Isaiah's Tech

Well, the entire Q4 roadmap for Virgin Mobile in Canada has just leaked out and sadly there isn't anything too exciting coming up for the carrier. There's the Galaxy 5 (i5500) that we heard about yesterday along with the BB Torch and the Bold 9780. The Bold 9780 should be hitting the carrier on October 21st.

On the messaging spectrum there's the Gravity 3 which sports a slide-out QWERTY keyboard; they already have the Gravity 3 so they're just launching a new colour yellow / black. The last two handsets are the LG Sway and the Flick, which are set to be basic voice phones. They sport a 2-inch display with a 1.3MP camera and a 2.4-inch display with a 2MP camera, respectively, and they'll both be available for free on a 3-year SuperTab contract.

[Mobile Syrup]

It's been over two weeks without seeing anything from LG's next Black Label handset, the BL40. Well, below is some footage of some hands-on treatment. It's kind of dumb how the video they played on the BL40 wasn't even in a 21:9 aspect ratio, it's just wasted screen. I still dislike the wide 21:9 aspect ratio - let's just keep it 16:9 for now. Just take a look at the video below, I don't want to spoil anything else for you.



[Engadget Mobile]

Well, looky here, the user agent profile for what appears to be the LG BL20. We don't know what this is at the time, but Cell Passion suspects that it could be another LG Black Label handset. There's already the LG BL40 and the less interesting LG BL42, so I guess that this could be a lower-end handset. As of right now, all that's known about this LG BL20 is that it has a 240 x 320 resolution (QVGA) display and GSM/UMTS connectivity.

[Cell Passion]

I won't spoil anything about the video for you, but this video just popped up on YouTube. In this video, the LG BL40 is confirmed to have a 4-inch HD display and you can even use an output cable to project HD video onto a TV. The price and release date still isn't mentioned.



[Engadget, Gizmodo, Phone Arena]

Nope, this is not old news. Unlike when it passed the FCC two weeks ago, the "LG BL40g" has 3G support, which is great news. Unfortunately, "Engadget is reporting that they have been told by LG that there is currently no plan to bring the "New Chocolate" to the U.S., this could be version of the BL40 that will be wearing the Telus brand while trying to dodge that cold, artic (should be arctic) Canadian air." As of right now, we still don't who will carry the "New Chocolate" but we'll just wait and see. 3G is on-board though folks.

[Phone Arena]

Well, look at that! It's the sexy LG Chocolate BL40. The 21:9 display is clearly evident, but it's looking extremely sexy. There's not really anything else to say here, so if you want to check out some more pictures then check out the link below.

[Engadget]

The LG BL40 was just handled by a Sina Corporation reporter. Lucky him. This phone looks good, but wasn't good enough to make my top 10 phone list. The 21:9 aspect ratio display is pretty awkward, but it still looks good, nonetheless.

[Engadget]

Looks like it was a bad second quarter for Verizon. Their profits dove down 21% and they have just reported that they will be laying off around 8,000 employees by the end of 2009. And that sucks. The good news is that they look like they could have a strong future. They reaffirmed that they are launching the Palm Pre in early 2010. It looks like they could be launching the Apple tablet by the end of this year / early next year too. They are going to launch the BlackBerry Storm 2 / Thunder in the near future. They could also launch the LG BL40, which will also be a great addition to their line-up. The Samsung Rogue U960, HTC XV6875 (HTC Touch Pro 2), and HTC XV6975 (HTC Touch Diamond 2) looks like it will also get launched as well. The future doesn't look so dim for Verizon - at least, for their sake, I hope.

[Boy Genius]

I'm sure you remember LG's Black Label smartphone aka the next iPhone competitor. Well, here it is. This is the next-gen LG Chocolate BL40 and there's even a video below - and it looks like it's authentic. This new LG Chocolate BL40 has a: 21:9 aspect ratio, about a 4-inch display with a 345 x 800 resolution multi-touchscreen display, a Schneider-kreuznach lens (megapixels still uknown), a Flash-based 3D UI, aGPS, WiFi, and 7.2Mbps HSDPA connectivity. The screen is also said to be scratch-proof glass and it looks about as thin as the old-school iPod Nanos.

Looks good doesn't it... hell yes! I'd definitely prefer a 16:9 aspect ratio display though, but we'll just have to see some hands-on videos in the future. The virtual QWERTY keyboard could probably be ruled out in portrait mode and it looks like it could take some getting used to in landscape mode as well. Anyways, enjoy the video below, it looks amazing so far.



[Engadget]

Some background information on the original LG Chocolate - it sold more than 21 million units worldwide. Yesterday, LG announced its iPhone competitor - the successor to the LG Chocolate - the next-gen Chocolate (no official name has been determined yet). It will be filed under LG's Black Label folder and will "showcase a highly distinctive design that takes optimal advantage of the device's features and performance." According to Tweakers.net that could possibly mean that this new LG handset could have a 800 x 345 resolution display aka 21:9. This resolution is similar to the Philips Cinema Display.

The new LG Chocolate "will be a disruptive force in conventional mobile screens." Well, what could this mean? This could be a hint towards an AMOLED touchscreen display - hopefully capacitive; maybe multitouch could also be an option - you never know. Other specs could possibly include: a 5MP camera, the Obigo Q7.3 browser, and LG's own OS.

So far, that's all LG has teased us with officially - just a picture. This handset is expected to be officially unveiled by LG next month. For more information, just click on any or all of the links below.

[Gizmodo, Unwired View, Slash Gear, Pocket-Lint]

According to LG's wireless chief, Ahn Seung-kwon, LG will be launching a handset that will "specifically target the iPhone." He didn't mention anything about the handset, except that it will launch this Fall and will be filed under their Black Label series, joining the likes of the LG Arena and Viewty.

He also mentioned that they are planning to launch a third Prada touchscreen phone and a new luxury brand. Again, he mentioned LG's plan to take over second place in the word cellphone market share by 2012. They plan to do this by launching more smartphones than usual, since that is one of their weaker points. Do you think they can do it? I think they could if they launch some powerful Android smartphones because Windows Mobile has let them down in the past.

[Electronista]