Kakao Talk to compete with global rivals in U.K.

As Kakao Talk ramps up its efforts to infiltrate the U.K. market, much attention is being paid to whether the Korean mobile messenger will be as successful there as it is on its home turf.Kakao made an impressive debut in the U.K. in August when it ran an advertisement at Cardiff City’s stadium during a football match between the Wales-based home club and Manchester City. The company’s logo also appeared on the jerseys of Cardiff players. After the match (Cardiff beat Manchester City 3-2), it wa

Dec. 25, 2013

Apollo 8 astronaut marks 1968 broadcast to Earth

CHICAGO (AP) ― Standing by a part of the Apollo 8 spacecraft he once rode, retired astronaut James Lovell read the 1968 Christmastime broadcast from the day he and two others became the first humans to orbit the moon.Lovell marked the 45th anniversary of the orbit and the famous broadcast a day early with a re-enactment of sorts at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.“The idea of bringing people together by a flight to the moon where we encompassed everybody in our thoughts is still very va

Dec. 24, 2013

LG Display CEO says focus on large, UHD, curved TVs

LG Display CEO Han Sang-beom said Monday that the company will focus on extra-large, ultra-high-definition and curved displays next year.“This year can be summed up in one word: struggle. All our employees have wisely overcome challenges by easing concerns raised by markets,” Han said during a ceremony with around 1,000 employees to present this year’s innovation performance and to prepare for next year at its Paju plant in Gyeonggi Province.As a driving force of LG Display, the ceremony has bee

Dec. 23, 2013

Space suit issue prompts delay of 2nd spacewalk

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) ― Astronauts removed an old space station pump Saturday, sailing through the first of a series of urgent repair spacewalks to revive a crippled cooling line.The two Americans on the crew, Rick Mastracchio and Michael Hopkins, successfully pulled out the ammonia pump with a bad valve ― well ahead of schedule. That task had been planned for the next spacewalk, originally scheduled for Monday but now delayed until Tuesday, Christmas Eve, because of the need for a suit s

Dec. 23, 2013

Galaxy S5 will not be curved: sources

Samsung is highly unlikely to adopt Youm, a curved display panel, for the Galaxy S5 smartphone due to its insufficient capacity, industry sources said.“The current capacity for flexible panels is not high enough for the Galaxy S5, which will be rolled out early next year. Curved ones will be unveiled late next year as a Galaxy variant rather than as a flagship model,” said Kim Jong-hyun, an analyst at Seoul-based Eugene Investment & Securities.In line with this, the Suwon-based tech giant earlie

Dec. 22, 2013

GE Healthcare to launch mammography center in Korea

GE Healthcare, the world’s largest medical equipment developer, will invest 200 billion won ($189 million) to build an R&D center for mammography in Korea by 2022.GE’s new Mammography Global Center of Excellence will serve as an R&D and supply hub to meet the growing global demand, with technology to be developed and manufactured in Korea. The demand for mammography in the global market is estimated at about $1 billion. Mammography is a technique for making X-ray images of the breast. GE Healthc

Dec. 19, 2013

Doctors protest telemedicine, for-profit operations

The government’s plans to allow telemedicine and for-profit hospital subsidiaries have riled the medical sector as doctors are concerned that the moves would pave the way for the privatization of medical services and hurt their business. Thousands of medical doctors took to the streets last weekend in protest of the government’s latest medical service development plans.In October, the Ministry of Health and Welfare released a final plan to start telemedicine in 2015. Last week, the government an

Dec. 19, 2013

Seasonal affective disorder

A middle-aged housewife surnamed Kim becomes a different person during the winter. When the weather gets cold, she avoids meeting people and likes to be alone. However, when spring comes, she is lively and enthusiastic. People often feel depressed during the autumn. Many people think that they are sad and lonely due to the cold weather, and because the falling leaves make them feel emotional. Of course, such things can contribute to these emotions, but, in fact, the more direct cause is the decr

Dec. 19, 2013

For China, moon voyage signals something greater

BEIJING (AFP) ― In a darkened auditorium some 250 young Chinese sat spellbound in a projector’s otherworldly blue glow, listening to the father of China’s lunar program chart their country’s once and future voyages in the final frontier.While the U.S. retreats from manned space exploration China is seeking to establish itself as an ascending superpower, in the same way that the U.S. and Soviet Union did when they alone dominated global politics.Colorful maps of interplanetary flight paths and ph

Dec. 19, 2013

‘No More Woof’ claims to translate dog’s thoughts into English

A gadget purporting to translate dogs’brainwaves into a recognizable human language could hit stores in the near future, U.S. media reported Thursday.The gadget uses sensors to detect EEG brainwave patterns and translates them into English through a speaker, CNet said. A Scandinavian research lab, Nordic Society for Invention and Discovery, currently released two versions of the device, priced at $65 and $300. respectively.The $65 version comes with a function to determine two or three thought p

Dec. 19, 2013

LG unveils world's largest 105-inch curved UHD TV

LG Electronics Inc., one of the leading manufacturers of household appliances and electronic devices, unveiled the world's largest curved 105-inch ultra high definition (UHD) TV set on Thursday.The move effectively ups the ante in the escalating race with its archrival Samsung Electronics Co. to field the largest TV set ever made.Before the latest unveiling in Seoul, the highest watermark for a curved liquid crystal (LCD) display TV was 65 inches diagonally, while organic light-emitting diode (O

Dec. 19, 2013