The Korea Herald

Beware of infections during rainy season

With the monthlong rainy season having arrived this week, pay attention to your health, as the high humidity and temperature makes dangerous viruses more active.“Atmospheric temperature and humidity provide an ideal condition for bacteria and viruses to grow in food and water,” an official at the Korea Centers for Disease Control said.“The people should pay more attention to food they eat and the water they drink. Wash your hands as frequently as possible,” he added. The most common illnesses d

June 20, 2013

Beware of infections during rainy season

Local scientists find way to prevent alcohol damage to liver

A team of South Korean scientists has discovered a way to prevent alcohol damaging the liver, the Science Ministry said Wednesday.It has been widely documented that alcohol leads to the creation of reactive oxygen species in the body, which in turn damage the liver, causing hepatitis or even liver cirrhosis, according to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.However, little had been known about exactly what triggers the production of reactive oxygen.According to the ministry, the team

June 20, 2013

New MERS virus spreads easily, deadlier than SARS

LONDON (AP) ― A mysterious new respiratory virus that originated in the Middle East spreads easily between people and appears more deadly than SARS, doctors reported Wednesday after investigating the biggest outbreak in Saudi Arabia.More than 60 cases of what is now called MERS, including 38 deaths, have been recorded by the World Health Organization in the past year, mostly in Saudi Arabia. So far, illnesses haven’t spread as quickly as SARS did in 2003, ultimately triggering a global outbreak

June 20, 2013

New MERS virus spreads easily, deadlier than SARS

Wetting the bed

Nocturnal enuresis means bed-wetting at night. It is very common in children and is present in approximately 15 percent of children 5 and under. It generally goes away as children get older, and is only present in 1 percent of adolescents. CausesThere are three main causes. The first is an immature bladder function. These children often have problems holding urine even in the daytime, and can wet their clothes. The second reason is increased urine production during the night, compared to during

June 20, 2013

Top smartphone makers consider water-cooled tech

Overheating of smartphones is increasingly becoming a problem as users worldwide stay connected longer and more frequently with high-speed fourth-generation Long Term Evolution services. In response, some of the top smartphone makers are expected to incorporate a high-precision water-cooled pipe technology into future devices, according to cooling module manufacturers.Samsung Electronics, Apple and HTC have recently shown interest in adopting the new cooling technology for their future models. T

June 20, 2013

KakaoTalk launches PC version

Korea’s most-used mobile messenger Kakao Talk on Thursday launched an open beta service for its PC version.Kakao announced the availability of the PC version to the applicants who had not been selected for the closed beta test earlier this year by sending an email.Users who received the email can access the PC version by downloading the program from the Kakao website and going through a verification process. The user interface of the desktop version resembles the mobile version, allowing users t

June 20, 2013

Korea's mobile phone replacement rate highest among major OECD countries

South Korea's cell phone replacement rate is the highest among major OECD countries as local mobile carriers' fat subsidies and aggressive marketing lure customers to change their gadgets frequently, a report said Thursday.About 15 million South Koreans, or 28 percent of mobile phone users in the country, replace their handsets every year, according to the report compiled by DigiEco, a research unit of KT Corp.The mobile replacement rate is the highest among major OECD countries, the report said

June 20, 2013

Dell Korea pledges to better communicate

“We feel that Dell Korea has not been able to communicate its product in the best way we could, and we want to start doing that,” said Kim Sung-jun, director of Dell Korea’s Enterprise Solutions Group.On Tuesday, Kim was introducing the company’s new network solutions, an area that despite taking up a large part of the portfolio ― over 50 percent ― of a firm that was once built around PCs. In fact, it was a start-up built on PCs, but today, Dell wants to be known as a top-notch solution provider

June 19, 2013

Why mobile should be a top priority for execs

Today everyone is talking about mobile ― and the mobile revolution has created a new energy and excitement across industries and markets around the globe. In my travels, I meet with customers who are either moving to a mobile business strategy, are wondering if they are moving fast enough, or are overwhelmed by the challenges and the opportunities this sea change represents for their organization. These clients recognize that they have to embrace mobile to succeed as industries are being transfo

June 19, 2013

Why mobile should be a top priority for execs

Frequency spat escalates after KT requests bandwidth

The ongoing battle between the nation’s three mobile carriers ― KT Corp., SK Telecom and LG Uplus ― reached fever pitch this week following a request from KT to the government to put a desirable LTE frequency on sale so KT may purchase it.“It would be an undeserving privilege for KT,” said its rival SKT in a statement on Wednesday. The frequency that KT hopes to own is directly adjacent to its current frequency of 1.8 GHz, which would free KT from having to spend time and money building a broadb

