As proof that adding Near Field Communication (NFC) to anything makes that thing inherently more interesting, LG has announced an NFC-enabled and voice-activated air conditioner. Why? Because remember in the 80's when companies started putting digital clocks on everything just because they could? That's apparently what NFC is going to be for this decade. We expect to see a lot more things like this in the near future, and it just might be crazy enough to work.

So have guys heard the one about the smartphone, the stalker, and the guy from Google? It might sound familiar: It's almost exactly the same as the one about the tech site and the lost iPhone, but with Google instead of Apple... Apparently, a Google employee (most likely) was field-testing the Nexus 4, the de-facto official Android smartphone supposedly being designed by LG, at a bar in San Francisco last month, and left it there. By the time they figured out it was gone, a couple of people had already found it, revealing the phone's existence and Google's unfortunate slip-up.

E Ink devices are about to get a lot more like paper. LG has just started mass production of the first flexible, plastic E Ink displays. The flexible E Ink displays have a resolution of 1024×768 and are 6 inches diagonal, much like the Kindle and Nook. Unlike the Kindle and Nook, these flexible displays are made primary out of plastic instead of glass laminate, allowing them to be flexible as well as 30% thinner, 50% lighter, and virtually impossible to shatter.

Millenniata and LG have teamed up to create something called the M-Disc, a CD of legendary durability. Ubergizmo reports that the disc is more of a "natural,"stone-like" substance and can withstand all kinds of ridiculous torture, including exposure to boiling water and liquid nitrogen. Unsurprisingly, you need a special device to burn to the M-Disc, but after that, it'll work in any normal CD player and can hold 4.7GB. It takes twice the time to write to the M-Disc, but considering what it must be made of, I feel like that's pretty reasonable.

So, that's all well and good and extremely impressive, but the real question is, "Why?" Granted, it isn't as backwards as creating an indestructible floppy or Zip Disk made out of titanium or something, but it's still a little bit behind the times. The M-Disc is going to be great for all three of the guys who still back up to CD. Besides, boiling water and liquid nitrogen? That's a pretty good deal for chefs and mad scientists, but what about those of us who can't be bothered to use jewel cases? Is it plain old scratch-proof?

In a resounding case of "it's about freaking time," 2011 will be the year that chargers for almost all mobile phones start adopting a new standard based on the microUSB connector. The process began in 2009, when 14 prominent mobile manufacturers (including Apple, LG, Motorola, and Research in Motion, maker of Blackberry phones) realized that it might be nice to A) not have to throw away perfectly good chargers after a phone upgrade and B) be able to lend said chargers to others when their phones are dead. Finally.

LG Display has submitted a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission indicating they're going to start producing a 9.7 color e-paper display and a 19 inch flexible e-paper display.

Companies tend to pump out neat prototypes that get shown off at events like the Consumer Electronics Show, but this is one of the first times in recent memory that "futuristic" technology familiar from film, such as the newspaper in Minority Report, will actually be put into production (and by the end of the year!).