‘Chinese government has never asked for Huawei’s communications information’

Samsung Electronics announced Thursday that it will unveil its new Galaxy Note 9 premium smartphone at 11 a.m. in New York on Aug. 9, confirming the official debut date for its latest device. 　The Korean tech giant sent out invitations to journalists and partners to join its flagship “Samsung Galaxy Unpacked” showcase event, which will take place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The event will be livestreamed on Samsung.com. 　In the invite, Samsung unveiled a close-up photo of what

SHANGHAI -- LG Uplus Vice Chairman Kwon Young-soo said the company‘s 5G deployment plan is being carried out smoothly as planned, owing to Huawei. “Quality, performance and delivery of 5G equipment are meeting our expectations as Huawei is advancing ahead of other vendors,” Kwon said. LG Uplus Vice Chairman Kwon Young-soo (Yonhap)“Huawei has the fastest and the best function out there,” said Kwon, to a question whether the firm would continue to cooperate with the Chinese firm. Vice Chairman Kwo

Huawei announces launch of commercial 5G systems in September, KT chairman praises speed of Chinese competitors

SHANGHAI -- Samsung Electronics will equip its upcoming flagship smartphone in the second half of the year with an enhanced image sensor technology, dubbed “Isocell Plus,” for clearer and more accurate photos taken by its smartphones, according to a company official on Wednesday.“The new Isocell Plus will start to be mass produced for adoption by new smartphones slated for launch in the second half of the year,” said an official at Samsung Electronics’ System LSI Business at the company’s exhibi

German chemical and life sciences giant Merck KGaA has restructured its performance materials business with aims to strengthen its growth this year — a move that hints at Merck’s renewed attention to its key customers in the space including South Korean display makers Samsung and LG. 　Merck recently initiated a major restructuring of its performance materials business division. Previously broken down into smaller sub-units by material type, Merck’s materials business is now divided into three ar

As blockchain-backed services move to embrace the masses, one startup aims to serve the fast-growing community of enthusiasts, followers, experts, investors and engineers who have yet to find a “go-to” place. China-based BeeChat is the first blockchain-based messenger app that also provides cryptocurrency distribution channels and other functions for the fast-growing industry. Built on QTUM, a decentralized blockchain application platform developed by Singapore-based QTUM Foundation, it has attr

KT Corp., South Korea's second-largest mobile carrier, on Monday unveiled an emergency network service platform that features unmanned drones for search and rescue operations.Skyship, co-developed by local drone maker Metismake Inc., features a helium-powered airship and a high-resolution camera that can scan for mobile signals of people in need of rescue.The airship, which can scan for LTE or high-end fifth-generation signals, can determine a person's position to within 50 meters before sending

South Korea ranks No. 1 worldwide in terms of smartphone ownership and internet usage, as nine in 10 Korean adults use the internet and own a smartphone, according to a new report released this month by the US-based Pew Research Center.　The research center conducted a survey on 40,448 respondents in 37 countries from Feb. 16 to May 8, 2017, on their internet and social media usage patterns as well as smartphone ownership. And in the survey, South Korea recorded the highest smartphone ownership r

SK Holdings, the parent company of South Korea’s third-largest conglomerate SK Group, is moving to expand the scope of its global mobility business as it explores new potential partnerships and areas for cooperation with leading future mobility startups worldwide.SK Holdings said Sunday that it hosted a workshop with Southeast Asia’s top ride-hailing giant Grab, US-based car-sharing service leader Turo and SoCar, Korea’s leading car-sharing firm, to discuss ways to forge synergies and partner fo

Mobile carrier KT said Friday that it had built an internet of things-based electric bicycle in partnership with bicycle maker Recon Hi-Tech. Dubbed “Air i,” the electric bicycle uses IoT technologies to reduce the risk of loss or theft. KT applied its IoT technologies and smart mobility platform to the bicycle in order to connect it to the company’s LTE-M network, allowing users to keep track of the bicycle’s real-time positions and remotely control operations. A model sits on Air i, an IoT-bas

Professor Lee Se-hee of the University of Colorado delivers a presentation on solid-state batteries at a forum hosted by Samsung Electronics on Friday. (Samsung Electronics)Samsung Electronics focused on solid-state batteries as the next generation of lithium-ion batteries at an open forum on related technologies, it said Friday. The South Korean tech titan held the event to keep track of the latest progress in development of the new batteries and share industry cases. The forum held at Seoul Na

South Korea’s top carpooling startup Poolus has laid off around 70 percent of its employees as part of business restructuring initiated by growing financial difficulties and regulatory hurdles that have weighed down on the app’s growth.　　Poolus confirmed Thursday that its CEO Kim Tae-ho had resigned as of June 7 during a board meeting. The startup said it has been seeing “stagnant earnings and operational difficulties due to regulatory issues” and will “re-examine the viability of its business a

South Korea’s leading battery maker Samsung SDI unveiled its newest high-voltage home energy storage system battery module at a tradeshow in Germany, vowing to accelerate its penetration into the growing home ESS market, the company said Thursday. The latest residential ESS battery module revealed at the Electrical Energy Storage Europe 2018 in Munich features doubled energy density from last year’s products through the use of newly applied cell and module design technologies.  A visitor takes a

South Korea’s KT will provide its artificial intelligence solutions for Ambassador Hotel Group, helping the global hotel chain to provide AI-based services, the company said Thursday. The Korean mobile carrier and the hotel group signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on building hotels with AI services in the country, starting with Novotel Ambassador Seoul Dongdaemun & Residences that is slated for opening in July. Under the memorandum, the two companies are planning to connect the h