Daily Tech Briefing: May 29, 2014

LG Electronics has introduced the G3 smartphone, along with two messages that the company hopes to convey. The first is that it believes the 5.5-inch Quad HD display is gorgeous, and the second is that this display is not as big as people may fear.

The Quad HD display technology offers four times the pixels of regular HD, along with some new security features. Rather than having a traditional log-in security PIN, the G3 has a Knock Code. There are four quadrants on the display on which a user can tap out a three- to eight-point code for a possible 86,000-plus code options.

Hewlett-Packard has released a private cloud offering for government agencies based on the Helion cloud platform that the company announced three weeks ago.

Called the Helion Managed Private Cloud for Public Sector, it’s designed to give all levels of government a managed and dedicated private cloud solution to allow them to create a shared service model across multiple departments, so agencies will basically be playing the role of IT brokers. Agencies can manage and monitor the use of resources through a Web-based portal. The offering is available immediately.

Broadcom is releasing a power management unit designed to allow smartphone users to wirelessly charge their devices, regardless of what wireless specification their devices support.

The new BCM59350 wireless charging power management unit was announced May 28 and supports the standards from the three industry organizations that offer competing specs for charging devices wirelessly. These include the Alliance for Wireless Power, Power Matters Alliance and the Wireless Power Consortium.

IBM has announced that the cities of Minneapolis and Montpellier, France, are working with the company to implement systems that support data-driven decisions that transform the way they provide water, transportation and emergency management services.

IBM also announced the availability of three new cloud-based Smarter Cities management centers designed for emergency management, water and transportation. With these systems, cities can use their own data along with open data to learn more about delivering citizen services and to empower city leaders to make more informed decisions.