Korea participates in global 5G event

South Korea and other major IT countries gathered in Tokyo on Wednesday to discuss the fifth-generation network ecosystem at an international event, Seoul's ICT ministry said.The Global 5G event, the third of its kind, brought together nearly 500 people from the five countries -- South Korea, Japan, the United States, China and the EU -- representing the government, academia and tech industry, according to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.  (Yonhap)The two-day event offers partic

May 24, 2017

SKT CEO highlights two-year efforts to buy Toshiba

SK Telecom CEO Park Jung-ho showed confidence in the ongoing race to take over cash-strapped Toshiba’s NAND flash unit Wednesday.“I have been working on the Toshiba deal for two years,” Park told reporters at the 2017 World IT Show at Coex in Samseong-dong, southern Seoul. “Since it is important to build trust with Japanese shareholders, considering their national sentiment, we had held many meetings with Toshiba shareholders.”  SKT CEO Park Jung-ho (Yonhap)Park, known as a merger and acquisitio

May 24, 2017

LG Electronics to launch payment tool next month

LG Electronics Inc. said Wednesday it plans to officially launch its own mobile payment tool in South Korea next month that is comparable to Samsung Electronics Co.'s Samsung Pay.During the World IT Show 2017 exhibition currently under way in Seoul, the South Korean tech giant showcased LG Pay, which adopted the Wireless Magnetic Communication technology. Samsung Pay is equipped with the Magnetic Secure Transmission technology. (Yonhap)Both payment tools allow people to make payments by touching

May 24, 2017

S. Korean Go master says he expected AlphaGo's victory vs. Ke Jie

South Korean Go master Lee Se-dol said Tuesday that AlphaGo defeated Chinese Go player Ke Jie just as he'd expected.Google's artificial intelligence program defeated Ke, the world No. 1 in the ancient board game, by a half point in 289 moves in the first round of a special Go event named "The Future of Go Summit" in Wuzhen, China.  In this file photo taken on Dec. 13, 2016, South Korean Go master Lee Se-dol speaks in an event hosted by the Korea Baduk Association in Seoul. (Yonhap)The second gam

May 23, 2017

[Exclusive] Samsung to start supply of new portable SSD ‘T5’ next week

Samsung Electronics is preparing to supply new portable solid state drive T5 running on the company’s fourth-generation 64-layer V NAND flash memory chip early next week, according to sources on Tuesday. The South Korean tech titan has named the newest portable drive the SSD T5 and embarked on production for supply next week, a source familiar with the matter told The Korea Herald.  (Yonhap)The portable SSD is a compact storage device suitable for individual users.Samsung introduced a 2-terabyte

May 23, 2017

[Exclusive] Samsung in talks with Hyundai over OLED supply for Genesis

Samsung Display may supply its organic light-emitting diode panels for Hyundai Motor’s luxury sedan Genesis, according to sources Tuesday. If the deal is confirmed, it will be Hyundai’s first adoption of OLED panels for its automobiles. “Samsung is in talks with Hyundai to supply its OLED display for Genesis’ instrument cluster and center information display,” a source familiar with the matter told The Korea Herald.The discussion, which began last year, is still ongoing, as Hyundai is unsure of

May 23, 2017

World IT event to showcase latest devices, technologies

South Korea's largest consumer electronics and technology trade fair will kick off in Seoul later this week to showcase the latest mobile gadgets and telecommunications technologies, the ICT ministry said Tuesday.The World IT Show, hosted by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, will kick off Wednesday at the COEX convention center in southeastern Seoul for a four-day run. (COEX)At this year's event, under the theme of "transform everything," more than 500 companies from 47 countries

May 23, 2017

LG to kick off global sales of LG X Venture

LG Electronics Inc. said Tuesday it will start global sales of the LG X Venture, a smartphone specialized for outdoor activities, in the North American market.Armed with the IP68 water- and dust-resistant feature, LG X Venture is capable of operating 1.5 meters under water for 30 minutes. The device also met the standards of the US Department of Defense, indicating the smartphone can withstand most outdoor conditions. An image of the LG X Venture smartphone, released by LG Electronics Inc. on Ma

May 23, 2017

[Exclusive] ETRI loses US patent suit against China’s Huawei

South Korea’s state-run Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute recently lost a long-running patent lawsuit against China’s Huawei Technologies in the United States, sources told The Korea Herald on Monday. According to the US District Court for the Southern District of California, Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo dismissed last month a wireless patent suit filed by ETRI’s litigation agent SPH America against Huawei in 2013. A dismissal of a case means the plaintiff’s lawsuit is terminat

May 22, 2017

Samsung Display showcases stretchable OLED

Samsung Display will unveil its stretchable display for the first time at the US display conference, the company said on Monday. The Korean display maker said it is showcasing 9.1-inch stretchable organic light-emitting diode panel at the Society for Information Display 2017, which kicks off on Tuesday at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Stretchable display is the most advanced flexible display -- among bendable, foldable and rollable -- which can be stretched to be used for various high techn

