Luxury brands tap into ICT with SK Telecom

SK Telecom said Wednesday it had clinched a partnership with luxury brands operator Bluebell, seeking new business opportunities in the luxury retail industry with its information and communication technologies. SKT and Bluebell Korea signed a memorandum of understanding under which the two will work together to build an offline-to-online platform to enhance travelers’ shopping convenience and develop luxury goods based on ICT.Cha In-hyok, head of the Internet of Things business division at SK T

April 19, 2017

260,000 Galaxy S8 smartphones' accounts opened on first day: Samsung

Samsung Electronics Co. said Wednesday around 260,000 units of Galaxy S8 smartphones were registered with the country's three mobile carriers on the first day of its preliminary release.Local consumers who purchased the Galaxy S8 smartphones through preorders started receiving the devices Tuesday, ahead of the official launch in South Korea and the United States slated for Friday.(Yonhap)Preorders for the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8 Plus, which ran from April 7-17, surpassed 1 million units, the

April 19, 2017

Samsung downplays Galaxy S8's 'red-tinted' display

Samsung Electronics Co. said Wednesday the controversial red-tinted display on some of its brand-new Galaxy S8 smartphone cannot be considered a defect, while some critics are predicting the issue may hurt the company's image like last year's battery scandal.The issue came to light when a few users claimed the flagship device's display had an unnatural reddish tint. The complaint posted on online portals and communities went viral in South Korea.(Yonhap)The discovery comes as the South Korean te

April 19, 2017

Netmarble to set aside W5tr for global M&As with IPO

South Korea’s Netmarble Games, which is looking to raise as much as 2.66 trillion won ($2.4 billion) in an initial public offering, plans to leverage the newly generated funds to invest 5 trillion won toward strategic mergers and acquisitions in the future.The Korean mobile game giant plans to pursue larger-scale M&As to boost its business portfolio in the future with the new capital generated by the IPO, according to Netmarble Games CEO Kwon Young-sig on Tuesday.Netmarble Games CEO Kwon Young-s

April 18, 2017

Korea develops voice-recognizing translator for 9 languages

South Korea’s Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute has developed voice recognition-based translation technology for nine languages, the institute announced Tuesday. A user first chooses one of nine languages: Korean, English, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, French, German, Russian and Arabic. When a phrase is spoken in Korean, text appears in both Korean and the chosen language.  An employee of the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute tests its voice-recognizing tec

April 18, 2017

DiYPRO developing daylighting window film

Optics startup DiYPRO on Monday announced that it is currently developing a functional window film that is capable of using natural light to illuminate much larger spaces inside rooms. The film redirects incoming sunlight onto indoor ceilings, reducing the need for artificial lighting and resulting in a significant reduction in electricity fees for lighting. DiYPRO CEO Kim Myung-joong explained, “The purpose of existing functional window films is to block light, but the product we are currently

April 18, 2017

Galaxy S8 under fire for reddish display panel

Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S8 is facing complaints from some customers who say the display panels of their new phones have a reddish tint. The problem may be caused by the color balance of organic light-emitting diode panels, according to industry watchers. Some customers who preordered the Galaxy S8 wrote on online communities that their new phones have a reddish screen that did not improve even after correcting color display settings. (Yonhap)One user said, “After I read articles that there a

April 18, 2017

More customized apps in store for G6 users

LG Electronics Inc. said Tuesday it plans to expand the number of applications customized for the flagship G6 smartphone, allowing users to better utilize the 18:9 screen and other top-notch features.The country's No. 2 tech giant said it plans to provide 300 applications optimized for the G6 smartphone through its own app store by next month. There are currently around 200 apps available in the market.  (Yonhap)The company said the move aims to allow users to better enjoy digital content, such

April 18, 2017

Amid shrinking publishing industry, e-book sales are rising

Korea's e-book market has been growing while the wider book industry is shrinking, a recent report from a government agency showed Monday.The report by the Publication Industry Agency of Korea about the general condition of the country's publishing industry showed the industry's total sales amounted to 7.58 trillion won ($6.67 billion) in 2015, down by 3.8 percent from a year ago.  The file photo shows Kyobo Bookstore in downtown Seoul. (Yonhap)Sales of publishing companies and distributors came

April 17, 2017

Microsoft adds AI to cloud-computing service

Microsoft Korea, the local unit of US software giant Microsoft Corp. said Monday that it has added an artificial intelligence  function to its cloud-computing service, Office 365.The company said Word, Outlook, PowerPoint and Excel will be backed up by various cloud-powered AI capabilities through data centers in South Korea by employing machine learning capabilities. (Yonhap)Earlier, Microsoft opened two data center regions in Seoul and the southern port city of Busan for its open cloud computi

