LG's GD900 video tour (and shenanigans) at CTIA
By Sean Cooper 
posted Apr 4th 2009 1:41PM
posted Apr 4th 2009 1:41PM
We've been fairly intrigued about LG's GD900 since we had a glimpse of it behind glass at Mobile World Congress this year. We were finally treated to a proper tour by LG's Martin Valdez who not only did a bang up job of demonstrating the set but covered up what may be an early build firmware bug with such aplomb he deserves an award for his performance. Notable here is the clear keypad that acts as input device for typing, text recognition, gestures, and the full-on gorgeous UI. While we wouldn't expect this to be a monster seller at the carriers, it will get LG some attention. So sit back, relax, and enjoy a few minutes with LG's transparent beauty and a great showman, Martin Valdez.
WHAT A PHONY, YOUR A GREAT BIG PHONY!!
Everything was great until he tried to pull a fast one
That's not the first transluticant keypad or touchscreen. What about the motorola ming and the motorola krave zn4.
Actually, it seems kinda slow and unresponsive. Esp when he demos the multi touch, it takes a while for the cpu to detect the movement and responds after a lag.
I think this phone is going to suck.
wow that guy hit the home button.
Well, you can't really blame him. He was probably panicking and it could be a software-fault or his lack of preparation in studying the home-gesture. My guess is that it was probably a software-fault (maybe the gesture detection is not functioning in that particular message screen).
He wanted to let you see how it would be if the gesture did work, so you can get a rough idea on what will happen when the real deal comes.
It was an excellent demonstration, apart from that little mishap, in my opinion.
Maybe he had to go right-left instead of left-right but got lost in the process?
Nice phone.
I don't think he really tried to pull a fast one on us, he just decided he'd spent too much time fiddling with it and it was time to move on. He managed to give us a really good run down of the phone in just 4 minutes, why spend 30 seconds showing off a feature which may not even work properly at this stage.
I'm actually amazed by how smooth everything ran, it still seems like a bit of a gimmick but the 'S-Class' UI is beautiful. The dual touch is impressive, though I'm not sure how useful it is.
Great presentation.
Love it, buggy or not!
phone is kinda cool but that guy :D
That guy reminds me of Elvis...
i love those people that show off products. true class acts.
I don't care about what he did at the end...
But the phone (the other features) are excellent... shit this phone is coooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooL.
About the end all i want to say is that, why to slide your finger when you can do it just by clicking on the off button loooooooooooool
Wow, looks awesome. I love the clear keypad with glowing numbers, but the OS looked so buggy and SLOW! I would get too frustrated using it that all the cool features would be lost.
Too bad, phone looks like it has potential!
As long as they change the font from Comic Sans. Why does that font still exist?!
I never really get all that interested in new phones...but I rather like this one. Neat concepts. And good showmanship from the guy too.
that phone looks really good
LOL@SNEAK HOME KEY PRESS XD
I actually like this phone, I had an idea of a perfect phone, and it would've had a transparent keyboard, seriously, I have sketches from '07.
I like this, I might just buy it.
In that case you'll really have to explain to the rest of the world what the benefit of a transparent keypad is...
@ janekm
Other than it being frickin' awesome, you mean?
im sorry, but it looks naff.
The whole phone looks really slow and sluggish.
i bet the home gesture is the opposite direction... like the arrow icon on the top of the message screen- going from bottom left across the right side up and to top left...
+1
They copied iPhone's OS X at pinch.And the phone is a little buggy!
Yeah... many similarities. One thing I loved was how the person filming said 'Wow, that's amazing' when he was zooming in on the photo.
Didn't look familiar to ya???
First,the multitouch feature are avaiable in many devices like the HP Touchsmart PC and the Microsoft Surface,doesn't mean that they've copied the Iphone that copied the LG Prada as a touchscreen phone without buttons,second,this is a prototype and buggy is the final version of the crappy Iphone 3G!
Pinch is pretty much an obvious gesture to zoom in and out.
How would you do it?
Thats actually why apple didn't and couldn't copyright that.
It's funny that he did that but he could have simply said that feature hasn't been finalized yet, and move on. It's not like he didn't do an amazing show already, this phone looks awesome from the touching on the keypad to the OS transitions and controls, everything. I am very, very impressed.
Did anyone notice the "Welcome to AT&T" message?
Looks ok. The only thing that was cool was the clear keypad. That alone is not enough to sell the phone. Interface looked really laggy. Not sure many people would deal with that.
Yhat alone IS enough to sell the phone, small gimmicky things like that are all the average consumer sees most times, kinda like the LG Shine.
I think the UI sacrifices a little ease of use for pure flashiness. I thought the same thing with the translucent keypad, until I saw it was actually a second touchpad area, which actually makes it cool and useful.
I also expect it to cost a ginormous amount of money, and that I will never dream of using it myself.
im sure the screen was just a software bug.
he did a good job with the rest of the demonstration
looks like a nice phone
I'll shoot the next man who says shenanigans.
"Hey Favre, whats the name of that restaurant that you like that has all that movie sh!t on the walls and the mozzarella sticks?"
Farva = surly and obnoxious state trooper, one of the main characters of Super Troopers
Farve = legendary and accomplished NFL quarterback, John Madden's one true love
@Keith
That guy Farve guy must have had a tough time differentiating himself from Brett Favre.
It's probably appropriate he messed it up, since I inadvertently replaced "pistol whip" with "shoot".
I'm sorry, but why do people label the iPhones OS as "OS X Mobile", is it really Mac OS 10 built for Mobiles? Or should it really be labelled as "Mac OS Mobile" or even "iPhone OS" seeing as though 1. It is not part of Mac OS 10 as it is on 2.0 and now 10.2 (Which I know, was Jaguar) 2. The operating system itself is not run on Macs at all. 3. It is an OS strictly for the iPhone/iPod Touch
... Yes, I felt like saying that.
Steve Jobs had said that the iPhone runs OS X (an optimized 1 GB version). I always used the term OS X Mobile since it was simple to write and is close to being right. I wish they'd give it a decent name that tells of the OS's heritage, but would be catchy to say.
Transparency looks great, but it lacks purpose. Ya, ya, dual touchscreens...but if it can only display the numeric keypad, then what's the point?
Failblog worthy, this.
Sneaky press of Home Key win in 3..2..1..
I really like this phone. I think the UI is creative and and well thought out.
Haha self-edit: Favre. Comment at pointing out fail = fail.
Where are there idiots who make touchscreen phones with slide-out number pads??
There is no point to having a slide-out NUMBER pad! A slide out keyboard, yes .. but a slideout number pad if the phone is touchscreeen? What's the point of that?
A number pad is used only for dialing which can easily and equally conveniently be done on the touchscreen.. but a keyboard is a requirement for text messaging and filling out forms on the web where you need to see the screen etc.
PS> To the pricks pissed off about that homescreen thing .. fucking get over it dudes. Maybe he pressed the home screen button and since it didn't react properly (if you play it back u'll see it seemed like that didn't work either) and then he tried the gesture again. Or maybe yeah he tried to fake it .. and it was a slick move .. wrong .. but come on .. give the guy a fucking break. He probably just forgot what the gesture was or something and worst case what he did was _maybe_ slightly unethical but come on ..in the grand scheme of things this is nothing.. no need to be fucking witch hunting about it.
say wha?
Wow, potty mouth!
If it hadn't been on video I think he would have totally got away with it. Cool features other than the apparent lag I think the phone has some promise. I'm not sure if I understand the need for the transparent thing.
i think it's to be "cool"