[Market Eye] Yoon agonizes over tech policy as chip arms race intensifies

The incoming government to be led by President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol is at a crossroads over how its policy support to nurture the domestic chip industry will take shape, as the global chip arms race and state-led support intensifies. On Thursday, presidential transition committee deputy spokesperson Kim Gi-heung told reporters that the committee was briefed about a proposal to establish a state-run research hub, tentatively named Nano Semiconductor Research Institute. Kim, however, said the co

April 21, 2022

[Photo News] Taste of Flying Cars

Visitors enjoy a riding experience on next-generation urban air mobility vehicles with virtual reality headgear mounted at SK Telecom’s exhibition booth at the World IT Show on Wednesday at Coex in Seoul. The annual tech event, hosted by the Science Ministry, runs from Wednesday through Friday.

April 20, 2022

[Herald Interview] Data gathering still human job in digital era: real estate platform CEO

The pressure to accelerate the digitalization of industries as a result of the coronavirus has spread to the real estate sector. Using big data, the industry is automating the buying, selling and leasing of homes and office spaces instead of traditional real estate transactions through agencies. But some important information-gathering still has to be done by humans, according to the CEO of a local commercial real estate platform. “It is difficult for tenants to access necessary informat

April 20, 2022

Korea develops world’s 1st fiber-based white OLEDs

South Korean researchers have developed the world’s first fiber-based white organic light-emitting diodes, or WOLEDs, paving the way for more functional wearable tech, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology said Wednesday. The research team came up with a single, dip-coated white emission layer suitable for a fiber structure to design the fiber-based WOLEDs. In doing so, the researchers figured out how to implement WOLEDs on a string of fiber through simulation and optimizatio

April 20, 2022

Samsung’s M&A dealmaker joins revamped think tank

A key mergers and acquisitions dealmaker at Samsung Electronics has recently been relocated to join an in-house think tank, fueling speculation about the tech giant’s long-awaited “mega deals” in chips or other growth driver sectors. According to industry sources on Wednesday, Ahn Joong-hyun, an executive vice president at Samsung’s business support task force, was promoted to president last week to lead a future business division at Samsung Global Research. Ahn, 58,

April 20, 2022

KT develops AI-powered tech to restore Lou Gehrig patients’ voices

KT Corp. said Wednesday it has restored the voices of patients who are losing their voices due to Lou Gehrig’s disease using its personalized text-to-speech (P-TTS) technology. Based on a small sample of a patient’s voice recordings, the technology replicates his or her vocal tone and manner of speech using artificial intelligence based on deep learning, the telecom company said. When a patient types a message on KT’s Maeum Talk app, the app reads the message in his or her v

April 20, 2022

Samsung Galaxy Quantum 3 to launch in April

Samsung Galaxy Quantum 3, the latest midrange 5G smartphone powered by a chipset with quantum cryptography technology, is poised to start shipping on April 26 in South Korea, domestic mobile carrier SK Telecom said Wednesday. The chipset with quantum random number generators will allow access for smartphone users to security features for digital activities via mobile apps -- ranging from mobile banking to payments, social networks and games -- as well as for external data storage. “The

April 20, 2022

LG-Magna JV to build $100m EV parts factory for GM in Mexico

LG Magna e-Powertrain, a joint venture between LG Electronics and Magna International, will build a $100 million plant that manufactures General Motors electric vehicle components, scheduled for completion in 2023, the company announced Wednesday. The 25,000 square-meter factory will produce inverters, motors and on-board chargers to support North America-focused EV production of GM, as GM was tapped to become a foundational customer for the new facility. The plant will be located in Ramos A

April 20, 2022

Video showing Ukrainian soldier "saved by" Samsung Galaxy smartphone goes viral

A video indicating that a Ukrainian soldier was saved from gun shots by a Samsung Galaxy smartphone came under the spotlight on Tuesday. Posted on social networking platform Reddit, the video shows the Ukrainian soldier reaching into his pocket to pull out what appears to be a Samsung Galaxy S21 FE or Samsung Galaxy S20. The smartphone has a bullet lodged in it, which appears to have protected the soldier from gun shots. The video didn‘t carry any text that illustrates what really happe

April 19, 2022

LG CNS to build AI-powered smart farming platform

LG Group’s IT solutions unit LG CNS said Tuesday that it has joined the government’s new smart farming project to build an artificial intelligence-based platform that offers the ultimate guidelines for more efficient and high-yield farming. The project, launched by the Agriculture Ministry and the local government of South Jeolla Province, aims to create a 543,000 square-meter intelligent farm land in the rural city of Naju, some 355 kilometers south of Seoul, by 2023. Unlike mos