April 17, 2017

Galaxy S5 remains most popular Samsung phone in US

The Galaxy S5 remains the most popular Samsung device in the US, and 76 percent of S5 owners would prefer to purchase Samsung again, according to a report from consumer insight firm Kantar Worldpanel. This may be good news for Samsung’s new flagship smartphone Galaxy S8, considering the two- or three-year smartphone upgrade cycle.  Galaxy S5 (GSM Arena)According to a latest report released by Kantar Worldpanel, the Galaxy S5 that was unveiled in February 2014 remained the most popular Samsung de

April 17, 2017

SK C&C to commercialize Korean-language AI ‘Aibril’ by summer

SK C&C, the internet technology solutions unit of South Korea’s SK Group, is planning to commercialize its Korean-language artificial intelligence computing platform Aibril, based on IBM’s AI-powered cognitive computing system Watson, by as early as June.　The SK company said Monday that it is expecting to officially introduce Aibril to the market sometime in late June or early July, though it has yet to set an exact launch date.　(Yonhap)Developed by SK C&C in partnership with IBM, Aibril is desi

April 17, 2017

Smaller wine cellar, garment steamer grow more popular in Korea

Jumping on the bandwagon of specialized household electronic goods gaining popularity in Korea, LG Electronics on Monday introduced a mini wine cellar, applying the company’s semiconductor technology for reduced noise and vibration. LG Electronics said it is adding the product to a portfolio of home appliances for average households as it is closely watching new life trends here, including increasing consumption of wine and rising demand for clothes dryers and steamers.  Employees introduce an e

April 17, 2017

Naver jumps into cloud platform service business

South Korean internet giant Naver officially jumped into the fast-growing cloud platform service business Monday with the opening of a new cloud platform website.Naver Business Platform, the IT infrastructure technology arm of Naver, opened www.ncloud.com, offering cloud computing infrastructure for some 30 service categories including data computing, security management and network technologies.The firm said it plans to add four or five new service categories each month, based on its in-house t

April 17, 2017

KT CEO pledges to expand platform business at Harvard

Starting his second term at the telecom operator, KT CEO Hwang Chang-gyu said the company is seeking opportunities to expand abroad, not only as an internet service provider but also as a platform provider. Hwang visited Harvard Business School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Saturday to deliver lectures in front of some 120 students and professors, including Shane Greenstein, the Martin Marshall professor of business administration.  KT CEO Hwang Chang-gyu (KT)It was the engineer-turned-chairman’s

April 16, 2017

Hype continues over Galaxy S8 as critics question preorder estimate

More than 1.6 million consumers have visited experiential zones for Samsung Electronics’ new Galaxy S8 series smartphones at 40 locations nationwide, as of Saturday, the company said Sunday. The areas opened on April 1.“Visitors were impressed with the Infinity Display of the S8 series and many showed interest in the bezel-less design,” the company said in a statement. The Samsung smartphones are slated for official launch Friday. Samsung has expressed confidence toward its target of 1 million p

April 16, 2017

[Photo News] LG Electronics to launch bluetooth headset featuring extra-bass booster

EXTRA BASS BOOSTER -- LG Electronics displays its new wireless stereo headset, the LG Tone+ HBS-920, releasing to the Korean market Monday. The new Bluetooth headset features an extra-bass booster, which would allow users to increase the level of bass volume to 6 decibels. The metal vibrators inside the earbuds, instead of plastic ones, will deliver balanced sound, along with extra bass, the company said. LG Electronics.

April 16, 2017

Kakao to hold machine learning training camp on Jeju Island

Kakao, the operator of South Korea’s dominant mobile messenger KakaoTalk, is set to host a machine learning training camp on Jeju Island in July as part of efforts to ramp up Korea’s artificial intelligence technology development.Kakao said Friday it will hold the “Machine Learning Camp Jeju 2017” from July 3-18 together with the Korean users of TensorFlow, Google’s open source machine learning system.  (Kakao Corp.)The plans come as the Korean mobile giant has set artificial intelligence as a k

April 14, 2017

[Eye] ‘True robot tech is no science fiction’

At the age of 7, Dennis Hong went to the movie theater with his parents as one of the many millions itching to watch the first Star Wars film on the big screen. However, this simple family night outing ended up forever changing the course of his life. “Seeing R2-D2 and C-3PO fascinated me. On my way back home in the car, I told my mom and dad that I am going to be a robot scientist … and since then, I never changed my mind and I am still following my dream to this day,” Hong told The Korea Heral

April 14, 2017

Foldable smartphones to creep into market in 2019: data

Foldable smartphones are expected to be slowly commercialized starting in 2019, industry watchers said Friday.According to market researcher Strategy Analytics, the first smartphone of its kind is anticipated to be released in 2019 and take up 0.1 percent of the global market that year. Industry watchers earlier expected such smartphones could be released as early as 2017.(Yonhap)The researcher added the presence of foldable smartphones will gradually rise to 0.7 percent and 2.2 percent in 2020

April 14, 2017