LG G2 moves buttons to the back
In a world where most phones are copycats, LG maybe trying too hard to be different.
I'm Bridget Carey and this is your CNET Update.
LG unveiled its new G2 smartphone and it's a little unusual.
First off, it's got a 5.2-inch screen.
That's huge.
It's walking a thin line on phablet territory, but even stranger, is that the power and volume buttons are on
the back right under the camera.
And if you hold the volume down button, the camera turns on, holding the volume up button is a shortcut to the note-taking program called Quick Memo.
And if you wanna wake up the phone, but you don't wanna use the power button on the back because it's on the back, you can instead tap twice on the screen.
LG has a few other unique software features.
The G2 can automatically answer a call when the phone is raised to the person's ear.
There's also a guest mode to protect privacy by displaying only certain apps when someone
besides the phone's owner unlocks the phone.
That's for those of you worried about nosy friends.
We're seeing several Android phones pushing their unique software tricks, but the G2 also is packing in some solid hardware.
The G2 will be the first global device to include Qualcomm's highest end-chip, a quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, this phone will be globally sold and at the 4 major US carriers, but no word yet on the price or exact date for the US.
Facebook is taking another feature from Twitter.
I'm sure you're shocked.
This time, Facebook is testing trending topics, so on the top of your news feed along with birthday alerts, you'll see what topics people are buzzing about today.
The trending topics are being tested now on Facebook's mobile website, that's m.facebook.com, but it can only be seen by a select group of users.
This is Facebook's way of staying relevant as a source for checking in with breaking news or trending conversations about TV shows and memes.
And if you wanna put a new twist on your text messages,
WhatsApp now lets users post audio recordings into conversations.
WhatsApp has become a popular alternative to using traditional text messages.
The company says it processes 31 billion messages on a daily basis.
Today's app to watch is brand new.
It's called, Agogo.
And it wants to be what you listen to in the car instead of the radio.
This Agogo app will pull in different online offerings like Spotify, Rdio and NPR.
Blend it up
with local traffic reports, news stories, book excerpts, even television programming and then serve it up on one interface.
You can try it out now in a free iOS app or pull up the web version from any mobile device.
That's your tech news update and you can read up on more details at CNET.com/update.
From our studios in New York, I'm Bridget Carey.
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