LG notches 10M worldwide sales of LTE-enabled smartphones

LG Electronics announced today it has sold more than 10 million LTE-capable smartphones worldwide as the company grapples with dwindling market share.

The milestone comes a little more than six months after the company announced it had surpassed 5 million sales of LTE-enabled phones.

"Aggressive pushing forward with 4G LTE technology allows LG satisfy the needs of consumers and is a huge factor in our growing success in global LTE smartphone sales," LG CEO Jong-seok Park said in statement. "Having established ourselves as a major industry player, we will continue to expand our footprint in the global LTE market with a wider range of differentiated, high quality LTE smartphones."

LG said it hopes to double its LTE smartphone presence in 2013 as LTE smartphone shipment growth is expected to triple. Strategy Analytics said in December that its research indicated global LTE smartphone shipments would hit 275 million this year.

The company attributed its explosive growth in the segment to its expansion last year into markets such as the United States, Japan, Germany, and South Korea. Recent rollouts of the LG Optimus G in more than 50 additional countries also contributed to the milestone.

As impressive as the sales figure is, LG continues to lose ground in the LTE market, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. In the third quarter of 2012, LG's market share fell to 9 percent from 15 percent in the previous quarter. Samsung remained the market leader even though its share fell from 51 percent to 40 percent. Apple brought in 26.7 percent for second place.

The announcement comes on the heels of LG's overhaul of its
Android product line at the Mobile World Congress last month in Barcelona, Spain. LG says it is targeting the spectrum of LTE customers, with its G series for deep-pocketed early adopters, the F series with the mission of "4G LTE for everyone," the lower-end L series, and the Vu
tablets.

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Crave Ep. 111: Man vs. jetpack

Man vs. jetpack, Ep: 111

Subscribe to Crave:

iTunes (HD) | iTunes (SD) | iTunes (HQ)

RSS (HD) | RSS (SD) | RSS (HQ)

A German inventor has built a DIY jetpack, so we hop onboard. Also, we get a first look at "Star Wars" pinball for iOS and
Android, and "Star Trek" fans win a major space battle when they vote to name a Pluto moon "Vulcan." All that and more on this week's episode of Crave.

Crave stories:

- Google Nexus fired into space to see if screams are audible

- Myo gesture-control armband uses muscle power

- Star Wars Pinball coming tomorrow to Android, iOS (video)

- Get a ball's-eye view with camera in football

- Trekkies conquer contest to name Pluto moons

- Inventor gets off the ground with homemade jetpack

- First-person Mario video will blow your mind

- Crave giveaway: Two leather iPad cases from Kavaj

Social networking:

- Stephen on Twitter

- Stephen on Google+

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Crave giveaway: Two leather iPad cases from Kavaj

Congrats to Gene W. of Highlands, Texas, for winning a Kanex Sydnee four-port recharging station in last week's giveaway. Is your iPad in need of a new outfit? This week's prize is for you.

We're giving away two sleek
iPad cases from Kavaj, a purveyor of leather gadget jackets started by two former employees of Amazon in Germany. The winner gets one Berlin case in black that fits the
iPad 2,
iPad 3, and iPad 4, and one Berlin case in brown for the iPad Mini. Both slender, supple jackets boast a classic minimalist style and can be reconfigured into two positions -- slightly angled up for interaction, and standing for movies and presentations.

They also have magnetic closures that maintain the iPad's sleep and wake functionality when the case is closed and opened.

Normally, these two cases would cost you $95, but you have the chance to get them for free. How do you go about doing that? There are a few rules, so please read carefully.

• Register as a CNET user. Go to the top of this page and hit the Join CNET link to start the registration process. If you're already registered, there's no need to register again.


• Leave a comment below. You can leave whatever comment you want. If it's funny or insightful, it won't help you win, but we're trying to have fun here, so anything entertaining is appreciated.


• Leave only one comment. You may enter for this specific giveaway only once. If you enter more than one comment, you will be automatically disqualified.
  


• The winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive two (2) Kavaj iPad cases, with a retail value of $95.


• If you are chosen, you will be notified via e-mail. The winner must respond within three days of the end of the sweepstakes. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.


• Entries can be submitted until Monday, March 4, at 12 p.m. ET.

And here's the disclaimer that our legal department said we had to include (sorry for the caps, but rules are rules):

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. YOU HAVE NOT YET WON. MUST BE LEGAL RESIDENT OF ONE OF THE 50 UNITED STATES OR D.C., 18 YEARS OLD OR AGE OF MAJORITY, WHICHEVER IS OLDER IN YOUR STATE OF RESIDENCE AT DATE OF ENTRY INTO SWEEPSTAKES. VOID IN PUERTO RICO, ALL U.S. TERRITORIES AND POSSESSIONS, AND WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. Sweepstakes ends at 12 p.m. ET on Monday, March 4, 2013. See official rules for details.

Good luck.

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Viddy doubles length of clips, adds video enhancement tools

Viddy's new iOS app interface.

(Credit:
Viddy)

Social video startup video has released a new iOS app with a bevy of new features to help users enhance the videos they produce and stave off Twitter's upstart video-sharing app Vine.

Debuting this evening in Apple's App Store, the new app doubles the size of videos users can upload from 15 seconds to 30 seconds, as well as adding the Vine-like ability to pause recording to splice together segments into a single clip. The app also adds 15 new video filters, licensed music tracks from popular artists that can be added to videos, and stop-motion functionality that adjusts video frame rates.

