LG Electronics Inc. said Thursday it will kick off sales of the V30 smartphone in the United States this week and gradually expand the global release of the product to play a key role in revitalizing its mobile business.The South Korean tech giant said it will release the LG V30 through five major US mobile carriers Friday.LG Electronics said it also plans to release the V30 in major European countries, including Britain and Germany, in the current quarter. The smartphone will also reach Latin A

Soaring DRAM prices likely to bring largest annual profits for Samsung, SK hynix

South Korea is pushing to ease its bioethics law to allow local scientists and academics to research and develop a wider variety of gene therapies as the country seeks to boost the fast-growing biotechnology sector. 　Local lawmakers led by Rep. Shin Yong-hyun of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea on Tuesday submitted a motion to amend Korea’s Bioethics and Safety Act to expand the permitted scope of gene therapy research to include all diseases.　Right now, the act restricts gene therapy resear

Pantech Co., formally South Korea's No. 3 smartphone maker until suspending its handset business last year, said Wednesday it decided to sell its Internet-of-Things division.The company was on the verge of facing bankruptcy before being acquired by local telecom device firm Solid Inc. Through a regulatory filing, Solid said it will sell Pantech's IoT business to Woori-Net, another South Korean telecom firm. (Yonhap)Pantech struggled to normalize its operations by releasing the IM-100 smartphone

South Korea needs to increase its use of more advanced digital tools to fully harness business opportunities going forward, according to a report released Wednesday by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development."Korea is above the OECD average for some types of usage, such as news reading and content creation, but could improve regarding more sophisticated online activities by individuals, such as cloud computing and job searches," the OECD said in the Digital Economy Outlook 2017

Kyobo Book Centre will hire a humanoid robot to improve on its services for readers.The Hapjeong branch of Kyobo Book Centre will introduce the android named Pepper starting Wednesday, for users’ guide on how to navigate the bookstore and for customized book recommendations. Pepper (SoftBank Robotics Corp.)Pepper, developed by SoftBank Robotics Corp. of Japan, is able to detect emotions and give different book recommendations according to readers.After introducing Pepper at its Hapjeong branch,

Samsung Electronics Co. showcased two new image sensors with reduced sizes and improved performance Wednesday to meet rising demand for bezel-less smarpthones.The South Korean tech giant said the 12-megapixel ISOCELL Fast 2L9 and the 24-megapixel ISCOCELL Slim 2X7 will provide solutions to the dilemma in which the size of image sensors must increase to apply higher resolution, while demand for simpler smartphone design restricts space. This image of Samsung Electronics Co.`s ISOCELL Fast 2L9 ima

LG Electronics Inc. said Wednesday its monthly sales of high-end organic light-emitting diode TVs surpassed the 10,000-unit mark on its home turf for the first time in September on the back of reasonable prices and good consumer responses.The South Korean tech giant said the figure indicates the company sold one LG OLED TV every four minutes last month.LG Electronics has been promoting OLED TVs, which boast improved resolution by having each pixel on the screen emit light. Such products are capa

Chinese online games are quickly infiltrating the South Korean market while South Korean games are virtually shut out of China due to diplomatic fallout, industry officials said Wednesday.The top 20 rankings in online games sales on Google Play Korea as of Tuesday showed five from China, with "Girls' Frontline" reaching No. 4. The game previously beat locally produced MMORPG games, which is a strong market for South Korea, to reach as high as No. 2.  Officials said South Korean game companies, o

Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, a research body under Samsung Electronics Co., said Wednesday it has developed a new technology for X-ray machines that can cut radiation exposure by 90 percent.Researchers from Samsung and Sungkyunkwan University made the breakthrough by adopting perovskite, a chemical compound, which helps to cut production costs while also improving detectors' sensitivity. This image, representing the application of perovskite to X-ray technologies, was released by Sa

Samsung phones 2.3 times more expensive in Korea where premium phones are preferred

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of interviews on promising startups in the fintech industry. This is the 2nd installment. -- Ed. 　To a peer-to-peer lending platform, a full-grown set of database plays a crucial role in providing individual lenders or investors higher return and lower risk, and borrowers with low interest rate loans, while at the same time, better assessing borrowers‘ debt serviceability. One of South Korea’s leading P2P lending platform operator Lendit appears to have ta

LG Electronics announced Tuesday it posted 82.2 percent growth in operating profit for the third quarter of this year compared to a year earlier. According to the smartphone and home appliance maker’s preliminary earnings, it recorded a 15.2 percent increase to reach 15.23 trillion won ($ 13.4 billion) in consolidated sales during the July-September period compared to the same period last year. Its operating profit climbed 82.2 percent to reach 516.1 billion won during the period.  Models introd

Amid persistent military tension on the Korean Peninsula, a survey suggested that South Korea is ill-prepared to deliver radio broadcasts to key underground locations including subway stations and road tunnels during disasters and emergencies. A report released Tuesday by Rep. Shin Kyumg-min of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea found there was poor radio connectivity in 88 percent of South Korea’s road tunnels and subway stations. The survey was compiled by the state-run Korea Communications

LG Uplus Corp., South Korea's No. 3 mobile carrier, said Monday it has successfully tested an ultra high-definition quality TV service in a 5G network environment.LG Uplus said it used 5G equipment by Chinese networking giant Huawei to send data to an internet protocol television from its Sangam office building in western Seoul.  (Yonhap)The company used fixed wireless access technology at 28 GHz spectrum to provide internet access to homes to demonstrate 5G network's capacity in a data intensiv