The Korea Herald is publishing a series of articles highlighting South Korea’s promising startups in the emerging sectors of digital health care and next-generation medical devices. This is the eighth installment. – Ed.Recent advances in artificial intelligence have begun to revolutionize the field of medicine and health care, as machines show potential to improve the diagnosis of illnesses and treatment planning.At the core of the movement is a form of high-level machine learning called deep le

The number of people who switched their mobile carriers in the first six days of May reached just shy of 120,000, industry data showed Sunday.The total who transferred to a new service provider in the six-day period that ended Saturday represents a 30 percent increase compared with the year before. This translates to a daily average of 19,000 people changing their carriers. (Yonhap)The spike in so-called number portability comes as local service providers offered hefty incentives to customers to

South Korean handset provider LG Electronics reached 20 percent share of the US smartphone market for the first time, solidifying its position as the world’s third-largest smartphone maker after Apple and Samsung. According to data from Strategic Analytics on Sunday, LG shipped 7.3 million smartphones in the first quarter of the year, accounting for a fifth of the world’s biggest handset market. The market share for LG rose nearly 3 percentage points from a year earlier. The gain follows steady

The latest webOS smart TV by LG Electronics Inc. has been certified for its effective security capability and sustainability by a local agency, the company said Sunday.The tech giant said its latest version of the webOS smart TV platform received the Evaluation Assurance Level 2 by the IT Security Certification Center, becoming the first smart TV in the world to receive the cybersecurity level. (Yonhap)LG said the smart TV adopts a slew of the latest cybersecurity technologies to reduce malware

Wary of growing concerns over worsening air quality, South Korea’s internet giant Naver on Thursday introduced a new visual mapping service that tracks the movement of fine dust in Korea, Japan and China.　The new fine dust mapping service can be accessed by searching for fine dust levels on Naver via either PC or mobile device.(Naver)Previously, Naver had provided only numerical figures that showed the level of fine dust in different cities in Korea. The new feature visually displays the changes

A rising number of seniors are purchasing the latest smartphones, industry data showed Thursday, breaking the perception that older users normally buy traditional handsets with buttons.According to the data compiled SK Telecom Co., 74 percent of its users aged 60 and above used smartphones as of April. The number compares to the 10 percent posted by a separate survey conducted by Gallup Korea in 2012. (Yonhap)The mobile carrier also said 40 percent of its clients aged 65 an above purchased Samsu

The US International Trade Commission began investigating whether the US smartphone maker Blu infringed standard patents of LG Electronics’ Long Term Evolution, according to the independent federal agency. Blu, established in 2009, is the sixth-largest handset maker in the North American market, selling low-end phones worth below $300. The firm sold around 5.2 million units last year -- a 68 percent growth from the previous year. LG Electronics is the third-largest handset maker in the US, with

Strong sales of premium products allowed LG Electronics to beat out its main rival Samsung Electronics in the first-quarter TV market earnings race, data showed Wednesday.According to LG, its Home Entertainment (HE) division, which focuses on TVs, posted a record-high operating profit of 382.2 billion won ($338 million) in the January-March period. Its operating profit ratio reached 8.8 percent, the highest ever for the first three months of any year.Samsung Consumer Electronics (CE) division, w

SMART LABELING -- A GS Supermarket employee uses a mobile manager program connected to LG CNS’ Electronic Shelf Label to digitally change the price labels for vegetables Tuesday. LG CNS has commercialized its ESL system, which displays prices on digital labels that can be altered to reflect special sales and promotions, at 100 GS Supermarket outlets nationwide. (LG CNS)

Samsung Electronics Co. is expected to emerge as the top chipmaker in the world by beating US rival Intel Corp. in the second quarter of this year, a report showed Tuesday.According to the data compiled by industry tracker IC Insights, Samsung is expected to post sales of $14.9 billion in the April-June period, up 7.5 percent from the previous quarter. The estimate is higher than the $14.4 billion expected for Intel.(Yonhap)In the first quarter, Intel posted sales of $14.2 billion, hovering abov

Samsung Electronics Co. said Tuesday it has incorporated its mobile transaction system on its Gear S3 smartwatch.Samsung said the Gear S3 smartphone will connect to Samsung Pay installed on smartphones, allowing users to make payments using the wearable instead of taking out their mobile devices. (Yonhap)The South Korean tech giant had originally planned to introduce the service on the Gear S3 smartwatch in September 2016, but the plan was delayed due to the slow pace of talks with local credit

South Korea’s presidential candidates may differ in their campaign pledges on defense, labor and political reform, but they appear to have one common ground -- spurring growth through the “digital economy.” The digital economy, sometimes referred to as the “internet economy,” broadly refers to the economic activity that results from billions of everyday online connections among people, businesses, devices, data and processes, according to Deloitte.This new type of economy is backed by the growin

South Korea's top mobile carrier SK Telecom Co. said Monday that it has launched three gadgets using Internet of Things technology. The IoT tech, which allows everyday appliances to link to the Internet, is seen as one of the major technological developments of the Internet and a new revenue source for telecoms firms.  (Yonhap)"Keyco" is an IoT-based keychain with an embedded GPS chip for pets that can be controlled by a smartphone, allowing the owner to pinpoint the location of their pets, the

Suspicions about Samsung Electronics’ latest flagship Galaxy S8 and S8+ smartphones are continuously being raised on online communities, with some saying the quality of the handsets falls behind their design. On a South Korean internet community Monday, a Galaxy S8 user uploaded a post showing his smartphone that appeared to have a burn-in on the screen. The writer highlighted it had been just over a week since he started using the new phone.  (Yonhap)A burn-in refers to a permanent discoloratio

Ryu Wang-shick, an infectious disease expert in South Korea, was named the new chief executive officer of Institut Pasteur Korea, the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning announced Monday. Ryu, who holds a Ph.D. from University of Wisconsin-Madison, has worked in close partnership with the IPK on research on the hepatitis B virus and other infectious diseases for more than a decade.  Ryu Wang-shick (Institut Pasteur Korea)He is the first Korean expert to lead the institution. “New emergi