Viddy, which is sometimes referred to as the Instagram of video, also social discovery tools to help users find and share videos that are important to them. The update adds a section with curated video categories and trending topics. A geo-centric feed spotlights videos from specific regions, while another feed focuses on user interests and preferences.

In another Twitter-like feature, Viddy will add a verified user program for celebrities, public figures, and company brands.

The new video comes in the wake of corporate upheaval at the Venice, Calif.-based startup. The company, which claims 40 million users, revealed earlier this week that it had laid off a dozen employees, or about a third of its work force. The cuts came less than a month after the firing of co-founder and CEO Brett O'Brien, who was rumored to have turned down a buyout offer from Twitter, which ended up buying Vine and launching its app last month.

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Why you should wait for the Samsung Galaxy S4

It was only about nine months ago that Samsung introduced its flagship Galaxy S3 to the world.

There's no question the device set a new standard for the high-end
Android smartphone. It has also been one of Samsung's hottest selling smartphones. And now it looks like Samsung is about to do it again with the
Galaxy S4, set for introduction March 14.

So what is a smartphone shopper to do? In this edition of Ask Maggie, I explain why, even if you still want to get the Samsung S3, it's still better to wait for the launch of the Galaxy S4. I also help another reader make sure her older Android device is really connecting to Wi-Fi instead of eating up her expensive data plan.

Buy the Samsung Galaxy S3 or wait for the Galaxy S4?

Dear Maggie,
I just realized I am eligible for a new two-year contract on AT&T. I have been considering getting a new Samsung Galaxy S3. But now I am wondering if I should just wait for the Samsung Galaxy S4. Are there any discounts on the Galaxy S3 now? Will there be discounts on that phone if I wait? Or will the new Galaxy S4 be so much better, I'll just want that one?

Thanks
Andrew

Dear Andrew,
The short answer to your question is to simply wait. If you aren't in dire need of a new smartphone right now, you should wait just a little while longer. This week Samsung sent out invitations to an event in New York City on March 14 where it will debut the new Galaxy S4. The device won't likely go on sale until April, but considering, it's already the end of February, that isn't too long to wait.

It's hard to say how the new Galaxy S4 will stack up against the Galaxy S3 since specifications haven't been released. But there have been plenty of rumors swirling around that give us an idea of what is likely coming. And there is no question that the Galaxy S4 will be an improvement over the S3.

For example, the Galaxy S4 is rumored to have an eight-core Exynos processor, a separate eight-core graphics processing unit, a 4.99-inch SuperAmoled display, 2GB of RAM, a 13-megapixel rear camera with 1080p video capability, a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, and the latest version of Android, known as 4.2.2 Jelly Bean.

My colleague Roger Cheng, who was in Barcelona, Spain, this week for Mobile World Congress, talked to Samsung execs there who said that the new Galaxy S4 may also sport Samsung's new security software, Knox.

These specs are an improvement over the Galaxy S3, which has a 4.8-inch screen and a 1.4GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM and an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera.

This doesn't mean that you should not consider the Galaxy S3. In fact, regardless of what new specs for the new Galaxy S4 are, the Galaxy S3 is still a very good smartphone. And if you are on a budget, the Galaxy S3 could be a great fit for you.

That said, I still think you need to wait until the Galaxy S4 is closer to its launch or until after it launches. Why wait? That's when you are likely to see the best deals on the older Galaxy S3.

Right now, you can get discounts on the Galaxy S3 if you are willing to switch wireless providers. On Amazon Wireless, you can get the the S3 for $79.99 from AT&T if you're a new subscriber. Existing AT&T subscribers, such as yourself, can still get a discount, but it's not as big. Existing AT&T customers can get the Galaxy S3 for $129.99 with a two-year contract if the device is bought through Amazon.

Samsung's Galaxy S3 helped Android win more sales in the U.S.

(Credit:
Josh Miller/CNET)

Also on Amazon, Verizon is offering the brown version of the Galaxy S3 for $49.99. It's $149.99 for existing Verizon customers through the Amazon site.

But the best deal by far is from Sprint, which is offering the Galaxy S3 for 1 cent to new subscribers via Amazon. (Keep in mind these deals do not apply if you buy the device directly from the wireless carrier's store or Web site.)

My guess is that prices will continue to drop as the release of the Galaxy S4 approaches. And even after the new phone is on the market, you can bet that carriers are going to look for ways to get rid of their existing Galaxy S3 inventory. Who knows, the carriers may even offer the Galaxy S3 free even to existing customers renewing contracts. Carriers also like offer two-for-one deals too. So there is a chance that the Galaxy S3 could be used in one of those promotions.

The bottom line is that even if you are not sure whether you will buy the Samsung Galaxy S4 or the Galaxy S3, you should still wait. That way you will either get the newest flagship Samsung Android smartphone on the market or you'll get the best deal possible on the slightly older version of the product. Either way, it's a win-win for you.

I hope this answered your question. And good luck!

Help! I don't know if I'm really using Wi-Fi on my smartphone!

Dear Maggie,
I have been reading some of your answers to folks about smartphones and data usage. I don't use a cell phone much except for emergencies, so I bought an AT&T GoPhone plan ($100 per year at 25 cents a minute.) I love technology (a bit like the aunt you mentioned in one of your recent columns) so I recently purchased an AT&T Fusion GoPhone. My minutes roll over so I had about $220 in my account. We have Wi-Fi available in our home, so I thought I could simply utilize that. I did sign-up for a small data plan after I used over $100 of my minutes to download a few things on my phone. Sad to say, I do not understand data vs. Wi-Fi on my phone. I was able to use my old SIM card on my new phone, but you mentioned something about turning off the data on a phone and using your WiFi instead. How does one do that? Seemingly, having downloaded a couple of games and a document or two to my phone, I can use those without incurring any charges. Then I got a charge of over $30 for something I did (I downloaded a ringtone and a
Kindle app), and I am not sure why. Any help you might have would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Sherry

Dear Sherry,
I'm sorry that this is confusing for you. But believe me when I say that you are not alone. I think there are a lot of people out there who get confused about this. Let's see if I can help.

