LG G2 Smartphone; S. Korea Wirelessly Charged Buses; Sony Vaio in Red

Topping tech headlines Wednesday was LG's new flagship G2 smartphone, the first handset introduced in the company's "G" premium device series.

As expected, the phone "shifts the paradigm in smartphone design" by placing all buttons on the back, making it the first smartphone without side buttons. The G2 boasts a large 5.2-inch Full HD display with 1080-by-1920 pixel resolution, and a tiny 2.65mm bezel on the side edge. Specific availability dates or pricing were not revealed, but the G2 will be rolling out in more than 130 countries over the next eight weeks, starting in South Korea and followed by releases in North America and Europe. For more, see PCMag's hands on with the LG G2.

LG G2 Smartphone; S. Korea Wirelessly Charged Buses; Sony Vaio in Red

In other "world's first" news, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) this week debuted the first wirelessly charged Online Electric Vehicle (OLEV) —a bus that ferries passengers in the South Korean city of Gumi. The technology allows the vehicle to be charged over the air, while stationary or in motion, eliminating the need to stop at a charging station along its route. Two OLEV buses will receive 20 kHz and 100 kW (136 horsepower) electricity at an 85 percent maximum power transmission efficiency rate, while running a 15-mile roundtrip inner-city route.

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Locked Out? KeyMe App Stores Your Keys in the Cloud

The Launchpad is a series that introduces Mashable readers to compelling startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion.

Name: KeyMe

One-Liner Pitch: KeyMe stores your keys in the cloud to make them accessible all the time.

Why It's Taking Off: KeyMe's cloud-based key management platform means you no longer need a physical key in order to make a copy. Once you store your "digital key," you don't have to worry about lockouts and paying hundreds of dollars for an emergency locksmith visit.

Locked Out? KeyMe App Stores Your Keys in the Cloud

It’s the end of a long day. You trudge back to your apartment, up the four flights of stairs, fish around in your bag and — dammit.

This scenario happened frequently enough to Greg Marsh and his fiancée that he turned it into a business. He was tired of waiting an hour for the locksmith and forking over $150.

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iPhone's share of smartphone market drops to 13 percent

iPhone's share of smartphone market drops to 13 percent

Apple's share of global smartphone shipments declined to 13.2 percent in the second quarter, while both Android and Windows Phone registered slight increases, IDC said Wednesday.

The decline in iPhone market share can be traced to the lack of a new model since the iPhone 5 came out nearly a year ago, IDC analyst Ramon Llamas said. Earlier this week, IDC reported that the iPad tablet has lost market share for similar reasons.

[ Get expert advice about planning and implementing your BYOD strategy with InfoWorld's 29-page "Mobile and BYOD Deep Dive" PDF special report. | Keep up on key mobile developments and insights with the Mobilize newsletter. ]

"Apple's market share was vulnerable to product launches from the competition," Llamas said in a statement. "But with a new iPhone and revamped iOS 7 coming out later this year, Apple is well-positioned to recapture market share."

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Sony’s Xperia Z Ultra is a powerful phone that’s too large for your hand

Sony’s Xperia Z Ultra is a powerful phone that’s too large for your hand

Mobile phones started off their life as rather large devices, but the industry worked hard to miniaturize them, and after years and years of progress, managed to produce tiny, powerful phones. Now, as smartphones take over the mobile device industry, their screens become larger, increasing the size of the devices once again. At the moment, this trend culminates in Sony’s newly announced Xperia Z Ultra, an enormous 6.4-inch smartphone.

Sony’s Xperia Z Ultra

It’s strange to think that the industry spent around a decade minimizing the size of mobile phones — even creating the flip phone so we could halve the space our phones occupy — only to be working diligently to increase the size of them once again. This time, at least, large, pretty screens are an arguably worthwhile reason to increase our phone size, and Sony’s Xperia Z Ultra certainly supports that notion with its 6.4-inch 1080p Triluminos (essentially Sony’s Retina, more or less) display. Though the Ultra is certifiably enormous for something marketed as a phone, it’s still quite thin at 6.5mm, but due to its sheer size, it still weighs a hefty 212 grams for a genre of device traditionally used with just one hand.

Sony’s Xperia Z Ultra

Regardless of how ineffective-for-a-portable-phone the size of the device might seem, it does stock some powerful components within its guttyworks, specifically Qualcomm’s 2.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800. Along with the top-of-the-line SoC, the Ultra comes with 16GB of on-board storage (11GB of which is available), but if that seems a bit low the phablet has a MicroSD slot that can house a 64GB card. The Ultra will be LTE capable — though which bands have not been disclosed as of yet — and will sport a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, and an 8-megapixel rear facing camera that can take HDR images and video.

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HTC Desire 500 Specification And Price

HTC has announced their latest Android smartphone that namely with HTC Desire 500, this device has been launched in Taiwan Mobile on August 1, exclusively. HTC Desire 500 come with the display screen 4.3-inch with the resolution 800 x 480, this device equipped with the dual SIM. To shot the picture, you can use the rear camera 8 megapixel with the feature auto focus, LED flash, BSI sensor, Sensor size 1/3.2″, Dedicated HTC ImageChip, Smart Flash, and the front camera with 1.6 MP with BSI sensor, the camera equipped with the many feature that can make you easy and fun when used it.

The HTC Desire 500 run on Android Jelly Bean with HTC Sense 5 and BlinkFeed UI, this operating system supported by Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 SoC with a quad-core, 1.2GHz CPU and Adreno 205 GPU and 1 GB of RAM. This smartphone equipped with the internal memory just 4 GB, but you can expand it up to 64GB, and to support all the proccess, this device powered by Removable rechargeable Li-polymer battery 1800 mAh.

HTC Desire 500 Specification

• 4.3 inch, WVGA display screen
• resolution 800 x 480
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 200, quad-core, 1.2GHz
• Android with HTC Sense
• HTC BlinkFeed
• Dual SIM
• 4 GB internal memory
• 1 GB of RAM
• microSD card slot up to 64 GB
• GPS/AGPS
• Accelerometer, Proximity sensor and Ambient light sensor
• 8 MP camera with auto focus, LED flash, BSI sensor
• 1.6 MP front facing camera with BSI sensor and HTC share
• 1800 mAh battery

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HTC resurrects Desire brand with mid-range HTC Desire 500

HTC resurrects Desire brand with mid-range HTC Desire 500

TAIWANESE PHONE MAKER HTC resurrected its ageing Desire brand on Tuesday with the announcement of the HTC Desire 500, a mid-range phone for the UK market.

The HTC Desire 500 has already been announced in Taiwan, and the company revealed today that it will be coming to the UK later this month.

Set to be even cheaper than the firm's mid-range HTC One Mini smartphone, the HTC Desire 500 features a 4.3in 480x800 display powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and running Google's Android mobile operating system. The firm has yet to reveal which version of Android the phone will run in the UK, but has said that it will feature Blinkfeed, HTC's social media and news stream homescreen skin.

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