Samsung Electronics’ budget smartphone Galaxy A7 with its new voice assistant Bixby will go on sale in Korea on Friday, the tech giant confirmed Wednesday.The 5.7-inch smartphone will only be available via local carrier SK Telecom at the price of 588,500 won ($513).  (SK Telecom)The new Galaxy A7 features Samsung’s artificial intelligent voice assistant Bixby, water-proof function and fingerprint scanner. It also sports a 16-megapixel camera, 3,600 mAh battery and Samsung Pay, a mobile payment s

Industry July 12, 2017

Yoo Young-min has been formally appointed as the head of the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, taking on the difficult tasks of restoring the organization’s governance leadership, finding the country’s next growth engines and easing a conflict with telecom companies. President Moon Jae-in approved the appointment of the new minister Tuesday.Yoo served as an executive of LG Electronics, vice president of LG CNS and chief operating officer of Posco ICT. He replaced Choi Yang-hee, who h

Industry July 11, 2017

Samsung Electronics is set to report its best-ever quarterly profit in the second quarter, higher than that of Apple, the world’s most profitable company.The South Korean electronics giant estimated Friday that it posted 60 trillion won ($51 billion) in sales and 14 trillion won in operating profit in the April-June period, which are increases of 17.79 percent and 71.99 percent, respectively, from the previous year. This could be the first time that the world’s largest smartphone maker has recor

Industry July 7, 2017

Samsung Electronics is set to launch a refurbished Galaxy Note 7 on Friday, jumping into the smartphone competition that has turned unseasonably heated this summer.June, a generally offseason period ahead of the rollout of new premium devices in the fall, is expected to be busy this year, as Samsung and LG have continued to launch variants of their premium smartphones. (Samsung Electronics)Samsung said Thursday it will sell its long-rumored refurbished Note 7 on Friday. The device is a renewed v

Industry July 6, 2017

LG Electronics’ mobile payment service LG Pay will be used for low-budget smartphones next year, the firm’s mobile communication division head said. The service will also be expanded into online shopping malls and in the global market as its rival Samsung Pay offers. “We will expand the use of LG Pay into low-budget smartphones alongside premium phones next year,” Cho Jun-ho, president of LG’s mobile communication division said during a meeting with local bloggers on Friday. LG Pay is a mobile p

Industry July 5, 2017

삼성전자가 개발한 인공지능(AI) 음성 비서 ‘빅스비’ 영어 버전이 빅데이터 부족으로 출시 지연되고 있다. 　앞서 고동진 삼성전자 무선사업부 사장은 4월 열린 갤럭시S8 미디어데이에서 빅스비의 “영어 버전은 5월에 중국어 버전은 6월에 선보일 것”이라고 했지만, 현재까지는 한국어 버전만 출시된 상황이다. 　4일 삼성 관계자는 “타 언어로 빅스비를 개발하는 것이 예상보다 오래 걸린다. 딥러닝 기반의 빅스비를 운영하려면 충분한 빅데이터가 필요한데 아직 부족하다”고 말했다.  (사진=삼성전자 웹사이트)　빅데이터는 스스로 학습하고 진화하는 딥러닝 기반 서비스에게 중요한 자원이지만, 하드웨어 강자인 삼성은 구글, 아마존과 애플에 비해 빅데이터 시장에 뒤늦게 뛰어들었다. 　출시 지연의 또 다른 이유는 미국 실리콘밸리에 있는 삼성리서치아메리카(Samsung Research America) 소속 미국인 엔지니어들과 한국에 있는 경영진과의 소통 때문이다.　업계 관계자는 “현재 미국 지사에서 엔지니어

한국어판 July 4, 2017

The English version of Samsung Electronics’ voice-assistant service Bixby has been delayed because it needs more accumulation of data, which is key to deep learning technology, according to the company Tuesday.Bixby is Samsung’s much-touted voice assistant service unveiled with much fanfare in May. It aims to control all of the company’s digital devices and home appliances. Bixby is now available only in Korean, although Samsung’s mobile chief, Koh Dong-jin, said in April, “Bixby’s English versi

Industry July 4, 2017

The coming fall will be a battlefield of premium smartphones among global leaders Samsung Electronics, Apple and LG Electronics, with all of them featuring similar hardware improvements.Samsung is expected to fire the first shot with its Galaxy Note 8 at the end of August. Apple’s iPhone 8 and LG’s V30 will follow in the following months. All of them will adopt organic light-emitting diode panels, which make the panels curved, and dual cameras that make pictures more vivid and detailed. Samsung’

Industry July 3, 2017

While the world has recently been hit hard by a series of cyberattacks that have disrupted government agencies and big businesses, Korea seems relatively safe with no reports of any serious intrusions. Local security experts, however, said more malicious cyberattacks will be coming and Korea is susceptible to them due to its tense relations with North Korea and its advanced information technology infrastructure, both of which can be good bait for cybercriminals. Last week, Petya, a new type of R

Industry July 2, 2017

Korean battery maker Samsung SDI will be able to produce solid-state batteries that are safe from explosions for smartphones in one to two years, the firm’s executive said. “Our technological level to produce a solid-state battery for smartphones will be mature enough in one to two years. However, it depends on Samsung Electronics whether it will be used for phones,” the Samsung SDI executive told The Korea Herald on condition of anonymity. “As far as I know, the level of battery technology of o

Technology June 30, 2017

MUJU -- South Korean Jeong Yun-jo captured a surprise gold medal at the ongoing taekwondo world championships on Wednesday.Jeong defeated Mikhail Artamonov of Russia 24-23 in the final of the men's under-58kg at the World Taekwondo Federation World Taekwondo Championships at Taekwondowon's T1 Arena in Muju, some 240 kilometers south of Seoul.This was South Korea's tournament-best sixth medal. The host nation now has four gold and two bronze medals.Jeong Yun-jo of South Korea celebrates his victo

Olympic Games June 28, 2017

Green Cross will soon be ready to make its full-fledged debut in the US market, with the aim of taking a share of the world’s largest pharmaceuticals market.The Korean biopharmaceuticals company is expected to win the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval for its immunodeficiency drug IVIG-SN -- human normal immunoglobulin G for intravenous administration -- within this year, according to the firm and analysts. IVIG-SN, exclusively developed by Green Cross, treats primary immunodeficiency d

Industry June 28, 2017

Samsung Electronics’ new flagship smartphone Galaxy S8 Plus topped Consumer Reports’ latest ranking on smartphone battery life. It is welcome news for the Korean tech giant, which suffered a setback due to its fire-prone smartphone Note 7, which was discontinued last year. The US magazine Consumer Reports said in a June 17 report that it had reviewed the batteries of smartphones available in the market in terms of talk time, Wi-Fi, long-term evolution data, wireless charging and battery capacity

Technology June 27, 2017