June 19, 2013

Frequency spat escalates after KT requests bandwidth

Health disparity widens between rich and poor: study

Cancer patients from high-income families have a much higher survival rate than their low-income counterparts, a report showed Tuesday.According to the Korea Institute for Health Affairs, the five-year survival rate of male cancer patients in the top 20 percent income bracket was 37.84 percent, 13.80 percentage points higher than those in the bottom 20 percent. Three-year and one-year survival rates of patients from the two income groups also differed by 14.32 percentage points and 14.69 percent

June 18, 2013

Cisco to release new core router for soaring online traffic

In an effort to respond to rapidly increasing Internet traffic, Cisco Systems Korea announced on Tuesday that it would release a new core routing system at the end of this year.In a report released in May, the U.S.-based networking equipment maker predicted that annual global IP traffic would surpass 1.4 zettabytes by the end of 2017 ― a threefold increase from the current traffic. A zettabyte stores 1 billion terabytes of data, or about 250 billion DVDs.In Korea, the IP traffic is expected to d

June 18, 2013

LG’s Optimus G Pro sales hit 1 million mark in Korea

LG Electronics Inc., the world’s third-largest smartphone maker, said Tuesday that sales of its flagship smartphone, the Optimus G Pro, surpassed the 1 million mark nationwide in four months since its release. The phone is was fastest to reach the figure among its smartphone lineup.Sales of the Optimus G Pro broke 500,000 40 days after its launch, becoming LG Electronics’ fastest-selling smartphone.In May, the tech giant rolled out the smartphone in the U.S. and also released the full HD smartph

June 18, 2013

Korea joins forces with FireEye to fight cyber crimes

The government-run Korea Internet Security Agency on Tuesday said it signed a memorandum of understanding with FireEye, a U.S.-based security company specializing in fighting cyber crimes, to help keep Korea’s Internet environment safer and free of attacks. “The two sides will be sharing solutions and other security information to jointly challenge cyber threats and malware that have become borderless crimes occurring all over the world,” said Lee Ki-joo, president of KISA. He stressed that it w

June 18, 2013

Zuckerberg asks Samsung for “Facebook phone”: sources

Mark Zuckerberg, one of the young cofounders of Facebook, on Tuesday met with Samsung Electronics executives including the heir Lee Jay-yong and mobile unit chief Shin Jong-kyun to ask Samsung to manufacture a “Facebook-friendly” phone, industry watchers said.“Facebook has every intention of becoming the second Google, and with that intent in mind, Zuckerberg is said to have asked Samsung to step up cooperation by launching a phone with a Facebook interface,” said one watcher, declining to be id

June 18, 2013

Zuckerberg asks Samsung for “Facebook phone”: sources

Facebook CEO visits Cheong Wa Dae

Facebook cofounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a visit to Cheong Wa Dae on Tuesday.Zuckerberg met with President Park Geun-hye at around 10 a.m. at the presidential office and exchanged opinions on how to help form a creative economy, the administration’s key initiative.Zuckerberg said that he hopes small Korean companies can enter the global market through Facebook‘s platform. The social network leader said that he will continue to invest in the Korean market.He will meet with executives at Sa

June 18, 2013

Prehistoric fish had ‘abs’: scientists

The muscle arrangement of an ancient fish may have included abdominal muscles, previously thought to be only found in land animals, an international team of paleontologists said. The scientists recently published their study in the journal Science on the preserved tissue found in the fossils of an ancient armored fish called a placoderm and managed to map its muscle arrangements.The study’s coauthor, professor Kate Trinajstic of Curtin University in Australia, told the media that she was “stunne

June 17, 2013

Dell Korea to launch SDN-enabled tool

Dell Korea on Sunday said it will launch a new software-defined-network solution this week called the Dell “Active Fabric manager” which provides management and operational control of a converged network.The solution has already been unveiled globally, and is awaiting its launch in Korea. The Active Fabric Manager from Dell is said to be an industry-innovating software tool that automates tasks associated with planning, designing, building and monitoring fabrics to help cut infrastructure operat

June 16, 2013

‘Korea lags in entrepreneurship’

The spirit of entrepreneurship is an essential element for building Korea’s envisioned “creative economy,” but that element may be exactly what the nation lacks, experts said last Friday.“Being able to take risks, being okay with failing multiple times, and learning from each failure and mistake are essential ingredients of becoming a successful entrepreneur,” said Net Jacobsson, a former Facebook executive and entrepreneur, in an interview with The Korea Herald on the sidelines of the first ann

June 16, 2013

Samsung unveils camera-smartphone hybrid for Galaxy line

Samsung Electronics Co. on Wednesday revealed the Galaxy S4 zoom, the latest model of its flagship Galaxy series, which is a cross between a camera and a smartphone.The unconventional gadget features a high-end smartphone while also embedding a quality camera, according to information Samsung released to the U.S. media. Up front, the Galaxy S4 Zoom looks like a smartphone, equipped with the Android 4.2 “Jelly Bean” operation system, a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED 960x540-pixel screen, a 1.5GHz dual-cor

June 14, 2013

Samsung unveils camera-smartphone hybrid for Galaxy line