Over 80% of Koreans watch videos online

Eight out of 10, or 81.2 percent, Koreans watch videos online, according to a ICT Ministry report released Wednesday, with about 73.7 percent watching them on a daily basis. The ministry, in its annual survey on internet use patterns, surveyed a total 60,254 people from 25,031 households here between August and September last year. Online video platforms were most frequently used by the younger generation. About 93 percent of the people in their 20s answered that they watch videos online -- t

Feb. 26, 2020

Korea ramps up testing capacity for COVID-19

When dealing with an infectious disease with no available vaccine or treatment, the only containment strategy is testing and diagnosing suspected cases fast and isolating confirmed patients, according to Korean medical experts on Tuesday. Addressing a press conference, six medical societies developing, conducting and quality-controlling tests for the novel coronavirus COVID-19 said as many as 15,000 tests can be done in a day by around 12,000 specialists at 77 medical institutions across

Feb. 25, 2020

Huawei unveils new foldable online amid coronavirus scare

Huawei unveiled its second foldable smartphone, the Mate Xs, in Barcelona, Spain, Monday, in an online broadcast to prevent spreading the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The out-folding Mate Xs has a display the same size as that of its predecessor -- 8 inches diagonally when unfolded -- but features an improved hinge mechanism, called a “falcon-wing hinge,” and a stronger wraparound screen. Huawei’s mobile business head, Richard Yu, said during the launch presentati

Feb. 25, 2020

LG Chem announces cylindrical battery deal with Lucid Motors

LG Chem, South Korea’s leading lithium-ion battery maker, said Tuesday that the company will start supplying cylindrical batteries this year for the Lucid Air, the first electric vehicle to be commercialized by Lucid Motors. The supply deal is expected to enhance the firm’s electric vehicle battery portfolio, along with its proprietary pouch-type batteries. The company is focusing on supplying pouch batteries and has order backlogs worth 150 trillion won ($124 billion). But the

Feb. 25, 2020

Samsung to provide fastest-ever mobile memory

Samsung Electronics announced Tuesday that it had begun mass production of the industry’s first 16-gigabyte DRAM for premium smartphones. The 16 GB low-power DDR5 DRAM, based on Samsung’s second-generation 10-nanometer-class (1y) process technology, offers a data transfer rate of 5,500 megabits per second, which is about 1.3 times faster than the previous mobile memory LPDDR4X. It also offers an energy savings of over 20 percent while providing twice the capacity. The advance wi

Feb. 25, 2020

COVID-19 hits Samsung’s Gumi plant, may affect Galaxy S20, Z Flip phones

Samsung Electronics’ smartphone production facility in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, was shut down over the weekend due to a confirmed case of the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19, industry sources said Sunday. The Gumi facility, 202 kilometers south of Seoul, consists of two production lines for network equipment and premium smartphones, including the latest Galaxy S20 series and the foldable Galaxy Z Flip. A female employee in her 20s who worked on the smartphone line was dia

Feb. 23, 2020

Korean chipmakers start to worry about COVID-19

South Korean chipmakers have started to be concerned about a looming slowdown in demand for chips and impact on production in the wake of an unexpected spike in the number of COVID-19 infections across the country, according to industry sources on Thursday. “So far, the company is not facing any difficulty in running the production lines as usual, but it is worrisome that signs of demand slowdown from set makers are looming as the situation gets worse and longer,” said an official

Feb. 20, 2020

[Graphic News] COVID-19 death toll surpasses that of SARS

　The new coronavirus that emerged in central China at the end of last year has now killed more than 2,000 people and spread around the world. 　The latest figures from China show there were more than 74,185 people infected in the country as of Wednesday. 　SARS was also a coronavirus, and that outbreak started in a wet market too. It infected 8,098 people and killed 774 between November 2002 and July 2003.

Feb. 19, 2020

Korea in for a long fight against virus: experts

A series of novel coronavirus cases without epidemiological ties to previous patients have been reported in Korea in the past four days, with one believed to be linked to at least 15 others. A Korean woman, 61, who started having symptoms as early as Feb. 7, continued with her daily tasks until she was found to be infected Tuesday.  Over the 11 intervening days, authorities say she came into close contact with at least 166 people -- 49 of them health workers -- all of whom are now quaran

Feb. 19, 2020

Iran warns Korean tech firms: reports

South Korean tech giants including Samsung Electronics may face punitive measures by Iran in relation to business decisions that may have been influenced by US sanctions, reports and industry watchers said Tuesday. According to news reports, Iran could refuse entry of Samsung executives and staff and impose a partial ban on registration of Samsung phones with the Iranian mobile network, according to Mohammad Jafar Na’nakar, head of the legal department of the Iranian Ministry of Informati

Feb. 19, 2020

[Chew on IT] Samsung chips vs. SK hynix chips: How do they fare against each other?

