The Korea Herald

Merck confident of OLED-led future

As a global pioneer in display technology, namely liquid crystals, Merck KGaA is confident of continuing to lead the markets despite an inevitable change of trends from LCD to organic light-emitting diodes, or OLED.“Our role is to help our customers to become more cost-efficient in OLED production,” said Walter Galinat, president of Merck’s Performance Materials Division. For Merck, which holds more than 3,000 patents for liquid crystals, a core technology that accounts for 95 percent of the gl

Oct. 3, 2013

World’s first fingerprint mobile payment launched

The nation’s mobile payment service provider Danal said Monday it has rolled out the world’s first fingerprint-based mobile payment in partnership with Crucialtec, a fingerprint technology developer. The payment system will first be applied to local handset maker Pantech’s VEGA LTE-A smartphone. When users download an application called BarTong, they can use their smartphones like cash in convenient stores. Instead of entering a four-digit password, users scan their fingerprint via the smartphon

Oct. 1, 2013

World’s first fingerprint mobile payment launched

Baby is born in Japan after ovary experiment

A new technique that coaxes an infertile woman's ovaries into producing eggs again has resulted in the birth of a baby in Japan, international scientists said Monday. A second woman has also become pregnant using the same method, according to the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed US journal. Researchers caution that the technique is still in its early stages, but could offer hope for young women whose ovaries are no longer producing eggs.This condition

Oct. 1, 2013

Baby is born in Japan after ovary experiment

KAIST team produces gasoline using E. coli

A group of scientists from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has discovered a way to produce gasoline using bacteria for the first time, the school announced. The finding, published online in the journal Nature on Sunday, could mark a step toward developing new renewable energy. The research team led by Lee Sang-yup, a professor at the chemical and biomolecular engineering department, used Escherichia coli bacteria that naturally turn sugars into fat to convert fatty acid i

Sept. 30, 2013

KAIST team produces gasoline using E. coli

S. Koreans aged 50 and above lack retirement plan: poll

South Koreans aged 50 and above have few plans for post-retirement life, a poll showed Monday, urging the authorities to revise its pension programs to cover those in need of support for basic needs.According to a nationwide poll conducted by the National Pension Research Institute in 2011, only 16.1 percent of 6,341 South Koreans aged 50 and above surveyed said they are enrolled in public pension programs.Among those who are covered by pensions, the majority were enrolled in the national pensio

Sept. 30, 2013

Samsung SDS to merge with Samsung SNS

Samsung SDS, an information and communication technology service firm, announced Friday a plan to merge with Samsung SNS, a network service and solution provider. The two companies are units of Korea’s top conglomerate Samsung Group. The merger touched off speculation that the group has begun in earnest to reorganize its affiliates to prepare for the time after group leader Lee Kun-hee steps down.Samsung SDS said in its statement that its board of directors decided to absorb its sister firm to r

Sept. 27, 2013

Beware of infectious diseases in the fall

People are spending more time outside since the summer has passed and the weather has become cooler. However, febrile infectious diseases are common at this time of the year. These include hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, leptospirosis, and scrub typhus (tsutsugamushi disease). These diseases occur in Korea every year, but can be difficult to diagnose in the early stages because of their atypical symptoms. Failure to treat appropriately can also lead to rare but serious complications, and

Sept. 26, 2013

Beware of infectious diseases in the fall

Government to help failed entrepreneurs try again

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of articles scrutinizing key aspects and sectors related to the creative economy promoted by the Park Geun-hye government. The series will feature interviews with top government officials and IT gurus, and strategies that embody the policy. The special articles were made in cooperation with the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. This is the seventh installment of the series. ― Ed.Choi Mun-kee, Korea

Sept. 25, 2013

Government to help failed entrepreneurs try again

Microsoft offers trade-in program targeting iPhone users

Microsoft is to kick off a new promotion dubbed “timetoswitch” in select stores in the U.S. and Canada on Friday, giving out cash points at a minimum of $200 that can be used to buy their own products in exchange for a used iPhone 4S or 5, Forbes reported on Tuesday. Citing Microsoft sources, Forbes predicted marginal success, saying, “the trade-in campaign may be a little too late,” referring to millions of consumers who are “not only freshly tied to a new contract but overtly prefer the iOS pl

Sept. 25, 2013

Samsung set to launch curved smartphone in Q4

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest smartphone maker, is planning to roll out mobile devices with slightly curved screens in the fourth quarter of this year, a senior company official said, in a move to continue its dominance in the market.Park Sang-jin, CEO of Samsung SDI, told reporters that the country's tech giant plans to release the new portable device that adopts plastic organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels."As plastic liquid crystal displays are strong enough to neither sh