May 22, 2017

KT eyes free Wi-Fi roaming in Japan, China

KT said Monday it would move to provide free Wi-Fi roaming services for KT subscribers when they travel to China and Japan. The mobile carrier said it proposed its partners China Mobile and NTT Docomo to cooperate on the free service at the Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement conference held in Sichuan province, China, on Monday.  (Yonhap)SCFA is a consultative body among the three Northeast Asian mobile carriers, established by KT in 2011. KT aims to launch the free Wi-Fi service by the e

May 22, 2017

SKT to launch connected car tech in second half

SK Telecom aims to commercialize two flagship connected car technologies in the second half of this year, the mobile carrier announced Monday. The No.1 telecom business said it will unveil the T RemotEye Vehicle to Everything, known as V2X, and the Remote Advanced Driving Assistance System, or Remote ADAS, at the upcoming World IT Show on Wednesday.  Models test an alarm service by the Remote ADAS in a Socar vehicle on Monday in Seoul. (SK Telecom)The two technologies are under development with

May 22, 2017

[Contribution] How do we communicate with the sensory world?

How do we perceive the world? Information in the external world, i.e., sensory information, needs to be actively processed in the brain to be transformed into a “percept.” Sensory processing (computation of sensory stimuli in the brain) is the gateway to sensory perception, and efficient sensory processing is required for the perceptual behavior of the animal. How do our brain circuits execute this amazing function? We answer this question by studying cortical circuits that control animal percep

May 22, 2017

Samsung's production of refrigerator compressors hits 200m

Samsung Electronics Co. said Monday its accumulated production of compressors for refrigerators reached 200 million since it first started making the products in 1976.The South Korean company said compressors, which produce cold air, can be considered the "engine" of a refrigerator which combines various top-of-the-line technologies. The figure translates into the company producing a compressor unit every three seconds, according to Samsung. (Yonhap)The company said it has been making continuous

May 22, 2017

Pantech sells US patents to stay afloat

South Korea’s former handset maker Pantech has been struggling to seek some profit by handing over its patents for the US market to a local patent troll, media reports said Sunday. According to the reports, Pantech agreed to transfer a total of 230 US patents to Golden Peak Innovations, a patent firm established in Seoul last October. (Yonhap)The patent firm was reportedly founded to help Pantech secure liquidity by transacting the company’s intellectual properties and licenses. Golden Peak now

May 21, 2017

Patent for virtual personal assistants up sharply on future prospects

Patent requests for virtual personal assistants have shot up in recent years, official data showed Sunday, on growing prospects that artificial intelligence will become a part of our everyday lives.According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the number of applications for AI-based smart assistant programs stood at just 11 in 2013, but this jumped to 36 in the following year and reached 61 filings in 2016. (Yonhap)The office said the interest shown reflects ongoing trends that assistant

May 21, 2017

China chasing Korea in larger LCD panel market

Chinese display manufacturers are chasing their South Korean rivals closely by planning to release a larger volume of liquid-crystal panels over 32 inches this year, said a market researcher Sunday. According to a report on the 2017 shipment strategies of Chinese TV panel makers by IHS Markit, Chinese LCD panel suppliers are forecast to ship out a total of 320,000 large-size panels larger than 32 inches by the end of this year, a 33 percent surge from last year. While ramping up production capac

May 21, 2017

ICT ministry to hold forum on foldable display tech

A forum on a new technology to develop silver nanowire-based film, considered a groundbreaking tech for the mass production of foldable displays, will be held this week, the ICT ministry said Sunday.The forum to take place on Tuesday is part of the so-called government-run "Nano Fusion 2020," a project to commercialize technologies developed by the combination of nanotechnologies and conventional technologies, said the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning. (Yonhap)The "flexionet" technol

May 21, 2017

Downloads of AhnLab's smartphone security app top 4 mln

AhnLab Inc., South Korea's largest computer anti-virus service provider, said Friday that its latest smartphone security application has surpassed the 4 million mark in cumulative downloads.AhnLab said in a statement that the "V3 Mobile Security" app, which is designed for Android-based smartphones, reached the download milestone on Tuesday.The free-of-charge security app also placed fifth in the popularity rankings of overall applications available on Google Play, the company added. Launched in

May 19, 2017

COOLJAMM Company to release iOS version of its HumOn

Startup COOLJAMM Company announced Thursday that it is planning to release an iOS version of its independently developed music composition application “HumOn” in August. HumOn is a mobile application that analyzes a melody hummed by the user and converts it into sheet music and even creates accompaniment chords. In this way, the application enables those with no professional training in music to create and write their own music simply by humming a tune.  A screenshot of the music composition app

May 19, 2017