The South Korean Supreme Court’s latest ruling that wiretapping warrants could not be used for the country’s dominant mobile messenger app KakaoTalk  is igniting controversy between the prosecution and those who view the eavesdropping as overly intrusive.　Last Thursday, the Supreme Court of Korea ruled that conversations taken from KakaoTalk servers cannot be recognized as wiretapped evidence, as they were not seized in real time as mandated by the legal definition of “wiretapping.”The ruling on

Korea will expand free wireless Internet access in public places to bridge the digital divide in technology use, the government said Sunday. The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said it will open 1,020 mobile hot spots in traditional markets and other welfare facilities Monday. The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning announces on Oct. 16, 2016, it will open 1,020 mobile hot spots in public places. (Yonhap)Starting with 2,000 public Wi-Fi zones in 2012, the ICT ministry has o

The fallout from the Galaxy Note 7 is estimated to cost Samsung Electronics more than 7 trillion won ($6.1 billion), according to the company and industry analysts Friday. The Korean tech giant announced Friday that the opportunity cost from the halt in production of the Note 7 is estimated to be a mid-4 trillion-won sum during the coming two quarters. It is a combined figure made up of a mid-3 trillion-won sum in the fourth quarter and 1 trillion won in the first quarter of next year, Samsung s

Lee Joo-hyun, 33, does not want to replace her Galaxy Note 7 with another smartphone although she is afraid of possible explosions. She said she does not want to give up the functions she has been enjoying with her Note 7.“I am satisfied with the upgraded S Pen stylus. I cannot find the same function even from other smartphones made by Samsung,” Lee said, who has only used smartphones under the Galaxy series for several years.The Galaxy fan said she wished she could continue using the smartphone

The owners of explosion-prone large smartphone Galaxy Note 7 are able to refund or exchange their device from Thursday until the end of this year, according to Samsung Electronics. The short-lived Galaxy Note 7, which first rolled out on Aug. 19 in the US and Korea, sold around 1.8 million units globally. Around 500,000 units were sold in Korea alongside 1 million units in the US, where refunds and exchanges began Tuesday. Samsung said Thursday owners of the Galaxy Note 7 would receive benefits

South Korean network carrier SK Telecom on Thursday shared its long-term plan and ongoing efforts to push forward the development of Internet of Things technologies that make use of its newly deployed LoRaWAN network.　The LoRAWAN network, which stands for “long-range wide-area network,” is designed to transmit small amounts of data at very low speeds of below 5 kilobits per second from battery-equipped objects to base stations across long distances.Participants attend a press conference for this

The K-ICT Born2Global Center, a startup incubator affiliated with the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, announced on Monday that one of its member companies, ASD Korea, will supply Cloudike, its cloud service, to Indosat, a leading telecommunications company in Indonesia. With 70 million mobile phone subscribers, Indosat is the second largest telecommunications service and network provider in Indonesia.  An official of ASD Korea explains Cloudike, an enterprise cloud service, to pros

Vice minister Choi Jae-yu of the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning attends the IoT Korea Exhibition 2016 being held at COEX, southern Seoul, Wednesday. (Yonhap)

In the aftermath of Samsung Electronics’ decision to discontinue sales and production of the problem-ridden Galaxy Note 7 globally, attention is now shifting to which alternative smartphones consumers around the world will turn to instead.　Samsung on Tuesday announced that it is “officially ending the sales as well as production of the smartphone to ensure consumer safety,” following multiple incidents in which the exchanged Note 7 devices fitted with new batteries caught fire due to overheating

Speculations are high that Samsung Electronics may discard the Note brand, as the company’s brand reputation has suffered serious damage from the Galaxy Note 7 explosions and the consequent pullout.“Samsung is recommended to drop the Note brand as consumers may still find it dangerous even when the new Note 8 comes out,” Kim Duk-jin, the vice chief of private-run Korea-Insight Institute, told The Korea Herald. The tech giant Tuesday decided to discontinue the phablets upon repeated incidents of

SK Telecom officially released TG&Co.’s mid-tier Luna S smartphone in South Korea on Wednesday, seeking to win over customers looking for a premium smartphone at a lower cost. 　Priced at 568,700 won ($506), the Luna S is available in four colors — classic gold, natural silver, rose pink and frozen blue — and sold exclusively through SKT retailers and the telecom firm’s online shopping mall T World Direct.Those who select the most-popular Band Data Perfect payment plan (65,890 won per month) — wh

CEO-level executives of Samsung Group companies, including Samsung Electronics Co., held their weekly meeting in Seoul on Wednesday, but they refused to comment on the permanent halt of production of the Galaxy Note 7. The meeting came a day after Samsung announced that it scrapped the flagship Note 7 smartphone after some of the devices caught fire. Top Samsung executives who are responsible for the Note 7, including Shin Jong-kyun and Koh Dong-jin, appeared to be absent from the meeting.Chang