The drive to create an exceptional visual experience has brought us to this: A ground-breaking camera and display, and cutting-edge design and fabrication, all in the palm of your hand.

LG G4

Available versions: H815 (EMEA), H815TR (Turkey), H815T (Hong Kong), H815P (LATAM, South Africa), H812 (Canada), H810 (AT&T), H811 (T-Mobile), LS991 (Sprint), VS986 (Verizon), US991 (US Cellular)
NETWORK Technology GSM / HSPA / LTE

LAUNCH Announced 2015, April
Status Available. Released 2015, April

BODY Dimensions 148.9 x 76.1 x 6.3 - 9.8 mm
Weight 155 g (5.47 oz)
SIM Micro-SIM

DISPLAY Type IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size 5.5 inches (~72.5% screen-to-body ratio)
Resolution 1440 x 2560 pixels (~538 ppi pixel density)
Multitouch Yes
Protection Corning Gorilla Glass 3
- LG Optimus UX 4.0 UI

PLATFORM OS Android OS, v5.1 (Lollipop)
Chipset Qualcomm MSM8992 Snapdragon 808
CPU Quad-core 1.44 GHz Cortex-A53 & dual-core 1.82 GHz Cortex-A57
GPU Adreno 418

MEMORY Card slot microSD, up to 128 GB
Internal 32 GB, 3 GB RAM

CAMERA Primary 16 MP, 5312 x 2988 pixels, laser autofocus, optical image stabilization, LED flash,check quality
Features 1/2.6'' sensor size, simultaneous video and image recording, geo-tagging, face detection, HDR
Video 2160p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, optical stabilization, HDR, stereo sound rec., check quality
Secondary 8 MP, 1080p@30fps

SOUND Alert types Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
Loudspeaker Yes
3.5mm jack Yes

COMMS WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, hotspot
Bluetooth v4.1, A2DP, LE, apt-X
GPS Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS
NFC Yes
Infrared port Yes
Radio Stereo FM radio with RDS
USB microUSB v2.0 (SlimPort 4K), USB Host

FEATURES Sensors Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, color spectrum
Messaging SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM
Browser HTML5
Java No
- Fast battery charging: 60% in 30 min (Quick Charge 2.0)
- Optional Wireless Charging (Qi-enabled)
- Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
- MP4/DviX/XviD/H.264/WMV player
- MP3/WAV/FLAC/eAAC+/WMA player
- Photo/video editor
- Document editor

BATTERY Li-Ion 3000 mAh battery
Stand-by Up to 360 h (2G) / Up to 440 h (3G)
Talk time Up to 19 h (2G) / Up to 20 h (3G)

Is the digital learning revolution a waste of money?

Is the pen mightier than the keyboard? (Image: fotostorm/Getty)

Where there are effects, there are often side effects – and not just in medicine. The car was a boon to mobility, but can lead to obesity, injuries, deaths and pollution. Burning fossil fuels may keep economies going, but wrecks the climate in the long run.

In a similar way, there are side effects to information technology in education settings – from childcare to the classroom to the lecture hall and beyond. The IT industry and educational policy-makers repeatedly state that computers are good for learning, and therefore worthy of public investment. But numerous studies have showed no positive impact, or even negative effects.

The latest is a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. It highlights that education systems investing most in these technologies saw “no appreciable improvement” in results for exams used in a scheme to compare attainment internationally – the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

What’s more, an earlier study that drew on PISA results and contained data from 250,000 students aged 15 showed that they performed worse at school if they had a computer in their bedroom. In Israel, researchers found performance declined in elementary and middle schools with computers, and in Romania it has been reported that poorer children whose families received money to buy a computer performed worse in school than those without computers.
IT problems

Why is this so? Given what we know from experimental psychology and neuroscience, negative effects from IT on learning are not surprising: the deeper that content is processed mentally, the better the learning. This is the main finding in the “levels-of-processing” model of memory. IT use when learning tends to cause shallow processing of information in the brain, preventing memory encoding. Accordingly, a study in Science found that information online is less likely to be encoded in memory than that in books or journals.

Moreover, studies have shown that the presence of laptops in classrooms is linked to decreased performance in testsand assignments, and fails to close achievement gaps between socio-economic groups – the digital divide. A comparison between electronic and paper textbooks in Science showed that embedded videos and hyperlinks in the former are a distraction and impede learning. In California, students prefer reading from paper rather than an e-book by a wide margin.

In addition, US researchers who presented data from experiments on student learning in classrooms that looked at typing versus handwriting concluded that “the pen is mightier than the keyboard”. Longhand note-taking means that the student has to listen, think and prioritise important material, whereas keyboard users favour verbatim notes.

Finally, according to one survey of a representative sample of US students, in lectures most are engaged in various distracting activities made possible by mobile computing and the wireless internet.

Digital media pose serious risks and side effects in educational settings, causing marked levels of internet addiction,insomnia and inattention, especially when used for non-course-related activities. They also take time away from more valuable learning processes.

In the light of such large and converging evidence, it is time to rethink the spending of public money on ever more IT in classrooms.

By Manfred Spitzer

Newscientist.com

Malware-infected iPhone, iPad apps found in Canadian App Store

Many of the affected apps were only available on the App Store in China, yet some that were reportedly infected by the malware — including WeChat, business card rolodex CamCard and file extractor WinZip — are available in Canada. (George Frey/Getty Images)

Users advised to uninstall WeChat, CamCard, WinZip and change iCloud password

Apple announced a rare security breach over the weekend that means some Canadians may have unwittingly infected their iPhones and iPads with malware that could expose their iCloud passwords and other personal data.

Apple Inc. has removed some applications from its app store after developers in China were tricked into using software tools that added malicious code to their work.

Apple hasn't provided details about which companies' apps were affected.

But Tencent Ltd. said its popular WeChat app was hit; the company released a new version after spotting the offending code. Chinese news reports said others affected included banks, an airline and a popular music service.

Many of the affected apps were only available on the App Store in China, yet some that were reportedly infected by the malware — including WeChat, business card rolodex CamCard and file extractor WinZip — are available in Canada.

Uninstall or update

Users are advised to uninstall the affected apps or update to the latest version released after the malware was discovered, and to change their iCloud passwords.

The malicious code spread through a counterfeit version of Apple's Xcode tools used to create apps for its iPhones and iPads, according to the company. It said the counterfeit tools spread when developers obtained them from "untrusted sources" rather than directly from the company.

The malicious software collects information from infected devices and uploads it to outside servers, according to Palo Alto Networks, a U.S.-based security firm. The company said the breach could result in fake password prompts aimed at harvesting iCloud details or other logins.

It was first publicized last week by security researchers at Alibaba Group, the Asian e-commerce giant, who dubbed it XcodeGhost.

• Apple confirms XcodeGhost malware found in several apps

The creators of the malware took advantage of public frustration with Beijing's internet filters, which hamper access to Apple and other foreign websites. That prompts some people to use copies of foreign software or documents that are posted on websites within China to speed up access.

"Sometimes network speeds are very slow when downloading large files from Apple's servers," wrote Claud Xiao, a Palo Alto Networks researcher, on its website. Due to the large size of the Xcode file, "some Chinese developers choose to download the package from other sources or get copies from colleagues."

Companies with apps that were affected include taxi-hailing service Didi Kuaidi, Citic Industrial Bank, China Southern Airlines and the music service of NetEase, a popular Web portal, according to the newspaper Yangcheng Evening News.

The incident is only the sixth time malicious software is known to have made it through Apple's screening process for products on its App Store, according to Xiao.


CBC.ca|News