Lezhin Entertainment said Monday that it has joined hands with a local company to create dramas based on webtoons, or online comics.The operator of webtoon platform Lezhin Comics has signed a memorandum of understanding with SBS The Story Works, a drama maker, to produce TV shows based on popular online comics series. The logos of Lezhin Comics and SBS The Story Works　(Lezhin Entertainment)SBS Story Works has rolled out some hit Korean dramas including “Divorce Lawyer Is in Love” and “Ghost.”The

Technology April 18, 2016

LG Electronics has launched an online retail store for its smart device line Friends, opening the platform to start-ups and developers to nurture an ecosystem for connected devices. The new website, dubbed LG Friends, is an online market where consumers can buy LG’s latest smart devices, including a removable smartphone camera, a portable speaker, a rolling toy robot, and a wireless headset. Developers attend LG Electronics’ conference in San Francisco, California, last Friday. (LGE)The Friends

Technology April 18, 2016

KOREAN TELECOM WATCHDOG BEEFS UP TIES WITH U.S. COUNTERPART -- Tom Wheeler (left), chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, and Choi Sung-joon, chairman of South Korea’s telecommunications regulator Korea Communications Commission pose at a meeting held at the FCC last week. They discussed a range of issues including mergers between telecom companies and broadcasting firms, privacy laws, net neutrality and spectrum auctions. (KCC)

Technology April 17, 2016

SK Telecom, South Korea’s leading wireless firm, said Sunday that it has struck a deal to export its pico projector, worth 300 million yen, to Japan.The telecom firm said that it would supply its projector, UO Smart Beam Laser, to Taisei Express of Japan for one year starting from this month. Kim Sung-han(right), head of SKT’s device planning division poses with Taisei Express CEO Hwang Kyong-ho after signing a supply deal in Hong Kong on Saturday. (SKT)The two partners reached the deal at the H

Technology April 17, 2016

Competition in the global solid-state drive market is heating up as more players are rolling out the storage system built on technology that stacks cells vertically.An SSD is lighter and more compact than a conventional hard disk drive. It also boasts shorter booting time and faster reading and writing speeds than an HDD.  Intel’s solid-state drive product (Intel)Intel recently rolled out a new SSD lineup based on 3-D NAND flash memory in Seoul, home turf of Samsung Electronics, the largest SSD

Technology April 17, 2016

South Korea will host the Intellectual Property Business Congress, an annual forum for the global intellectual property industry, for the first time at JW Marriott Seoul Hotel in Seoul on Friday.Around 200 IP experts, patent agency officials and corporate executives will flock to the event, dubbed IPBC Korea, to discuss current issues and challenges facing the IP segment, such as how to develop strategies to boost the value of IP.Some of the speakers for the event include IBM’s Asia-Pacific IP l

Technology April 14, 2016

Tech giant Samsung Electronics’ mobile security solution KNOX has received the highest score among security solutions for mobile operating systems in a series of tests, surpassing rivals including Apple.Samsung received the highest “strong,” rating in market research firm Gartner’s annual report released last week. It assesses 12 mobile security solutions across more than 20 categories including encryption management, authentication methods, and OS updates. A Galaxy S7 user initiates Samsung Ele

Technology April 14, 2016

SK hynix, the world’s third-largest chipmaker by sales, is expected to see its operating profit more than halve during the first three months of this year, according to analyst reports Wednesday.Korean investment firms predicted that the Korean chip company’s first quarter operating profit would be in a range of 512 billion won ($446 million) to 579 billion won. SK hynix’s NAND Flash memory chip. (SK hynix)The estimates are up to 60 percent lower than the company’s operating profit in the first

Technology April 13, 2016

Tech giant Samsung Electronics has been accelerating its push into the autonomous vehicle segment by trying to attract seasoned researchers in the field.The company posted a job opening for researchers in the autonomous driving vehicle sector on Samsung Group’s online job bulletin board Tuesday. Internet giant Google’s self-driving vehicle. (Yonhap)The job description showed that new researchers would handle tasks including computer vision, biosignal analysis, and optical film for display, which

Technology April 13, 2016

Local tech giant LG Electronics has teamed up with state-run Korea Water Resources Corp., better known as K-water, to develop floating solar power plants.Floating solar power plants produce electricity from solar panels that are placed on the surface of ponds or reservoirs. The plants are said to be 10 percent more energy-efficient than land-based solar power plants. LG Electronics’ energy business center chief Lee Sang-bong(right) and K-water president Choi Gye-woon pose at a memorandum of unde

Technology April 12, 2016

Kakao, the operator of South Korea’s most-used mobile messenger, is likely to see its profits nosedive in the first quarter despite its aggressive moves to expand mobile and offline businesses, analyst reports said Tuesday. However, the company’s issuance of convertible bonds worth 250 billion won ($219 million) will clear the uncertainty over its funding needs, they said.Kakao’s net profit in the first quarter is expected to have plunged 45.3 percent year-on-year to 22.1 billion won, and operat

Technology April 12, 2016

The “big three” of the world’s virtual reality sector -- Oculus, HTC, and Sony -- will go head-to-head this year, according to market research firm Strategic Analytics.Worldwide sales of virtual reality headsets are expected to stand at $895 billion this year, of which the three VR firms will account for 77 percent. The report did not give details on the market share of each firm. The research firm, however, anticipated that the three brands will only make up 13 percent of the global shipment vo

Technology April 11, 2016

Tech giant LG Electronics’ operating profit surged nearly 70 percent in the January-March period, according to its earnings guidance released Monday. The company said it posted 505 billion won ($441 million) in operating profit and 13. 4 trillion won in revenue, up 65.5 percent and down 4.5 percent, respectively, compared to the same period last year. LG Electronics CEO Jo Seong-jin attends a press conference in Seoul in March. (Yonhap)The operating profit beat previous market estimates in a ran

Technology April 11, 2016

Korean software developer Tmax said Monday it would roll out a new operating system for personal computers, called TmaxOS, in a bid to increase its presence in the PC OS market, which has long been dominated by Microsoft’s Windows.Deploying a set of Unix technology standards, TmaxOS boasts a high level of software security and a better user interface than any other PC OS available on the market, according to the firm.  The headquarters of TmaxSoft in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province (TmaxSoft)“A lot o

Technology April 11, 2016

LG OLED LURES CHINA -- LG Display, one of Korea’s leading display-makers, won a top prize for innovative technology at the China Information Technology Expo 2016, an annual electronics fair, held in Shenzhen, China, last week. (LGD)

Technology April 11, 2016