LG Appoints Jo Seong-jin as the Company’s New CEO

It's no secret that LG has been struggling to make a profit with some of its divisions within the company. LG's mobile division lost $389 million last quarter, and which was even worse than Q2 when they lost $132 million. Most of the profits LG has been able to bring in over the last couple of years is thanks to their home appliance and TV divisions. They specifically credit sales of TVs and home appliances when they made an overall profit of $503 million back in the second quarter of this year.

Some believe LG is having a bit of an identity crisis when it comes to their smartphones. Others have blamed their marketing campaigns (or lack thereof) and feel that LG could have done very well with the LG V20 if they would have marketed it better. The LG G5 had a lot of hype around it before it was officially unveiled, and the head of their mobile division said they would "need to overspend a bit in order to get the word out and create fans."

This didn't bode very well when their 2016 flagship smartphone sold less than expected, and resulted in multiple executives within the mobile division losing their jobs. Yesterday, the company announced they would be appointing a new CEO in charge of the entire company. The new CEO is Jo Seong-jin, and he was actually in charge of their home appliance division. The same division that has helped keep LG afloat for the last couple of years.

This change has gone into effect immediately, and will put Jo in charge of all LG Electronics' business divisions including the H&A Company, Mobile Communications, Home Entertainment, and Vehicle Components. He will even have oversight of over 120 operations around the world. Song Dae-hyun used to be the head of the CIS Region and president of LG Russia, but will now be taking the place of Jo as the president and CEO of the Home Appliance & Air Solutions Company.

Source: LG Newsroom

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New UMi Z Likely to be First Phone with MediaTek X27

We have received information from a credible tipster that UMi will be among the first, if not the first, OEM to release a phone with the recently-announced MediaTek X27 CPU, as soon as this month. Not only that, but a rendering we received of the new UMi phone, above, suggests that it'll have a dual-camera setup, likely with some help from the new ISP included in the X27.

The new UMi phone is likely to go by the name "Z", as the same name was recently teased on the UMi Facebook page. We don't have any other information about the UMi Z at this time, but we'd venture to guess that it'll be offered in a 6GB RAM configuration, and should have a 4,000mAh battery with up to 64 or 128GB of storage space with microSD expansion. And, given how UMi prices its phones, we expect the Z to be offered for a very competitive price.

 

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Motorola Won’t Release a New Smartwatch for the Launch of Android Wear 2.0

Motorola released their first smartwatch in September of 2014 and then followed it up a year later with the second generation Moto 360. Many were hoping that the company would release something this year, but then in September, we learned Motorola, LG and Huawei didn't have any plans to release a new Android Wear smartwatch for 2016. Many speculated that these companies were waiting on Android Wear 2.0 before putting out a new wearable.

The first Android Wear 2.0 Developer Preview was made available to the public in May, and it seemed like Google was on course to release something this year. DP2 for Android Wear 2.0 was subsequently released two months later and it increased the Platform API to 24 so it could coincide with Android 7.0 Nougat. We even had a third developer preview for Android Wear 2.0 released in September of this year, but this is when we learned about the delay.

We still don't know exactly when Android Wear 2.0 will be officially released but we are told that the developer preview program will continue into "early 2017." Once we learned about this, it started to make sense why companies like LG, Huawei and Motorola didn't have any plans to release a new Android Wear smartwatch in 2016. The platform, and market as a whole, is somewhat struggling right now, but many hoped it would be revitalized with the release of Android Wear 2.0.

This week we heard from Shakil Barkat, who is the head of global product development at Motorola, and they confirmed the company didn't have any plans to release a new smartwatch with the launch of Android Wear 2.0. We'll still likely see the rumored Pixel watches released with the new update, but anyone hoping for an updated Moto 360 will have to wait. Motorola says the market simply isn't "broad enough" to release a new smartwatch year after year.

They are open to revisit the wearable market when technology improves though, but didn't give a time frame for fans to look forward to.

Source: The Verge

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Google Announces App Maker for G Suite Customers

G Suite used to be called Google Apps for Work, as well as Google Apps for Your Domain, and is Google's collection of tools for productivity, collaboration, and cloud computing. The service was initially launched in 2006, and it gave a way for businesses to have access to software and products that were built by Google. Google has been working a lot lately to enhance the service and this week they announced both an App Maker as well as some new apps for the Recommended for G Suite program.

Google announced this Recommended for G Suite program last year as a way to suggest some helpful 3rd-party applications and services for businesses. Google realizes there are some applications out there that aren't made by them, but can be very helpful for your team. So now the company is adding 7 new applications to this program that include Asana, DocuSign, Freshdesk, LumApps, Virtu, Xero and Zoho Invoice.

Google has also announced a new service called App Maker, for those businesses who want to quickly make a custom application to suite their needs. There is some coding that could be involved in making the app with the service, but the goal is to limit that by using a cloud-based IDE that has a number of templates built into it. It uses a drag-and-drop user interface with point-and-click data modeling to help decrease the amount of time it takes to develop your application.

They have been working with some of their larger G Suite customers and allowing them to test out App Maker for the last few months. After taking in feedback and reiterating the product, Google feels it is ready for more G Suite customers to utilize. It's not available to all G Suite customers right now though. It's included in their Early Adopter Program for G Suite Business customers. You'll have to apply to the Early Adopter Program by clicking here if you want to try it out.

