The word is out again. Google-owned online video giant YouTube is reportedly close to launching its paid channels as early as this week.YouTube said it is “looking into creating a subscription platform that could bring even more great content to YouTube.”Foreign press reported that if the new subscription system goes into effect, there will be as many as 50 paid channels offering different topics such as films, TV shows or music for a subscription fee as little as $1.99 a month.Since 2008, YouT

Social network Facebook is set to present a new video ad solution in its newsfeed starting from July to increase revenue. The move, which came after its shares lost ground last year, is aimed at carving out a share of the video ad budget of major advertisers. Spending on digital video ads is expected to grow by 41.4 percent from 2012 to hit $4.1 billion in 2013. The new type of ads will start automatically on the user’s newsfeed without any sound at first. The user will have to press the play bu

The rivalry between Samsung Electronics and Apple Inc. was brought to the fore again after an international organization slammed both tech giants for using suppliers that employ child labor and may harm the environment. According to Friends of the Earth, an international environmental group, Apple has remained silent on the issue of using tin mined from Indonesia, whereas Samsung has responded by saying it will address the issue as soon as it can.“Apple has refused to answer its own customers’ q

U.S. authorities said mobile carriers and phone manufacturers should do more to resolve the rapidly growing smartphone thefts. In 2012, Washington D.C. alone witnessed a record 1,829 smartphone robberies and nearly half of all thefts in San Francisco involved mobile devices, according to the U.S. police. The underlying issue is that wireless carriers and smartphone producers are slow to tackle the problem.A national database tracking stolen devices and iPhone’s location-tracking function for mis

 Jessica Alba, a Hollywood actress and CEO of an eco-friendly product label Honest Company, is having a talk with the topic “Widening Access to Healthy Living with ‘Honest’ Products and a Dream” at the Seoul Digital Forum.A mother of two girls, Alba created the company to distribute ethical, clean baby products. She was listed as one of Fortune’s 10 Most Powerful Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneur of the Year at the U.K. Glamour Women of the Year 2012 Awards.The Seoul Digital Forum is held from May

Intel's chief operating officer, Brian Krzanich, will become its next CEO in two weeks, tasked with steering the world's largest chipmaker through an industry shake-up that is seeing tablets and smartphones overshadow Intel's base in personal computers.Intel, one of the pillars of Silicon Valley, announced Thursday that Krzanich, who is 52, will replace Paul Otellini on May 16. Otellini, 62, announced his decision to resign six months ago and will end a nearly 40-year career with Intel, includin

Facebook refused to put up an ad criticizing its founder Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, U.S. media reported.According to the San Francisco Chronicle, progressive mobile carrier CREDO Mobile requested Facebook to carry an ad critical of Zuckerberg for his advocacy of constructing the controversial Keystone XL pipeline that may harm the neighborhood environment. Facebook turned down the company’s request, saying the ad may confuse Facebook users to regard it as an actual message of the CEO. “Users

Kakao, the operator of the country’s biggest mobile messenger Kakao Talk, announced Wednesday that it has formed a strategic partnership with Evernote for a service that will allow users to use the U.S.-based tech firm’s memo app while chatting. Under the agreement, Kakao Talk users will be able to not only make memos while using the app, but also to save the contents of their chats and share them with others. The Evernote app allows the users to record text or voice and send them online.The mov

On March 20, 2013, South Korea suffered a cyber attack that resulted in the denial of service of several major banks, broadcasters, and the defacement of the websites of a telecommunications operator. Although reported as a major cyber attack, multiple security experts reported the malware as having a relatively low level of technical sophistication. What’s concerning is this attack could have been completely prevented by simply keeping antivirus software updated, making sure Windows security pr

The online news service by Naver, Korea’s most influential Web portal, is seeing a major decrease in users one month after it introduced the new platform. The situation is hampering small news companies heavily dependent on the giant website.In April, Naver adopted the “Newsstand” platform, which pooled the top pages of 53 major news outlets in Korea and presented them to the users. It replaced its predecessor “Newscast” system that randomly exposed articles from those 53 sources.According to re