IFA organizer bolsters security over terrorism woes

The organizer of the Internationale Funkausstellung in Berlin plans to expand security measures amid rising concerns over terrorism, industry sources said Monday.The move comes as around 240,000 visitors are expected to visit the venue of the global tech fair, which kicks off for a six-day run on Sept. 1. South Korea's tech giants, including Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc., will participate in the annual event.Sources said while there have been no signs of possible attacks at the

Aug. 28, 2017

Seoul restarts procedures to offer free, ultrafast Wi-fi in subway stations, cars

South Korea will kickstart procedures to install a free, ultrafast public Wi-Fi system within Seoul’s subways by 2019 this week, resuming the state-led project that had been pushed back over procedural transparency issues.The Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul Metro Corp., which operates the city’s subway lines 1-8, is set to start accepting bids from companies for Seoul’s metro system telecom service improvement project from Monday.The government had initially sought to complete the pr

Aug. 27, 2017

Netmarble Games steps up social contribution efforts

South Korean mobile game giant Netmarble Games is stepping up its social contribution efforts to foster a healthy gaming culture and development community in Korea.　Netmarble currently operates 31 game culture experience centers across the country’s special education schools for the disabled as part of its 10-year-old social benefit program. It has also been holding an e-sports gaming tournament for disabled students since 2009. Last year, the Korean mobile gamemaker newly launched the “Netmarbl

Aug. 27, 2017

LG expands AI partnership with Amazon further from Google

South Korea’s LG Electronics said Sunday its voice-activated artificial intelligence platform will expand connections further with Amazon, enhancing LG’s smart home environment with global partners. The company plans to unveil operations of its AI-based home appliance lineup being controlled by Amazon’s voice recognition speaker Amazon Echo at the upcoming tradeshow IFA 2017 that kicks off this Friday in Berlin, Germany. Amazon Echo runs based on its AI assistance program Alexa. The latest expan

Aug. 27, 2017

Govt. animal quarantine agency acquires know-how to make bird flu vaccine

South Korea's animal quarantine agency said Sunday that is has acquired know-how to make its own bird flu vaccines.The Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency said that it has developed candidate vaccine materials for its "antigen bank" that targets the H5N6 and H5N1 strains of avian influenza. It said actual tests have already be carried out on chickens and that the results showed the materials met standards set by the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health.The creation of candidate vaccin

Aug. 27, 2017

Samsung to unveil 3 high resolution office monitors at IFA

Samsung Electronics Co. said Sunday that it will unveil three high resolution monitors custom built for the office enviornment at the upcoming global consumer electronics and home appliances exhibition in Berlin.The tech giant said the quad high definition and full high definition sets will make an appearance at the Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin that runs Sept. 1-6 in the German capital.The largest of the trio -- the CH89 model -- will have a 34-inch curved 21:9 screen aspect ratio scree

Aug. 27, 2017

Korea's animal quarantine agency develops diagnosis kit for FMD

South Korea's animal quarantine agency said Sunday that its has developed the world's first diagnosis kit that can simultaneously check three different types of foot-and-mouth disease strains.The kit is able to detect the O, A and Asia 1 serum types of the highly contagious disease that affects all cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, pigs, deer, goats, Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency said. It said the latest kit can tell if an animal has been infected within 15 minutes. FMD is classified as

Aug. 27, 2017

Mobile phone displays to overtake TV screens in 2017: market trackers

The worldwide market for mobile phone displays is expected to overtake that of TVs screens for the first time ever this year, brought on by the change in consumer demand, industry trackers said Sunday.According to IHS Markit, growth of mobile panels averaged 17 percent annually in the past seven years, effectively bridging the gap with TV screens that have traditionally led the market. The US-based information and solutions provider said while mobile phone-related displays have surged forward, s

Aug. 27, 2017

Samsung Bioepis gets nod for biosimilar drug in Europe

South Korean biopharmaceutical firm Samsung Bioepis Co. said Friday it has won approval from European authorities for the sale of its biosimilar drug Imraldi.The European Commission accepted Samsung Bioepis' application to sell the biosimilar referencing AbbVie Inc.'s Humira, the company said in a regulatory filing. The drug treats various diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, and Crohn’s disease.With the approval, Imraldi can be sold in 28 EU member states as wel

Aug. 25, 2017

Samsung Electronics starts preorders for Galaxy Note 8

Samsung Electronics Co. on Friday kicked off preorders for the Galaxy Note 8 in a handful of countries, including the United States and Britain, ahead of the official release slated for Sept. 15.According to industry sources, the 64 gigabyte model of the Galaxy Note 8 is being sold for $929 in the US Including taxes, the price is expected to hover above $1,000. The device was selling for a higher price range in Canada and Australia.Preorders in South Korea are expected to begin Sept. 7. (Yonhap)

