Like most modern Windows phones, the LG eXpo (see review) has its share of quirks and niggles.

We addressed the notifications one awhile back and it looks like the fine folks at LG-expo.com have gone even further, making one of those handy all-in-one fixer programs.

Appropriately called Expo/IQ Tweaker, it consists of a large list of fixes and options that you simply check to enable or disable certain features. We'll just highlight the big ones that really make a difference:

• Improve screen sensitivity and touch response
• Enable in-call recording
• Increase IE performance/scrolling
• Enable tethering
• Enable auto-rotation in all programs
• Fix missing sounds and notifications
• Increase KB backlight time

The most important one is the screen sensitivity/touch response, as the screen is a little laggy compared to traditional devices and is by far the biggest complaint about the eXpo. I'm happy to report that these registry tweaks greatly improve the screen in that regard. Likewise, fixing the sounds and notifications was the other big issue and that too works brilliantly here.

You'll need to have .NET CF 3.5 installed and you'll need to register at LG-Expo.com to grab the file. But if you're and LG eXpo fan like myself, you'll definitely want this program.

Kudos to Woodhole and team for the great work!

Ever since Microsoft showed off Windows Phone 7 Series at Mobile World Congress, one of the major questions has been what kind of hardware can we expect from the device manufacturers. All we saw in Barcelona was a developer device.

But today on The Engadget Show, Microsoft’s Aaron Woodman brought a new toy. It was a prototype LG device, with the Windows Phone 7 Series OS, a sliding QWERTY keyboard -- which was a bit of a surprise -- all of the hardware buttons that we’ve been told to expect, a 5-megapixel camera with flash, and a 3.5mm audio jack.

Let's reiterate that this was a prototype, and we'd kind of like to see a production unit with a little more sophistication. An new OS of this caliber deserves something that at least looks like more than the hardware the old Windows Mobile (sorry, but it is) runs on.

Oh, and the fact that Paul and Nilay posted their hands-on with the LG device as The Engadget Show was taping live was more than a little sick. [Engadget]

For being the very first Snapdragon 1Ghz Windows phone in the U.S., the LG eXpo is sure hard to find these days.

Never listed on their consumer site, AT&T only lists it "Out of stock" in their business channel. Outstanding orders are being put on backorder-status and even 3rd party retailers like Amazon.com (who sell it for a fair $99 with contract) are reportedly having supply issues. (Side note: Canada's Telus seems to have them on hand still).

So what exactly is going on here? One would like to believe that the phone is selling so well AT&T simply cannot keep them in stock. But for those who frequent the various smartphone forums may notice that the eXpo crowd is quite tiny compared to other devices. So, yeah, probably not.

The issue appears to be on LG's end or whomever is actually handling the manufacturing. Unfortunately (and not surprisingly) no one is stating specifics, though we imagine there could be quite a few possibilities:

• Chinese New Year: this time of the year, it is not uncommon for manufacturing plants to shut down, halting production.
• Supply issues with Authen Tec's AES1711 fingerprint reader/sensor technology
• Supply issues with Qualcomm's Snapdragon CPU

The Chinese New Year issue is common with electronic OEMs and not a surprise. In turn, many companies prepare for the temporary downward production by increasing production before the holiday. So not likely.

Supply issues with the Authen Tec's AES1711 sensor is a possible, being so new to market. Likewise, HTC could be gobbling up all the Snapdragon's they can for their hugely popular HTC HD2 (probably being massed produced now for T-Mobile U.S.).

AT&T told WMExperts this in response to the eXpo's shortage:

While AT&T and LG continue to work together to ensure a quality product is available to customers, we are currently facing limited quantity of stock on hand. AT&T is working to complete backfill orders and the remaining stock will soon become available for new customer orders for a limited time.

Why a "limited time" only? And why not for regular, non-business consumers? (Business & Premier users can order it here).

We're not sure but hope this situation doesn't last as the eXpo is quite the Windows phone and has, at least for the time being, supplanted my Touch Pro 2 as my favorite device (Hint: 1Ghz matters...a  lot). Stay tuned.

Although the LG eXpo is a very capable device (see full review), in fact it's one of my favorites right now, it does have some ... quirks.

One of those, and we're not joking, is no email notifications. That is, there is no listing under Settings --> Sounds & Notifications for email or even SMS, for that matter.

We're not sure why that is the case, or how that passed AT&T's testing, but it is what it is and needless to say...it's annoying. (We even had a question on during the last podcast),

To address this, I threw together the registry entries to bring back SMS and Email notifications as I know this bothers quite a few folks out there, myself included. This will enable sound, vibrate, pop-up and even LED support on the eXpo for SMS and Email.

