SK hynix will launch consumer solid state drives here for the first time, the company said Monday, as the remote working trend boosted demand for personal storage devices. The chipmaker will introduce two models -- Gold P31 and Gold S31 – which were launched in the US market in 2020 and 2019, respectively, and received positive reviews. Gold P31 is an PCI Express SSD model, the world‘s first consumer SSD with 128-layer NAND, that can be used for any motherboard that has an availab

Technology Jan. 18, 2021

South Korea’s exports of information and communication technology products in 2020 increased 3.8 percent on-year, data showed. According to the Ministry of Science and ICT on Monday, exports of ICT products reached $183.6 billion for the whole of 2020, the third-highest amount ever. Shipments had declined in the first half of the year due to a sharp contraction in global demand during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but bounced back in the following half, largely driven by semicon

Technology Jan. 18, 2021

LG U+ said Sunday that the company would terminate its 2G network services by the end of June this year, which would mark the end of the aging network in the country. LG U+, currently the only company that operates 2G services, has reported its plan to the Ministry of Science and ICT, the company said, adding that a detailed schedule is yet to be finalized. LG U+ is the last mobile carrier here to terminate the aging network. SK Telecom ended its 2G services last July, and KT shut down 2G se

Technology Jan. 17, 2021

Samsung Electronics announced Sunday that the company would allow customers to rent its new flagship smartphone Galaxy S21 models for up to three days. The promotional event for the company’s new smartphone models will run through March 14, the company added. Those who want to test out the smartphones can make a reservation on the company’s official website or visit Samsung Digital Plaza branches across the country. Those who purchase after renting will be provided with Samsung E

Technology Jan. 17, 2021

Scatter Lab, developer of artificial intelligence chatbot Lee Luda, has come under fire for uploading private messages on an open-source platform to train its AI model, local media said Thursday. Scatter Lab has reportedly uploaded around 100 datasets of KakaoTalk messages on GitHub dating from September last year, when the company started sharing its artificial neural network model for the chatbot, the reports said. The datasets contained personal information of users of the Science of Love

Technology Jan. 14, 2021

A joint research team from South Korea, the US and Poland has discovered a new phenomenon called “photon avalanche,” which is expected to open up new ways of research on fields that use optical technology. According to the research team from the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, it has found that absorption of a single photon in some materials could trigger a chain reaction that produces a large burst of light. This special type of upconversion called photon avalan

Technology Jan. 14, 2021

At the ongoing Consumer Electronics Show, South Korean companies have presented more robots and artificial intelligence-based products and solutions that promise to make our daily lives easier in the near future. LG Electronics brought its AI-based virtual human character Reah Keem to the fore, who unveiled the company’s latest line of LG CLoi UV-C robots. The robot, designed to use ultraviolet radiation to reduce harmful germs in public and personal areas, was presented for the first ti

Technology Jan. 13, 2021

A social media-based artificial intelligence chatbot has been suspended in South Korea after stirring a series of controversies with discriminatory and vulgar language, leaving lessons for all parties involved in the related sectors dealing with AI. The chatbot Lee Luda, developed by local startup firm Scatter Lab, was introduced last December to run on Facebook Messenger. Designed to mimic a 20-year-old woman, it has attracted more than 400,000 users via Facebook so far. It, however, became

Technology Jan. 12, 2021

LS Electric, a South Korean producer of power solutions, aims to grow 10 percent annually and generate 70 percent of its earnings from overseas, the company said Monday. Unveiling a corporate vision for the next decade, the company’s Chairman Koo Ja-kyun urged executives and employees to act proactively to go beyond its traditional businesses of electricity and automation and transform into a global digital leader. “The company must continue to evolve to find new business oppor

Industry Jan. 11, 2021

Samsung Electronics is expected to rack up strong earnings in 2021 on the back of the “semiconductor supercycle,” according to local analysts Monday. Demand for 5G communication chips, mobile applications processors and image sensors will be strong for the next two to three years, aiding the South Korean chipmaker, they said. Foundry Samsung Electronics is expected to continue its strong performance in the foundry sector, backed by increasing demand from the makers of high-pe

Technology Jan. 11, 2021

LG Electronics logged a record-high operating profit in 2020, surpassing 3 trillion won ($2.75 billion) for the first time in its history, the company said in its regulatory filing Friday. Its operating profit for the whole of last year has been estimated at 3.19 trillion won, breaking the previous record of 2.7 trillion won in 2018. Compared with a year earlier, the 2020 figure was an increase of 31 percent, the regulatory filing showed. The South Korean electronics maker’s gross an

Technology Jan. 8, 2021

Samsung Electronics continued its strong performance in the fourth quarter last year, the company said in its regulatory filing Friday. Samsung Electronics estimated its Q4 operating profit at 9 trillion won ($8.2 billion), up 26.7 percent on-year. The company’s operating profit for the whole of last year is estimated at 35.9 trillion won accordingly, an increase of 29.4 percent from 27.7 trillion won in 2019. Compared with a quarter earlier, when the firm delivered an earnings surpris

Technology Jan. 8, 2021

The combined market cap of the top 100 South Korean companies reached a record high of 1,745 trillion won ($1.6 trillion) this year, up 77.5 percent from 983 trillion won in 2016, data showed Thursday. According to a report by local corporate tracker Korea CXO Institute, the combined market cap of local firms as of Jan. 1 jumped 43.1 percent on-year, or 526 trillion won. The corresponding figures were those observed on the first day of each year at the bourse operator Korea Exchange. Samsun

Industry Jan. 7, 2021

SK Telecom has relocated its artificial intelligence service division under the company’s main business that operates mobile networks and information technology solutions, in a gesture to add full momentum to digital innovation, the company said Thursday. “The latest corporate reshuffle has reflected SKT CEO Park Jung-ho’s will to marry AI technology with the company‘s all mobile network services and solutions,” SKT explained. The AI service division -- AI&CO

Technology Jan. 7, 2021

The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute will begin a space project to develop a space telescope with the US space agency NASA and the California Institute of Technology, the ICT Ministry here announced Wednesday. The space project, titled the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explore, or SPHEREx, is a two-year mission designed to launch a space telescope that would collect data that could help understand the history of the universe, the

Technology Jan. 6, 2021