The Korea Herald

Sony bills coming PS4 console as future of gaming

Sony unveiled a new-generation PlayStation 4 system on Wednesday and laid out its vision for the "future of gaming" in a world rich with mobile gadgets and play streamed from the Internet cloud.At a press event in New York, computer entertainment unit chief Andrew House said PS4 "represents a significant shift from thinking of PlayStation as a box or console to thinking of the PlayStation 4 as a leading place for play."PS4 was designed to get to know players, ideally to the point of being able t

Feb. 21, 2013

[Newsmaker] Nominee for science ministry in tight spot

Controversy over the appointment of Kim Jeong-hoon as the minister of future creation and science is growing as opposition lawmakers are increasingly questioning his nationality and patriotism.Kim’s strong track record as an entrepreneur and engineer with a rich education background, was not enough for the opposition Democratic United Party, which argued that it was against the law to appoint someone who has foreign citizenship.It also raised concerns about Kim’s loyalties, pointing out that he

Feb. 20, 2013

[Newsmaker] Nominee for science ministry in tight spot

[Graphic News] One in three North Americans uses a Korean smartphone

More than 1 in 3 North American smartphone owners use a made-in-Korea device, according to Strategy Analytics, a U.S. market research firm.The company said Apple became the biggest seller of smartphones in North America with a 37.6 percent market share last year. But Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics continued to increase their sales in U.S. and Canada with market shares of 26.6 percent and 7.1 percent, respectively.Market analysts said the two Korean companies’ combined sales are expected

Feb. 20, 2013

[Graphic News] One in three North Americans uses a Korean smartphone

2G phones back with a vengeance?

Someone casually pulls out his phone from his pocket during a coffee break in between a series of morning meetings, peers at it for a while before flipping open the lid to start talking into the mouthpiece.At the gesture, several of his colleagues look on in surprise ― shock even ― and they venture to ask him, “how in the world can you still be holding onto such a phone?”Flip phones are usually feature phones, also called second-generation or 2G phones running on the previous second-generation c

Feb. 20, 2013

Samsung healthcare joint venture teams up with Merck

Samsung Bioepis, one of Samsung’s healthcare affiliates, said Wednesday it has signed an agreement with U.S. pharmaceuticals giant Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. to cooperate in the biosimilar sector.Under the deal with the New Jersey-based company, Samsung Bioepis will take charge of developing, testing and manufacturing biosimilar products, the company said in a press release.Merck will use its global distribution network to promote and sell biosimilars, officially approved copycat medicines develo

Feb. 20, 2013

China becomes world’s top smartphone market

HONG KONG (Yonhap News) ― China has emerged as the world’s largest smartphone market on the rising demand of the device, overtaking the United States, a market report showed Wednesday.The number of smartphones sold in China is estimated to 150 million units between January 2012 and January 2013, industry researcher Flurry said. During the same period, a total of 55 million smartphones were sold in the U.S., according to Flurry.A total of 246 million units were used in China as of January, while

Feb. 20, 2013

Keep eye on data centers’ electricity bills

In 2013, an unfamiliar item may start landing on the desks of many chief information officers: the electricity bill for their corporate data centers.My bet is that bill will be unwanted, but not unexpected. For years, managers in charge of these facilities handled those cost while CIOs ― well, most never saw or cared about that side of the business.But after a dozen years of designing data centers in an ad hoc way, throwing inefficient, commodity servers at the problem of ever-rising demand for

Feb. 20, 2013

Keep eye on data centers’ electricity bills

LG Display drops Galaxy Note 10.1 sales ban request

LG Display Co. said Wednesday it has dropped its request for a domestic sales ban on Samsung Galaxy Note10.1 devices, raising hopes the No. 2 display maker and its rival Samsung Display Co. are inching closer to settling their longstanding quarrel over display technology.LG Display and Samsung Display, the world’s two biggest display makers, have been involved in a legal squabble over organic light-emitting diode and liquid-crystal display technology following investigations into an alleged leak

Feb. 20, 2013

Vast asteroid impact zone found in Australia

Scientists have discovered a 200-kilometer-wide impact zone in the Australian outback they believe was caused by a massive asteroid smashing into Earth more than 300 million years ago.Andrew Glikson, a visiting fellow at the Australian National University, said the asteroid measuring 10 to 20 kilometers in diameter was a giant compared to the plunging meteor that exploded above Russia a week ago.While that event set off a shockwave that shattered windows and hurt almost 1,000 people in the Urals

Feb. 20, 2013

Apple hit by hackers, no data stolen

Apple on Tuesday said it was hit by hackers who wormed their way into the California company's system but evidently failed to steal any data.The maker of iPhones, iPads, iPods, and Macintosh computers said it is working with law enforcement officials to hunt down the hackers, who appeared tied to a series of recent cyber attacks on U.S. technology firms."The malware was employed in an attack against Apple and other companies, and was spread through a website for software developers," Apple said

