Samsung Electronics recently hired a law firm to respond to a series of lawsuits over the Galaxy Note 7, which were discontinued due to explosion cases, according to local news reports Sunday. The news reports said the Korean tech giant hired Lee & Ko in response to the class-action lawsuit filed by 2,400 local consumers and to lawsuits filed by five individuals. The five claimed they suffered physical damages including burns and respiratory diseases due to the explosions of Note 7. “We gave eno

LG Group chairman’s younger brother gets bigger role, keeps son’s position unchanged

The first Apple Store in South Korea is expected to open in late 2017, potentially putting an end to the poor services received by iPhone users here. According to local news reports Thursday, citing mobile and architecture sources, an Apple Store is currently under construction in Garosugil, a shopping district in southern Seoul, and is expected to be completed in November 2017.The store is designed by London-based architecture firm Foster and Partners, the news reports said citing papers submit

Samsung Electronics Co. said Thursday it has retrieved about 67 percent of Galaxy Note 7 smartphones sold in South Korea about three months after it conducted a global recall of the smartphones over a safety risk. Taking into consideration that some owners of the Note 7 had applied to swap their Note 7s for other smartphones via online reservations, the return rate could be 83 percent as of Wednesday, said an official at Samsung.Samsung started selling the Note 7 in South Korea on Aug. 19, but h

Samsung Electronics is facing a patent lawsuit from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology in the US, the institute confirmed Wednesday. KAIST IP, the institute’s intellectual property management arm, said it sued Samsung Electronics, Qualcomm and Global Foundries in a Texas court, claiming they used KAIST’s chip technology without permission. Texas is where Samsung’s Austin chip plant is located. KAIST is a state-run research institute set up in 1971 with the aim of improving rese

LuDuS501 (CEO: Serky Jeong) on Nov 28 announced that it had made a significant update to its game “Dangerous Outside the Blanket,” which was released in September. “Dangerous Outside the Blanket” is a mobile simulation game that puts players in everyday situations and is based on a survival and cultivation system. The game prompts players to choose specific actions in response to situations that arise in various aspects of everyday life (e.g., going to work, office duties, routine after getting

Earing announced Friday that it would officially launch its independently developed social briefing app “Earing” by the end of the year. Earing is a social media platform that enables users to convey and share the latest news and information via audio. The product is currently being beta tested, with final improvements being made.What differentiates Earing from its competitors is its voice-based communication.  Screenshots of the Earing app in use. (Earing)The firm’s CEO Hyuck Jae Lee said, “Fac

South Korea will set up a new air traffic flow management system before the end of next year to enhance airport safety while also improving airline services by greatly reducing flight delays, the government said Monday.Such a system will be up and running before the end of July 2017, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport."The government will work to reduce air traffic and flight delays by establishing a new air traffic management system that will help predict airport co

Merging technology with social activism, South Korean developers have rolled out a series of new mobile apps to support citizens who are taking to the streets of Seoul to demand President Park Geun-hye’s resignation.　As the weekly demonstrations continue to widen, multiple mobile apps designed for easy use by rally participants have appeared on the Google Play and Apple app stores. 　Apps that display a virtual candlelight on a smartphone screen are by far the most widely downloaded app among loc

IPL, a member company of the Born2Global Center, signed an agreement with Roobo on Nov. 11 for the distribution of its social robot “iJINI.” Under the agreement, IPL will provide iJINI and related AI services in China. IPL CEO Kim Kyeungwook said, “We will launch iJINI in China by March 2017, and this agreement guarantees a minimum sales value of 16 billion won ($13.5 million), the biggest amount for a single item exported by a domestic robot producer.”iJINI is a robot based on a new concept tha

Apple recently faced a fresh round of complaints over its customer support in South Korea, after belatedly providing a Korean announcement for replacing problematic iPhone batteries.On Sunday, Apple posted an announcement in English only on its Korean website about how to replace batteries if the device unexpectedly shuts down. This was different from Apple’s move to immediately post a Chinese announcement after receiving complaints from Chinese consumers. The move here immediately stoked compla

As part of its full-fledged initiative of new growth engines, Samsung has recently quickened steps toward connected car technologies that are expected to play a major part in the conglomerate’s future pillars of electronics, bio and finance.After setting up an automotive electronics team in December, Samsung Electronics recently announced a deal to buy the US car infotainment provider Harman International Industries for $8 billion. This is the latest in a series of the company’s push into the co

A South Korean tech solution company unveiled a new facial biometric authentication service solution for smartphones on Wednesday, offering mobile app developers and interested companies a simpler and more cost-effective face identification system.The new solution, called BioCA, was jointly developed by the Korea Trade Network (KTNET), a subsidiary of the Korea International Trade Association in partnership with global biometrics company Daon and the Korea Smart Authentication Corp.　A log-in scr