Welcome to Thursday evening everyone. Today Google settled its antitrust case with the FTC, avoiding fines in return for agreeing to license its standard-essential patents and removing advertising limits. The BlackBerry Z10 has leaked for Verizon and AT&T, while the ZTE P945 phablet has been revealed in leaked renders. Samsung has confirmed its oft-rumored Tizen handsets for 2013, with ASUS announcing a Leap Motion partnership today that will bring gesture controls to its PCs.
RIM and T-Mobile have announced the BlackBerry Curve 9315, and new rumors are saying that the LG Optimus G2 might get a reveal at CES 2013. Facebook has added free Voice Messaging and limited VoIP to its Messenger app, and GameStick reached its Kickstarter goal today, just one day after launching the campaign. The ASUS ME301T 10-inch tablet leaked today, complete with a Tegra-3 processor and Jelly Bean, while Corning announced that it will be debuting Gorilla Glass 3 at CES 2013.
It looks like Pebble will be hosting a CES event of its own, and Archos has announced TV Connect, which turns any HDTV into a smart Android TV. comScore’s market share results for November 2012 are here, with Samsung, Google, and Apple at the top, and we learned today that Angry Birds was downloaded 8 million times on Christmas Day. Chicago has agreed to a new deal with Microsoft for city-wide cloud service, and Samsung has announced the NX300 mirrorless camera.
We found out that Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition was downloaded 5 million times in 2012, while one analyst is saying that the Wii U underperformed at GameStop during the holiday season. Sony has a patent application on the books for technology that would allow it to block access to used games on its future consoles, and Samsung has delivered a patch for the Exynos security hole that is present in Galaxy S III handsets. Finally tonight, we have reviews of the HTC One VX and the EliteBook Folio 9470m ultrabook for you to check out, while Chris Davies tells us why he thought Apple would jump on Leap Motion first instead of ASUS. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the rest of your night folks!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
The benefits of having a phone outfitted with Corning Gorilla Glass are already well known, but the company is about to kick it up a notch with a new iteration of the tough-as-nails glass. That’s right – Corning has an all new version of Gorilla Glass ready for the new year, and it will be making its debut at CES 2013. As you might imagine, Gorilla Glass 3 offers a number of improvements over its predecessor, with Corning boasting some particularly impressive statistics to CNET.
Gorilla Glass 3 is not only the thinnest iteration yet, but it’s also Corning’s most durable. Of course, it isn’t going to do much if your device takes a spill onto a hard surface like concrete, but it’ll do quite a bit to keep your display scratch-free. That’s especially handy considering that scratches inevitably happen with everyday use, so if Gorilla Glass 3 can cut down on the frequency of those scratches even more than Gorilla Glass 2 did, then we have a lot to look forward to.
One benefit of making the glass thinner is that your display will be sharper, which is always welcome. Corning says that it has improved Gorilla Glass on a molecular level, improvements which the company is calling Native Damage Resistance. With everything tallied up, Corning says that Gorilla Glass 3 will be three times stronger than Gorilla Glass 2, 40% better at preventing scratches and hiding the ones that do show up on your screen, and 50% stronger once the display becomes flawed. That’s especially important, since deep scratches can lead to shattering later on.
Unfortunately, we won’t be seeing devices outfitted with Gorilla Glass 3 for a little while. Corning says that there won’t be any Gorilla Glass 3 devices available to check out at CES 2013, and they actually won’t begin popping until a couple of months after the show wraps. We’ll see if we can’t spend a little time with Gorilla Glass 3 at CES, but in the meantime, be sure to check out our hands-on with Gorilla Glass 2 for a bit of a refresher.
Corning has made it known that next week, the company will tell us all about its latest ultra tough gadget glass. Details about Gorilla Glass 3 are scant right now, but here’s what we do know: It’ll be tough stuff. More »
Thunderbolt enthusiasts have only been able to rely on the use of copper core cables — which offer significant limitations on distance — for their data transfer needs, but hope is close at hand. This afternoon, Corning announced that it’s launching optical cables with Thunderbolt connectivity. The new cables are just as durable as copper and are up to ten times longer (they come in lengths of 10, 20 and 30 meters, while copper only goes up to three). Just like copper, the optical cables offer high-speed data transfers up to 10Gbps, though they lack the ability to provide power to your devices. If Thunderbolt isn’t your thing, don’t fret: Corning plans to offer a set with USB3 connectivity as well. We haven’t been given any pricing yet, but both sets of cables should be available sometime in Q1.