The AT&T Fusion GoPhone is an Android smartphone. It uses an older version of the Google Android OS, known as Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

The first thing you need to make sure Wi-Fi is turned on. Here's how you do that.

• Press Home key
• Press Menu button
• Touch settings
• Touch Wireless networks> Wi-Fi
• Check the Wi-Fi box to turn on Wi-Fi
• Touch a network to connect to that network

If you have secured your home Wi-Fi network, you will be asked to log-in to your network using your username and password. From this time forward, you should always connect to your home Wi-Fi network every time you enter it. You shouldn't have to go into settings and connect to this network. It should do it automatically after the first time.

But since you aren't certain that you are connecting, before you download something, you may want to double check you're connected to Wi-Fi. You can do this by repeating these steps to make sure that you're connected.

There is a chance that your home Wi-Fi network isn't working properly. For example, the wireless router may be operating, but the connection to your wired broadband connection to your house may be having problems. So if you're having trouble connecting to the home Wi-Fi network, I would check your connection to your broadband service.

Another way to check whether you are on Wi-Fi is to look at the Wi-Fi icon in the top right of your screen. If you see the symbol lit up, you are connected to a Wi-Fi network. And all data should be transmitting over Wi-Fi. But if you see a question mark through the Wi-Fi signal, you are not connected and when you download stuff it will go over the carrier data network.

If you really aren't sure about whether you're on Wi-Fi, you can go into the settings of your phone and put the phone into Airplane mode. This will turn off the cellular radio on your phone. You won't be able to receive or make phone calls over the AT&T network when this radio is turned off. But you can leave Wi-Fi on in the airplane setting, which will allow you to connect to your home Wi-Fi network. There should be no question at all if you are in airplane which network you are using since the carrier data network is turned off.

If you do this and are still getting charged for data, then you may want to into an AT&T store and ask the salesperson to help you. There is a chance that you may have some apps running in the background of your phone that are downloading things when you're not in Wi-Fi. Hopefully, a store rep can help you sort this out. Otherwise, it may be a problem with your phone. And the store rep should be able to help you with that or at least credit your account.

I hope this answer was helpful. And good luck!

Ask Maggie is an advice column that answers readers' wireless and broadband questions. The column now appears twice a week on CNET offering readers a double dosage of Ask Maggie's advice. If you have a question, I'd love to hear from you. Please send me an e-mail at maggie dot reardon at cbs dot com. And please put "Ask Maggie" in the subject header. You can also follow me on Facebook on my Ask Maggie page.

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Trendnet's first 802.11ac router now shipping

Trendnet AC1750 Dual Band Wireless Router, model TEW-812DRU

(Credit:
Dong Ngo/CNET)

Power users now have another option for their home Wi-Fi networks.

Trendnet announced today the availability of the AC1750 Dual Band Wireless Router (model TEW-812DRU). This router was first showcased at CES 2013 and is the first from Trendnet to support the new 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard.

The TEW-812DRU router is a true dual-band router that offers a maximum wireless speed of up to 450Mbps on the 2.4GHz frequency band, while at the same time offering up to 1,300Gbps speed on the 5GHz band. To take advantage of the new and much faster speed, the wireless clients also need to support 802.11ac. Nonetheless, the new router works with all existing Wi-Fi clients on the market, at the speed of their respective Wi-Fi standards.

In addition, the AC1750 supports Gigabit Ethernet, guest network, and WPS, and a network storage feature when coupled with an external hard drive.>

The AC1750 Dual Band Wireless Router is now available for purchase at a suggested price of $230. Check back soon for an in-depth review.

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What mattered as MWC begins

Mobile World Congress 2013 officially kicks off today in sunny Spain, but a whole bunch of goodies were unveiled yesterday by the likes of Samsung, Huawei, HP and Mozilla.

Samsung got the fiesta off to a flying start by lifting the lid on the Galaxy Note 8, an
Android tablet to rival Apple's iPad mini. It'll launch with Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean on board and proudly packs a 1.6GHz quad-core chip with 2GB of RAM.

With an SD card slot, a home button, and S-Pen stylus support, the Note 8 offers a level of functionality the iPad can't match, but it's too early to say whether that will guarantee it fame and glory. Expect this tiny
tablet to appear worldwide sometime in the second quarter of 2013.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 adds new features to its 8-inch design

Tech journalists woke from their early afternoon siesta to discover that Huawei had decided to test their post-nap wits by announcing its only device of the trade show before its scheduled press conference. The Ascend P2 is a quad-core phone with a Full HD 4.3-inch display. Huawei claims it's speedier than the iPhone 5 and packs a better battery than the Samsung Galaxy S3.

The P2 runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean will only be available online in the US, rather than through carriers, but is expected to go on sale more widely in Europe. It should be available in the middle of 2013 for around 399 euros or $525. With this kind of high-end pricing, it looks as though Huawei is attempting to try and take on the Android big guns. It's even promised another phone in the summer that will be "much more competitive and very disruptive". Menacing.

