By Anick Jesdanun, Technology Writer
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) --LG is unveiling a smartphone with two lenses and jumping into the nascent world of virtual reality.
The main camera on LG's upcoming G5 smartphone will have both a regular lens for standard shots and a wider-angle lens so you can capture more of what's in front of you without having to step back.
It will also adopt a modular approach to design, so you'll be able to pop out the phone's bottom and swap in new hardware features. Early options include a camera grip with physical buttons to take shots and control video recording.
Sunday's announcements at the Mobile World Congress wireless show in Barcelona, Spain, come as worldwide smartphone growth has slowed.
Frank Lee, a spokesman with LG's U.S. mobile business, said phone launches no longer generate the excitement they used to, so "it's our responsibility to bring some energy."
Beyond improving just the phone, LG is turning to a whole collection of products that work with it.
LG will have its own VR headset – a lighter version of Samsung's Gear VR, which came out last fall.
LG designed the LG 360 VR headset to work with an LG smartphone that's attached by a cable. With Samsung's VR device, the smartphone is inserted at eye level and becomes the headset's display, increasing the weight on the head. LG's version still uses the smartphone to process the images, but instead of displaying them on the phone screen, images get sent to separate, lighter displays in the headset's eyepieces.
LG is also making a 360-degree camera and a spherical robot camera that resembles the BB-8 droid in the new "Star Wars" movie.
Prices and release dates have yet to be announced, though the LG phone is expected in the U.S. in April.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More