The difference between the Google Play Nexus 4 and the T-Mobile Nexus 4 is neither in the hardware nor in the software, but in the cost and agreement you’ll be making with T-Mobile – but that doesn’t mean we can’t give some more time to Google’s own smartphone hero for Android 4.2 Jelly Bean – for science! First be sure to take a peek at our original full Nexus 4 review as done by our own Vincent Nguyen, then have another dive in with the slight differences between it and the T-Mobile edition – must be something for the massive difference in price, right?
Hardware
I had major reservations about the LG Nexus 4 after having experienced the strangely slippery hardware of the LG Optimus G (see our full review here). I’m not talking about any sort of slipperiness in an ephemeral sense – I mean the plastic and glass that makes up the bulk of the device is literally slick. As it turns out here with the LG Nexus 4 though, any little bit of grip friendliness lost is more than made up for by the fabulously well-crafted curved edges of the front-facing panel.
Both the front and back panels on this device are made of Corning Gorilla Glass 2, the newest in undeniably tough glass action from the biggest name in reinforced glass panels for mobile devices today. Under the back panel you’ll find the same Crystal Reflection pattern that the LG Optimus G has, many different squares of reflective material creating an ever-changing pattern of light and dark. The name “NEXUS” sits on the back in big clear letters so you know what you’re using, too.
The display on this device is a lovely 768 x 1280 pixels across 4.7-inches of IPS PLUS LCD. That’s 320 PPI, just above Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus at 316 PPI (PenTile* in that case), and the Nexus S which was all the way back at 235 PPI. For comparison purposes: the iPhone 5 (and 4/4S) sit at 326 PPI and the highest sharpness on the market today exists on the HTC DROID DNA at a massive 440 PPI (across 5-inches of display, no less).
The Nexus 4′s display is as bright, sharp, and vibrant as your eyes can handle – so says DisplayMate. Touch sensitivity on this display has been nothing less than top-notch, and viewing angles are essentially perfect. This device works with an RGB subpixel arrangement rather than the PenTile we’ve seen on several recent device including the Galaxy Nexus. LG’s choice here means that that any pixelation you might have noticed in the Galaxy Nexus is gone here and the display experience is easily one of the best you’ll find on any smartphone or tablet out today.
This device also works with not just wireless mirroring in the near future with Miracast, but SlimPort as well. With SlimPort accessories you’ll be able to mirror your display via full-sized HDMI while your device charges at the same time – quite similar to what the HDMI converter accessories for MHL-compatible devices do. Here though you’ve got compatibility with HDMI, VGA, DVI, and DisplayPort too – though just the HDMI accessory exists at the moment.
Also note that the Miracast standard wireless technology exists on several devices at the moment, also including the Samsung Galaxy S III. You wont find so much as a peep from this technology in the Nexus 4 at the moment, though – we must assume that it’ll show itself once more accessories working with the Miracast standard hit the market. It is strange that Google would market the device as having said abilities without them being utilized right out of the box – isn’t it? Have a peek at a column by the name of Miracast Accessories: don’t jump in head first just yet for more information on the future of this technology – the imminent future, that is.
Camera
The camera is a vast improvement over the Samsung Galaxy Nexus’ clunky 5-megapixel shooter, and not just because you’ve got a few more megapixels to toss around here. It would appear that LG, Qualcomm, and Google have come together to create a camera experience here that’s sharp and clear. It’s not perfect, and we’re not quite ready to say it beats out the Samsung Galaxy S III, Nokia Lumia 920, or iPhone 5, but it’s certainly a contender.
The panorama mode as well as Photo Sphere create images that are impressive to behold, but again, are not perfect. While the stitching of images together to create a whole are rarely done without error, the final product is almost always worth keeping. Have a peek at a couple of Photo Spheres in action in the following: [Mall Parking Lot], [Gas Station], [Arcade] – each are posted to Google+ in full-on exploration mode so you can see them in their natural state. Google cross-promotes their social network and the software here as Android 4.2 Jelly Bean+ will bring on this Sphere ability to all devices that run with it from that point onward – fun stuff!
Initial Cost and Data Plans
Once again, let’s not forget that you literally get the same device from T-Mobile that you’d get from Google here, packaging and all. That said, the off-contract price for the T-Mobile-sold Nexus 4 is up at $499, that being approximately $150 more than the off-contract model you can buy from Google Play. Considering the fact that the Google Play online store is completely sold out of the device right now, with a 4 week wait (for some) before device delivery, you might want to drop that $150 to get it sooner.
The device is available from T-Mobile attached to a 2-year contract for $199.99 (this being that $150 less than the Google Play $349.99 price), which you might as well go for if you’re planning on working with T-Mobile one way or another. T-Mobile has a large collection of monthly plans for data, text, and talk, with the largest being a lovely $124.99 per month for unlimited action for all services with 10GB of data working at full speed (with throttling after that). This plan also includes hotspot abilities so you can share data from your smartphone to your other devices as well as 10GB of cloud storage.
