LG To Introduce The LG G3 Smartphone Come May 27

LG on Tuesday confirmed that the LG G3 will launch earlier than anticipated this year, saying in its Q1 2014 earnings report that the new high-end smartphone will help the company boost its Q2 numbers. In a following interview with reporters in South Korea, LG further acknowledged that the company will launch the handset by the end of May. A day later, LG has officially announced a special media event scheduled for May 27, when it’ll likely unveil the handset, possibly alongside its first Android Wear smartwatch.

LG’s France-based arm confirmed on Tuesday that the already official G Watch will launch in June in the country, selling for €199.

The invitation has a short message, a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, teasing new G-branded products without specifically naming the G3 or the G Watch. “To be simple is to be Great” the quote says, with the G clearly highlighted.

The fact that LG already confirmed the name and launch date for the G3 is a clear indication the May 27 event will be mostly about LG’s future flagship handset. Furthermore, the fact that the company will host the event in six cities simultaneously, including San Francisco, New York and London, suggests it has big plans for the immediate future.

The G3 will likely be one of the most important Galaxy S5 rivals, with recent leaks claiming the phone will have at least one better feature than Samsung’s top 2014 handset, a high-resolution 2K display. Furthermore, The Verge speculates that the event invite seems to indicate the G3 may have a metal case, which would be another major selling point for the handset – the invitation’s message appears to be written on a dark brushed aluminum surface.

Home Quote Of The Day

“Where we love is home,
Home that the feet may leave,
but not our hearts.” 
― Oliver Wendell Holmes

Fabulous interior decors...... color they say bring life to whatever its applied to so how bout a little colour to your home to lighten up the whole place?

Home Quote Of The Day

Life takes us to unexpected places but love brings us back home.

Gogo; AT&T To Build a Better In-Flight WiFi

AT&T and Honeywell International are teaming up to offer high-speed, in-flight Internet in the United States, the companies said on Monday, challenging industry leader Gogo.

Gogo’s shares fell 14 percent in after-hours trading following the announcement of the new service, expected by late 2015. It will use an AT&T 4G LTE network and Honeywell systems and hardware to supply broadband service to business, commercial, and general aviation passengers, as well as to airlines seeking more connectivity onboard planes.

Honeywell said the deal could provide it with $1 billion in revenue over the next decade. AT&T declined to estimate potential revenue from the agreement.

The two companies have signed a letter of intent and expect to sign a formal contract shortly, Honeywell said.

Gogo currently provides similar cellular network-based technology, known as air-to-ground, that is in use on about 80 percent of wired commercial aircraft in the United States, including Delta Air Lines and the newly merged American Airlines.

After Gogo’s shares fell sharply, Chief Executive Mike Small said in an interview: “I think it went the wrong direction.” He noted that Gogo pioneered the air-to-ground system over the past 20 years.

“We have a great business, and everybody wants in,” he said.

Gogo recently announced a satellite-based system that offers connectivity over water and uses a dual antenna capable of providing speeds of up to 70 megabits per second, compared with its current air-to-ground service speed of 9.8 Mbps in the U.S.

Honeywell said the AT&T system would have greater speed and bandwidth than existing systems, but it did not provide approximate data speeds for the 4G system.

AT&T said airborne WiFi fits its strategy of adding connectivity to a wide range of applications, from cars to automation in homes. The company has about 116 million subscribers in the United States.

The AT&T-Honeywell deal comes as a number of in-flight Internet options are being rolled out, many based on Ka band or Ku band satellite spectrum. The systems promise faster speeds and wider application at lower cost. But they also have made it difficult for airlines to choose among competing technologies, and the cost of equipping a fleet can run hundreds of millions of dollars.

Better connectivity would allow more communication with pilots and crew members and the plane’s diagnostic systems, providing real-time weather tracking and status reports on aircraft parts. With improved and less costly connectivity, a plane could send more alerts about parts that might be close to failure, enabling ground crews to have spares ready when the aircraft lands.

Greater connectivity also would help in tracking jets that is a priority as the search continues for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which vanished from radar screens on March 8 with 239 people aboard. The wreckage has still not been located.

Here's The New MacBook Air; Lower Price

The Air just got a little refresher. 

On Tuesday morning, Apple announced a new version of its MacBook Air, its slim, lightweight, oft-imitated laptop computer. The new MacBook Air looks the same as last year’s model, but Apple has upgraded the computer’s processor, making it speedier at things like multitasking, and also taken $100 off the starting price.

The design, weight, and screen sizes and quality remain the same. What Apple has improved here are the guts of the computer, improving its zip and likely its battery life, too. Last year’s MacBook Airs, which launched in June, started with Intel dual-core 1.3 GHz processors; this year’s MacBook Airs will come with newer Intel dual-core 1.4 GHz processors.

That means better speed. The cheapest MacBook Air configuration, for a laptop with an 11-inch display, costs $899, down from $999 a year ago. A new MacBook Air with a 13-inch display starts at $999, also down $100 from a year ago.

