LG Electronics said Tuesday it has filed a lawsuit against US-based rival BLU over alleged patent infringements. The company said the US phone manufacturer has infringed five Long Term Evolution standard-related patents owned by LG.  (LG Electronics)LG has held the largest number of LTE and LTE-Advanced standard essential patents in the US for five straight years since 2012, according to TechIPM, which analyzes US patents. BLU is the sixth-biggest American smartphone maker and sold about 5.2 mil

South Korean game developer Com2uS said Tuesday that its hit mobile game “Summoners War” has become the first Korea-made mobile game to rake in more than 1 trillion won ($900 million) in cumulative revenue.　This makes “Summoners War,” a mobile role-playing game launched worldwide in April 2014, the highest-grossing Korean mobile game to date, Com2uS said.After its launch three years ago, “Summoners War” became the No. 1 mobile game in the Apple App Stores of 53 countries and Google Play Stores o

South Korean internet giant Naver is on track to completing its envisioned transformation into a “technology platform” that brings cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, voice recognition and autonomous driving into everyday services, its new CEO said Tuesday.　Since first announcing its new direction last November, the country’s biggest web portal operator has made progress in rolling out diverse new tech-infused services, Naver CEO Han Seong-sook said in her first press conf

SK Telecom, South Korea’s biggest mobile carrier, said Monday that it will showcase diverse services running on the next-generation 5G network at Incheon SK Happy Dream Park, the home stadium of the SK Wyverns.　SKT has set up a large-scale 5G trial network throughout the baseball stadium and will operate a number of 5G-dependent services for a large crowd of around 20,000 visitors slated to attend the games from Friday to Sunday. “We’ve prepared the 5G stadium to show how services currently host

The mobile map app powered by South Korea's top portal operator Naver Corp. attracted more local Android users than the map app made by US giant Google Inc., data showed Tuesday.According to the data compiled by industry tracker Wiseapp, Naver's map app boasted 8.08 million monthly active users on the Android platform here in February, compared to 7.66 million posted by Google.  (Yonhap)The map app served by Kakao Corp., South Korea's No. 2 portal operator, followed with 3.09 million users, the

Analysts have mixed views about Samsung Electronics’ ambitious artificial intelligence assistant Bixby, ahead of the company’s flagship smartphone Galaxy S8 debut this week. Bixby is Samsung’s new Al assistant following its acquisition of the US tech startup Viv Labs. Samsung plans to integrate Bixby with its home appliances and it also plans to open the platform to third-party developers in the future to allow them to easily make their applications and services Bixby-enabled.The hardware giant

South Korean game company NCSoft said Monday that it has signed a publishing deal with Taiwanese game company Gamania Digital Entertainment Co. for “Lineage M,” a mobile rendition of NCSoft’s hit online PC game Lineage. 　Developed by NCSoft, “Lineage M” is a massive multiplayer online role playing game for mobile devices. It aims to recreate the original PC game’s gameplay and elements in a mobile setting as closely as possible, the company said.Under the new publishing deal, Gamania will releas

PREMIUM LG -- Customers check out home appliances at an LG Electronics Premium Brand Shop which opened on Monday in the Mall of Qatar, the biggest shopping mall in the country. LG said it aims to solidify its leadership in the premium home appliance market in Middle East by offering local customers the company’s latest premium products. (LG Electronics)

Increasing numbers of partnerships are forming among South Korean mobile carriers and construction firms to build smart homes featuring artificial intelligence and Internet of Thing technologies. In the latest move, SK Telecom said Monday the company signed a partnership with Hyundai Development Company and its home network affiliate HDC I-Controls to apply SKT’s AI and IoT technologies to HDC’s flagship I-Park apartments. Under the agreement, SKT will provide I-Park residents with the company’s

South Korea’s largest mobile carrier SK Telecom announced Monday it has created a division for new artificial intelligence businesses to be masterminded by its CEO Park Jung-ho.The company said the new AI Business Division will be in charge of development of AI technologies and related services, products and businesses, directly commanded by the chief.(Yonhap)Such organizational restructuring comes amid Park’s plan to boost AI as a future growth engine for the mobile carrier, relying less on the

Blizzard Entertainment on Sunday said it would release “StarCraft: Remastered,” a high-definition remake of its megahit PC strategy game Starcraft, this summer.As its title suggests, the upcoming edition will feature 4K ultrahigh-definition graphics and a refreshed soundtrack, while preserving the original gameplay of Starcraft. It will include the classic Starcraft game as well as the Brood War expansion pack, the US game giant said.Blizzard Entertainment co-founder and CEO Mike Morhaime announ

A 9.1 kilogram weight drops 61 meters onto a battery placed on an iron rod. When the weight hits with a dull thud, the battery is crushed but doesn't catch fire or explode. Various battery and smartphone tests are carried out at 640,000-square-meter LG Digital Park, workplace for around 10,000 employees manufacturing the company’s products from smartphones to home appliances and auto components.“We are testing the quality of the G6 more rigorously, as consumers’ concern about safety is on the ri

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of articles highlighting South Korea’s promising start-ups in the emerging sectors of digital health care and next-generation medical devices. This is the sixth installment. – Ed.When it comes to wearables, the immediate image that comes to mind is usually a smartwatch or a fitness tracking band worn on the wrist by an early adopter of new technology.　Looking to overturn this image, a South Korean startup spun off from Samsung’s in-house venture program Cr

Samsung SDI’s lithium batteries will be used for 3,000-ton submarines that are to be developed with Korean technologies for the first time, according to the state arms procurement agency. South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration said it had a critical design meeting Thursday to review whether lithium batteries are suitable for the submarines Chang Bogo-III and Batch-II. The critical design review is a meeting to determine whether making a prototype is feasible.  (Yonhap)Chang Bog

Samsung SDS, the internet technology solutions unit of South Korea’s Samsung Group, said Friday that it does not plan to spin off its logistics business this year, defying market expectations that the move would be made in the near future.　“We have no plans to spin off our Business Process Outsourcing unit (which provides global logistics services) this year,” Samsung SDS CEO Chung Yoo-sung announced during a shareholder meeting held in Seoul on Friday.Samsung SDS officially announced in June 20