Simply use Microsoft Tag to scan and download the .cab to your device, run it, soft reset and you're good to go. Or you can just click and download directly here. Enjoy!

Okay everyone, time to put on your rumor helmets (they're like beer helmets, but filled with vodka). Here's what we are hearing about Windows Mobile 7 from various sources (none of which has been announced by Microsoft). 

We'll spill the beans on what we're hearing about supposed various versions of Seven, two WM7 devices including full specs (the LG "Apollo" and HTC "Obsession") time-frames and even features.

Read the rest of this entry »

According to Engadget, LG stated at CES press event that Windows Mobile 7 will be on devices this year. Obviously this still isn’t an official announcement from Microsoft, but LG is one of their bigger partners for Windows Phones. Might we hear something official from Steve Ballmer at his CES Keynote tonight? Rumor has it that Robbie Bach, Microsoft’s President of Entertainment & Devices Division, will be joining Steve on stage.

Tune in at 9:30pm Eastern, 6:30pm Pacific for our liveblog from the event.

So we've managed to snag one of those (as of now) hard to come by pico projectors for the LG eXpo (Read George's full review here).

We'll be doing a full review of the projector, including a video demonstration, in a few days, but for now we figured we would give you our quick, initial impressions of the $179.99 add-on.

First, it's pretty tiny and light. Weighing in at just 50 grams (1.75oz) the little plastic guy is light as a feather.  It's actually remarkable how small and light it is, making it easy to carry around (especially since it comes with a nice little satchel ).

Second, it's easy to set up: you just take the metal battery cover off of the eXpo and slide on the projector.  In that sense, it feels like you're adding on an extended battery cover.  You then turn on the phone and if you slide the lens door on the projector open, you get a pop screen giving you basic directions and a slider. Move the slider and on comes the projector.

The projector will display anything.  That is, if it's on your screen, it can be on the wall.  The camera button acts as a portrait/landscape button and you have a physical slider on the projector to focus (which can be a bit tricky).  It of course uses your phone's battery and yeah, it drains a bit, but you can always plug in your phone. Still, you should easily get two full hours we suppose.

How's it look?  Pretty good actually.  It can project up to a 40 foot picture and the throw is pretty remarkable (they say the throw is up to 8 ft, but we easily more than doubled that). We tossed it onto a small screen in an actual movie theater and it was totally workable--not cinema quality, for but presentations or showing off a video clip...yeah, it would do the job.

So our initial thoughts: impressed.

Have questions?  Want us to test something specific?  Hit us up in comments and we'll get it done.

LG turned heads with the announcement of its latest Windows phone, the eXpo. The slide-out keyboard phone is the first Windows phone designed with an optional pico projector.

Our first impression of the eXpo are good. The phone feels well-built, comfortable in the hand and has some interesting features, such as an optical scanner that pulls double duty as a directional pad and fingerprint scanner.

We shared our initial impressions on the Expo and now we share our thoughts after taking the phone out for a test drive. Ease on past the break to see how long our initial impressions of the Expo lasted after a few days of use.

Read the rest of this entry »

Now let's try to wrap our minds around this one ... Sprint is going to be announcing a Windows Phone that makes use of WiMax, which is the technology behind Sprint’s 4G network. The logic behind this theory is that Sprint has an event scheduled for January 6 with announcements by Dan Hesse (Sprint’s CEO) and Steve Ballmer (Microsoft’s CEO). Also, Sprint and LG have been sending out invitations to an event scheduled for the following evening; giving possible insight into the identity of the device manufacturer. InformationWeek points out that the January 7 event is being hosted by Brooke Shields, and states that a celebrity of that magnitude isn’t brought in for a small announcement.

To this point, we haven’t seen ANY WiMax-capable smartphones hit the market. We’ve seen rumors every now and again, but nothing solid. If Microsoft could be the first to market with this technology, even over Palm and its current exclusivity with Sprint, this could be a major coup for Microsoft.

[InformationWeek via Boy Genius Report]

We've got the LG Expo from AT&T (minus the piggyback pico projector) and we will be posting a full review shortly. In the meantime, here's a video hands-on with the Expo.

The initial impressions on the Expo are good, and I'm interested in seeing how well the Snapdragon processor performs. Does it drain the battery in half a day?  How well does it handle multitasking? The Expo is also fitted with a optical scanner capable of fingerprint recognition and it will be interesting to see how well that performs as well.