Sept. 25, 2013

Pantech vice chairman offers to step down

Park Byeong-yeop, the vice chairman of Pantech Co., South Korea’s third-largest maker of mobile phones, has tendered his resignation mainly due to poor health, industry sources said Tuesday.The 50-year-old executive founded Pantech in 1991 and led the transformation of the small mobile venture into the country’s No. 3 mobile phone maker.Market watchers said the decision came as the company’s earnings continued to remain stagnant in recent months. Pantech posted an operating loss of 49.5 billion

Sept. 24, 2013

Pantech vice chairman offers to step down

Samsung, LG reconcile over display suits

Samsung, LG reconcile over display suits Samsung Display and LG Display, the world’s top rival display makers, on Monday said they have dropped all lawsuits against each other in a reconciliatory gesture.“This agreement will give us a chance to resolve our legal dispute and together move in a more productive direction,” said Kim Gwang-joon, executive vice president of intellectual property at Samsung Display.LG Display spoke in a similar vein, saying in a statement that the two sides will put as

Sept. 23, 2013

Korean students win third straight science olympiad

South Korean high school students swept the top awards at the annual international science competition, claiming the overall crown for the third year in a row, the Science Ministry announced Monday. The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said the country’s national team grabbed the championship at the International Earth Science Olympiad by winning three gold medals and one silver medal. The competition was held in Mysore, India, from Sept. 11 to 19. Korea shared the top spot with Taiw

Sept. 23, 2013

Apple’s iPhone poised for record as China joins global debut

Apple Inc. attracted long lines of shoppers today for the global debut of its latest iPhones, the company’s biggest product introduction this year.In New York, customers lined up around the block to get into Apple’s flagship Fifth Avenue store, while in Munich about 2,000 gathered to buy the new iPhone 5s and 5c, and in London the waiting crowd stretched about a mile. Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook and other executives visited customers at stores in Palo Alto, California, near the compan

Sept. 21, 2013

Samsung, LG likely to falter in third quarter

A number of top brokerages on Monday cut their third-quarter earnings forecasts for Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, but expected both to make a strong comeback in the fourth quarter on improved smart device sales and rising chip demand. Samsung Securities lowered its forecast for Samsung’s third-quarter net profit to 9.8 trillion won ($9 billion) from 10.2 trillion won, while Kyobo Securities also expected a quarterly profit of around 9.8 trillion won. “Sales of consumer electronics are

Sept. 16, 2013

Confiscation of smuggled gold increases sharply

The customs agency said Monday that it has confiscated a total of 127 kilograms of gold being smuggled into the country so far this year.The amount is much higher than 13 kilograms of confiscated gold last year, according to data provided by the Korea Customs Service. It is valued at 6.8 billion won ($6.3 million). The increase is attributable to the agency’s recently stepped-up crackdown efforts. In May, the KCS launched teams exclusively tasked with investigating gold smuggling attempts. “We h

Sept. 16, 2013

[Graphic News] Twitter Inc. to go public

Twitter Inc. filed for an initial public offering last week, gearing up for the most high-profile debut in the tech sector since Facebook’s last year. Global attention is also being paid to whether Twitter shares will decline following its IPO as Facebook did.

Sept. 15, 2013

[Graphic News] Twitter Inc. to go public

Samsung closer to ushering in ‘Tizen’ era

Samsung Electronics hinted at the advent of the open-source operating system “Tizen” under co-development with Intel by saying it would apply it to a wide array of products including televisions and smartphones. In a recent interview with Die Welt, a German publication during the IFA 2013 trade show in Berlin, Yoon Boo-keun, Samsung’s chief of consumer electronics business said, “Tizen is going to be used on some of our smartphones, along with our TVs and on home appliances.” He added that this

Sept. 13, 2013

Samsung closer to ushering in ‘Tizen’ era

Public medical spending for seniors soars in H1

Senior citizens' medical expenses covered by South Korea's national health insurance jumped on-year in the first half of 2013, data showed Friday, apparently due to the country's fast-aging trend.According to the data by the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS), medical expenses for people aged 65 and older came to 8.9 trillion won (US$8.2 billion) in the January-June period, up 7.8 percent from a year earlier.The number accounts for nearly 36 percent of the 24.7 trillion won spent by the fi

Sept. 13, 2013

NASA: Voyager 1 probe has left the solar system

Voyager 1 has crossed a new frontier, becoming the first spacecraft ever to leave the solar system, NASA said Thursday.Thirty-six years after it was launched from Earth on a tour of the outer planets, the plutonium-powered probe is more than 11 1/2 billion miles (18.51 billion kilometers) from the sun, cruising through interstellar space _ the vast, cold emptiness between the stars, the space agency said.Voyager 1 actually made its exit more than a year ago, according to NASA. But it's not as if

Sept. 13, 2013