Huawei's Ascend P2 shows off its Android styling in hands-on video

The Alcatel One Touch Fire is the first device to ignite with
Firefox OS on board. The chunky 3.5-inch phone comes splattered in Firefox's signature orange and is likely aimed at the budget end of the smartphone market, with only a single-core 1GHz processor and a 3.2-megapixel camera on board. Expect to see this flame-colored phone out and about in the wild no earlier than June.

Alcatel has a Firefox OS phone!

In the spirit of 'if at first you don't succeed...' HP announced it was trying its hand once more in the consumer tablet market, this time picking Android as its OS of choice. The Slate 7 is a 7-inch Google Nexus 7 challenger running 4.1 Jelly Bean. It's priced at a keen $169.

HP also announced that it will be releasing a series of Android smartphones in the near future.

Don't forget we're out in Barcelona all week, bringing you previews, hands-on photos and videos, not to mention live blogs from all the major press conferences. Nokia has jump-started day two already with an early press conference, and you can join us later today at 4.30 a.m. PT (1.30 p.m. local time) to discover what Asus' 'Metallic Miracle' teaser trailer was all about, and at 7 a.m. PT (4 p.m. local time) to find out what ZTE is launching.

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Nokia at MWC 2013: Join us Sunday (live blog)

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop's keynote address at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, last year.

(Credit:
Roger Cheng/CNET)

BARCELONA, Spain--Will Nokia unleash another Lumia smartphone?

Nokia kicks off the first official day of Mobile World Congress with its press conference, and you can get all the news right here.

Rather than a high-end superphone, Nokia is expected to unveil a line of more budget-friendly phones in a bid to go after the mass market. That could mean a lower-end Lumia device, as well phones from its Asha line of ultra-low-end phones.

CNET UK's Luke Westaway, photographer Sarah Tew, and I will be bringing you all the details, photos, and commentary from the event. The event kicks off at 11:30 p.m. PT on Sunday, or 8:30 a.m. Monday in local Barcelona time.

You can tune into the live blog here:

Nokia's Mobile World Congress press conference

Nokia, like many cellphone makers, is on the road to recovery, and it's still unclear where the company is headed. Its line of Lumia smartphones has won critical praise, but it doesn't yet have a blockbuster hit like Apple's iPhone or the Galaxy S from Samsung.

Still, the company has made steady progress expanding its distribution. In the U.S., it just got back into the game with Verizon with the Lumia 620, and CEO Stephen Elop has hinted at a potential flagship down the line.

We'll see if Nokia can keep up its momentum with whatever new products it launches tomorrow.

As usual, we'll be using ScribbleLive to bring you live text and photos, blow by blow. We'll start the live blog about 15 minutes before Nokia officially kicks off its event.

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Crave Ep. 110: Prevent a hangover with the worlds first 'sober pill'?

Prevent a hangover with the worlds first 'sober pill'? Ep 110

Subscribe to Crave:

iTunes (HD) | iTunes (SD) | iTunes (HQ)

RSS (HD) | RSS (SD) | RSS (HQ)

Cheers! Scientists have created what may be the world's first pill that can make you sober if you've gone a little too far with the booze. Russian meteorite fragments go up for sale on online, as do Milla Jovovich's shorts. And later this year a man will have surgery to attach a bionic hand that can feel touch sensations.

Crave stories:

- Russian meteorite fragments pop up for sale online

- Amazon opens celebrity memorabilia store

- Nanotech 'sober pill' could one day de-drunk you

- This sheet turns your windows into mirrors

- Man to get first bionic hand that can 'feel'

- Sony PS4 event skewered in animated parody

- Crave giveaway! Kanex Sydnee four-port recharging station

Social networking:

- Stephen on Twitter

- Stephen on Google+

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Crave giveaway: Kanex Sydnee four-port recharging station

Congrats to Johnal L. of Costa Mesa, Calif., for winning a pair of Aperio Audio Verus Forte speakers in last week's giveaway. This week's prize is sure to get the winner all charged up.

We're giving away a Kanex Sydnee recharging station, which charges up to four iOS devices at once through its four 2.1-amp USB ports. It works with all iPhones and iPads, and would be quite happy in any iFriendly home, office, or classroom looking to keep its gear organized and powered up.

A side view.

(Credit:
Kanex)

The unit plugs into a wall socket and comes with three USB cables so you can start multi-charging right out of the box. While the Sydnee's marketed as a charging station for iDevices, it'll work with just about any USB-powered device.

Normally, a Kanex Sydnee would cost you $149, but you have the chance to score one for free. How do you go about doing that? Well, like this:

• Register as a CNET user. Go to the top of this page and hit the Join CNET link to start the registration process. If you're already registered, there's no need to register again.


• Leave a comment below. You can leave whatever comment you want. If it's funny or insightful, it won't help you win, but we're trying to have fun here, so anything entertaining is appreciated.


• Leave only one comment. You may enter for this specific giveaway only once. If you enter more than one comment, you will be automatically disqualified.
  


• The winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive one (1) Kanex Sydnee, with a retail value of $149.


• If you are chosen, you will be notified via e-mail. The winner must respond within three days of the end of the sweepstakes. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.


• Entries can be submitted until Monday, February 25, at 12 p.m. ET.

And here's the disclaimer that our legal department said we had to include (sorry for the caps, but rules are rules):

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. YOU HAVE NOT YET WON. MUST BE LEGAL RESIDENT OF ONE OF THE 50 UNITED STATES OR D.C., 18 YEARS OLD OR AGE OF MAJORITY, WHICHEVER IS OLDER IN YOUR STATE OF RESIDENCE AT DATE OF ENTRY INTO SWEEPSTAKES. VOID IN PUERTO RICO, ALL U.S. TERRITORIES AND POSSESSIONS, AND WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. Sweepstakes ends at 12 p.m. ET on Monday, February 25, 2013. See official rules for details.