Though T-Mobile does have several unlimited data plans, its worth mentioning that you will be “throttled” after the specified amount of data is used each month. Throttling data speed means you’ve got significantly slower data delivery than, in this case, T-Mobile’s 4G HSPA+ network normally delivers. You’ve also got a $79.99 per month plan that includes unlimited data, text, and talk, this time with 2GB of high-speed data before throttling.
Wrap-up
The LG Nexus 4 is just as awesome a Nexus device as any that’ve come before it. Google continues to bring forth stronger and stronger devices, amalgamations of power here in addition to standardization for developers. With this generation comes one of the most powerful processors on the planet along with one of the strongest cameras on the market and a rather top-tier experience for not just the expert Android user, but the average smartphone lover as well.
The only thing you’ll want to keep your eye on is the fact that this device does not work with 4G LTE – if you need data speed in a mobile way, this isn’t your best bet – not yet, anyway. If you’re in the shade of the great wi-fi gods on the regular: no worries. Outside of data speed, this is easily one of the most fabulous smartphones on the market today.
As some of you guys know by now, Corning’s Gorilla Glass has been used in many of mobile devices, with some manufacturers using it as a means of marketing just how tough and high quality are the materials used, but have you ever wondered just how many devices out there actually use Gorilla Glass? Well in their quarterly earnings release, Corning has revealed that there are over 1 billion devices worldwide that currently employ the use of their Gorilla Glass. This includes major manufacturers such as Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, HTC, LG, Lenovo, Nokia and Sony, with Gorilla Glass itself being responsible for $363 million in revenues for the company in Q3 of 2012 alone! Pretty impressive we reckon. So what’s next for Corning? It’s none other than the Willow Glass, an ultra-thin and bendy glass display that could make its way into our foldable/bendable smartphones/tablets in the future!
Give yourself a pat on the back, because you’ve officially made it through Wednesday – only two more days to go and the weekend is here again. We had a lot of news hit today, so let’s jump right in. Today we may have seen some leaked press shots of the LG Nexus 4, but then sadly found out that they might be fake. The Galaxy Note II is now available for order at T-Mobile, but it’s a bit on the expensive side when compared to a certain other carrier, and new Apple documents have revealed that Samsung is the focus of a 3G patent antitrust investigation here in the US.
Many of us dread the moment when we might scratch our smartphone screens. That’s why a lot of people protect them with cases or maybe even just a simple screen protector. However, the advancement of glass technology has improved over the years, and Corning is just one manufacturer that’s making an impact. The company’s tough-as-nails Gorilla Glass has been installed on over 1 billion devices so far.
Corning released their Q3 2012 earnings today, and along with the earnings, they touted that over 1 billion (with a “B”) devices are equipped with Corning’s toughened Gorilla Glass. Furthermore, 33 major brands are using Gorilla Glass on at least one of its products, and 500 individual models of devices are equipped with the glass technology.
The trend of toughened glass isn’t only spreading on smartphones, but tablets, laptops, and even televisions are equipped with Gorilla Glass. These are fairly impressive numbers, and they should continue to rise as the popularity of scratch-resistant and toughened glass rises. It may even become the standard one day.
As far as sales figures, Corning earned a revenue of $2.04 billion during Q3, which is up 7% from last quarter, but down 2% from last year. The company ended up with a net income of $521 million, up from $462 million last quarter. However, it’s 36% down from last year, which saw a net income of $811 million.
You could argue that toughened glass is the cornerstone of the modern mobile industry: without the knowledge that our touchscreen phones and tablets could survive the everyday risks of scratches and minor drops, many of us would be terrified of leaving home with a glass-covered mobile device in our hands. Corning now has evidence to prove just how important that silicate can be. In addition to the mostly upbeat third quarter fiscal results you’ll find after the break, the firm brags to us that more than one billion devices have shipped with some variant of Gorilla Glass in place, spread across 33 major brands and 500 individual models that are occasionally very immobile. We can’t give Corning all the credit when alternatives like Dragontrail exist, but numbers like these make it hard to dispute that millions of gadgets have been spared an untimely end (or a flimsy plastic display) by some clever primate chemistry.
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As some of you guys know by now, Corning’s Gorilla Glass has been used in many of mobile devices, with some manufacturers using it as a means of marketing just how tough and high quality are the materials used, but have you ever wondered just how many devices out there actually use Gorilla Glass? Well in their 
