Amid growing efforts to reinforce the domestic chip materials, parts and equipment industry by relying less on Japanese imports, South Korean chipmaker SK hynix said Tuesday it will support three new partner firms and co-develop products for the next two years. The memory chip manufacturer said it has selected Semics, LKN and Evertech Enterprise as innovative tech firms and has signed agreements at its headquarters in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province. “Despite the difficulty that we are end

South Korea‘s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on Monday launched an innovation center aimed to support local fabless companies and system semiconductor developers. The newly opened semiconductor center, located in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, will function as a base that nurtures capabilities of chip design companies, known as fabless, the ministry said. It was a follow-up measure of the government-led plan to foster the logic chip industry where Korean chipmakers have not bee

As most of my naturally-curly-haired peers would agree, there is nothing more annoying than coiled bangs. They make you look less composed and childish, not to mention adding a few pounds to your face. So I jumped at the chance to try out Dyson Corrale straightener, the latest hot item from the cordless masters. Almost immediately, I found it extremely convenient to use during busy mornings to fix by bangs, without having time to wash and dry my hair. The gadget is usually placed on the cha

Rescale, San Francisco-based company specializing in high performance computing applications for cloud systems, said Monday that the company will beef up efforts to expand operations in Korea, including increasing cooperation with the country‘s largest tech giant Samsung Electronics. Rescale entered the Korean market last year. The company currently has several Korean customers that use different types of cloud computing solutions, including LS Electric, Hyundai Electric and Energy and

The latest forecasts about Korean technology companies’ profits in the second quarter suggest they have at least avoided the worst-case scenario amid the protracting COVID-19 pandemic, due to the semiconductor industry’s outperformance, according to industry sources on Sunday. The newest figures released by local stock brokerages show that Samsung Electronics is estimated to report around 53.6 trillion won ($44.5 billion) in sales and 6.4 trillion won in operating profit for the A

Samsung Electronics Co. is expected to launch two new foldable smartphones in the second half of the year, with an affordable foldable handset model likely to come out next year, industry sources said Sunday. Samsung is projected to unveil the Galaxy Fold 2 and the 5G variant of the Galaxy Z Flip at an event in August, along with its flagship phablet Galaxy Note 20 series, according to the sources. But its affordable foldable smartphone, presumably named the Galaxy Fold Lite, is not likely t

South Korea's major mobile carriers are expected to report improved bottom lines in the second quarter on the back of a rise in subscribers to 5G network services amid the pandemic, analysts said Saturday. The combined net profits of the country's three major carriers -- SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. -- are estimated at 711 billion won ($591 million) in the April-June period, compared with 561 billion won from the previous year, according to a poll by Yonhap Infomax, the financia

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced Friday that the ministry’s research and development budget for 2021 is set at 21.6 trillion won ($18 billion), up 9.7 percent from 19.7 trillion won in 2020. The ICT Ministry said the additional funds would be spent on high-priority areas such as disease research and cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, fifth-generation wireless networks, self-driving vehicles and next-generation semiconductors. The budget for infectious

Google LLC will correct unfair subscription practices related to its YouTube Premium service in South Korea, Seoul's telecommunications regulator said Thursday. Local consumers will be able to cancel the YouTube Premium service immediately and will be eligible for refunds based on their remaining subscription period, the Korea Communications Commission said after receiving Google's voluntary corrective measures. Previously, YouTube Premium users had to wait until the end of their monthly subs

South Korea's move to offer an unlicensed 6 gigahertz (GHz) frequency band will lead to superfast Wi-Fi services across the country and the building of 5G network-based smart factories, the science ministry said Thursday. The spectrum, ranging from 5,925 MHz through 7,125 MHz, will open for indoor use in September, with the entire frequency to be made available by 2022, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT. South Korea, the first country to begin commercial 5G services in April 3 last

An increasing number of IT companies in South Korea are developing artificial intelligence-based software to counter abusive online comments. The AI-based profanity filters help them to improve user experience by hiding unpalatable comments on their platforms, according to industry sources. One of them is the nation’s top game company Nexon, which in 2017 created an in-house AI research and development team called Intelligence Labs. The team of around 200 engineers has developed its ow

Samsung Electronics announced Wednesday that Sebastian Seung, an artificial intelligence expert, will head its AI research arm, strengthening its prowess in the sector. The computer engineering professor at Princeton University will lead Samsung’s 15 R&D centers in 13 countries, including Korea, and seven AI centers, to develop future technologies. The scholar joined Samsung as chief research scientist in 2018 soon after Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong announced his plan to recruit to

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong on Tuesday highlighted the importance of timing again during his visit to the consumer electronics headquarters in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. Lee met with Kim Hyun-suk, CEO of the consumer electronics business, and other top executives to discuss artificial intelligence and internet of things strategies, sales expansion of the premium lineup and reinforcing online businesses. “The business environment is testing our limits,” Lee said.

Despite a steady growth in the number of 5G mobile network subscribers who pay higher bills than with LTE services, South Korea’s plan for its full-fledged commercialization seems to be facing delays, according to industry sources Tuesday. The so-called “real 5G,” which requires operation of the higher-frequency bandwidth of 28 gigahertzes to make data processing 20 times faster than the 4G LTE, is still not ready for commercialization, due to unexpected circumstances such a