LG's OLED TV among winners in annual British review

Organic light-emitting diode TVs from LG Electronics, Panasonic and Sony were rated the best in the sector in a review by British specialists, industry officials said Friday.In the annual shootout held last weekend by retailer/reviewer Crampton & Moore and HDTVTest, invited specialists put OLED TVs over LCD sets in nearly all categories for picture quality, officials said. Results last year were the opposite. (Yonhap)Panasonic's flagship 65-inch EZ1002 OLED was voted the best TV of 2017 and best

Aug. 18, 2017

Samsung, LG set to spend record amount on R&D this year

South Korea's major electronics firms -- Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. -- are expected to allocate a record-high investment to research and development projects this year, industry watchers said Friday.According to the sources, Samsung Electronics invested 7.9 trillion won ($6.9 billion) in research projects over the first half of 2017, up 5.7 percent from a year earlier. (Yonhap)As South Korea's No. 1 tech giant plans to maintain such investment to secure new growth engines, i

Aug. 18, 2017

Naver Labs unveils in-vehicle infotainment platform

Naver Labs, the new technology research and development unit of South Korea internet giant Naver, on Thursday unveiled its in-vehicle infotainment platform Away, marking a new step forward for its connected car technology business.　Naver plans to deploy its new infotainment platform and dependent display device in 1,000 vehicles operated by Lotte-owned car-sharing company Green Car by the end of this year, with aims to expand this number to 3,000 vehicles.In-vehicle infotainment refers to a coll

Aug. 17, 2017

[Exclusive] Samsung SDI to supply batteries for BMW i3 from China

Samsung SDI plans to supply batteries for BMW’s upcoming electric vehicle i3 from its plant in China, in a move to diversify its markets after facing a setback in the world’s largest EV market. “Some of the EV batteries from Samsung SDI’s plant in Xian will be used for the BMW i3 next year,” a source familiar with the matter told The Korea Herald.This is the first time the German automaker will use batteries produced in Samsung’s plant in China. They have been produced from the tech firm’s Ulsan

Aug. 17, 2017

Major flagship smartphones to lock horns over camera

Major flagship smartphones to be unveiled this year are anticipated to come with dual-lens cameras, industry watchers said Thursday, seeking to grab larger slices of the market by promoting top-notch photography features.Industry watchers said Samsung Electronics Co.'s new flagship smartphone set to be showcased next week, presumably the Galaxy Note 8, will come with a dual-lens camera. It will mark the first time for the tech giant to apply the feature on its flagship models.The South Korean te

Aug. 17, 2017

LG opens biggest overseas brand shop in Iraq

LG Electronics opened its largest overseas brand shop in Iraq as an investment in the emerging market of the Middle East, the company announced Wednesday. The South Korean electronics maker is eyeing the rising Iraqi market, where large reconstruction projects are underway, with an aim to establish its premium image in the home appliances market. The company opened the two-floor shop that spans 870 square meters in the main commercial district of Erbil, the fourth-largest city in Iraq.  LG Elect

Aug. 16, 2017

Measures to cut mobile costs to be delayed to mid-September

Implementation of the Moon Jae-in administration’s measures to help reduce the burden of mobile costs is likely to be postponed to mid-September due to differences between the government and telecom industry. The Ministry of Science and ICT on Wednesday issued an executive notice that the ministry will start working on making an executive order for an additional 11,000 won ($9.60) cut in the base rates of mobile plans for low-income households. But it unexpectedly put off expanding the discount

Aug. 16, 2017

Naver founder seeks ‘ownerless’ company designation

Lee Hae-jin, the founder of South Korean internet giant Naver, has visited the Fair Trade Commission to seek an “ownerless” status designation for the company, as it is set to obtain “large corporation” status and become subject to new antitrust regulations.Lee, Naver’s Chief Financial Officer Park Sang-jin and its head of legal affairs and compliance support, Jeong Yeon-ah, visited officials at the FTC headquarters, including its Chairperson Kim Sang-jo, earlier this week to discuss Naver’s imm

Aug. 16, 2017

LG service centers attacked by ransomware

LG Electronics’ service centers were attacked by ransomware this week, with the malicious code used possibly identical to the WannaCry ransomware attack, one of the largest cyberattacks that struck in May, according to security authorities Wednesday.LG said that self-service kiosks at some of its service centers were attacked by ransomware, a type of malicious software that encrypts computer files and asks for money to unlock them.The self-service kiosks had access problems on Monday morning, an

Aug. 16, 2017

‘Starcraft: Remastered’ officially launched

“Starcraft: Remastered,” a high-definition revamp of Blizzard Entertainment’s hit PC strategy game “Starcraft,” got released Tuesday.Blizzard Entertainment held a prelaunch event for the game in Busan last month, which attracted thousands of local fans.(Blizzard Korea)The new edition of “Starcraft” features ultrahigh-definition 4K graphics and refreshed soundtrack, as well as improved in-game features.“The most important goal of ‘Starcraft: Remastered’ has been to upgrade as many features as pos

