Samsung Galaxy Fold internally ready for launch

Samsung Electronics has completed fixing the flaw in the outer film of the Galaxy Fold and has set a retail price for the Korean market, according to company insiders Monday. In order to prevent the protective film on the outer layer of the foldable display screen from being taken off by hand, the company has decided to adopt a slightly bigger film to cover the entire screen and conceal the edges of the film underneath the screen’s bezel, a Samsung official told The Korea Herald.  Sin

July 3, 2019

Korean fabless firms turn to Samsung amid Japan risk

Amid rising tensions between South Korea and Japan over the latter’s restriction on exports of high-tech materials to Korean chip and display makers, the country’s fabless businesses turned their attention to Samsung Electronics at a forum held in Seoul on Wednesday. More than 500 officials from fabless and semiconductor equipment firms attended the 2019 Samsung Foundry Forum held at a hotel in southern Seoul to learn about Samsung’s foundry business plans for the year. The num

July 3, 2019

Korea speeds up steps to take Japan’s ‘chip move’ to WTO

The South Korean government said Wednesday that it has started to conduct a legal review on its complaint to the World Trade Organization over Japan’s export restrictions -- widely seen as the neighboring country’s retaliation against the ruling by Korea’s top court on wartime forced labor.Trade officials here believe that Japan’s move to limit exports of key materials used to produce semiconductor and displays violates the WTO’s ban on states’ control of expo

July 3, 2019

Oracle announces data center launch in S. Korea

US software giant Oracle officially announced on Wednesday that it has established its first data center in South Korea for cloud computing service, stepping up efforts to compete against global and local vendors in the country’s growing cloud market. During a press conference in Seoul, Oracle Korea chief Tom Song said the company’s Cloud Infrastructure Seoul Region became operational May 14. It is one of 19 new data centers that Oracle plans to build by year-end in Mumbai, Sydney an

July 3, 2019

Galaxy S10 sales 12% higher than predecessor

The first quarter sales of Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy S10 series smartphones were 12 percent higher than sales of the previous model, industry data showed Tuesday.According to industry tracker Counterpoint Research, 16 million units of the Galaxy S10 were sold between March and May, which was more than sales of the Galaxy S9 series in the same period last year. Samsung introduced the Galaxy S10, the Galaxy S10 Plus, and the Galaxy S10e models in March and released the Galaxy S10 5G sm

July 2, 2019

Galaxy Note 10 to be unveiled Aug. 7 in New York

Samsung Electronics will unveil the 10th edition of its Galaxy Note smartphone in New York on Aug. 7, according to an official invitation sent to global media and partners on Tuesday. The Galaxy Note 10 series will be unpacked at the Barclays Center in New York, with two models for the first time.  In the invitation for the Note 10 event, Samsung highlighted a hole on the upcoming device’s display with its signature S Pen. Many market watchers are speculating that the Note 10 will hav

July 2, 2019

Nvidia confirms plan to produce next-generation GPUs through Samsung

Following speculations that Nvidia is planning to rely on Samsung Electronics to produce next-generation graphic processing units, the US tech giant confirmed Tuesday that it had reached an agreement for foundry cooperation with the world’s largest chipmaker. During a press conference in Seoul, Nvidia Korea chief Yoo Eung-joon said that its production of advanced GPUs will be conducted by Samsung Electronics with its 7-nanometer extreme ultraviolet process.“It is meaningful that Sams

July 2, 2019

[Herald Interview] Aspiring entrepreneurs discuss startup ecosystem

From a student’s perspective, tech-savvy South Korea might be just the place to make a promising start as an entrepreneur.But it also has its limits, despite the unprecedented level of support and attention being paid to the startup ecosystem here, according to Korean students who took part in a two-day hackathon in Finland in June, jointly organized by the Seoul-based Korea Startup Forum and Helsinki-based Junction.Three of them sat down with The Korea Herald to talk about what&

July 2, 2019

Hanwha introduces new electronic detonator HiTronic II

South Korea’s Hanwha Corp. announced Monday it has introduced an advanced version of its electronic detonator, called “HiTronic II,” with an aim to increase the firm’s global market share to 25 percent by 2024. 　Hanwha said in a press release that the company had succeeded in developing HiTronic II, an improved version of its predecessor, HiTronic I. Hitting the market in 2015. Hitronic I is the country’s first electronic detonator developed by a local defense firm.