Most South Koreans are well aware that the country has the world’s two biggest memory chip giants -- Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. As of the third quarter of last year, the combined market share of the two Korean chipmakers for DRAM, worldwide, stood at 74.4 percent, according to data from market researcher TrendForce. For NAND flash, together they accounted for 45.2 percent of the global market. But not everyone has a clear understanding of the product details that enabled these K

Feb. 19, 2020

South Korea’s environment monitoring satellite successfully launched

The world’s first geostationary environment-monitoring satellite Chollian 2B made by South Korea has been successfully launched and reached outer space, the country’s aerospace research institute said Wednesday.  Chollian 2B was launched on the Ariane 5 ECA rocket from the space center in Kourou, French Guiana, at 7:18 a.m. as scheduled, according to the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. The satellite was detached from the Ariane rocket at 7:49 a.m. and made its first comm

Feb. 19, 2020

Korean-made geostationary environment-monitoring satellite successfully launched

The world's first geostationary environment-monitoring satellite built by South Korea has been successfully launched, the country's state-run aerospace research institute said Wednesday. The Ariane-5 rocket carrying the 3.4-ton Chollian-2B, tasked with monitoring the movement of fine dust and other air pollutants in the East Asian region, as well as tides, is on course to reach its transfer orbit some 36,000 kilometers above the Earth's equator after lifting off from French Guiana at 07:18 p.m

Feb. 19, 2020

Samsung maintains dominant status in Q4 DRAM market despite sales drop: data

Samsung Electronics Co. maintained its dominant status in the global DRAM market in the fourth quarter of 2019 despite a decline in revenue, industry data showed Tuesday.     Samsung's market share in the global DRAM market stood at 43.5 percent in the October-December period, down 1.6 percentage points from three months earlier, while its revenue declined 5 percent to $6.7 billion over the cited period, according to data from market researcher TrendForce.    &

Feb. 18, 2020

[Photo News] LG leader visits design center

LG Group Chairman and Chief Executive Koo Kwang-mo on Tuesday visited LG Electronics’ research and development campus in Seoul, the firm said. During the visit Koo was quoted as saying, “It is design that gives the first impression of our products and delivers this sense of feeling that this product is worth buying.”  At the campus, Koo also checked the company’s consumer electronic products, including a smart door and a wall-mounted OLED TV, as wel

Feb. 18, 2020

[News Focus] Why did UK-based Nanoco sue Samsung?

Questions are emerging about the UK nanotechnology company Nanoco and its past relationship with South Korea’s Samsung Electronics since the British company filed a patent infringement suit against Samsung on Friday. The UK firm filed suit against Samsung with the Texas Eastern District Court, alleging that the Korean tech giant infringed patents for five technologies related to nanoparticles and quantum dot technology that Nanoco claims to have developed. Founded in 2001, Nanoco was s

Feb. 18, 2020

South Korea’s environment-monitoring satellite Chollian 2B awaits countdown

South Korea’s environment-monitoring satellite Chollian 2B will lift off Wednesday morning as scheduled, the government-led aerospace project team said Tuesday. The Chollian 2B, a twin satellite of the Chollian 2A launched in 2018, is the world’s first geostationary satellite to be used in observing air conditions from 36,000 kilometers above the Earth’s equator. “The only thing that is left at the current moment is the countdown,” said Choi Jae-dong, director of

Feb. 18, 2020

LG unveils new budget smartphones with quad rear camera setup

LG Electronics Inc. on Tuesday unveiled new budget smartphones, each with a quad rear camera setup, in the hope that the latest handsets will help its struggling mobile business. LG introduced three new K series models -- K61, K51S and K41S -- that will be launched in Europe, Central and South America in the second quarter. The company did not disclose the prices of the new handsets, but industry observers expect them to be sold for around US$300. The new K series smartphones come with fou

Feb. 18, 2020

[From the Scene] Galaxy S20, Z Flip attract aspiring tech leaders in Silicon Valley

PALO ALTO, California -- After the Galaxy S20 and Z Flip phones were unveiled in San Francisco on Tuesday, aspiring tech leaders studying and working in Palo Alto, the heart of Silicon Valley, flocked to a Samsung shop in the area. Samsung Experience Store in Stanford Shopping Center saw its visitor traffic surge about 80 percent on the day of the “Unpacked” event compared with usual Tuesdays, owing to display shelves spruced up with new devices.  Opened in December, it is on

Feb. 16, 2020

Mobile carriers beef up VR content amid 5G expansion

South Korea's three major mobile carriers are beefing up their virtually reality (VR) content and related services, industry insiders said Saturday, as they aim to attract more customers amid their 5G expansion. The three -- SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. -- commercialized 5G telecommunication last year and have been focusing on securing more 5G subscribers. Taking advantage of 5G's high speed and low latency, they are now rolling out VR content for various sectors -- from entertai

Feb. 15, 2020