SAN JOSE, California ― It’s one of the most critical pieces of technology in your home. And though most consumers don’t think of their humble toilet as a tech product, researchers and engineers at global companies like Caroma and Toto are racing to improve designs so toilets consume far less water.Recent droughts, a growing global population and concerns about the impact of climate change on the world’s water resources have led to a surge of interest in water conservation as well as efforts to “

SK Telecom, Korea’s biggest mobile carrier, said Wednesday that it has launched an application where users can receive their bills and pay them through smartphones.The application named “Smartphone Billing & Payment Platform” can be downloaded by any smartphone users at SK Telecom’s T Store, Google’s Android or Apple’s App Store.With the app, users can not only pay their telephone bills, but also property and other taxes to regional government offices.The development of the app was part of effor

LG Electronics is about to duke it out with Samsung Electronics over premium large refrigerators as Korea’s second-largest consumer electronics company is gearing up to launch its new, bigger and better product.LG Electronics said Monday that it will release an all-new four-door fridge brand Dios with a 910-liter storage capacity, the world’s biggest refrigerator, next month.The company added that it will further expand in the global premium fridge markets, signaling a direct challenge against i

Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say they've developed an automatic "intelligent co-pilot" for cars that can help drivers avoid obstacles.The system can cause a vehicle to steer itself automatically around an obstacle, transitioning control back to the driver once the danger has passed, an MIT release said Friday.The semiautonomous safety system uses an onboard camera and las

“Kakao Talk” was the most popular information and technology search term on Google in the first half of this year, said Google Korea.Korea’s mobile messenger, used by some 50 million people worldwide, recently made headlines over the announcement of its free mobile Voice over Internet Protocol service Voice Talk.This has led to escalating tension between Kakao and two giant mobile carriers ― SK Telecom and KT, further helping Kakao Talk to be the most searched term on Google, the Korean subsidia

LG Display has been chosen by the government to lead a project to develop transparent and flexible organic light-emitting diode displays.Korea’s second-largest display-panel maker said that it will develop proprietary technology for ultra high-definition, 60-inch flexible OLED displays by 2017 as part of the government’s “Future Flagship Program” to promote next-generation technologies.The company will lead a consortium, which includes Avaco, an equipment maker for display production, for the de

BRUSSELS (AFP) ― Google said Monday it had made proposals to EU regulators who have threatened to impose huge fines unless the Internet search giant allays concerns it has abused its dominant market position.“We have made a proposal to address the four areas the European Commission described as potential concerns,” said Google spokesman Al Verney.The proposals, made in a letter from Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt to EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, followed a demand by EU ant

Korea’s exports of information technology products sank 5.2 percent on-year during the first half of the year, mainly due to weak demand from European consumers gripped by protracted eurozone debt problems, data showed Tuesday.The country shipped $73.27 billion worth of IT products during the January-June period, down from $77.32 billion a year earlier, according to the data released by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.During the same period, South Korea also saw its IT imports drop 6.5 percent