Gadgetory

in a world where most phones are copycats LG may be trying too hard to be different I'm Bridget Carey and this is your CNN update LG unveiled its new g2 smartphone and it's a little unusual first off its got a 5.2 inch screen that's huge it's walking a thin line on phablet territory but even stranger is that the power and volume buttons are on the back right under the camera and if you hold the volume down button the camera turns on hold the volume up button is a shortcut to the note-taking program called quick memo and if you want to wake up the phone but you don't want to use the power button on the back because it's on the back you can instead tap twice on the screen LG has a few other unique software features the g2 can automatically answer a call when the phone is raised to the person's ear there's also a guest mode to protect privacy by displaying only certain apps when someone besides the phone's owner unlocks the phone that's for those of you worried about nosey friends we're seeing several Android phones pushing their unique software tricks but the g2 also is packing in some solid hardware the g2 will be the first global device to include Qualcomm's highest end chip a quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor this phone will be globally sold and at the four major US carriers but no word yet on a price or exact date for the US Facebook is taking another feature from Twitter I'm sure you're shocked this time Facebook is testing trending topics so on the top of your newsfeed along with birthday alerts you'll see what topics people are buzzing about today the trending topics are being tested now on Facebook's mobile website that's em facebook.com but it can only be seen by a select group of users this is Facebook's way of staying relevant as a source for checking in with breaking news or trending conversations about TV shows and memes and if you want to put a new twist on your text messages whatsapp now lets users post audio recordings into conversations whatsapp has become a popular alternative to using traditional text messages the company says it process is 31 billion messages on a daily basis today's app to watch is brand new it's called a go-go and it wants to be what you listen to in the car instead of the radio this a go-go app will pull in different online offerings like Spotify RDO and NPR blend it up with local traffic reports news stories book excerpts even television programming and then serve it up on one interface you can try it out now in a free iOS app or pull up the web version from any mobile device that's your tech news update and you can read up on more details at cnet.com slash our Studios in New York I'm Bridget Carey