LG Teases Latest ‘Black Label’ Cell Phone Ahead of Launch

LG has begun teasing the upcoming launch of the third cell phone in its style-focused “Black Label” family of handsets.

The phone, the name of which wasn’t announced, will follow on from LG’s popular Chocolate and Shine handsets that launched in 2006 and 2007.

It will be officially unveiled and named at a product launch in London on April 24, but ahead of that LG released three images of the new phone.

It’s a slider-type handset with a shiny face, three shortcut buttons for answering a call, hanging up on a call and a cancel button sit below the shiny face and the upper part of the phone’s body is covered in what appears to be a faux leather plastic. Previous LG phones have touch-sensitive keys underneath the shiny cover and the new phone appears to have enough room for such a keypad but it’s impossible to tell from the images if there is indeed one.

The only technical detail available was the inclusion of a 5-megapixel camera.

The phone will first be available in Europe before being launched in other regions around the world, said LG.

Multi-Touch Trackpad for Asustek’s New Eee PC

The next generation Eee PC laptop by Asustek Computer will come with a multi-touch trackpad in addition to the larger screen, better Webcam and increased data storage, a company representative said Thursday.

The Eee PC 900 boasts an 8.9-inch screen, larger than the 7-inch display on the original Eee PC 701 model, along with a 1.3 MP camera and 12GB solid-state disk drive (SSD). The Webcam on the Eee PC 701 is only 0.3MP and the largest SSD is 8GB.

The Eee PC 900’s oversized touchpad works similar to the Macbook Air. Using two fingers, a person can zoom in and out of documents and photos, scroll up and down, and more, an Asustek representative said.

A picture of the Eee PC 900 can be found on the Federal Communications Commission’s Web site, where details were submitted for approval by the U.S. government regulator.

A few things the Eee PC 900 will not have include a touchscreen and GPS (global positioning system), the Asustek representative said, despite some news reports to the contrary.

The Eee PC 900 will come pre-loaded with either Microsoft Windows XP or Linux OSs, the representative said.

The first devices will likely hit some markets by June this year. Pricing will vary by country, but in Europe, the new Eee PC will cost around $626.