Good luck.

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Social pollution masks? Winning wearable tech ideas

The Tree Voice concept lets anyone walk up and interact with a tree and get updates on the local environment.

(Credit:
Frog Design)

While anyone could dream up a spinning virtual GPS globe constantly updated with a slideshow of global Flickr photos emanating from a hat, competitors in Frog Design's contest for new wearable technology concepts had to keep their designs within the realm of feasibility.

The key requirement that keeps all the designs within reason is that they have to be able to come to market within three years. That doesn't necessarily mean they will come to market, but at least there's a chance.

The global design firm ran its internal competition for new wearable technology concepts last year and just unveiled the results (PDF). They include some fun and fascinating ideas that explore everything from communing with trees through technology to an urban compass that leads you into discovering unexpected parts of a city.

The eight winners came from around the world. There's Mnemo, an interactive friendship bracelet from Amsterdam that records times, locations, people, media, and music to create a record of an event. These digital memories can be shared with friends and combined into a collective memory, all wearable on a bracelet.

The Tree Voice concept hails from Austin, Texas. It involves attaching a display to a tree. The display communicates data gathered from sensors to share information on pollution, noise, and temperature levels. Anyone can walk up and interact with the tree and get updates on the local environment.

My personal favorite of the top eight designs is the CompassGo from Milan. It's a round device that fits in the palm of your hand. You tell it what you're interested in (like boutique shopping, history, independent restaurants, or culture) and it leads you through a city with visual cues. There's no guidebook to shackle you down, you just follow and discover the lesser-known parts of a city. It could add a real spark of adventure for tourists.

The other top designs include an interactive tool for the blind to navigate their environments, a device that harnesses the energy of physical movement, a wristband that helps wearers navigate the New York subway system, a pollution mask that monitors and shares air quality information, and a maker kit to get girls into creating their own wearable technology.

With so much attention being paid to smartwatches, it's encouraging to see designers branching out with creative ideas in other wearable spaces. Knowing that all these designers believe their concepts could be made real within just a few years, we may soon be welcoming some of them into the world. I, for one, can't wait to get my CompassGo.

HelloWorld is a wearable tech creation kit geared for preteen girls.

(Credit:
Frog)

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Google debuts event page for Academy Awards ceremony

Google's Academy Awards destination page.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Steven Musil/CNET)

Google is rolling out the red carpet for the Academy Awards with a destination site that promises to help users "get more from the Oscars."

In a partnership with Oscars organizers, the Web giant has created a resource page to keep movie fans engaged and informed in the days leading up to the awards ceremony on Sunday. While Google has created event-specific sites before, such as its election hub last year, this is the first time it has focused on the Oscars.

In honor of its Oscars debut, Google is making sure it gets as many of its own products play supporting roles, including YouTube, Google Play, Knowledge Graph, Maps and even Google+ Hangouts.

In addition to the standard list of nominees for every category, the page includes projections on who the winner will be based on the search popularity of nominees. A YouTube video takes users through a visual rewind of 2012 on the silver screen (see below), while Google Play offers a chance to catch up with some of movies and other related media, including an app offering nominee information and movie trailers.

Need information on how to dress for the red carpet, an Oscars ballot, or real-time mobile information on the awards? Google promises to deliver the best performance in those roles as well.

However, some features didn't seem ready for their close-up. A map purporting to hold information about actor birthplaces and movie filming locations didn't seem to be functioning, while another map of the ceremony location was said to be "coming soon."

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Microsoft moves Outlook.com out of preview

Microsoft announced Tuesday that its Outlook.com browser-based e-mail service has moved out of its preview stage and is now available globally.

First introduced last July, Outlook.com is Microsoft's boldest e-mail move since Google launched Gmail in 2004 and a clear answer to it. As I said in my First Take, the simple interface, Skydrive integration, and promise of mega storage will remind you of Google's product while the People Hub and vaguely Windows 8 look and feel give Outlook.com a distinct identity.

Microsoft designed Outlook.com to replace its Hotmail product, which it acquired in 1997, and the general availability marks the start of that process. The Hotmail name won't disappear entirely, but Outlook.com will become Microsoft's sole free consumer e-mail offering.

In a phone interview last week, Senior Director of Product Management Dharmesh Mehta said existing Hotmail users can switch over at anytime. You'll be able to keep using your "@Hotmail" address and you'll have the option to claim an "@Outlook.com" alias, as well.

Users who don't switch over on their own will be upgraded in waves to the new product automatically starting this week. Mehta said that the process should finish by the summer, though he declined to name an exact date.

Microsoft also announced that in the six months since Outlook.com debut, the service has attracted to 60 million users. And in an effort to attract more, Mehta said that the company is launching its largest marketing ever for an e-mail service.

Outlook.com's minimalist interface is both familiar and unique.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Kent German/CNET)

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LG's 5.5-inch Optimus G Pro to reach U.S. in Q2

LG Optimus G Pro

(Credit:
LG Electronics)

After some earlier teasing, LG Electronics fully detailed its Optimus G Pro Android phone today, a high-end model with 5.5-inch screen, LTE networking, and a quad-core 1.7GHz processor.