July 1, 2019

Freelance platform operator Aroundus raises W880m seed funding

Aroundus, a South Korean startup operating a platform that matches freelancers with employers, said on July 1 it has raised 882 million won ($761,700) in seed funding from venture capital investors. The funds have come from Shinhan Capital, Shinhan Investment and Korean startup accelerator D.Camp.  Since launching in July 2018, the number of subscribers for Aroundus’ Korean web service surpassed 14,000 last month. “We recognized Aroundus’ capacity to think out of the box t

July 1, 2019

YouTube to allow users to block channel recommendations

YouTube on Thursday announced two big changes to its browsing features, giving users more control over video recommendations.Users will soon have a “Don’t recommend channel” button, for content that is not relevant to their interests. Videos from rejected content creators will still be discoverable on the platform, but they will not come up on the recommended list or on the YouTube homepage. There will also be a new feature that sorts recommended videos into different topics, s

June 28, 2019

Kakao launches blockchain platform for enterprise service

　Kakao’s blockchain subsidiary Ground X on Thursday launched a public network platform for companies and developers, as dozens of regional tech giants pledged to work with it to promote blockchain-based businesses. 　Ground X said that its blockchain platform Klaytn has officially begun operations by releasing its mainnet for commercial use. Klaytn is designed for easier access and faster speed compared with existing blockchain platforms, and various companies have joined its test operation

June 27, 2019

[Exclusive] Samsung to launch out-folding smartphone ahead of Huawei: sources

Samsung Electronics plans to soon release a wide range of foldable smartphones, including one that folds outward, sources familiar with the matter told The Investor on Thursday. They said the out-folding phone would come ahead of Huawei Technologies’ version of the foldable phone. “The launch date has yet to be unveiled, but it’s likely to be earlier than the date set for Huawei,” said one of the sources on condition of anonymity. “Suppliers have already begun m

June 27, 2019

LG offers ice-making fridge technology to GE Appliance

LG Electronics will offer its core technology for the manufacturing of ice-making refrigerators to one of its competitors, GE Appliance, under a licensing contract, it said Thursday. GE Appliance is currently owned by China’s Haier. The Chinese company acquired the home appliance unit of US-based electronic giant GE and operates the business in the US.  The latest licensing contract allows the Haier subsidiary to use LG’s proprietary technology for making ice cubes inside the fr

June 27, 2019

SK hynix kick-starts mass production of world’s first 1Tb 4D NAND flash

SK hynix announced Wednesday it has started mass-producing 1-terabit NAND chips using its proprietary 4D platform to offer the industry’s largest memory storage capacity. According to the South Korean memory chip maker, the world’s first 128-layer triple-level cell 4D NAND chips with 1Tb storage will be released in the market in the second half of the year.  The company highlighted that the 128-layer 4D NAND flash has become available for commercial use just eight months after

June 26, 2019

Naver plans superaccurate map for self-driving

South Korea's internet giant Naver said Tuesday it will develop a superaccurate map for autonomous driving by the year’s end, as it seeks to gain an upper hand in the futuristic technology. 　The company’s research and development subsidiary Naver Labs announced its plans to create a virtual Seoul map with 10 centimeter-level accuracy. It pledged to build a digital layout of streets 2,000 kilometers long by acquiring geographic data via aerial and land devices. 　Naver is one of few Ko

June 25, 2019

Korean astronomers discover asteroid that could potentially hit Earth

South Korean astronomers have discovered an asteroid that could potentially collide with Earth, although the odds are extremely low, marking the first finding of a hazardous asteroid by the country's scientists, a state-run science institute said Tuesday. The potentially hazardous astroid (PHA), provisionally labeled 2018 PP29, earlier this month by the International Astronomical Union Minor Planet Center was discovered via orbital data collected from the Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KM

June 25, 2019

Galaxy Fold delay won’t affect Galaxy Note 10 launch: Samsung

While Samsung Electronics remains indecisive about an official launch of the Galaxy Fold after nearly two months, the South Korean tech giant seems to be preparing to roll out the company’s flagship phablet Galaxy Note 10 on schedule in August, industry sources saidMonday. “The Galaxy Note 10 will have its own timeline for its debut in August, regardless of the Galaxy Fold’s launch schedule,” said a Samsung official. “The company keeps the same stance about the Gala

June 24, 2019

USITC probes Samsung over touch screen tech patents

South Korea’s Samsung Electronics and six other global tech giants are being investigated by the US International Trade Commission following allegations that they violated patents in their touch-controlled mobile devices, computers and components, according to industry sources Sunday. The USITC disclosed on its website that it will launch an investigation over allegations that certain touch-controlled devices imported to the US have violated Section 337 of the US Tariff Act.The complaint w

June 23, 2019

New ride services pose challenge to taxi industry

 An increasing number of mobility startups have released their business plans for ride-hailing services in cooperation with car rental companies here, further stoking controversy in the competition with the conventional taxi industry.　Mobility firm Chacha Creation said Thursday it will work with two local car rental companies to introduce a new car-sharing platform, ChaCha Van service. Limo Korea and Isaac Rental Car will partner with ChaCha to provide cars for the carpooling service schedu

June 21, 2019