Feb. 20, 2013

SK Hynix ousts Kwon, names new CEO

SK Hynix appointed its R&D chief Park Sung-wook as its new CEO, replacing Kwon Oh-chul, company officials said Tuesday.The decision was made at a meeting of the board of directors, the officials said.Park, 55, has served as the chief of Hynix’s research center and managed the production of key products such as dynamic random access memory and NAND flash memory chips.He has more than 10 semiconductor manufacturing patents registered in Korea and abroad.Former SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won, who i

Feb. 19, 2013

Samsung Galaxy S4 likely to debut in March

Samsung Electronics is likely to unveil the new version of its flagship smartphone Galaxy S series next month, according to industry sources.The new phone, dubbed “Galaxy S4,” is expected to be revealed around March. Reports citing Sammobile, the Verge and other sources said on Monday that the launch ceremony would be held in New York City in mid-March. Expectations as well as rumors are mounting ahead of the launch of the Galaxy S4, reflecting the popularity of the S3 in the global market. Sams

Feb. 19, 2013

Samsung Galaxy S4 likely to debut in March

Resilient personality linked to energy

People with a more resilient personality profile also tend to have greater energy levels, U.S. researchers suggest. Study leader Antonio Terracciano of Florida State University College of Medicine and colleagues studied the relationship between personality, metabolic rate and aerobic capacity.“We tested implicit assumptions that individuals with certain personality dispositions have different metabolic and energetic profiles,” Terracciano said in a statement. “For example, do those who are asser

Feb. 19, 2013

Moon water complicates formation theory

The interior of the moon contained water early in its history, suggesting the formation theories of the moon may have to be re-thought, U.S. researchers say.University of Michigan researchers and colleagues found tiny amounts of water in mineral grains from samples from the lunar highlands obtained during the Apollo missions.The lunar highlands are thought to represent the original crust that crystallized from a mostly molten early moon, suggesting the lunar interior contained water during this

Feb. 19, 2013

Scientists sense breakthroughs in dark-matter mystery

For decades, the strange substance called dark matter has teased physicists, challenging conventional notions of the cosmos.Today, though, scientists believe that with the help of multi-billion-dollar tools, they are closer than ever to piercing the mystery -- and the first clues may be unveiled just weeks from now."We are so excited because we believe we are on the threshold of a major discovery," said Michael Turner, director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of

Feb. 18, 2013

LG to increase output of OLED TV panels

LG Display will invest 706.3 billion won ($655 million) to add a new production line for large-sized organic light-emitting diode, or OLED, panels for televisions, the company said on Monday in a corporate filing. The new line, called the M2 line, is located in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, and will have a monthly production capacity of 26,000 units. LG Display said it would aim for mass production during the first half of next year, as part of its plans to dominate the OLED TV market over the next s

Feb. 18, 2013

Comet dust seeding life to Jupiter moons?

Comet dust may have seeded Jupiter's moons, including Europa and its liquid ocean beneath an icy crust, with the raw ingredients for life, U.S. researchers say.Asteroids and comets rich in the carbon-containing compounds that are key to life on Earth have been captured by Jupiter's gravity, becoming orbiting moons that frequently collided as they settled into new orbits billions of years ago and created a fine dust of those compounds, they say.The question is, where has all that dust gone?Comput

Feb. 18, 2013

Comet dust seeding life to Jupiter moons?

Close encounter by asteroids makes case for scrutiny

The twin punch of a meteor raining destruction on remote Russia and an asteroid hurtling past Earth prompted calls from scientists and political leaders for greater vigilance to combat risks from the heavens. The meteor exploded Thursday over Russia’s Chelyabinsk region in the Ural Mountains, causing shock waves that shattered windows over 50 acres and injured 1,200 residents. The meteor struck 16 hours before an asteroid half the size of a U.S. football field flew within 17,200 miles of Earth,

Feb. 17, 2013

Samsung, Apple list infringing tablets, smartphones in California lawsuit

Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. identified products they allege infringe their patents for smartphones and tablet computers as part of a lawsuit in federal court in San Jose, California.The filings on Friday were made in a newer of two related patent cases. The lawsuit, scheduled for trial in March 2014, was filed last year and covers technology in newer smartphones made by both companies, including Samsung’s Galaxy S III and Apple’s iPhone 5.In its filing on Friday, Cupertino, California

Feb. 17, 2013

Facebook said to work with FBI on malware attack investigation

Feb. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc., operator of the largest social network with more than 1 billion members, is working with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to probe a malware attack, people with knowledge of the matter said. Facebook said yesterday that it was subjected to a “sophisticated attack” by hackers last month, without saying where the attack originated. Investigators haven’t found any evidence that user data was compromised, Menlo Park, California- based Facebook said on it

Feb. 16, 2013