Speculations are rising that NHN, the operator of Naver, may transform into a holding company as it is expected to newly establish a subsidiary taking control of its mobile businesses.The creation of a new company focusing on mobile-related projects will reportedly become the main topic of discussion during its board meeting next month.According to industry sources, the new organization, which will be set up as early as March, will be formed as a subsidiary of NHN. It is also projected to be mad

TechnologyJan. 16, 2013

NHN and Kakao are in full preparation mode to face off against each other, this time in content. The fight was ignited when Kakao began attracting a large user base with its mobile messenger service Kakao Talk.NHN, the operator of the country’s top portal Naver, has since then rolled out its own mobile messenger service called Line, attempting to outperform its rival.Although it has had no luck accomplishing that goal in Korea, Line’s global performance has been good, becoming the top mobile mes

TechnologyJan. 16, 2013

U.S.-based financial news wire agency Bloomberg said Wednesday that it would launch a Korean news wire service this year.“The decision makers (at the headquarters in New York City) made the final decision to provide news covered and written in Korean,” an insider source at Bloomberg’s Korean branch told The Korea Herald. “The service will be applied on the Bloomberg website around June at the earliest or in the second half at the latest.”At present, Bloomberg offers non-English news services in

Jan. 16, 2013

The Mars rover Curiosity will soon begin to drill into the Red Planet for the first time, mission officials said, ahead of the highly anticipated endeavor.Scientists behind the $2.5 billion mission also explained the nature of the small “Martian flower,” which had caused a lot of buzz online because it was strikingly different from the surrounding rock.Aileen Yingst, of the Planetary Science Institute, said that what could have passed as a flower was in fact a relatively large mineral grain or p

TechnologyJan. 16, 2013

New online role-playing game “ArcheAge” launched its paid service at 8 a.m. Wednesday, after a two-week free trial period. XLGAMES, developer of the title, launched paid subscriptions for “ArcheAge” earlier last week. According to XLGAMES’s official website, fixed-rates that offer 30-days and 90-days of play time are 19,800 won ($18.74) and 47,500 won ($44.96), respectively. Alternately, players can choose a 30-hour subscription plan which costs 9,900 won ($9.37).XLGAMES has previously presented

TechnologyJan. 16, 2013

A study has found that people are more able to remember Facebook posts from their friends than random book quotes or human faces. 　The study “Major memory for microblogs,” conducted by academics at the University of Warwick and UC San Diego, asked undergraduate students to read posts from their Facebook feeds. They were also given sentences from random books and human faces to memorize. The researchers then asked them to recall the online posts, book quotes and human faces.The result showed stud

TechnologyJan. 16, 2013

 Japan's two biggest airlines on Wednesday grounded all their Dreamliners in the most serious blow yet to Boeing's troubled next-generation model after an ANA flight was forced into an emergency landing.The 787 Dreamliner has suffered more than a week of bad news that has prompted safety investigations by three national aviation regulators, although Boeing insists the plane is safe.All Nippon Airways -- the world's first carrier to receive the Dreamliner from Boeing after years of delays -- said

IndustryJan. 16, 2013

An Australian biologist has described the discovery of a large green “flying” frog in Vietnam that uses its big webbed feet to glide through forests.Writing in the Journal of Herpetology, Jodi Rowley, an amphibian biologist at the Australian Museum in Sydney, told how she and other researchers “came across a huge green frog, sitting on a log,” not far from the capital, Ho Chi Minh City.She later determined the 3.5-inch creature is a relatively large new type of flying frog, a group known for its

TechnologyJan. 16, 2013

Two super hero-themed vehicles at the auto show in Detroit are there for more than just their flashy looks.The Batman-decorated Kia Optima and the Green Lantern-wrapped Kia Soul are at the South Korean automaker‘s exhibit to promote an effort to fight hunger in Africa. Features include Batman symbols inside and outside on the Optima, and the Green Lantern’s symbol on the Soul‘s wheels.The vehicles were created as part of a partnership involving DC Entertainment. The ``We Can Be Heroes’‘ effort i

MobilityJan. 16, 2013

Japanese scientists say they‘ve successfully bred a type of salmon indigenous to the country through the use of surrogate parents of a different species.Researchers at the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology reported they extracted spermatogonia, or primordial germ cells, from endangered yamame salmon, a Japanese species that lives the entirety of its life in rivers.The germ cells were implanted into sterile rainbow trout hatchlings, where the cells developed into fully functioning

TechnologyJan. 16, 2013

Growing gross national income, has not led to equal growth in household income, according to the Bank of Korea. The effect is particularly strong in economically polarized countries such as Korea that depend on corporate growth to boost the economy.Research released Monday by the BOK reveals that Korea’s average household income is falling in relation to GNI, indicating that the financial situation of ordinary families is falling behind that of the national economy.Between 1995 and 2011, househo

Jan. 15, 2013