dual SIM configuration. Apart from this, you get Wi-fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.1, A-GPS and the regular set of sensors in addition to the colour spectrometer sensor.

Camera

If there is one thing that was talked about the most, then it has to be the camera. A 16MP camera with laser-detect auto focus feature graces the rear side of the G4, present just above the volume rocker buttons. On the left hand side of the camera you have a laser AF port and on the right hand side, you have the LED flash unit and a colour spectrum sensor. According to LG, this infrared-sensitive colour sensor ensures that the colours seen by the camera are accurate under most lighting situations. Considering the lighting around the demo zone was terrible we did not really get to experience this. We will need to hold our thoughts on this till we see it in action.

The laser auto-focus ensures that the AF acquisition time is minimal. As we had noticed with the LG G3, the AF speeds on the G4 are also quite fast. In the dim lighting, the LG G4 was still able to capture focus quickly. It will be interesting to put the camera through its paces. The rear camera also comes with optical image stabilisation chops along three axes. On the front face you have an 8MP camera for selfies and it supports gesture based shooting. Making a fist closing and opening gesture for instance clicks four selfies in a second.

The camera user interface is the same as we had seen with the LG G3. You get the manual mode as well in case you want to tweak the settings yourself. You can also save the manual mode pictures in the RAW format. Apart from this, the video camera is capable of shooting 4K videos.

Battery

LG G4 offers a 3000 mAh Lithium ion battery which is removable, something that we don't generally see with flagship devices these days. We did not see any dedicated power saving mode apart from the battery saver feature which is present on most Android 5.0 handsets.

Conclusion

The LG G4 looks and feels every bit the flagship device that one expects. Although the design playbook hasn't changed much from its previous flagship iterations, the hand-crafted leather back will surely attract a lot of prospective buyers. LG G4 comes at a steep Rs 51,000 price point, which was somewhat expected considering the LG G3 had also launched around Rs 48,000. Will the G4 justify the price point, and does its camera have the armour to knock the socks of that of its competition? We will have to reserve that opinion till we get our hands on a review unit and spend a considerable time with this flagship device.

Tags: Laser AF camera, laser autofocus, lg g4, LG G4 battery, LG G4 camera, LG G4 features, LG G4 first look, LG G4 price India

Source: LG G4 first impressions: Elegant design, Snapdragon 808 SoC, 16MP camera makes for a good package