AI speaker manufacturers vie to secure local users to boost competitiveness

South Korean artificial intelligence speaker manufacturers are scrambling to lock in consumers that are critical for boosting their competitiveness moving forward, industry watchers said Tuesday.SK Telecom, the country's largest mobile operators, and Naver Corp., the top Internet portal operator here, have recently unveiled half-price and free speakers as part of a promotional event to win over users.AI speakers interact with users by engaging in audio searches and other functions through voice

Aug. 15, 2017

Korea Herald strengthens video service on YouTube

The Korea Herald is now beefing up its YouTube channel in a bid to offer more multimedia content to readers in partnership with Google, which runs the world’s biggest video site. The majority of videos are one to two minutes in length, covering various issues in politics, social affairs, technology, culture and sports to offer an additional angle to stories carried on The Korea Herald’s print edition.  (The Korea Herald`s YouTube channel)The channel’s signature thumbnail design helps viewers nav

Aug. 14, 2017

The Korea Herald relaunches website to mark 64th anniversary

Marking the 64th anniversary, The Korea Herald is launching a redesigned website aimed at offering not only spot news but also thought-provoking analysis in a more reader-friendly way. Since it was first published in 1953, The Korea Herald has acted as a bridge between Korea and the world, providing accurate and unbiased news to readers across the world in real time, thanks to the internet and social media. The latest overhaul of the website affects the company’s flagship PC website as well as m

Aug. 14, 2017

[Newsmaker] Living in a whole new world: a snippet of daily life in 2030 Seoul

Living in the fast-forward era, yesterday quickly seems blurry and outdated while tomorrow looks unreal and overwhelming.With the evolution of technologies at full tilt, the new world, according to today’s predictions, would change or deprive us of our labor values and cost us never-ending consumption, yet provide us with great efficiency and even groundbreaking revolution of human kind.The future could be a dystopia of man-eat-man world trounced by the artificial intelligence, or a utopia of a

Aug. 14, 2017

Blizzard Korea accused of antitrust breach over ‘Starcraft: Remastered’

South Korea’s PC cafe owners have accused Blizzard Entertainment of breaching the local antitrust law by introducing a new fee system for “Starcraft: Remastered,” a high-definition remake of the firm’s smash-hit PC strategy game “Starcraft.”The Internet PC Culture Association, which represents local internet PC cafes where people play online games, also known as “PC bangs” here, said Monday that it had petitioned the Korea Fair Trade Commission to investigate Blizzard for unfairly charging them

Aug. 14, 2017

Naver's online map service adds new Dokdo photos

Naver Corp., South Korea's top Internet portal operator, said Monday that it has added updated images of the Dokdo islets in the East Sea to its online map service just ahead of the 72nd anniversary of the country's liberation from Japan's colonial rule.South Korea celebrates Liberation Day -- a major holiday to mark the anniversary of Korea's independence from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule -- on Tuesday. (Photo courtesy of Naver Corp.) (Yonhap)The new photos include a lot of fascinating underwa

Aug. 14, 2017

LG V30 to be unlocked via any voice keywords

Say “Good Day” and your phone will automatically be unlocked. This will be one of the features of LG Electronics’ upcoming flagship smartphone V30, which will also offer an intuitive user experience and a professional camera mode.With less than three weeks to go before LG debuts its new V30 in Berlin, the Korean tech giant has disclosed some of its new features.LG said Monday that its V30 will allow users to unlock the device via voice commands using keywords, for instance “Good Day,” without th

Aug. 14, 2017

Mobile platform potential 'game changer' for game industry

South Korea's longtime online game giant Nexon Korea Co. is finding itself threatened by its smaller local rival Netmarble Games Corp. partly as mobile has become a more popular platform than desktops, market watchers said Monday.Netmarble, South Korea's No. 1 mobile game developer and publisher, announced on Friday that its sales for the first half of this year came to 1.22 trillion won ($1 billion) on the back of the global popularity of its latest mobile game "Lineage 2 Revolution."It marked

Aug. 14, 2017

Science chief’s resignation puts Moon’s innovation drive on hold

The sudden resignation of the chief of the newly created science and technology control tower Friday has not only put the government’s appointment system in question but has also put its drive to innovate the sector on hold.Facing strong opposition from academia and political parties, Park Ky-young, chief of the Office of Science, Technology and Innovation at the Ministry of Science and ICT, stepped down from the post four days after taking the job.The office was launched as part of President Mo

Aug. 13, 2017

5G smartphones likely to emerge in 2019: report

Smartphones that run on the fifth-generation network are predicted to emerge starting from 2019, while current 4G network smartphones are likely to remain mainstream until 2022, according to market researcher Strategy Analytics on Sunday. “We predict 5G enabled smartphones will emerge from 2019, but it will start to ramp up volumes from 2021 onwards,” said Yiwen Wu, an analyst at Strategy Analytics, in a report, adding “4G has replaced 3G as the world’s dominating smartphone air-interface in 201

