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Nexus 4 shortage? It's LG's fault, Google exec says

Google's Nexus 4 has been out of stock since shortly after it went on sale last month, and now one company executive is pinning the blame on the phone's supplier.

Addressing a barrage of questions about the Nexus 4 via Google+, the company's managing director for the U.K. and Ireland, Dan Cobley, served up an apology and an explanation.

"Dear all, I know that what you are going through is unacceptable, and we are all working through the nights and weekends to resolve this issue," Cobley wrote. "Supplies from the manufacturer are scarce … Read more

Crave giveaway: Sprint LG Optimus G smartphone

Congrats to Oliver M. of Anaheim, Calif., for winning a copy of Symantec's Norton 360 Multi-Device security suite in last week's giveaway. Now, for this week's prize... Is your smartphone starting to look (and act) a bit shabby? You're in luck! We're offering up a free LG Optimus G from Sprint (please note: you'll be responsible for your own voice and data plan; Sprint includes an unlimited data plan among its choices).

CNET reviewers love this quad-core Android smartphone, calling it "undoubtedly the best phone LG has ever offered." In particular, they're fond of the phone's zippy Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor, attractively bright 4.7-inch display, and 13-megapixel camera. The device is also 4G LTE-enabled. … Read more

Jury sides with Apple, LG in Alcatel-Lucent patent suit

Neither Apple nor fellow defendant LG Electronics infringed on patents held by Alcatel-Lucent, a Southern California jury said today.

A jury in a federal court in San Diego reached its decision following a two-week patent trial, Bloomberg notes.

Multimedia Patent Trust, a subsidiary of Alcatel-Lucent, sued the two companies in December 2010 for alleged infringement on three of its patents covering video technology. The matter went to trial late last month.

The lawsuit targeted Apple's portable iOS devices like the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, along with computers such as MacBooks and iMacs -- effectively, anything that included Apple'… Read more

Quad-core smartphone shootout

Until now, smartphones with quad-core processors used to be just a twinkle in the eye of wistful Android addicts and gadget gurus. Either that or they remained exotic pieces of futuristic hardware reserved for foreigners. Quad-core handsets are now starting to arrive in force. The question is: which device packs the biggest CPU wallop? This chart lays it all out with deeper analysis below.

Phone HTC One X+ LG Nexus 4 LG Optimus G HTC Droid DNA Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Processor 1.7GHz quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 1.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro 1.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon … Read more

LG: Nexus 4 supplies beset by 'huge demand'

Struggling to get your hands on the elusive Nexus 4 smartphone? LG says that's because it's so popular, citing "huge demand" when CNET UK asked about the phone's gloomy supply situation.

The LG-built Nexus 4 went on sale in mid-November, but sold out in half an hour. It was briefly back in stock last Tuesday, but by the next morning the 8GB version was already out of stock again. I contacted LG with a few inventory-related questions.

When asked whether LG knows why Google is running out of Nexus 4 stock, Andy Coughlin, the head … Read more

Nexus 4 to be back in stock today in U.K., Germany

Brits and Germans will soon be able to get their hands on an LG Nexus 4 smartphone, with Google releasing more inventory in its Google Play store today.

Users on Reddit posted information and shared images of notices from Google that said they'd be able to order the phone today. And sure enough, Google Play showed the devices were in stock at about 5 p.m. GMT today, or 9 a.m. PT, just as the notice promised.

According to Google's U.K. site, the 8GB version of the phone will ship to buyers in four to five … Read more

LG said to be switching to its own smartphone chip designs

Joining the battle to control as much of the production process as possible, LG has reportedly begun designing its own processors.

The South Korean electronics maker plans to unveil in-house designed mobile processors at the Consumer Electronics Show next month, according to the Korea Times. The company reportedly has more than 900 chip designers working on chips to be used in smartphones and Web-connected televisions.

LG is making the switch as part of Chief Executive Koo Bon-joon's focus on increased "independence and dignity," the newspaper reported. CNET has contacted LG for comment and will update this report … Read more

Smartphones with unusual features (roundup)

These days, almost every smartphone contains the same bag of tricks, with little to differentiate handsets, apart from the hardware and maybe some software extras.

Sure, one might have a better camera, more external or internal storage, and other specs that help us tell one phone from another. But on the whole, you can access e-mail, text messages, and social networks from them all, share photos and videos, surf the Internet, and install any number of apps.

This kind of uniformity is actually good news, since it means that even midrange smartphones can be just as capable as high-end products, even if they have a smaller screen or shorter battery life, for instance. Of course, there are some smartphones that stand out from the crowd for a certain physical or software feature. In no particular order, here's the current crop of unique handsets that have me looking twice.… Read more

Apple, LG head into patent trial with Alcatel-Lucent unit

A California jury must once again decide whether Apple is infringing another company's patents.

Apple, along with fellow defendant LG Electronics, begin a trial today with Multimedia Patent Trust in a San Diego, Calif., court.

Multimedia Patent Trust, a subsidiary of Alcatel-Lucent, sued the two companies in December 2010 for alleged infringement on three of its patents covering video technology.

The lawsuit targets both Apple's portable iOS devices like the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, along with computers such as MacBooks and iMacs -- effectively, anything that includes Apple's QuickTime video technology. For LG, it's nine … Read more

LG Nexus 4 (sort of) has 4G LTE

In the best example of things being taken, then given, only to be then taken away again, it was recently discovered that the massively popular LG Nexus 4 houses an LTE modem that works... sort of.

The revelation began over at iFixit, which posted a teardown of the Nexus 4 last week. Front images of the motherboard showed a Qualcomm WTR1605L Seven-Band 4G LTE chip. That's right, a 4G LTE chip.

When asked about this, LG crushed all fantastical dreams of a firmware-enabled LTE upgrade to the ground and told TechRadar that despite the given chipset, the device isn'… Read more