ICT ministry to invest W130b in data projects this year

South Korea's ICT ministry said Sunday it plans to spend 129.8 billion won ($108.2 million) on ramping up data projects this year, including distributing "data vouchers" to support small and medium-sized businesses. The latest investment comes as part of efforts to utilize data collected from the so-called Data Dam project, an initiative that kicked off in 2020 to gather data generated through public and private networks to maximize data utilization. The ministry said it will allocate

Feb. 13, 2022

Harman acquires German auto tech startup Apostera

Samsung Electronics said Friday its subsidiary Harman, the US automotive solutions maker, has acquired German auto tech startup Apostera to bolster its leadership in the burgeoning connected car technology market. With the latest deal, Harman aims to further diversity its automotive product offerings using Apostera’s specialty in augmented reality and mixed reality software solutions. Established in 2017, the Munich-based Apostera supplies AR solutions for automotive head-up displays a

Feb. 11, 2022

Built-in stylus for S22 Ultra signals end of Note era

The release of Samsung Electronics‘ Galaxy S22 Ultra showed that its Note era might have just ended, with the S series phones inheriting features that had defined the Note series. Since August 2020, the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer has yet to announce a new Note lineup, with Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra being the last to be released in the decade-long history of the Note series. The virtual Unpacked event held on Thursday (Seoul time) showed that the S22 Ultra -- the highe

Feb. 10, 2022

Artificial intelligence powers Samsung Galaxy S22 series

Cameras that take lens flare-free photos at night, sunlight-readable displays and enhanced durability with tougher and lighter frames: all are included with the newest flagship 5G smartphones unveiled by Samsung Electronics at a virtual Galaxy Unpacked event held late Wednesday, at midnight Seoul time. 　 The world‘s largest smartphone maker by shipments said its premium Galaxy smartphones S22, S22+ and S22 Ultra, as well as the Galaxy Tab S8 tablets, will be available worldwide starting F

Feb. 10, 2022

KT adds Amazon's Alexa voice service on its AI speakers

South Korean telecom giant KT Corp. said Thursday it rolled out a new service that allows customers to enjoy Amazon's voice assistant on its artificial intelligence speakers to better meet demand for English education. KT said it has joined hands with US retail giant Amazon.com Inc. to launch the Dual Brain AI service, which integrates Amazon's Alexa virtual voice service into its GiGA Genie speakers to support both Korean and English languages. The service is available immediately on all 3.1

Feb. 10, 2022

SKT CEO vows stronger metaverse push with M&As

SK Telecom will push for mergers and acquisitions in the field of metaverse, the telecom firm’s CEO Ryu Young-sang said in an earnings call Wednesday. The remark comes as SK Telecom, which spun off investment affiliate SK Square, is undergoing a period of transition with new growth drivers, with artificial intelligence and metaverse spearheading the trend under a newly established “Aiverse” division. “I’d like to make it very clear that SK Telecom will pursue st

Feb. 9, 2022

‘Excessive’ LED decorations hurt trees: study

“Excessive” use of artificial lights on trees during nighttime could harm trees and affect their growth, the National Institute of Forest Science said Wednesday, recommending LED decorations to be turned on for no more than six hours daily. In a study, the state-run institute installed LED lights on three types of trees -- pine, king cherry and ginkgo -- and observed if it had effects on their nighttime breathing. Researchers exposed each tree to LED lights for six hours -- 6 p.m. t

Feb. 9, 2022

Samsung under pressure to double pay raise

Samsung Electronics has come under heightened pressure to offer hefty pay increases amid strike threats from its minority labor unions over stalled wage talks, according to industry sources Wednesday. As the Korean tech giant has no majority labor union, an in-house management-labor council has held wage talks since October last year. But the two sides have failed to narrow their differences until recently. Sources say the council’s employee representatives this week lodged new demands

Feb. 9, 2022

ASML CEO hints at adding 1,000 more jobs in Korea by 2029

Netherlands-based lithography equipment maker ASML is poised to add at least 1,000 more jobs in South Korea by the end of 2029, ASML CEO Peter Wennink said in a conference in Seoul Wednesday. The move will bolster its partnership with Korean semiconductor chip makers, including Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, the key clients for ASML’s extremely expensive lithography machines that are crucial for cutting-edge chip production. “This decade, we will add at least 1,000 people more

Feb. 9, 2022

Google files lawsuit against S. Korean regulator to overturn fine

Google has filed a lawsuit against South Korea's antitrust regulator to overturn the regulator's decision to fine the global technology giant for pressing smartphone makers into only using its Android mobile operating system, sources said Wednesday. The legal action by Google against the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) came after the KFTC decided in September last year to fine Google 207.4 billion won ($173 million) for obstructing local smartphone makers, such as Samsung Electronic