April 19, 2022

Samsung offers pickup repair service in Ukraine

Samsung Electronics is offering free pickup and delivery repair service for customers in war-torn Ukraine. According to its Ukraine unit on Tuesday, the Korean tech giant will pick up mobile devices to be repaired for customers living in areas where its service centers cannot be operated, and then deliver the devices to their homes. All of Samsung’s mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets and smartwatches, are subject to the pickup service, with all costs being covered by the com

April 19, 2022

Korean researchers develop robotic catheter

South Korean researchers have developed the country’s first robotic catheter system that can be inserted into human organs to perform interventional therapies, the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials said Monday. A catheter is a thin tube-like medical device that can be inserted in the body to treat diseases or perform surgical procedures. Interventional therapies, which refer to treating surgery-requiring-diseases through non-surgical procedures, have been implemented in a wide r

April 18, 2022

ArkData completes disaster recovery system for Kyungpook Univ.

Local data replication solution provider ArkData said Monday that it has successfully completed the development of a disaster recovery system for Kyungpook National University in the southeastern city of Daegu. The project aims to protect the school’s student database and prevent business disruptions caused by data center failures or natural disasters. ArkData, specialized in data replication and integration, provides business continuity planning and disaster recovery solutions. The c

April 18, 2022

SK Telecom’s digital remastering technology Supernova going global

SK Telecom’s artificial intelligence-powered digital remastering technology Supernova is going global in a new partnership with France’s Verimatrix, a leading provider of content security solutions, the Korean telecom giant said Monday. Supernova aims to recreate digital content by using AI-powered colorization tool, called DeOldify. The technology has already been widely used in remastering classic content or restoring historic records here. Its smartphone app made its global debu

April 18, 2022

[Market Eye] Is Arm M&A still a pipe dream?

Antitrust hurdles brought down a $40 billion deal in February, which would have otherwise allowed graphic processor giant Nvidia to control United Kingdom-based chip design giant Arm. A few months later, there are signs that a consortium of strategic investors is building, joined by South Korea-based memory chip maker SK hynix. The consortium is looking to salvage what was considered the largest deal in the history of the global chip industry. All eyes are on whether the consortium would be a

April 17, 2022

Google Korea logs W292b in sales without app store transaction fees

Amid the ongoing controversy over Google’s new in-app payment policy deemed Google Korea posted sales of 292 billion won ($237 million) from last year, up 32.8 percent on-year - but that did not include commission from the Play app store, estimated to be trillions of won. According to the regulatory filing submitted by the Korean arm of the global IT giant on Thursday, Google Korea’s operating profit recorded 29.4 billion won, up 88.4 percent on year, while its net income rose 152.

April 15, 2022

Korean startup exports League of Legends AI analysis program

South Korean startup GameEye has signed contracts with five esports teams for them to use Deeplol Pro, the company’s artificial intelligence-based gaming data analysis program, the firm said Friday. The startup signed the deals on Thursday to five undisclosed League of Legends teams, each in Argentina, Brazil, Japan, Korea and the United States. GameEye said it would target more LoL teams in North America, South America, Europe and Asia with the AI-powered service. Deeplol Pro uses the

April 15, 2022

Netflix sales jump 52% in Korea

Netflix’s South Korean arm raked in 631.7 billion won ($513 million) in revenue through 2021, up 52 percent from a year prior, a filing showed Friday. The platform’s blockbuster performance in Korea reflects its increasing clout over the streaming service market here, largely thanks to Korean-language hits such as “Squid Game” and “Hellbound.” It also however highlights the “network usage fee” debate in Korean court and parliament. According to

April 15, 2022

PTSD treatment mechanism unlocked for 1st time

The Institute of Basic Science has identified the scientific mechanism of post-traumatic stress disorder treatment for the first time in the world through animal experiments, the Ministry of Science and ICT said Thursday. According to the ministry, the researchers used the PTSD treatment NYX-783, which is currently under clinical trials by the US biopharmaceutical company Aptinyx, for animal experiments using mice and discovered the principle of its treatment effects. In doing so, the resear

April 14, 2022

SK Telecom buys stake in 3D motion graphics firm in metaverse push

South Korean telecommunications giant SK Telecom said Wednesday it has agreed to buy a stake in Morph Interactive, a Seoul-based three-dimensional motion graphics company, in a move to bolster a strategic partnership for accelerating its metaverse push. The deal terms, such as acquisition cost and the amount of Morph Interactive’s stake, was undisclosed upon the consent of the two companies. Morph Interactive has been dedicated to real-time 3D visual effects on Unity’s game engine

April 13, 2022