LG Goes Red with New Nexus 5 Smartphone Colour:

LG has announced that the first red Nexus 5 device is now available for purchase through the Google Play store.

Nexus 5 is the first Google phone to be offered in three colors: red, white and black. Launched last October in partnership by LG and Google, Nexus 5 is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, a 5-inch Full HD IPS display and runs Android 4.4, KitKat, the latest version of the Android OS.

"The Nexus line has always been about doing things differently and consumers who share this philosophy have been our most loyal fans," said Dr. Jong-seok Park, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications. "We're carrying this thinking over to the red Nexus 5, which we think will catch the eye of consumers who want to make an even bolder statement."

LG Starts Confirming Some Smartphone Releases for Next Month:

LG has confirmed that it will be showing off a new smartphone at the Mobile World Congress next month, to be known as the G Pro 2 -- almost certainly a successor to LG Optimus G Pro which was released nearly a year ago.

In a short post on its social blog, LG said that the G Pro 2 will in its family of top smartphones, and it is looking at sales in excess of a million units.

The company noted that its predecessor, the G Pro passed the million units sales mark within four months of launch.

Other than confirming the existence of the smartphone, the company did not elaborate on the device.

Fake Phone Accessories Seized in London:

Trading standards officers in West London, UK have seized hundreds of unsafe phone chargers, USB devices and phone accessories from four businesses based in the area.

Fake mobile phone chargers, USB devices and mobile phone accessories using unauthorised Apple, Sony, LG, Nokia, Windows, HTC and Samsung trade marks were all seized following an investigation into counterfeit goods.

Trading standards officers from Ealing led the operation with support from other local councils. Local police and Home Officer Immigration and Enforcement officers were also present.

As part of the operation, four electronics and mobile phone accessory wholesalers, all based at the same light industrial estate, were visited to ensure the goods being sold met safety and quality standards. A number of specialists including computer forensics, product safety and counterfeit expert officers and a dog team were also involved.

Ealing Council leader, Councillor Julian Bell, said: "This raid has taken approximately £500,000 worth of dodgy products off the market. It's disgusting that businesses are disregarding the safety of our residents by selling these products. We are taking the issue at its root by going after the wholesalers."

LG Denies Claims of a Smartphone Venture with Huawei:

LG has denied recent media reports that it is considering setting up some sort of smartphone joint-venture with Huawei.

The report, in the local Korea Times suggested that LG had been in talks with its Chinese rival to revive its smartphone business.

LG was noticeably annoyed by the report and said that it has never been in talks with Huawei regarding any aspects of its business either now or in the past.

LG's mobile network operator division, LG U+ does have a supply contract with Huawei, but that division operates at arms-length from the handset one.

This is however just the latest in a string of rumours of a major shake-up at the company's smartphone division. Whatever the facts behind the rumours, the rumours themselves seem determined to hang around.

LG Tweaks the Design of the Nexus 5 Smartphone to Fix Complaints:

LG appears to have made some modifications to the design of its Nexus 5 smartphone to deal with complaints about loose buttons.

A user on the XDA Developers forum said that they send their phone back for repair following the problems with loose buttons and the model that came back had some slight changes to the design.

In addition to the changes to fix the buttons, the new phone case also has larger holes for the speaker and microphone.

The display screen also appears to be more yellow in tone.

LG will have to hope that litigious Americans doesn't try to sue to get their older models replaced.

Mozilla and Partners Launch Mobile Open Web Device Compliance Review Board:

A cluster of tech firms have formed a group that will  promote the success of the open Web device ecosystem by encouraging API compliance as well as ensuring competitive performance.

The Open Web Device Compliance Review Board (CRB) will also be the foundation for Mozilla's Firefox OS branding requirements.

"Users want a wide selection of devices and great apps. Operators, device OEMs and vendors want to be able to develop and test quickly and independently, in order to get new products to market. The CRB will enable partners to do so efficiently, reliably and confidently," said Andreas Gal, vice president of mobile at Mozilla and president of the CRB. "This is the next step in building the ecosystem and will make it easier for partners to get a wide selection of high-quality solutions into consumers' hands quickly and efficiently."

The members of the CRB consist of a mix of partners covering geographically diverse markets, all with an interest in the success of an open mobile system. Participants in the CRB at launch are Deutsche Telekom, KDDI, LG, Mozilla, Qualcomm, Sony Mobile, Spreadtrum, TCL, Telefónica, Telenor and ZTE.

CRB certification testing will be conducted by external labs authorized by the CRB, with each test expected to be completed within approximately three days of submission.

Samsung Mobiles is India's Most Attractive Brand, Sony takes 2nd place:

The latest report from TRA (Trust Research Advisory), India's leading brand insights company, titled India's Most Attractive Brands 2013 (MAB 2013) is out. Samsung Mobiles, the blitzkrieg marketer, emerges as India's Most Attractive Brand in 2013. India's second Most Attractive brand is the Consumer Durables leader Sony, followed by Nokia as the third most attractive across all categories. India's top three Most Attractive brands are very close together with just 2% gap between each other. Following at fourth place is LG, the South Korean Consumer Electronics leader with 8% attractiveness score lag from the previous. Placed at India's fifth Most Attractive brand is India's home-grown conglomerate, Tata, trailing its predecessor by 11%. The results are based on a primary survey conducted with 2505 consumer-influencers across 16 cities based on TRA's proprietary matrix of 36 Brand Attractiveness Traits.

Launching the report, N. Chandramouli, CEO, TRA (a Comniscient Group company) observed, "The force of attractiveness is a primal force that affects all of us with the same intensity - whether it be attraction with other humans, objects, places or brands. As a brand insights company, TRA spent years understanding the basics of attractiveness by delving into several subjects ranging from philosophy to physiology, religion and communication, and have developed a robust proprietary matrix for deciphering the complex subject of Brand Attractiveness."