LG often sells its phones first in its home market of South Korea, and it looks like that's the plan for the Optimus G Pro, too. But it'll arrive in other areas, too, including North America and Japan in the second quarter of 2013, LG said in an announcement a week ahead of the Mobile World Congress show. That's where the South Korean company will show off the phone and announced three lower-end L-series Android phones, the Optimus L7 II, L5 II, and L3 II.

The Optimus G Pro is a large-screen model that
Android smartphone makers such as HTC and Samsung have embraced in an effort to differentiate products from the smaller iPhone. The Optimus Pro G has a 5.5-inch, 1920x1080-pixel AMOLED screen with a linear resolution of 400 pixels per inch.

Combined with its relatively large 3,140mAh battery, that means people can watch Full HD video "for hours on end," LG said.

The processor is the quad-core 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600, and the phone comes with 2GB of RAM. The phone itself measure 150.2x76.1x9.4mm

The camera has a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera with an LED flash and a 2.1MP front-facing camera. A feature called VR Panorama will construct 360-degree panoramas out of an array of horizontal and vertical views around the person holding the phone.

Both of the phones' cameras can be used in a dual-recording mode that "allows users to capture video with both the front and rear cameras simultaneously for a unique picture-in-picture experience," LG said.

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Russian meteorite: The conspiracy theories

A strange time for a military attack?

(Credit:
CNN; screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

A good hearty conspiracy theory can shine a sharp light on two of humanity's most enduring traits.

One, of course, is humanity's boundless imagination. The other is humanity's essential suspicion of humanity.

So while you might be deeply immersed in Bill Nye's explanation of the Russian meteorite, those with darker sensibilities have filled the Web with their fears and hauntings about the phenomenon.

There are few nations with greater awareness of dark sensibilities than Russia. The fact that there seems to be little evidence of meteorite fragments on the ground has encouraged some Russians to offer their own suspicions.

As the Toronto Globe and Mail reports, nationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky hasn't been slow to offer something of a Hot War perspective.

"It's not meteors falling. It's a new weapon being tested by the Americans," he was quoted as saying.

We know from our recent experience of North Korea that weapons testing is an imprecise science.

But if you were an American in the mood to test a weapon, would Chelyabinsk, Russia, be your very first choice of place for the experiment?

Perhaps Tallahassee; Area 51; and Bialystok, Poland, were all unavailable due to prior commitments. Or perhaps it wasn't the Americans, but, say, the North Koreans, who mistook Chelyabinsk for, say, Chelsea.

Zhirinovsky's rather emotionally manipulative offering was countered by Russia's Emergency Ministry, which dedicated itself to an extensive rebuttal of his belief (and that of others) that this was some sort of military thing. The rebuttal? "Rubbish."

But that wasn't going to put off the local media, was it? Not only do they have papers to sell, they also have theories to expound to a troubled nation and world.

So, as The Atlantic reports, the local Znak newspaper accepted that this was a meteorite but insisted the explosion was caused by military defense blowing it up.

More Technically Incorrect

Yes, of course it has a source in the military. You thought it didn't?

Though I've watched a few movies in which exciting things happen, I don't find it easy to imagine that some sort of terrestrially created missile-laden aircraft could really explode a meteorite in such a manner.

It is easier to imagine, though, that politicians like Zhirinovsky might take the opportunity to foment a little rage.

Indeed, Alex Jones' infamously well-guarded Infowars site offered that Zhirinovsky insisted that America -- in the person of Secretary of State John Kerry -- had tried to give Russia advance notice of its "attack."

The Drudge Report led me to a piece at Foreign Policy that explained that Sergey Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, simply hadn't called Kerry back.

Which all suggests that Russia isn't, after all, living in fear of an attack from the U.S. Especially one over Chelyabinsk.

On balance, I prefer to currently believe Nye. He is the science guy, after all. And science guys know scientific events when they see them.

I hope.

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Q&A: MacFixIt Answers

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which I answer Mac-related questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week, readers wrote in with questions on how to read older AppleWorks documents in newer versions of OS X, how to get files to all open in a specific application, recovering a
Mac Mini's files from a system that will not boot, and whether or not cleaning utilities are useful. I welcome views from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, please post them in the comments!

Question: Managing old AppleWorks documents
MacFixIt reader Don asks:

I have dozens of AppleWorks Draw program documents, ".cwk". How can I convert them? I was hoping Pages would work, but apparently not.

Answer:
Unfortunately, Apple removed support for these older formats, so your best bet is to get access to an older Mac on which you can run AppleWorks (you should be able to do this in
OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard) and then use that to convert the older documents to a more universal file format that can be opened in Pages, Word, or another word processor.

If your Mac was able to run Snow Leopard at one point and you have the installation discs available, then one option is to install Snow Leopard on an external hard drive and then boot off of that to run AppleWorks and convert your documents.

Question: Setting a default application for a file type
MacFixIt reader "tytwins" asks:

I am trying to get all .jpg files to open with Photoshop by default. I go through the Get Info window to make this change, and it sticks until I shut the computer down or restart it. Short of reinstalling the OS, is there a way to fix this behavior so that it works properly?

Answer:
Try using Get Info and selecting the desired application, and then click the Change All button below the menu where you selected the application. If this does not work then it indicates a problem with the system's launch services. Try running the commands I mention in this article to clear this and rebuild it to hopefully fix the problem. Then again try clicking the Change All button to assign the file to your application of choice.

Question: Recovering a Mac Mini's files if it cannot be repaired
MacFixIt reader Burneto asks:

My Mac Mini is dead. I think it overheated. Is it worth fixing? Can I recover disk contents?

