Hasta La Gadget!

Earlier in the month, we brought you word that South Korea, LG’s home country, will be offering the LG G Pad 8.3 on October 14th, with the rest of the world to follow shortly after that. I guess LG made good on their promise with folks over in the US being able to enjoy the LG G Pad 8.3 now, as this tablet will run on the Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean operating system.

What are some of the features of this particular tablet? For starters, as its name suggests, it will arrive with an 8.3” IPS display that will boast of a 1080p Full HD resolution (1920×1200) at 273 ppi pixel density. The processor which will power this puppy happens to be a 1.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600, where it will be ably aided by 2GB RAM, 16GB of internal memory which can be further expanded using a microSD memory card slot. Of course, with a screen arriving in that size, it will need a reasonable battery to go along with it, too, which is why LG packed in a 4,600-mAh battery.

Apart from that, it will arrive with a 5-megapixel camera at the back and comes with a slew of software features to get you started right out of the box. The LG G Pad 8.3 will retail for $349.99 a pop if you’re interested. [Press Release]

LG G Pad 8.3 Hits The US At Last original content from Ubergizmo.

LG is following Samsung’s example in providing a curved glass smartphone that makes no earthly sense, HTC is offering a fingerprint scanner that no one needs executed poorly, and Mad Catz is entering the crowded Android console space – for which there is no proven demand.

The Android world has gone mad this week, and me and your host Chris Velazco are just trying to put the pieces back together. Join us as we try to divine the twisted psyche of the people who created these unnatural devices.

We invite you to enjoy weekly Android podcasts every Wednesday (or Thursday this week) at 5:30 p.m. Eastern and 2:30 p.m. Pacific, in addition to our weekly Gadgets podcast at 3 p.m. Eastern and noon Pacific on Fridays. Subscribe to the TechCrunch Droidcast in iTunes, too, if that’s your fancy.

Intro music by Kris Keyser.

Direct download available here.

And the seemingly age-old war between LG and Samsung continues. This time the battle is centered around curved displays on smartphones — Samsung has already shown its hand with the curious Galaxy Round, and now some newly disseminated images seem to indicate that LG is going to return fire in short order. Earlier this evening a handful of press renders obtained by Engadget (and later by The Next Web) showed off what appeared to be LG’s forthcoming G Flex smartphone… and the pronounced dip that marks its slim midsection.

This is no mere blatant knockoff of the Galaxy Round, though. In a bid to outdo its rival, LG has apparently decided to pull out all the stops and develop a device that curves the opposite way — that is, the curve runs across the device’s waist. Engadget also reports that the G Flex will sport a hefty 6-inch display (a hair larger than the Galaxy Round’s screen), but other than that the G Flex seems to stick to the same sort of spartan design language that prominently marks so many other recent LG devices. That curve looks rather familiar though — it’s almost a bit Galaxy Nexus-y, a bit of ironic design minutia that probably didn’t escape LG’s design team.

At this point there’s no firm word on what other components are nestled inside that slim frame, or what sort of software LG has cooked up to try and take advantage of that curvy screen. For now we’ll have just to debate the merits of the whole curved display craze as a whole, and I’m not convinced just yet. As visually alluring as these things can be, I can’t shake the feeling that this first batch of curvaceous smartphones is nothing more than a pissing match between two companies that have been jostling to out-innovate each other for decades.

That said I have to wonder if Samsung’s approach to design isn’t the smarter one here. Say what you will about the Galaxy Round (I still think it’s pure gimmickry masquerading as a game-changer), but it’s going to slide in and out of a pocket with ease. The G Flex is ostensibly meant to better fit the contours of a user’s face much like the Galaxy Nexus did, but that big ol’ screen may make that proposition a hairier one than LG had hoped. Either way, we’ll find out the truth soon enough — the G Flex is reportedly set to make its debut some time next month. And then, hopefully sooner rather than later, we’ll discover whether or not this whole “curve-fuffle” will have the sort of impact on the industry that both Samsung and LG clearly hope it will.

If Samsung wasn’t the first to bring a flexible piece of display technology to market, you’d better believe it was going to be LG. Today several renders of the LG G Flex have appeared via an anonymous source speaking with Engadget this evening with little information other than a suggestion of its specifications. It’s quite […]

This morning a lovely piece of video has surfaced showing the LG-made Nexus 5 from all angles, complete with an early version of KitKat called Key Lime Pie. This device appears to be working with KitKat, but as you’ll find in the menu pull-down the user attains right off the bat, he’ll be heading down […]