The Korea Herald

Twitter rolls out app to link users with trending tunes

Apr 21, 2013

The micro-blogging social network site Twitter launched a service Thursday that recommends songs to users based on the artists they follow and tunes that are trending on the social network.The new service will change the way people find music,” Stephen Phillip, an official at Twitter, said in an official blog post.The application “Twitter #music” is the social media company’s first step into the music industry which provides the users with an easy-to-navigate design consisting of four different
Hollywood awaits Korean CG: ILM artist

Apr 17, 2013

Hollywood is the next destination for Korean computer graphics, as the American market is ready to embrace a new partner in action, says Lee Seung-hun, one of the few, talented Koreans at Industrial Light & Magic, a Lucasfilm company. “But to enter the vast U.S. market, tax and other forms of incentives are imperative. American film producers are looking to cut down the costs while maintaining the quality, which is possible by working with Korean counterparts,” Lee said in an interview with The
KT drops bid for Moroccan telecom firm

Apr 17, 2013

KT Corp., South Korea’s top fixed line and No. 2 mobile operator, said Monday that it will not participate in a final bid for a stake in a Moroccan telecom operator due to differences over price.In a regulatory filing, KT said it has decided not to bid for the 53-percent stake in Maroc Telecom, which is controlled by French multimedia giant Vivendi SA.“But we will seek various cooperation with Morac Telecom depending on the situation,” it said.KT has been seeking to expand its global business in
Wireless data traffic in S. Korea almost doubles

Apr 17, 2013

South Korea's wireless data traffic almost doubled in January from a year earlier in line with explosive growth in the country's smartphone-using population, data showed Wednesday.According to the data compiled by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, wireless data traffic totaled 58,262 terabytes in January, compared with 29,748 terabytes a year earlier. One terabyte equals 1,024 gigabytes.The figure includes traffic on the third-generation network and WiFi offered by telecom operat
Iranian scientist claims to have made ‘time machine’

Apr 11, 2013

A 27-year-old Iranian scientist claimed to have invented a “time machine” device that can predict the future, local media reported Thursday.Ali Razeghi, a managing director of Iran’s Center for Strategic Inventions, said the device runs by a complex set of algorithms to “predict details of the next five to eight years of the life of its users.” He claimed that the machine’s accuracy is 98 percent.He said the Iranian government will be able to predict future events such as military conflicts and
Research firm: PC sales plunge as Windows 8 flops

Apr 11, 2013

Two somber new reports show unprecedented declines in desktop and laptop sales during the first three months of the year _ signs that the personal computer market may never fully recover from a new generation of mobile devices.And it appears that a makeover of Microsoft's Windows operating system seems to have done more harm than good since the software was released in October.“This is horrific news for PCs,” said BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis. “It's all about mobile computing now.”First-qu
Goodbye, MSN Messenger!

Apr 10, 2013

Microsoft discontinues Windows Live Messenger service starting April 8
Samsung, LG clash over police raid

Apr 10, 2013

Samsung Display on Wednesday denied that it had been investigated for technology espionage against its rival LG Display following reports that the police had raided its offices the day before.“Samsung is the only company in the world possessing OLED (organic light-emitting diode) technology. Our concern is that our technology may be leaked, not vice versa,” Samsung Display chief executive Kim Ki-nam told reporters after a weekly Samsung executive meeting.On Tuesday, the cyber crime unit of Seoul
LG CNS launches electric car sharing service in Seoul

Apr 10, 2013

LG CNS, the IT arm of South Korean conglomerate LG, said Tuesday its affiliate has launched an electric vehicle sharing service for Seoul residents.Under the service operated by EverOn, an affiliate of LG CNS, drivers can rent the electric vehicles at posts in Seoul Station, Suseo Station and Sangam DMC Station around the clock, the company said in a press release.“EverOn plans to introduce more electric car models and expand renting posts in residential areas and near key landmarks,” said compa
Mobile takes business leaders into a new age

Apr 10, 2013

The era of the mobile enterprise has arrived. The use of those devices is now at a critical mass and it is just the beginning.Yet Gartner, a leading information technology research and advisory company, says few organizations plan and manage mobility with a truly strategic or proactive approach. They are mostly reactive and tactical.For enterprises, mobility should not be about the device. Instead, it needs to be about figuring out what an organization can do differently and better now that its
S. Korea to set up GPS jamming surveillance system

Apr 10, 2013

SEOUL -- Amid growing war threats from North Korea, South Korea plans to beef up its surveillance system against the North's provocative electronic jamming signals that have targeted civilian facilities in the past, sources said Wednesday. In addition to cyber attacks on South Korean networks, the North has been disrupting global positioning system (GPS) signals since 2010. GPS is a satellite-based navigation system widely used by planes, ships and vehicles.The latest attempt between April 2
Kakao eyes beyond messenger with new service

Apr 9, 2013

Kakao, the operator of its namesake mobile messenger Kakao Talk, on Tuesday unveiled a new mobile content platform as it seeks to bolster its revenue with new business models.The move comes roughly eight months after the homegrown start-up introduced a game platform in addition to the free-of-charge mobile messenger service that had garnered 84 million subscriptions as of the end of March.“Kakao Page” features around 8,000 features, including texts, videos and applications that can be downloaded
What to make of Apple’s apology

Apr 9, 2013

To a certain extent, it was gratifying for Koreans to watch Tim Cook, the head of Apple Inc., one of the world’s most valuable and quintessentially American companies, beg China’s pardon last week. It was a rare spectacle, and also something Koreans had sought years ago when they pounded Apple for its warranty policies. The terms had not gone down well since consumers have been used to getting their way with such services. Apple eventually relented to allow partial repairs and reduce the repair
Major Korean community website attacked by hackers

Apr 8, 2013

An international hacking group is rumored to have attacked “Ilgan Best,” one of South Korea’s biggest online communities.Ilgan Best (Ilbe.com) is a humor-centered community website, producing jokes and political viewpoints. According to reports by local media, Ilgan Best came under a distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS, attack early Monday, which limited access to the site.Soon after the attack, pundits began to speculate that Ilgan Best had been attacked by Anonymous, an international hacker
German court invalidates Apple’s ‘slide to unlock’ patent

Apr 5, 2013

A German court has invalidated Apple’s patents related to its “slide-to-unlock” user interface.The German Federal Patent Court said Thursday that it found all claims of Apple’s “slide-to-unlock” interface property invalid.Apple Insider, an Internet IT news provider in U.S., said “the German court noted that Apple’s patent claim for a swiping gesture, the only new enhancement to prior art, doesn’t meet certain requirements of European patent law.“This so-called inventive step, which is needed to