Answer:
It may be simply a matter of a dead power supply, which can be fixed easily; however, I am not certain of the costs. If it will not power up then you will need to take it in for a repair estimate, and if you find it not worth fixing after getting repair quotes, then you can still recover the disk's contents by removing it (check out the how-to guides at iFixit) and then using an external drive enclosure to attach the drive to another system, which should allow it to be read like any standard USB or FireWire drive.

Question: Whether or not cleaning utilities are useful
MacFixIt reader Michael asks:

I have been around the Apple Support Forums a long time as a user and throughout my membership, I have heard arguments for and against using cleaning utilities such as OnyX on your Mac. The claim against the utilities is that they obstruct the OS in normally taking care of old caches and hidden maintenance routines, which may lead to problems in the future. Another opposing viewpoint is that Macs simply behave differently from Windows PCs when it comes to cleaning, and ... that these cleaning utilities are more for the world of Windows than in a Mac.

As a result of this confusion, I was wondering what your take is on this topic and whether it is necessary or not to use cleaning apps such as OnyX (or even MacKeeper) on your Mac. All I can say is that I personally use OnyX for Internet cache cleaning and nothing else.

Answer:
My stance on these utilities is they should only be used when needed. Often they offer scheduling options for cleaning numerous features all at once, but if your system is running fine then there is no need to periodically run them. If you find slowdowns in the system, then some of the routines these programs have can be beneficial.

Ultimately they should only target temporary files and so should not harm anything; however, as with any program there is the chance that a bug or two could cause problems. This is why it's best to leave well enough alone. However, the clearing of caches and the running of other maintenance scripts will not hurt the system as some have claimed.

The Windows registry has been a source of problems with performance in some situations, which is why some folks have assumed these programs are necessary on that platform. However, even the "need" for these is often questionable.

I keep OnyX on my systems as well, but do not have it configured to automatically clean or run on a schedule.

---

Questions? Comments? Have a fix? Post them below or !
Be sure to check us out on Twitter and the CNET Mac forums.

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Crave giveaway: Aperion Audio Verus Forte speakers

Congrats to Michal H. of West Lafayette, Ind., for winning a copy of Nuance Dragon Dictate for
Mac 3 in last week's giveaway. Now, get ready to pump up the volume. This week we're giving away a pair of satellite speakers from Aperion Audio.

Aperion -- whose home theater speakers have been called "spectacular" by CNET contributor and Audiophiliac Steve Guttenberg -- went petite with its Verus Forte speakers. Intended for small spaces, they measure 9 inches by 5 inches wide by 5.7 inches deep and weigh 6.5 pounds.

The callout feature on these stylish speakers is Aperion's PhaseSync driver, which takes advantage of the company's own patent-pending radiator tweeter design. Combined with an integrated woofer, it all adds up to a big, detailed sound from a compact speaker that can be used for a basic stereo setup or as a satellite for your home theater system.

Normally, two Aperion Audio Verus Forte speakers would run you $450, but we're giving them away for free. How do you go about winning them? There are a few rules, so please read carefully.

• Register as a CNET user. Go to the top of this page and hit the Join CNET link to start the registration process. If you're already registered, there's no need to register again.


• Leave a comment below. You can leave whatever comment you want. If it's funny or insightful, it won't help you win, but we're trying to have fun here, so anything entertaining is appreciated.


• Leave only one comment. You may enter for this specific giveaway only once. If you enter more than one comment, you will be automatically disqualified.
  


• The winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive one (1) pair of Aperion Audio Verus Forte speakers, with a retail value of $450.


• If you are chosen, you will be notified via e-mail. The winner must respond within three days of the end of the sweepstakes. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.


• Entries can be submitted until Monday, February 18, at 12 p.m. ET.

And here's the disclaimer that our legal department said we had to include (sorry for the caps, but rules are rules):

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. YOU HAVE NOT YET WON. MUST BE LEGAL RESIDENT OF ONE OF THE 50 UNITED STATES OR D.C., 18 YEARS OLD OR AGE OF MAJORITY, WHICHEVER IS OLDER IN YOUR STATE OF RESIDENCE AT DATE OF ENTRY INTO SWEEPSTAKES. VOID IN PUERTO RICO, ALL U.S. TERRITORIES AND POSSESSIONS AND WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. Sweepstakes ends at 12 p.m. ET on Monday, February 18, 2013. See official rules for details.

Good luck.

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Researchers develop a more accurate car navigation system

Researchers say new navigation system can be installed on any vehicle, including a Volkswagen Touareg.

(Credit:
Josh Miller/CNET)

Driverless cars could get a big boost from a new system that researchers say will increase the accuracy of in-car satellite navigation systems by 90 percent.

Researchers say the system combines conventional GPS signals with data from sensors such as accelerometers and gyroscopes to determine a vehicle's position within six feet of its location, a dramatic reduction from the current margin of error of 50 feet. The system can be installed inexpensively in any vehicle, say researchers at Spain's Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, where the system was developed.

"We have managed to improve the determination of a vehicle's position in critical cases by between 50 and 90 percent, depending on the degree of the signals' degradation and the time that is affecting the degradation on the GPS receiver," David Martín, a researcher at the Systems Intelligence Laboratory, said in a statement describing the project.

The system aims to tackle the greatest challenge faced by conventional GPS systems in urban settings: loss or disruption of satellite signal due to interference created by buildings, trees, and tunnels. The new system uses contextual information and an algorithm that eliminates deviations caused by degradation or loss of signal from satellites.

The researchers have installed a prototype system on an "intelligent
car" with the goal of capturing and interpreting all the information available while driving a car. The team sees applications of the system in driverless car systems currently under development by Google and a handful of automakers.

