Talk, tap, tell time with LG devices

LG has unveiled its G3 phone, G Pad 10.1 tablet and G Watch in Australia as it tinkers with TV screens that roll up like a window blind.

LG G Watch

AS LG starts selling its new G3 phone, G Pad 10.1 tablet and G Watch in Australia, overseas it is tinkering with TV screens that roll up like a window blind.

Vision has appeared on the Korean language YouTube account “LG Display” showing off the bending and flexing display, along with a second video that demonstrates a transparent TV screen that has the potential to be mounted on say, a window, a glass panel between rooms, or in shopping centres.

Market researchers such as Gartner predict a limited future for more inflexible curved TVs. It says the current style of curved TVs will account for no more than 5 per cent of worldwide production by 2020.

But Gartner predicts a bright future for flexible displays that roll up like old-fashioned projector screens -- like the one shown in this video -- or attach to your arm.

“Invest now in resources to develop rollable displays as these represent the next step in the TV’s evolution into a multipurpose display for living rooms and elsewhere in the home,’’ London-based Gartner analyst Paul O’Donovan said.

In Australia meanwhile, the Korean manufacturer has a trio of mobile products coming onto the market. One is its much anticipated new premium smartphone, the G3, which is designed to take the fight up to Samsung’s Galaxy S5.

It features a very high resolution QHD with 3.6 million pixels (534 pixels per inch), along with features such as a 3000 milliampere hour removable battery and microSD card for augmenting internal memory by 128 Gigabytes, in an attractive metallic case. It sells from August 4.

LG today detailed the availability of its G Watch smartwatch in Australia, which will pair with other brand’s Android phones provided they have Bluetooth 4 and are running Android 4.3 or later.

You can wear the watch in the shower; it’s waterproof to 1 metre, and LG says its 400 mAH battery will provide about two days use before a recharge is needed.

To reduce the effort in keeping the watch up-and-running, LG offers a charging dock. The watch can be charged on the dock that could be placed on a bedside table.

The G Watch uses a virtually unmodified version Google’s new Android Ware operating system so it offers a Google experience rather than a tweaked LG one.

As well as displaying notifications from your smartphone, you can search by voice and be told of all types of events in your day using the Google Now cards system.

The watch displays the time constantly so there’s no need to press a button to see it. Moving your arm will brighten the display.

The G Watch is selling in Australia for $249 plus freight from the Google Play store, or for $259 from retailers Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi and Dick Smith, as well as through Telstra and Optus. Vodafone will throw in the G Watch for free for the first 1000 customers who buy the G3 smartphone.

LG also is offering a budget tablet with a 10.1-inch display, the LG G Pad 10.1. It runs using the Android KitKat 10.1 operating system, and has several new features such as QPair20 -- the tablet will mirror notifications from a Bluetooth connected Android smartphone (of various brands).

You can’t take calls on the tablet but you can reject them and reply with a message. It has a dual screen feature -- you can open two apps on the desktop side-by-side, but this feature is limited to 10 or so apps.

A “knock code” lets up to four family members unlock the tablet with their own code, and each family member can be allowed or disallowed access to certain chosen apps.

The G Pad 10.1 will be available from August for $399 from Harvey Norman, The Good Guys and Bing Lee. A protective smart case costs $69 extra. The G Pad 10.1 comes in black, but LG says Harvey Norman will exclusively sell a red version of the tablet.