The future of Cyworld, a social media platform that was very popular years ago, depends on a final court ruling on CEO Jeon Jae-wan, according to industry sources Tuesday. Jeon has been indicted on charges of failing to pay a total of 1 billion won ($830 million) to his former employees after the company suffered financial difficulties. The trial is scheduled on July 25 at Seoul Eastern District Court. If the court next month rules that Jeon is largely responsible for the payment delays, it

KT Corp., South Korea's telecommunications giant, on Monday released a new Wi-Fi service that reaches the corners of homes as telework has increased during the pandemic. The new service, named the GiGA Wi, incorporates two Wi-Fi routers. An extra wireless router allows the Wi-Fi signal to reach remote corners of homes where the main router cannot cover, while sharing a single Wi-Fi network name, according to KT. The carrier said it developed the new service due to increasing demand for better

According to Digieco, an economic research institute affiliated with KT, the size of mobile shopping in South Korea in the first quarter this year reached an all-time high at nearly 25 trillion won. The report was based on DMC Media’s data. Online transactions for food delivery services, in particular, showed a large growth reaching 3.5 trillion won as of the first quarter, compared to around 500 billion won in the first quarter of 2017. (khnews@heraldcorp.com)

South Korean telecommunications firm KT’s CEO Koo Hyun-mo on Friday held a video conference with Global System for Mobile Association Director General Mats Granryd to share ideas on future of ICT industry in post-coronavirus era, the company said Sunday. During their first official one-on-one meeting between the two, Koo stressed the increasing importance of telecommunications firms in the ICT sectors. Koo said 5G network and artificial intelligence technology will be the key factors tha

  If used face masks could be disinfected, and then possibly reused, that would be a good thing for people suffering shortages of masks. South Korea's two largest electronics firms -- Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. -- are saying that their clothes refreshers can disinfect face masks using sanitization features amid the coronavirus pandemic.  LG claims that its Tromm Styler, a clothes care appliance, can kill over 99.9 percent of the virus found in face masks whe

    Major South Korean tech firms are supporting the country's virus fight with their own smartphone applications for QR code-based registration, a scheme meant to stem further spread of the new coronavirus and trace potential cases, industry sources said Saturday. Starting on June 10, the country has enforced QR code-based entry logs at facilities with high risks of infections in the greater Seoul area and selected cities in its latest efforts to track and contain the COVID

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong visited the company’s semiconductor headquarters in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, to check on its operations, the tech giant said Friday. The heir apparent discussed Samsung’s road map for next-generation semiconductor development, including memory and system-on-chips, strategies for manufacturing facilities and materials and long-term measures to respond to the COVID-19 impact. Lee also visited the chipmaker’s research and de

Samsung Electronics said Friday it has been selected as the 5G network infrastructure supplier for Canada-based telecom firm Telus, laying the groundwork for its presence as one of the primary vendors in the country. Telus, founded in 1990, has 13.4 million mobile subscribers with annual revenue of C$14.4 billion ($10.4 billion). Canada plans to invest C$40 billion to deploy 5G networks across the country in addition to C$200 billion investments made in establishing wireless networks, freq

The first satellite built by KT SAT in 1970 at its center in Geumsan, South Chungcheong Province (left), and engineers at the Geumsan Satellite Center in South Chungcheong Province (right). The center operated by KT SAT marked its 50th anniversary on Thursday when the division of mobile carrier KT announced it plans to launch the sixth communications satellite by 2024 at the earliest. “Koreasat 6A will be able to handle the sharp increase in data traffic in the 5G era,” the company

LG Electronics said Thursday a study found its flagship steam-based home appliance Tromm Styler is capable of disinfecting viruses in masks. According to a recent test by a research team at Chonnam National University, the anti-virus clothing care course of the Tromm Styler removes over 99.99 percent of viruses such as influenza A, adenovirus, herpes and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, the company said. The PEDV is another type of coronavirus, which is different from the novel coronavirus

Samsung Electronics Co. launched a blood pressure monitoring mobile application in South Korea on Thursday.  Samsung said users of its smartwatch, the Galaxy Watch Active2, will be able to access the Samsung Health Monitor app, which can measure and track their blood pressure. The software leverages the smartwatch's wrist sensors and conducts pulse wave analysis to check a person's blood pressure. To measure blood pressure, users must have the app installed on both the Galaxy Watch Activ

Samsung Electronics Co. recaptured the top spot in the Southeast Asian smartphone market in the first quarter of the year by edging out its Chinese rivals, a report showed Wednesday. Samsung's market share in Southeast Asia stood at 18.9 percent in the January-March period, according to market tracker Counterpoint Research, outperforming Chinese phone maker Oppo by 0.2 percentage point. Chinese players also occupied the third to fifth spots on the list. Xiaomi came in third at 14.8 percent,

The number of monthly active users of local video streaming service giant Wavve declined over the past months, while that of Netflix soared to cement its top status, a report showed Thursday. Wavve, which was launched last September by South Korea's top mobile carrier SK Telecom Co. and terrestrial broadcasters KBS, MBC and SBS, had 3.46 million monthly active users last month, down 8.8 percent from 3.79 million in October 2019, according to market researcher Nielsen KoreanClick. Monthly act

The South Korean government is carrying out a nationwide quality inspection of its 5G networks amid growing dissatisfaction among people using the service, which came out last year. According to an ICT Ministry announcement Tuesday, the government has started assessing 5G networks and service in the nation’s major cities -- Seoul, Busan, Incheon, Daegu, Daejeon, Gwangju and Ulsan. The government has sampled around 100 locations in those cities, checking call quality and 5G network recept

  Many readers must have mistakenly dropped the dustbin of a vacuum cleaner at least once while cleaning it out. Worse still, all the dust, hair and unknown particles that are stuck together have to be dug out manually so they can be thrown in the trash. While technology advances among vacuum cleaners have been pronounced in recent years under the lead of manufacturers like Dyson, my try at using Samsung Electronics’ Clean Station for Jet vacuum was extremely satisfying. While, ad