Though Apple’s super-skinny laptop was one of a kind when it debuted in 2008, similarly lightweight, slim models from Windows manufacturers like Samsung and Asus have been challenging the Air as of late. Many of these models are cheaper than the Air and offer similar processing power and lightness. But none of those myriad Windows “ultrabooks,” as they are called, has caught on like the Air has.

For the gear-heads, tech specs are available at Apple’s website. The new MacBook Air is available now on Apple.com and in Apple Stores. 

Steps To Tracking A Lost Or Stolen Phone

Last week, a group of wireless carriers unanimously agreed to include anti-theft tools in their mobile devices as a way to prevent the increasing trend of smartphone theft.  

Under the voluntary commitment, companies including Apple, AT&T, Samsung, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, and Verizon Wireless have all pledged to include free “kill switch” tools on every smartphone sold in the United States after July 2015. The kill switch will let owners shut down their phones from afar after they’ve been taken from them.

That’s a step in the right direction. But you don’t have to wait until next summer to enable security tools on your beloved smartphone. Manufacturers have provided device-tracking apps for years now, and there are a variety of services that will help wipe a smartphone’s data or prevent reactivation if a phone is lost or stolen.

Here’s a brief guide to ensure that your phone — and all the data on it — is as safe as can be.

AndroidPhones running Google’s Android operating system come with their own location-tracking technology. Here’s how to enable it:

1. Tap the Apps icon. 

2. Find and open Google Settings.

3. Select Location.

4. Check the box under the header Access location. If you haven’t synced your Google account with your phone, you’ll have to do that.

5. Once you’ve gone through those steps, you’ll have to visit the Android Device Manager website and accept Google’s terms (which are displayed below and somewhat unsettling!).

6. From there, you’ll need to select Setup Lock & Erase.

7. A box will pop up that asks to message a notification to your phone. Click Send.

8. Tap the notification on your phone.

9. You’ll be brought to a page that details the functions of this feature. Once you select Activate, you’ll be able to remotely wipe your phone’s data, change the screen unlock password, and lock the screen.

Mission accomplished! Now feel free to go leave your phone at your favorite local coffee shop. (Please don’t.)

iOSAnyone with an Apple device is automatically gifted an app called Find My iPhone/iPad/iPod. It’s introduced to you when you first set up your device. Perhaps you’ve already enabled it. If not, here’s a brief guide to doing so:

1. If you haven’t created an iCloud account, do that. This is how Apple will store your data and access it remotely. Note that you can track more than one device in the Find My iPhone app as long as you use the same iCloud account for each.

2. Ensure that your device is running at least iOS 5. Ideally you’d be running iOS 7, because that version offers more security features.

3. Go to Settings.

4. Go to iCloud. If you’re asked to sign in, enter your Apple ID.

5. Scroll down until you see Find My iPhone, and swipe the toggle to turn it on. When a confirmation message pops up, tap Allow.

If you lose your phone, you’ll be able to see its latest location on a map at this website. You’ll also be able to make it play a sound, put it into “lost mode” (which locks the screen with a message of your choice), or wipe the phone altogether.

Once, I watched my iPhone travel around Manhattan in a cab for a day (a map of its journey is below). I added a lock screen with an alternate number and frantically made it beep over and over again until it died. The driver saw my information, called me, and returned my phone. 

WindowsThose of you with Windows Phones have a built-in app called Find My Phone to help you track your device. You’ll need to make sure you have a Microsoft account before you enable it. Then …

1. On your desktop, go to windowsphone.com. Sign in with the same account you use to sign in with on your phone.

2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, hover your mouse over the phone to bring up a drop-down menu, and then click Find My Phone.

3. From there, you’ll be able to see your phone’s location on a map, make it ring, lock it, and erase all its data.

4. If you’d like to adjust this feature’s settings, you’ll need to access the Find My Phone app on your phone via your App list.

5. From there, tap the Settings square  and then select Find My Phone.

6. You’ll be offered two options: Send apps to my phone using push notifications (not SMS) and Save my phone’s location periodically and before the battery runs out to make it easier to find. I’d recommend enabling both of these. The first because, as a default, the Find My Phone services texts commands to your phone. Switching that to push notifications will be cheaper, faster, and less limiting. The second will automatically store your phone’s location every couple of hours in case its battery dies while it’s lost. This can be a life-saver, because batteries die a lot.

BlackBerryAll BlackBerry 10 phones have a tracking feature called BlackBerry Protect built into them. If you’re running an earlier operating system, you can download the free BlackBerry Protect app here. Just like all the other operating systems, you’ll need to have a special BlackBerry log-in to link your phone.

1. To add a device that’s running BlackBerry 10 OS to your Protectaccount, swipe down from the top of the home screen.

2. Tap Settings → Protect.

3. Turn on BlackBerry Protect.

4. From there, you’ll be able to see the current location of your precious phone on a map, make the device ring, add a message on your home screen, lock your phone and reset its password, and wipe your device altogether.

And that, my dear readers, is how you avoid losing your trusty phone sidekick — or, at least, how you can locate it once you do. Godspeed.