Feb. 9, 2022

Krafton debuts virtual humans for metaverse platform

Gaming giant Krafton said Tuesday it has released artificial intelligence-based virtual human characters, who will appear as hyperreal game show hosts and virtual friends on the metaverse platform. The virtual human characters show human-like skin and hair, facial expressions and eye movements, according to the company. In Krafton’s virtual human demo video, a female character shows realistic wrinkles on her nose, forehead and around her eyes as she squints. “Unlike other local ga

Feb. 8, 2022

LG CNS, AWS bolster ties on corporate cloud service

LG CNS said Tuesday it has signed a strategic agreement with cloud giant Amazon Web Services to expand cloud services for corporate clients. Under the agreement, the two companies aim to meet demand for application modernization, by updating old software and modernizing their computing platform for clients in the fields of finance, manufacturing and e-commerce. Clients will be encouraged to build cloud-native applications independently to optimize their applications on cloud infrastructure pr

Feb. 8, 2022

S. Korea to invest W12b in developing 100-ton liquid engine

South Korea plans to invest 12 billion won ($10 million) in developing high-performance, liquid-fuel engines by next year to ramp up the country's decadelong space project, the ICT and science ministry said Tuesday. In 2020, South Korea unveiled the "Space Challenge" program with the aim of investing 49.6 billion won until 2028 to secure future technologies and leadership in the space industry in 2030. Of the total, the ministry has set aside a budget of 4.5 billion won this year and

Feb. 8, 2022

KT to join submarine cable project connecting Asia

South Korean telecommunication firm KT announced Monday plans to take part in a new 9,000-kilometer subsea cable project reaching six countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia, as an owner and operator. With the new project, KT aims to meet a growing corporate demand for greater connectivity to achieve digital transformation. KT signed a memorandum of understanding with real estate consulting firm Savills Korea on Monday to launch and operate the submarine cable, connecting six countries --

Feb. 7, 2022

NextRise 2022, Seoul to kick off in June

NextRise 2022, Seoul, a global startup conference co-hosted by the Korea International Trade Association and Korea Development Bank, is set to be held in Seoul on June 16 and 17, with aims to connect startups and their potential business partners and spur innovation among them. Launched in 2019, the conference has become Asia’s largest startup fair in terms of the size. Last year’s event attracted some 12,000 visitors from around the world despite the coronavirus pandemic. This y

Feb. 7, 2022

Samsung’s new gadgets to reuse discarded fishing nets

Samsung Electronics said Monday it plans to reuse discarded fishing nets as a new material for its handset devices as part of its sustainability strategy announced earlier this year. According to the South Korean tech giant, the repurposed ocean-bound plastics, also known as “ghost nets,” will be incorporated in Samsung’s new product lineup under its Mobile Experience division, starting with the new Galaxy devices to be unveiled in the Unpacked event on Feb. 9, at 10 a.m. US E

Feb. 7, 2022

S. Korean battery makers take up 30.4% of global market share in 2021

The combined global market share of three major South Korean battery makers declined last year from a year earlier, due largely to the growth of their Chinese rivals, data showed Monday. The cumulative market share of LG Energy Solution Ltd. (LGES), SK Innovation Co. and Samsung SDI Co. came to 30.4 percent in the January-December period, down 4.3 percentage points from the previous year, according to market tracker SNE Research. LGES, which supplies electric vehicle batteries to Ford, Tesla

Feb. 7, 2022

Samsung Electronics may face first labor strike over collapsed wage talks

Samsung Electronics could see its first labor strike in the tech giant’s five decades of history after wage talks with labor unions fell apart. Despite months of back-and-forth deliberation, representatives of the unionized workers filed for an arbitration to Korea’s National Labor Relations Commission, a government agency under the Labor Ministry, on Friday at 3 p.m. The move pushes Samsung and its four labor unions to reach a wage agreement within 10 days, which could lead to a

Feb. 4, 2022

KT to set up medical checkup centers in Russia with Medsi Group

South Korean communication technology firm KT said Thursday it would join hands with Russia’s Medsi Group to establish health checkup centers in the country, which has been experiencing a lack of access to medical infrastructure for clinical diagnostics. The two companies look to complete a feasibility review of the medical centers in Moscow and Vladivostok within this year, according to KT. The new centers will feature Korean-style health examination services, reflecting Russians‘

Feb. 3, 2022

S. Korea requires Google, Netflix and 3 others to provide stable online services this year

South Korea's ICT ministry said Thursday it has required tech giants Google, Meta Platforms and Netflix, as well as local rivals Naver and Kakao, to comply with the country's revised law requiring them to provide stable services. In 2020, South Korea passed a legal revision holding online content service providers accountable if they fail to maintain stable services amid growing complaints against streaming giants Netflix and Google after their services experienced outages. The revised law, in

Feb. 3, 2022