Week 28 in review: LG G3 S and Lumia Cyan update ~ Electronic Gadgets

Tags: Apple , Samsung , Huawei , Android , Windows Phone , Nokia , LG , HTC , Firmware update , Sony

The Week In Review is our series meant to recap all the major announcements of the week, which you might have missed. Week 28 of 2014 wasn't as busy as the past few weeks, but it still brought us some cool hardware and brought news of several major software updates.

The long rumored affordable flavor of the LG G3 flagship was made official this week. It is called LG G3 Beat in the Asian markets and LG G3 S for the EU and CIS regions. The LG G3 Beat packs a 5" IPS HD display, runs on Snapdragon 400 chipset and features an 8MP camera with laser-assisted auto-focus.

The design and software package remain identical with the LG G3, while dual-SIM version will become available too. The LG G3 Beat is already selling in South Korea, while it will hit the shelves soon in Europe at €349.

The owners of Windows Phone 8-based Nokia Lumia smartphones around the world got a nice present to kick off their summer. The entire WP8 Lumia range, including the carrier-exclusive models, are now getting the Lumia Cyan update with the latest Windows Phone 8.1 OS. It brings a plethora of new features and services, and everyone will be happy to upgrade. The rollout is gradual, but hopefully everyone will be running on Windows Phone 8.1 soon enough.

The Nokia X lineup wasn't as lucky though. Microsoft has decided to pull the plug on the project and will lay off 18,000 workers throughout the next six months. It will continue to support and sell the Nokia X and X2 and they will receive more updates in the future, although we are doubtful many will be keen on getting them now.

Three Android 4.4.2 KitKat updates began seeding this week. The lucky devices are Samsung Galaxy Grand 2, Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom and Sony Xperia T2 Ultra.

The Sony's firmware also includes an option to move apps to the SD card, which is really nice. Meanwhile HTC has begun rolling out HTC Sense 6.0 update for the original HTC One mini.

We also learned BlackBerry is readying its own virtual assistant and it will be installed on the BB10 devices with the next BB 10.3 update. Better late than never, we guess.

BlackBerry Assistant (click to enlarge)

This week gave us a glimpse over the upcoming Huawei's Emotion 3.0 UI. It looks a lot like the iOS 7, but there is no word on its device availability yet.

Huawei Emotion UI 3.0

MediaTek has finally unveiled its anticipated MT6795 chipset with octa-core 64-bit processor and LTE support. It supports 2K displays, 120Hz screens, 1080p @480fps video recording and playback, among others.

Apple iPhone 6 was in the news pretty much every day, as expected. First Amazon Japan confirmed its dimensions and availability. Then we heard news Apple is experiencing issues with the bigger 5.5" model and might not release it this year. The iPhone 6 is also tipped to come with an improved TouchID sensor, and while we knew already about the sapphire display, it may not be spread over all iPhone models. Finally, the case maker Spigen spilled the beans on the iPhone 6 design via a case listing.