As we become more aware of the various viscera inside our gadgets, otherwise unremarkable gadgets seem suddenly… strange . Take the LG Arena Max LU9400: It’s almost definitely a feature phone, but it’s got the spec sheet of a Nexus One. The Arena Max is a 3.5-inch screen handset with all the iron you’d expect, including a Wi-Fi, GPS and a five-megapixel camera, and a little you wouldn’t, like a 1GHz Snapdragon processor—the same brain you’d find in the Nexus One, the HTC Touch HD2, and the Sony Xperia X10. In other words, it’s a monster. But if it’s anything like its predecessor —and these early shots seem to indicate that it is—it’ll be treated to (burdened by?) an in-house OS and UI, most probably LG’s flashy-but-limited S-Class experiment .

Another day, another Snapdragon handset. It’s kind of fun to consider a phone with a thousand megahertz processor common these days, isn’t it? We already knew LG’s Arena Max would have built-in WiFi , but now we can put a face to the name as well as a few other select specs. Wireless connectivity will be augmented with Bluetooth and GPS modules, which will be cozying up to a 5 megapixel camera unit at the back and a 3.5-inch touchscreen up front. The Cyon branding tells us Korea will be the inevitable first destination, though the rest of the world is expected to follow swiftly

LG’s only sold two netbooks since entering the market in 2008—that’s two models, not two units, though I wouldn’t be surprised if the sales figures aren’t too far off, considering they were pretty average. Enter the X20. Leaked via an FCC outing, the LG X20 has an Intel Atom N450 Pine Trail processor (joining HP’s Mini 210 , Toshiba’s NB300 and NB305 , MSI’s Wind U130 and U135 , and Acer’s 532h ) and runs on Windows 7. It may look small due to the pics, but the screen measures 10.1-inches supposedly, with the LCD a 1366 x 768 pixels job. Up to 2GB of RAM and a 250GB HDD, the listing claims there’s also an Intel 3150 GMA graphics card, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and 1.3-megapixel webcam—plus HSPA 3G-compatible. Due to its very-much-unconfirmed nature, there’s no further info or photos of the X20, but apparently it’ll come in five variations of the model name—in the US, it’ll be the X20, but in Canada, Europe, Australia and Asian countries it’ll have either the X200, XB200, XD200 or XV200 model name.

It may not look quite as sleek as the LG X300 netbook we spotted at CES last month (at least in these pictures), but LG’s new (and as yet unannounced) X20 model has just passed through the FCC, which likely means we’ll be hearing plenty more about it soon. Nothing too special with the specs, as you might expect, which include a 10.1-inch, 1366 x 768 display, an Atom N450 processor, 2GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, a 4-cell battery, and built-in HSPA 3G, among other standard fare. That latter detail could well indicate that this one could be headed to a certain carrier, however, especially in light of some of LG’s other recent netbooks . LG X20 netbook clears the FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Both 15 and 19-inchers have been shown off by LG, but they want to add another inch before mass-producing their OLED range this year. Next year they’ll raise the bar again with 30-inch panels, and in 2012, a 40-inch OLED. Hitting the nail on the head, LG’s VP Won Kim said: “They may be expensive, but it will be possible to buy a 40-inch class OLED TV in 2012.” When Sony’s XEL-1 went on sale, all 11-inches cost $2,500. Working by the same measurement, LG’s 40-incher should be oh, close to $10,000. A veritable bargain.

For the nitty gritty of how Nanosys’ proprietary LED backlighting technology works, check out our earlier coverage here — what you really need to know is that the company promises a significantly wider color gamut from its displays, while reducing power consumption by up to 50 percent. Quantum dot LEDs have shown their faces before, but now there’s the big hulking heft of LG Innotek — LG’s component manufacturing arm — behind what Nanosys is offering, which indicates we might actually see the release of nanotech-infused displays within the first half of this year as promised. The early focus appears to be on mobile phones, which gives us yet another next-gen feature to add to our list of requirements for our next phone . Check out the full PR after the break. Continue reading Nanosys and LG Innotek agree deal for newfangled LED-backlit displays Nanosys and LG Innotek agree deal for newfangled LED-backlit displays originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:49:00 EST

As Windows Mobile 6.5 handsets go, LG’s eXpo on AT&T is very near the cream of the crop — it’s got Snapdragon and a biometric scanner, after all — but we all know that the spec sheet doesn’t tell the whole story with this one. Really, people care about this phone because of the trick $179 pico projector that you can optionally bolt underneath. Besides being insanely cool, the concept makes sense considering the eXpo’s target demographic — business users probably want to be able to share documents and PowerPoints on the go, right? Gallery: LG eXpo Mobile Projector hands-on Continue reading LG eXpo Mobile Projector hands-on LG eXpo Mobile Projector hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .

Yet more to-ing and fro-ing about the Windows Mobile 7 launch, this time with Digitimes pointing at a Mobile World Congress announcement of an end-of-2010 launch. It’s nothing we haven’t heard before , but they’re piling up thick ‘n fast now. HTC hasn’t been too sure on whether the HD2 will be upgraded with WinMo 7, but there’s talk of a new HTC phone in town—the Obsession, or Diamond3, which Boy Genius Report believes will be offered on AT&T and T-Mobile. LG is also readying a phone for the big Microsoft push, called the Apollo—which WMPowerUser and Let’s Go Digital are claiming will have an enormous amount of spec. It’s all pretty dubious, to say the least—a WinMo phone with a 10-megapixel camera and 720p video recording

French blogger Eric from PresseCitron, currently meeting with LG at their Design Labs, tweeted that Windows Mobile 7 will be coming to LG handsets in September. The Tweets were taken down pretty quickly, but WMPoweruser captured them even quicker. Eric also tweeted that LG will be coming out with an Android 2.1 handset in April. Windows Mobile 7 will ( hopefully ) be showing its face at Mobile World Congress in Febraury. With rumors flying earlier this week that Windows Mobile 7 wouldn’t roll out until 2011, Eric’s Tweets make us optimistic that we’ll see WinMo7 on handsets by the end of the calendar year. [ WMPoweruser via Engadget ]

First LG flat-out says on public record that Windows Mobile 7 is bound for 2010 , and now we’ve gotten apparent word that the company has narrowed said release window to September of this year — at least as far as its own devices are concerned. That comes via high-profile French tech blogger Eric of Presse Citron , who while attending a LG Design Lab tweeted (both in French and immediately after in English) that LG Mobile will release a Windows Mobile 7 device in September and an Android 2.1 device in April, first in the US and then Europe just after. The tweets are now gone, but WMPoweruser managed to catch both via Google cache, while we have corroborated just the French one by similar means. So, misheard claims from the company or accidental slip-up of NDA’d secrets? MWC is starting to look more and more interesting