"Future applications that will benefit from the technology that we are currently working on will include cooperative driving, automatic maneuvers for the safety of pedestrians, autonomous vehicles or cooperative collision warning systems," the team said.

Ultimately, the team hopes to develop a system that harnesses the sensors built in to smartphones, such an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a magnetometer, and GPS, as well as taking advantage of communications tools such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GSM.

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Opera embraces WebKit in browser brain transplant

Opera Software, an independent voice in the browser market since the 1990s, will dramatically change its strategy by instead adopting the WebKit browser engine used by Safari and Chrome.

The Norwegian company announced the move today and said it will show off the first fruits of the work with a WebKit-based version of its
Android browser at the Mobile World Congress show in less than two weeks. But the company will move to WebKit for its desktop browser, too.

A browser engine processes the Web page instructions written in HTML, JavaScript, and CSS then renders the results on screens. The engine also interactions that are increasingly important as the developer world expands from static Web pages to dynamic Web apps.

Opera Chief Technology Officer Hakon Wium Lie described the company's motives in a statement:

The WebKit engine is already very good, and we aim to take part in making it even better. It supports the standards we care about, and it has the performance we need. It makes more sense to have our experts working with the open source communities to further improve WebKit and Chromium, rather than developing our own rendering engine further. Opera will contribute to the WebKit and Chromium projects, and we have already submitted our first set of patches: to improve multi-column layout.

Hints of Opera's WebKit work emerged with a mobile-browser project called ICE in January, but today's news is a much more sweeping change than just a single product. Opera said it will move gradually to the WebKit for "most of its upcoming versions of browsers for smartphones and computers." It's not immediately clear which products will continue to use Opera's in-house technology.

Opera has struggled to keep its fifth-place ranking in the browser usage, but it's certainly not irrelevant. The company also announced today that 300 million people use its browsers each month.

But there are difficult trends the company must face. On mobile devices, Opera Mini is a strong contender, but its popularity is chiefly on lower-end phones; iOS and Android devices come with their own WebKit-based browsers. On personal computers, Google's Chrome rose from nowhere in a few years, quickly surpassing Opera and
Safari, while Microsoft by some measures has reversed declines in its share of browser usage.

The WebKit project began as the KHTML engine used in the KDE project to supply Linux with a polished user interface and a host of software utilities, but Apple became its chief sponsor when it based OS X's WebKit on the project. WebKit got another major boost with Google's embrace.

One notable consequence of moving to WebKit is that Opera will be able to more easily support the large and growing number of iOS devices. Apple rules prohibit browser engines besides a version of WebKit that Apple itself supplies (and incidentally, that runs slower than the version Safari on iOS itself uses). Google's Chrome for iOS uses this Apple-supplied version of WebKit, and Opera would be able to make such a move more easily if its own browser used WebKit, too.

WebKit is not a single, unified project, though. For example, Chrome and Safari differ dramatically under the covers in how they execute the JavaScript programs on Web pages. Chrome uses Google's V8 JavaScript engine, whereas Safari uses a different one called Nitro. It's not clear which Opera will use.

Another consequence of Opera's change is that developers could have an easier time supporting browsers. Although independent testing will still be required, Web pages likely will be easier to write and test -- especially advanced ones using newer features such as animations and "responsive" design that can handle a wide variety of screen types.

With Opera throwing in the towel on its own technology, the bulk of the browser market will be reduced to three primary engines: WebKit, Microsoft's Trident, and Mozilla's Gecko.

Updated at 12:53 a.m. PT
with further details.

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CNET Giveaway: Geek Squad-certified refurbished Kindle Fire

Been staying up nights pining for a tablet of your very own? Here is your chance. Cast your vote below and be entered to win* one of five Geek Squad-certified refurbished Kindle Fires provided by our friends at Best Buy.

If you already have a
Kindle Fire, then we know you are mostly using it to check out the latest in tech using the oh-so-cool CNET app, but we are curious to know what else you are using it for. Enter below for a chance to win one for a friend or another for yourself. And be sure to check out CNET editor Sharon Vaknin's e-book guide to mastering the Kindle Fire.

Interested in winning? Here are the rules:

• Register as a CNET user. Click on the log-in/join button on the upper right of this blog post. If you're not already registered, please do so. If you're already registered, there's no need to register again -- you just need to be logged in.


• Vote in the poll -- select what you think is the best thing to do with a
  tablet.


• Enter only once. You may enter for this specific giveaway only once. If you enter more than once, you will be automatically disqualified.


• There will be five (5) winners chosen randomly. Each winner will receive one (1)
  Kindle Fire (first generation) Geek Squad-certified refurbished, which has a list price of $129.95.
• If you are chosen, you will be notified via e-mail. The winner must respond within three days of the end of the sweepstakes. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
• Entries can be submitted until Sunday, February 17, at 11:59 p.m. PT.
• Thanks for entering the contest, and good luck!

Some legalese:

* NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. YOU HAVE NOT YET WON. MUST BE LEGAL RESIDENT OF ONE OF THE UNITED STATES OR CANADA (EXCLUDING QUEBEC), 18 YEARS OLD OR AGE OF MAJORITY, WHICHEVER IS OLDER IN YOUR STATE OF RESIDENCE AT DATE OF ENTRY INTO SWEEPSTAKES. VOID IN PUERTO RICO, ALL U.S. TERRITORIES AND POSSESSIONS AND WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. SWEEPSTAKES ENDS 02/17/13. SEE RULES FOR DETAILS.

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