A fierce legal dispute is expected to extend this week following the Seoul Central District Court’s decision to sentence Samsung Electronics’ de facto leader Lee Jae-yong to a five-year prison term. During the weekend following the court ruling Friday that found the Samsung heir guilty of five major charges related to the corruption scandal of former President Park Geun-hye, Lee‘s legal team and the special counsel team respectively clenched their fists in preparation for the forthcoming appella

Industry Aug. 27, 2017

South Korea’s LG Electronics said Sunday its voice-activated artificial intelligence platform will expand connections further with Amazon, enhancing LG’s smart home environment with global partners. The company plans to unveil operations of its AI-based home appliance lineup being controlled by Amazon’s voice recognition speaker Amazon Echo at the upcoming tradeshow IFA 2017 that kicks off this Friday in Berlin, Germany. Amazon Echo runs based on its AI assistance program Alexa. The latest expan

Technology Aug. 27, 2017

Stephen Cheung is a 27-year-old man with a British father and native Hongkonger mother. Working as a tour guide, which facilitates his major in history, Cheung himself may be a living example of Hong Kong, a city of coexistence of Eastern and Western cultures, tradition and modernity, after 156 years of British colonial rule. The Old Police Station is under renovation to be an art gallery. (Hong Kong Touism Board)“The Old Central Town is my favorite place to introduce to tourists, because it is

Travel Aug. 25, 2017

Chinese electronics manufacturer Haier filed a lawsuit against South Korean rivals Samsung and LG Electronics and some others over their monopoly on patents related to the production of televisions with a New York court, according to news reports Thursday. Haier claimed in the suit that Korean TV makers and others pay a patent licensing company named MPEG LA too much for royalties for patents required by the US Federal Communications Commission for manufacturing digital TVs. Defendants sued by H

Technology Aug. 24, 2017

At the news of the ongoing meeting between the top management of Japan’s Toshiba and US-based memory maker Western Digital in Tokyo, industry observers are raising the possibility that South Korea’s SK hynix may be far from acquiring Toshiba’s chipmaking unit, according to news reports Wednesday. According to a report by Japan’s Nikkei, the meeting of the chiefs of the two longtime business partners – Toshiba CEO Satoshi Tsunakawa and Western Digital CEO Stephen Milligan – could bring a major ch

Technology Aug. 23, 2017

LG Electronics is accelerating expansion of its vehicle component business with the decision to construct a plant for electric vehicle components in the United States, the company announced Wednesday. Eyeing the rapidly growing US EV market at around 65 percent annual rates by 2020, LG inked about $25 million investment contract with the state of Michigan, which will turn a 215,000-square-meter area in Hazel Park into an electric vehicle plant complex by the first quarter of 2018. “The latest co

Technology Aug. 23, 2017

Samsung Electronics reportedly invested 5 billion won ($4.4 million) in South Korea’s first-generation social networking service Cyworld as part of efforts to enhance its artificial intelligence business, according to the company on Tuesday.The company confirmed Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, an affiliate on startup investment, recently made an investment in Cyworld, although it declined to reveal the exact amount of the investment.   Screenshot of Cyworld twitter pageAccording to media

Technology Aug. 22, 2017

South Korean mobile carrier SK Telecom said Tuesday it is partnering with Starbucks to launch a voice-activated coffee order service using the company’s artificial intelligence speaker Nugu. Under an agreement, SKT plans to connect Nugu with Starbuck’s Siren order service on its application, allowing consumers to order drinks through voice commands. The two are working together to launch the service by the end of the year.  A model demonstrates how to order a drink with the artificial intelligen

Technology Aug. 22, 2017

Ramping up efforts to establish a complete smart home environment, Samsung Electronics said Tuesday it would add connectivity to all of its home appliance products by 2020 and provide a control platform. The announcement was made about a week before the South Korean electronics maker is to unveil its major smart home services at the IFA 2017 in Berlin. To increase connectivity, the company has decided to add smart functions based on Internet of Things technologies to all household appliances mad

Technology Aug. 22, 2017

Samsung Electronics will provide its ultra-high definition technology as an open source for various industry players by the end of the year, hoping the tech to be used not only for premium televisions, but also online video content players and gaming, the company said Monday. The South Korean tech titan has solely developed the High Dynamic Range 10 Plus tech and applied to all lineups of quantum-dot light emitting diode TVs and ultra-high definition TVs launched this year. Known as the HDR 10+,

Technology Aug. 21, 2017

Accumulated payments made with Samsung Pay surpassed 10 trillion won ($8.77 billion) in two years since the mobile payment service was launched, Samsung Electronics said Sunday. Use of the mobile pay service nearly quadrupled in a year after reaching 2 trillion won in the first year, the company said. A rapid increase in online payments via Samsung Pay contributed to the growth, which accounted for more than 30 percent of the total payments. (Samsung Electronics)Samsung Pay is currently availabl

Technology Aug. 20, 2017

South Korea’s mobile carriers are considering legal action in response to the government’s forceful measures to cut consumers’ mobile costs, according to the industry on Sunday. The country’s three major telecom companies -- SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus -- on Saturday received an official document from the Ministry of Science and ICT to implement the government-led 25 percent selective discount rate for new subscribers starting Sept. 15. Since announced in June as part of the Moon Jae-in administ

Industry Aug. 20, 2017

LG Electronics opened its largest overseas brand shop in Iraq as an investment in the emerging market of the Middle East, the company announced Wednesday. The South Korean electronics maker is eyeing the rising Iraqi market, where large reconstruction projects are underway, with an aim to establish its premium image in the home appliances market. The company opened the two-floor shop that spans 870 square meters in the main commercial district of Erbil, the fourth-largest city in Iraq.  LG Elect

Technology Aug. 16, 2017

Implementation of the Moon Jae-in administration’s measures to help reduce the burden of mobile costs is likely to be postponed to mid-September due to differences between the government and telecom industry. The Ministry of Science and ICT on Wednesday issued an executive notice that the ministry will start working on making an executive order for an additional 11,000 won ($9.60) cut in the base rates of mobile plans for low-income households. But it unexpectedly put off expanding the discount

Technology Aug. 16, 2017

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Kwon Oh-hyun rose to become the top earner among chief executive officers and owners of South Korea’s major conglomerates in the first half of this year, regulatory filings to the Financial Supervisory Service showed. Kwon, who is currently leading Samsung’s most lucrative device solutions division in charge of the world’s biggest chipmaking business, received a total of 13.98 billion won ($12.3 million) including massive incentives for the first six months of t

Industry Aug. 15, 2017