Aug. 15, 2017

Disgraced Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk loses legal battle over mammoth cloning tech

Hwang Woo-suk, a South Korean stem cell scientist who caused a major stir in the scientific community for academic fraud in 2005, has recently lost a legal battle over the rights to a technique critical to re-creating the woolly mammoth.According to local reports Tuesday, Hwang had filed a criminal complaint against Park Se-pil of Jeju National University and his research colleagues, accusing them of embezzlement and attempted blackmail.However, the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutor’s Office sai

Aug. 15, 2017

AI speaker manufacturers vie to secure local users to boost competitiveness

South Korean artificial intelligence speaker manufacturers are scrambling to lock in consumers that are critical for boosting their competitiveness moving forward, industry watchers said Tuesday.SK Telecom, the country's largest mobile operators, and Naver Corp., the top Internet portal operator here, have recently unveiled half-price and free speakers as part of a promotional event to win over users.AI speakers interact with users by engaging in audio searches and other functions through voice

Aug. 15, 2017

Korea Herald strengthens video service on YouTube

The Korea Herald is now beefing up its YouTube channel in a bid to offer more multimedia content to readers in partnership with Google, which runs the world’s biggest video site. The majority of videos are one to two minutes in length, covering various issues in politics, social affairs, technology, culture and sports to offer an additional angle to stories carried on The Korea Herald’s print edition.  (The Korea Herald`s YouTube channel)The channel’s signature thumbnail design helps viewers nav

Aug. 14, 2017

The Korea Herald relaunches website to mark 64th anniversary

Marking the 64th anniversary, The Korea Herald is launching a redesigned website aimed at offering not only spot news but also thought-provoking analysis in a more reader-friendly way. Since it was first published in 1953, The Korea Herald has acted as a bridge between Korea and the world, providing accurate and unbiased news to readers across the world in real time, thanks to the internet and social media. The latest overhaul of the website affects the company’s flagship PC website as well as m

Aug. 14, 2017

[Newsmaker] Living in a whole new world: a snippet of daily life in 2030 Seoul

Living in the fast-forward era, yesterday quickly seems blurry and outdated while tomorrow looks unreal and overwhelming.With the evolution of technologies at full tilt, the new world, according to today’s predictions, would change or deprive us of our labor values and cost us never-ending consumption, yet provide us with great efficiency and even groundbreaking revolution of human kind.The future could be a dystopia of man-eat-man world trounced by the artificial intelligence, or a utopia of a

Aug. 14, 2017

Blizzard Korea accused of antitrust breach over ‘Starcraft: Remastered’

South Korea’s PC cafe owners have accused Blizzard Entertainment of breaching the local antitrust law by introducing a new fee system for “Starcraft: Remastered,” a high-definition remake of the firm’s smash-hit PC strategy game “Starcraft.”The Internet PC Culture Association, which represents local internet PC cafes where people play online games, also known as “PC bangs” here, said Monday that it had petitioned the Korea Fair Trade Commission to investigate Blizzard for unfairly charging them

Aug. 14, 2017

Naver's online map service adds new Dokdo photos

Naver Corp., South Korea's top Internet portal operator, said Monday that it has added updated images of the Dokdo islets in the East Sea to its online map service just ahead of the 72nd anniversary of the country's liberation from Japan's colonial rule.South Korea celebrates Liberation Day -- a major holiday to mark the anniversary of Korea's independence from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule -- on Tuesday. (Photo courtesy of Naver Corp.) (Yonhap)The new photos include a lot of fascinating underwa

Aug. 14, 2017

LG V30 to be unlocked via any voice keywords

Say “Good Day” and your phone will automatically be unlocked. This will be one of the features of LG Electronics’ upcoming flagship smartphone V30, which will also offer an intuitive user experience and a professional camera mode.With less than three weeks to go before LG debuts its new V30 in Berlin, the Korean tech giant has disclosed some of its new features.LG said Monday that its V30 will allow users to unlock the device via voice commands using keywords, for instance “Good Day,” without th

Aug. 14, 2017

Mobile platform potential 'game changer' for game industry

South Korea's longtime online game giant Nexon Korea Co. is finding itself threatened by its smaller local rival Netmarble Games Corp. partly as mobile has become a more popular platform than desktops, market watchers said Monday.Netmarble, South Korea's No. 1 mobile game developer and publisher, announced on Friday that its sales for the first half of this year came to 1.22 trillion won ($1 billion) on the back of the global popularity of its latest mobile game "Lineage 2 Revolution."It marked

Aug. 14, 2017

Science chief’s resignation puts Moon’s innovation drive on hold

The sudden resignation of the chief of the newly created science and technology control tower Friday has not only put the government’s appointment system in question but has also put its drive to innovate the sector on hold.Facing strong opposition from academia and political parties, Park Ky-young, chief of the Office of Science, Technology and Innovation at the Ministry of Science and ICT, stepped down from the post four days after taking the job.The office was launched as part of President Mo

Aug. 13, 2017