An employee introduces Dongbu Daewoo Electronics’ new wall-mounted air conditioner, which costs between 400,000 won ($356.1) and 600,000 won. Its 4D Max Auto Swing feature enables adjustment of the wind direction. (Dongbu Daewoo Electronics)

KT has signed a memorandum of understanding on a global digital health care business with Australian mobile health care startup M3DICINE, the mobile carrier said Tuesday. M3DICINE is a startup established by Dr. Nayyar Hussain, who is currently preparing to launch a 110-gram mobile stethoscope called “Stethee.” The wireless stethoscope will be able to be connected to various mobile devices. Stethee (KT)Under the memorandum, KT will provide its digital solution to Stethee, which will enable the t

South Korean mobile service users with traditional numbers, starting with old prefix such as 011 and 016, significantly dropped to below 1 million, the government said Tuesday, more than a decade after the introduction of a prefix number integration policy.The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said a total of 970,000 people were using mobile numbers that start with 011, 016, 017, 018 and 019 as of the end of January.  (Yonhap)In 2004, the government introduced 010 as a unified telepho

Mobile Doctor, a company that has developed a mobile application service to help manage fevers in children, announced Tuesday that it aims to achieve 1.5 million downloads of its application (500,000 in Korea, 1 million overseas) by the end of the year. Fever Coach, the mobile application developed independently by Mobile Doctor, was designed to help parents monitor their children’s fevers based on body temperature, vaccination history and medical records. Using an algorithm based on big data, t

Automated translation apps Google Translate and Naver’s Papago ‘learn’ to translate using neural networks

This week is a crucial time for Samsung Electronics’ ambition toward the automotive electronics industry, as shareholders of Harman International Industries Inc. will hold a meeting Friday to vote on a deal by Samsung to acquire the US car technology firm, according to sources Monday.Samsung announced an $8 billion deal to take over Harman last November for its new growth engine. Under the deal, the Korean tech giant will buy Harman at $112 per share, paying a 37 percent premium on the stock’s 3

Samsung Display has received a display panel order from Apple for an additional 5 trillion won ($4.35 billion) in organic light-emitting diodes. Totaling 13 trillion won so far, Samsung Display has proved a major supplier for Apple’s upcoming iPhone models, sources said Monday. According to sources from the display industry, Samsung Display recently won the order for 60 million OLED panels. Considering the Korean display maker had already clinched a deal to supply 100 million flexible OLED panel

South Korea finalized a five-year master plan to invest a total of 54.5 billion won ($47.2 million) to nurture and advance the local unmanned vehicle industry, the science ministry said Monday.The government will concentrate efforts on boosting the development of drones, self-driving cars, unmanned ships and agricultural machines by 2021, the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said. (Yonhap)The ministry earlier designated the sector as one of the key strategic industries that character

Coinplug, a blockchain technology company headed by CEO Joonsun Uhr, announced Monday that it recently launched a wire transfer service in cooperation with BGF finlik, a manufacturer and operator of automatic teller machines headed by CEO Lee Jong-deok. An affiliate of BGF Retail, which operates the CU convenience store chain, BGF finlink currently operates ATMs and cash dispensers at over 10,000 convenience stores, including CU, nationwide. Coinplug’s ATM wire transfer service enables users to

The security director at Google Inc. said Monday that a HTTPS-based website is a safer way to protect users from possible security attacks, emphasizing that major South Korean search engines do not support this system. "Top websites in (South) Korea that don't support HTTPS are Naver and Daum. It's not just a problem for (South) Korea but a challenge for the world and the developers," Parisa Tabriz, the head of the team who protects Google Chrome and its billions of users from criminal hackers,

South Korea’s Netmarble Games has geared up to make a blockbuster stock market debut this year, boosted by the success of mobile game “Lineage II: Revolution,” which spearheaded the firm’s high earnings in 2016.　　Last September when Netmarble submitted its IPO plans to the Korea Exchange, analysts had predicted the Korean mobile game giant’s market capitalization would reach around 10 trillion won ($8.7 billion).　However, following the explosive popularity of its newest mobile game, local analys

South Korea's science ministry opened a new complex in western Seoul on Friday to nurture the virtual reality and augmented reality industry as the country aims to become a global powerhouse in the sectors.The so-called "KoVAC" is located at Digital Media City, a high-tech complex in western Seoul, to accommodate various VR and AR companies, the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said. A VR exhibition in Seoul in 2016. (Yonhap file photo)The complex is part of the government's broader

US ride-sharing company Uber Technologies said Seoul National University has infringed upon its trademark and it is preparing to take legal action, according to Korea’s top university on Friday. “Uber told us the name of our self-driving car SNUver infringed their trademark Uber and it is in preparation of taking legal action. We consider this as tyranny of the multinational corporation,” a Seoul National University professor Seo Seung-woo, who has led the development of self-driving car SNUver,

Apple Inc.'s iPhone has the biggest storage capacity among 10 smartphones manufactured by global tech firms, data showed Friday.The average storage capacity of iPhones came to 66 gigabytes during the third quarter of last year, the data by research firm CounterPoint showed. (Apple Inc.)Apple shipped its latest iPhone 7 with a minimum of 32 GBs of capacity for the entry-level model in September 2016.Four Chinese vendors -- Vivo, Oppo, Xiaomi and Huawei Technologies Co. -- followed Apple in the to