Source: The Keyword

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How to use Kustom Live Wallpaper: Continuum

In this video, Marco continues his series of tutorials on how to use Kustom Live Wallpaper. Today we are going over how to load a simple two page setup.

First off, if you haven't seen the previous KLWP video, check it out here. This video goes over some of the basics of how to use the app.

We are going to be creating this setup called "Continuum" from artist Kohlewrrk.

Step 1: Download KLWP, KWGT and Nova

For this tutorial you will need the paid version of both KLWP and KWGT. You'll also want to install Nova Launcher if you haven't already.

Download KLWPDownload KWGTDownload Nova Launcher

Step 2: Nova Launcher Setup

Start with a completely blank homescreen in Nova. Long press on the homescreen and go to settings. Set your desktop grid to be a 7×5 layout. Then make sure your icons do not have any text labels. Make sure your page indicator is set to "none" so you don't get those little white dots at the bottom of your homescreen. For the dock, make sure it is enabled and your icon size is set to about 150%. Set the height padding to large, just to make sure we have enough room for everything. The last thing you'll want to do in enable "Swipe to open" in your apps & widget drawers settings.

Step 3: Settings up KLWP

Download the continuum theme here and save it somewhere on your phone.

Long press on the homescreen and select wallpapers>live wallpapers>Kustom. Go to the "Load Preset" option and choose the continuum.klwp file. Select the theme and hit save.

Step 4: Adding Kustom Widget

Download great.kwgt here.

Add a 4×1 Kustom widget to your homescreen and drag it into your dock. Adjust the width so it takes up the entire width of the screen. Now select it to bring up your options. Open the great.kwgt file and save it.

Step 5: Adding Icons

Download the Compacticons icon set here.

Now just drag the icons you want from your app drawer to your homescreen. Press and hold the icons and select icon options>edit. choose your compacticons and pick the appropriate icon from the selection. Do this for each of the icons on your homescreen.

So that's it. You have now created the continuum setup. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more KLWP video tutorials.

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Honor 8 EMUI 4.1 VS 5.0

In this video, TK gives us a comparison between two Honor 8 phones. One device is running Android 6.0 with EMUI 4.1, while the other is running Android 7.0 with EMUI 5.0. So while the Nougat firmware for the Honor 8 is still in beta, let's take a look at all the differences in the EMUI update.

Homescreen

When it comes to the homescreen, you'll notice differences in the weather widget, updated icons, and the addition of an app drawer.

Notification Shade

The old notification shade was split into two sections for notifications and shortcuts. The update has everything in one section with a new black and blue color theme. You can now use features like "quick reply" right from your notification menu.

Split-Screen

Of course, since EMUI 5.0 comes with the nougat update, you'll have the ability to run apps in split-screen mode.

Settings

A few new things have shown up in the settings menu. App twin is a feature that lets you setup multiple accounts for one app. The other cool new feature is the ability to set your preferred DPI setting right from your phone.

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Nokia-branded Android smartphones will launch in first half of 2017

Once coveted for their immaculate design and build quality, the Nokia brand has plummeted in value due to the rise in smartphones.

Struggling to compete with Apple's iPhone, Nokia was forced to decide which mobile operating system, between Android or Windows Mobile, the company would stake its life on. In a deal with Microsoft in 2011, they chose Windows Mobile 7 as their platform of choice. Unfortunately for Nokia, Windows Mobile failed to make significant ground, resulting in the ultimate demise of the company's mobile division. Nokia sold its mobile division to Microsoft in 2014, who began selling Windows Mobile smartphones without the Finnish company's branding.

While it appeared that the Nokia brand would cease to exist, a silver lining appeared amidst Microsoft's continued failure to make progress with Windows Mobile in the market. Microsoft eventually sold off its mobile phone business to a fledgling HMD Global – a Finnish company which acquired the licensing rights to the Nokia brand. HMD Global is devoted to restoring the glory of the Nokia brand in the eyes of consumers, and today the company has announced a major step forward in their plans to bring back the iconic Nokia build. Through a 10 year licensing agreement with Nokia, HMD global will begin selling Nokia-branded feature phones to be eventually followed by full-fledged Android smartphones in the first-half of 2017.

"Driven by the extremely positive reception we have received since HMD was announced earlier this year, we are excited about building the next chapter for Nokia phones. We see this as a brilliant opportunity to solve real life consumer problems and to deliver on the quality and designs that the Nokia brand has been always known for. Our talented and passionate team is uniquely placed in this modern setup to deliver our promise of reliable, beautifully crafted and fun Nokia phones for consumers across the globe."

-Arto Nummela, CEO of HMD Global

Like most other OEMs, HMD Global will not be manufacturing the smartphones themselves, rather leaving that in the hands of Foxconn. Instead, HMD Global will focus on the design and marketing of the new Nokia-branded smartphones. The company is employing many former Nokia employees as well as hand-picking some of the best designers in the industry to produce Android smartphones with quality on par with the Nokia feature phones of yesteryear. HMD Global is hoping to ride a wave of Nokia brand nostalgia when they enter the Android smartphone market. How successful HMD Global will be in its initiative can only be seen once we receive further details of their first Android smartphones, but fans of Nokia have much to look forward to.

Source: PR Newswire

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