Aug. 25, 2017

Scientists develop electricity-harvesting yarn

A group of South Korean and American scientists have developed high-tech yarn that generates electricity, Seoul's ICT ministry said Friday, a finding that may one day lead to the development of smartphones and other devices that do not need batteries.The Ministry of Science and ICT said a joint international research team from Hanyang University in Seoul and the University of Texas at Dallas developed the yarn -- which is constructed from carbon nanotubes -- that can harvest energy when stretche

Aug. 25, 2017

Korea's cutting edge ICT prowess to be highlighted at PyeongChang Olympics

The upcoming 2018 PyeongChang Olympics will likely be a showcase of South Korean know-how in state-of-the-art information and communication technology, with mobile operators and carmakers to highlight their prowess at the world's biggest winter sports competition.KT Corp., the country's No. 1 fixed-line Internet operator, will test run the fifth-generation mobile network, or 5G, for the first time in the world at the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games slated for February next year in the eastern m

Aug. 24, 2017

China’s Haier sues Samsung, LG over TV patents in New York

Chinese electronics manufacturer Haier filed a lawsuit against South Korean rivals Samsung and LG Electronics and some others over their monopoly on patents related to the production of televisions with a New York court, according to news reports Thursday. Haier claimed in the suit that Korean TV makers and others pay a patent licensing company named MPEG LA too much for royalties for patents required by the US Federal Communications Commission for manufacturing digital TVs. Defendants sued by H

Aug. 24, 2017

[Newsmaker] Samsung’s new Galaxy Note 8 plays it safe

Launching the much-awaited flagship smartphone Galaxy Note 8 in New York, Samsung Electronics played it safe instead of shaking things up with stunning new features. This is the first Note model after the exploding fiasco of the Note 7 last year that tarnished Samsung’s reputation. The debacle was reportedly caused by packing in too many new features like an iris scanner, increasing battery capacity and accelerating the release schedule on the rush to beat Apple. Samsung, this time, chose safety

Aug. 24, 2017

Netmarble’s ‘Lineage II: Revolution’ becomes top-grossing app in Japan

South Korea’s Netmarble Games said Thursday that its mobile game “Lineage II: Revolution” had become the top-grossing app in Japan’s Apple App Store, just 18 hours after its official launch in the country. 　It is the first time that a Korea-made mobile game has taken the No. 1 spot in app revenue ranking in Japan’s App Store, marking a milestone for Korea’s mobile game business.Netmarble released “Lineage II: Revolution,” a mobile role-playing game based on the storyline of NCSoft’s popular PC o

Aug. 24, 2017

LG Electronics to release Q8 smartphone

LG Electronics Inc. said Thursday it will start sales of the LG Q8 smartphone this week, which will be equipped with high-end audio features.The South Korean tech said sales will start Friday with a price tag of 616,000 won. Equipped with a Quad-Digital to Analog Converter, LG said the smartphone boasts top of the line audio features in its price range. (Yonhap)LG said the 5.2-inch Q8 also comes with quality camera-related features and is capable of taking wide-angle photos.The dual-lens rear ca

Aug. 24, 2017

Not all pay TV operators winning from VOD market expansion: report

The video-on-demand service is a fast-growing market for the pay TV industry, but opportunities are not going evenly to all operators, a report said Thursday.The report released by Korea Information Society Development Institute showed VOD sales growing yearly since 2014, expanding from 573.39 billion won ($507 million) that year to 650.78 billion won in 2015 and to 709.38 billion won in 2016. (Yonhap)But not all operators gained from the growing business, according to the report. Internet proto

Aug. 24, 2017

Netmarble's 'Lineage 2: Revolution' lands in Japan

Netmarble Games, South Korea's top mobile game developer, on Wednesday rolled out its mega-hit title, "Lineage 2: Revolution," in Japan.The mobile role-playing game immediately became the most popular free app both in the Google Play Store and Apple's App Store.The game -- which has gained huge popularity after its release in 11 Asian countries earlier this year -- already received more than 1 million pre-registrations in Japan. (Yonhap)"It is very unusual for a mobile game to receive more than

Aug. 23, 2017

SK hynix may be far from acquiring Toshiba

At the news of the ongoing meeting between the top management of Japan’s Toshiba and US-based memory maker Western Digital in Tokyo, industry observers are raising the possibility that South Korea’s SK hynix may be far from acquiring Toshiba’s chipmaking unit, according to news reports Wednesday. According to a report by Japan’s Nikkei, the meeting of the chiefs of the two longtime business partners – Toshiba CEO Satoshi Tsunakawa and Western Digital CEO Stephen Milligan – could bring a major ch

Aug. 23, 2017

LG to build $25m EV component plant in Michigan

LG Electronics is accelerating expansion of its vehicle component business with the decision to construct a plant for electric vehicle components in the United States, the company announced Wednesday. Eyeing the rapidly growing US EV market at around 65 percent annual rates by 2020, LG inked about $25 million investment contract with the state of Michigan, which will turn a 215,000-square-meter area in Hazel Park into an electric vehicle plant complex by the first quarter of 2018. “The latest co

Aug. 23, 2017