SK says ‘negotiations are underway’

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

Five months after the souring of South Korea-China relations over Seoul’s deployment of a US missile defense system, China continues to deny approval to South Korean game companies seeking to publish their mobile games in China. In March this year, China reportedly stopped issuing new service licenses to Korea-made games as part of economic retaliation against Seoul’s preparations to install the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, which China has been vehemently opposing.Months have pass

LG Electronics’ upcoming flagship smartphone V30 is expected to feature the artificial intelligence-powered Google Assistant in Korean, according to local news reports Wednesday. The Korean voice service, which was initially slated to start in the fourth quarter, will be available in time for the release of the V30, set to debut on Aug. 31, the reports said. Google Assistant is a virtual personal assistant, providing diverse services such as answering questions, playing music, making reservation

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

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

South Korea is one of the world’s most wired countries where close to 90 percent of the population owns a smartphone, with a large number of them made by the country’s tech giant Samsung Electronics. As Samsung’s devices run on Google’s Android operating system, the open source software has undoubtedly had a significant impact on Korea’s digital economy. The question is -- exactly how much economic value has it really generated for local businesses and users?　Google Korea has sought to answer th

The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute’s translation technology was adopted as an international standard by a French standardization association, the ETRI said Tuesday. The ETRI’s translation technology called Zero UI was adopted as an international standard for the first time in the world during a meeting held by AFNOR, or Association Francaise de Normalisation Standards Organization of France, on July 28. The translation technology allows users who speak different languages

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

South Korea is seeking to focus on a long-term vision that can raise the overall competitiveness of the country as it utilizes its research and development budget, the ICT ministry said Tuesday.The plan was announced during a gathering of Ministry of Science and ICT policymakers and President Moon Jae-in. The policy briefing was the first of its kind since Moon took office May 10.In accordance with the goal, the ministry will now have the right to conduct a prefeasibility study related to the R&

Samsung Electronics Co. said Tuesday it will promote "The Frame" TVs during the showcase event for its presumed Galaxy Note 8 slated for later this week.The South Korean tech giant, which plans to unveil its new phablet in New York on Wednesday (US time), said The Frame TVs installed at the venue will display artwork drawn by the Galaxy Note series' exclusive S-Pen. (Yonhap)Samsung said The Frame TVs will display 54 pieces produced by 13 artists through "art mode," which allows the TVs to displa

LG Electronics Inc. introduced two 15-second ads for its flagship V30 smartphone slated to be showcased later this month, which apparently targeted Samsung Electronics Co.'s upcoming Note smartphone, industry watchers said Tuesday.One of the clips showed a page being torn apart from a blue-colored notebook with a phrase, "There's a reason to break up with you." The other video showed a pen being broken into two pieces in the shape of a "V."The ads came as Samsung's presumed Galaxy Note 8 is slat

Kakao Taxi is the most popular cab-hailing app in South Korea, dominating 98 percent of the market, while the food delivery app sector is fiercely contested by two rivals, according to a survey on Tuesday.Market analysis company Open Survey polled 1,500 smartphone users between 20 through 40 to find out which online-to-offline apps they use the most for specific needs.Kakao Taxi, run by Kakao Corp. that also operates the popular messenger service Kakao Talk, commanded 98 percent of responses for

Korean tech giants, Samsung and LG, are moving into the gaming industry with the aim of seeking a breakthrough in the saturated PC market and testing future display technologies on gaming devices, according to industry watchers. In recent years, Samsung and LG have competitively released gaming laptops and monitors in the market traditionally dominated by Taiwanese firms, including Gigabyte, Asus, Acer and Micro-Star International. Samsung Electronics announced Monday it had launched the world’s

Samsung Electronics Co. said Monday that it will roll out its new pen-equipped laptop the Notebook 9 Pen that will include Intel's latest eighth generation processor in South Korea next month.Bringing its S Pen technology to the company's notebook lineup, the new model will offer an up to 40-percent speed boost over the previous seventh generation chips, the company said. (Yonhap)The new chips are also designed to operate video clips with 4K Ultra High Definition and other recent innovations suc