For any reigning monarch, stumbling off the throne is painful. It’s expected to be the same for Apple Inc., the king of electronics and smartphones, which recently forfeited the crown as the world’s most valuable company. ExxonMobil has now taken over that spot as Apple has lost some $247 billion in shareholder wealth compared to its high, which pundits note exceeds the value of IBM, worth $232 billion. Last week, following its earnings announcement -- which disappointed investors despite being

South Korean handset maker Pantech Corp. on Monday unveiled its 5.9-inch full HD display “Vega No. 6” in a move to jump-start demand for smartphones with bigger and more vivid screens.The Vega No. 6 runs on the latest Android Jelly Bean platform and features a natural IPS Pro Full HD liquid-crystal display, which is the biggest full HD display packed on locally-released smartphones, according to Pantech.The company said the display enables a screen quality that is 2.3 times sharper than existing

Good grammar may be important, but when used to concoct a long computer password, grammar -- good or bad -- undercuts its security, U.S. researchers say.Computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University said a password-cracking algorithm they developed that took into account grammar was tested against 1,434 passwords containing 16 or more characters.The grammar-aware cracker surpassed other state-of-the-art password crackers when passwords had grammatical structures, a university release reporte

Massively multiplayer online role-playing game “ArcheAge” will be launched in the North American, European and Oceanian markets.XLGAMES, developer of the title, announced on Friday that it made a contract with Trion Worlds, an online game developer and publisher based in North America. The contract will allow the publisher to operate the “ArcheAge” game service in Europe, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand and North America.“’ArcheAge’ is one of the most anticipated game titles in North America and

Good grammar may be important, but when used to concoct a long computer password, grammar -- good or bad -- undercuts its security, U.S. researchers say.Computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University said a password-cracking algorithm they developed that took into account grammar was tested against 1,434 passwords containing 16 or more characters.The grammar-aware cracker surpassed other state-of-the-art password crackers when passwords had grammatical structures, a university release reporte

Korean telecommunication company LG Uplus announced that it will introduce a new subscription plan which provides unlimited Long Term Evolution data transfer for the first time in local industry.LG Uplus announced on Friday that the new LTE data plan will be released on Jan. 31 and will temporarily invite subscribers for three months. Whether the subscription will be available after three-month period will be later decided, considering the number of customers, the company said.The new unlimited

A Taiwanese company has dubbed its latest product, a ramen noodles bowl with an iPhone dock, the “anti-loneliness bowl.”MisoSoupDesign partners Minnie Jan and Daisuke Nagatomo, who attended Columbia University together, said they were inspired to create the “anti-loneliness bowl” when they spotted a man eating alone while clutching his phone, the New York Daily News reported Wednesday.“He just couldn‘t let the phone go!” Jan said. “We thought it would be a good idea to help him restore his manne

Korean online game “ArcheAge” is expected to face a turning point for success this weekend.XLGAMES, developer of “ArcheAge,” released a game installation package called “Smart Package” through local convenience stores on Dec. 21. The package included game client installation DVDs, the game’s original soundtrack and a 10-day free play coupon.The package, which costs 3,900 won, was popular with customers who were waiting for one of the most anticipated blockbuster titles of 2013. On the day of its

Global Internet connection speeds around the world slowed in late 2012, according to a survey released Wednesday that suggested a temporary stall in broadband gains.Akamai Technologies‘ third quarter “State of the Internet” report also showed China remained the biggest source of computer attacks, and that Brazil and China appear to have the biggest surge in Web use. The global average connection speed decreased by some seven percent between the second and third quarters of 2012 to 2.8 megabytes

Dell Inc. is getting closer to clinching a leveraged buyout with Silver Lake Management LLC, and Microsoft Corp. is planning to provide part of the funding, people with knowledge of the matter said.Silver Lake and Dell are negotiating a price in the range of $13.50 to $14.25 a share, said one of the people, who asked not to be named because the talks are private. Microsoft is discussing contributing about $2 billion for the deal, which could be announced this week, the person said. Microsoft sta

KT is planning to beef up cooperation with overseas mobile carriers to have its smartphone-only music service app Genie be positioned as a global standard for music service in the upcoming years, said a key KT executive on Wednesday. In an interview with The Korea Herald, Ahn Tae-hyo, executive vice president at the mobile data business unit at KT, stressed that Genie was a service that targeted the overseas markets from its brainstorming stage.“With the launch of the service in 45 different nat