Aug. 13, 2017

Korea’s AR mobile game for children ‘Pororo Friends’ begins service

A South Korean company has officially launched “Pororo Friends,” a new augmented reality mobile game for children based on the characters of the global animation series “Pororo the Little Penguin.”　The children’s mobile game, now available on the Google Play app store, was developed by SocialNetwork Co., a local startup specializing in AR technology, in partnership with the producer of the Pororo series Iconix Entertainment. The Seoul-based ESA is the game’s publisher.SocialNetwork Co. began dev

Aug. 13, 2017

LG V30 expected to be equipped with FM radio

LG Electronics Inc.'s upcoming smartphone, the LG V30, is expected to allow users to enjoy FM radio broadcasting services, industry sources said Sunday.The South Korean tech giant joined ties with the US NextRadio application, allowing users to listen to FM radio via the V30, the sources said. (Yonhap)There has been a rising call for local tech firms to adopt FM radio on smartphones so users can get critical information during disasters.LG applied FM radio on the mid-end smartphone, the Q6, rele

Aug. 13, 2017

SK Telecom posts robust sales of portable AI device on first day

South Korea's top mobile carrier SK Telecom Co. said Sunday it sold around 5,000 units of the portable edition of its artificial intelligence device NUGU on the first day of release.The mobile carrier said the sales of the NUGU Mini, which started Friday, were five times higher than the predecessor. (Yonhap)First released in September last year, NUGU focuses on providing household-related services. The mobile carrier has sold some 150,000 units of the original NUGU.SK Telecom said the NUGU Mini

Aug. 13, 2017

Chief science official steps down

Science, Technology and Innovation Office chief Park Ky-young leaves the Ministry of Science and ICT in Gwacheon on Friday. (Yonhap)Park Ky-young, President Moon Jae-in's newly appointed senior science innovation chief official, stepped down Friday amid escalating controversy over her involvement in a stem cell research scandal 11 years ago."I once again apologize for disappointing the people and causing continuous controversies," she said through a written statement released Friday evening."I s

Aug. 11, 2017

Leaks, rumors reveal Galaxy Note 8’s specifications

With less than two weeks to go before Samsung Electronics debuts its new flagship phablet Galaxy Note 8 in New York, numerous leaks and rumors have surfaced, revealing the device’s specifications, price and release dates. According to latest news reports citing insiders, the Galaxy Note 8 will sport a 6.3-inch display, which is the largest display ever to be featured on a premium smartphone and 0.6-inch larger than its predecessor, the Note 7. It will also feature a near edge-to-edge display lik

Aug. 11, 2017

LG, Samsung tech firms sweep viral video ads chart

South Korea's top two tech firms, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, swept the chart for the week's most viral video ads, according to an advertising industry website Friday.LG's "Nano Cell Super Match," featuring a shooting match between Steven Gerrard and Adam Lallana of Liverpool, scored over 33 million clicks this week to top the Viral Video Chart released by Ad Age for the second week of August. The ad was posted at the start of the month on YouTube.The former No. 1 ad for Apple Inc.'s

Aug. 11, 2017

[Monitor] Korea’s trade surplus in chips more than doubles

South Korea’s semiconductor trade surplus in the first seven months this year reached $28.9 billion, rising sharply from $12.6 billion in the same period in 2016, marking over a twofold on-year increase. This year’s figure so far already surpasses the combined surplus of $25.6 billion for 2016.It also shows that memory chips take up nearly half of the country‘s trade profits, casting concerns over the economy’s excessive dependency to the industry that is vulnerable to global market fluctuations

Aug. 10, 2017

New science official refuses to step down

President Moon Jae-in's newly appointed senior science innovation official said Thursday that she will not step down from the post amid growing calls for her resignation due to her involvement in a stem cell research fraud scandal 11 years ago.Park Ky-young, a biology professor at Sunchon National University, served as a senior advisor to former President Roh Moo-hyun for some two years until 2006 when she resigned over a shocking revelation that Hwang Woo-suk, the country's leading stem cell sc

Aug. 10, 2017

Instagram tops 10m active monthly users in Korea

Instagram, a photo-sharing app owned by US social networking giant Facebook, topped 10 million users in South Korea as of this month.Facebook Korea said Thursday that the number of monthly active users on Instagram surpassed 10 million as of August. Monthly active users refer to app users who log into the app more than once per month.Instagram was launched in Korea in December 2012. The photo-sharing app has since grown rapidly here, topping 6 million users as of March 2016. Globally, Instagram

Aug. 10, 2017

Kakao posts record revenue in Q2 on upbeat ad, content sales

South Korean mobile messaging giant Kakao said Thursday that it recorded its highest quarterly revenue to date in the second quarter, led by a hike in its advertising and content sales.　Kakao saw revenue of 468.4 billion won ($410.6 million) during the April-June period, marking a 24 percent jump on-year. During the same period, operating profit soared 68 percent on-year to 44.6 billion won. However, net profit came in at 12.5 billion won, down 6 percent on-year, due to increased operating expen

Aug. 10, 2017