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With its mammoth 5-inch screen, the LG Optimus Vu is hard to miss -- and so is that Verizon logo.

According to Android Police, the "phablet" device has been spotted in the wild with Big Red's name emblazoned above the display.

In addition, the device runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich natively. This is a surprising upgrade since we nicked the Vu down a notch in our very own review because it came with Android Gingerbread out of the box.

Other than that, nothing much has changed. There are still the 8-megapixel camera in the … Read more

LG Display is under fire after it was revealed yesterday that six employees were charged with stealing technology from Samsung Display.

According to the Associated Press, six of LG Display's workers and accomplices allegedly stole OLED technology between 2010 and 2011. Samsung charges that LG Display also attempted to steal its employees for its own gain.

All told, 11 people were charged in South Korea in connection with the alleged crime, including three people working at Samsung Display.

For its part, LG Display has denied all wrongdoing and told Bloomberg in an e-mailed statement yesterday that the only information … Read more

Subscribe: RSS (SD) RSS (HD) iTunes (SD) iTunes (HD) While everyone has become distracted with storing their data in "the cloud," portable drives have been quietly evolving. Today's crop of bus-powered portable drives offer unbelievably compact designs, terrabytes of capacity, and blazing fast USB 3.0 speeds that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

The best news is that there are several great portable drive options out there under $100. CNET Senior Editor Dong Ngo has an ongoing roundup of them over on CNET's Crave blog. I asked him to rank his current … Read more

Maybe you don't care how many features a TV has. Maybe you just want to see the coolest design going. Maybe all you want is the best bang for your buck, or the best picture regardless of cost.

Lucky for you, CNET's reviews have subratings. All of our TV reviews are rated according to four criteria -- Design, Features, Picture quality, and Value -- that are weighted, sifted, and centrifuged into the overall star rating.

Unfortunately you can't sort CNET's TV reviews by subrating on the Web site yet, so in the meantime I present the four TVs that would be perched at the top of those sorted lists. Each scored the only "10" we've awarded so far this year in the subratings mentioned above; they're not perfect, but a "10" is as good as it gets. I also list runners-up and potential challengers in each subcategory.

Disagree? Sound off in comments! TL;DR? Click here!… Read more

Updated August 16, 2012: We think a matte-screen finish offers the best picture quality in rooms where you can't control ambient light.

Most TVs are fine in normal lighting situations, and some glossy screens are better than others. But if you watch TV a lot in a very bright room, or have to place the set where its screen can't avoid reflecting a window or other bright light source, you should strongly consider going to the matte.

Unfortunately, most quality TVs have glossy screens. With LG going glossy on its higher-end LED models this year, the pickings are slimmer than in 2011. Sharp is a standout, Toshiba a pleasant surprise and Samsung uses matte in its lower-end EH lineup.

New in this update is the LG PM9700, the only plasma TV with a matte screen. I also included a sixth *bonus* TV since it's too good to pass up: Vizio's excellent M3D0KD, with its "semi-gloss" screen finish that's more reflective than the others, yet not as mirrorlike as truly glossy sets.

Here they are, arranged in descending order of overall CNET rating. … Read more

LG Display agreed to pay $380 million to settle a lawsuit accusing it of conspiring to fix prices in the liquid crystal display market, the largest sum among its fellow defendants in the case.

Collectively, three companies agreed to pay $571 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that alleged LCD manufacturers colluded to drive up the price of screens used in televisions, laptops, and other electronics, according to a Reuters report. AU Optronics and Toshiba agreed to pay $170 million and $21 million, respectively, according to a plaintiffs' attorney.

A separate case involving seven other companies, including Samsung, Sharp, and … Read more

Subscribe: RSS (SD) RSS (HD) iTunes (SD) iTunes (HD) There's never been a better time to buy an Android smartphone. Device manufacturers such as Samsung, HTC, LG, and Motorola are at the top of their game, pushing the limits of screen quality, battery life, and design.

CNET always keeps an up-to-date list of the best Android smartphones, and it's a list that sees a lot of turnover. But as smartphone manufacturers gear up for their iPhone 5 retaliation this fall, I figured it would be a good time to take a snapshot of the best Android smartphones for … Read more

It happened a little later than the rumors predicted, but Sony has indeed gone shopping for a cloud gaming service. With its purchase of Gaikai, announced this morning, Sony has potentially disrupted the nascent cloud gaming market, and also added an interesting wrinkle to its own competitive fortunes across platforms.

A few thoughts on how this acquisition will affect the various players.

OnLive The other, arguably better-known cloud gaming service, OnLive was another rumored Sony target. Presumably Sony's done cloud shopping, but other suitors, namely Microsoft, could still be interested.

17 months ago, VentureBeat reported analyst valuations around $1.… Read more

It seemed like not so long ago, we were trying to wrap our heads around the Samsung Galaxy Note and its whopping 5.3-inch screen. Now it looks like LG has provided its own answer to the phone-tablet hybrid with the LG Optimus Vu.

The Vu's screen is slightly smaller at a perfect 5 inches, but its svelte frame is more squarish and the display has an odd 4:3 aspect ratio. The device also comes with a hefty stylus, called a Rubberdium pen, that's sturdy and feels similar to a real pen.

Though I like its decent 8-megapixel camera and crisp display, the Vu isn't without its drawbacks. This includes its outdated Android Gingerbread OS and its nearly $900 price tag. For the full review, read more here.… Read more