The Korea Herald

Quiet digital revolution under way in North Korea

Jul 25, 2011

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) -- As his right hand grips the mouse, the physics major's eyes are fixed on a flat-screen monitor labeled with a red sticker reminding him the computer was a gift from Kim Jong Il.People work on library computers at the Grand People's Study House in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea is undergoing a digital revolution of sorts, even as it holds some of the strictest c
Kakao Talk moving to launch internet call services

Jul 24, 2011

Competition is heating up between mobile messenger operators in Korea as Kakao Talk, the formidable smartphone application, appears to be developing its internet phone call services. Industry watchers said Sunday the venture firm has been recruiting engineers who have experience in mobile voiceover Internet protocol, technology that enables voice and multimedia communications between users via bro
Fake Apple store opens in China; even employees are fooled

Jul 22, 2011

Amid increasing popularity of Steve Job’s products around the globe, fake Apple stores that pretend to be authentic are opening in China. A motorcyclist passes by a shop masquerading as a bona fide Apple store in downtown Kunming in southwest China's Yunnan province. China (AP-Yonhap News)Not only did the stores in Kunming disguised themselves to be official retail chains, the products sold there
Power bloggers face tax probe

Jul 21, 2011

NTS faces legal roadblock to getting portals to offer info about bloggersThe National Tax Service said Thursday it has requested that the country’s major Internet portals provide the personal information of some 1,300 power bloggers on concerns they might be evading taxes. “Early this week, we have asked five to six blog operators including Naver, Daum and SK Communications to offer information ab
Parents spy on their children via social networking sites

Jul 21, 2011

More than 55 percent of parents snoop on what their children are doing through social networking systems, the Daily Mail reported.According to the research conducted by computing company Bullguard Internet Security, about 40 percent of parents monitor their children’s status updates and posts on their wall.Social networking systems such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have become widely popular w
Tax agency investigates power bloggers

Jul 21, 2011

The National Tax Service said on Thursday it has requested the country’s major Internet portals such as Naver and Daum to provide personal information about some 1,300 influential bloggers.The tax agency’s move comes as a growing number of local bloggers with a large pool of readers get enmeshed in money-for-article scandals. Recently, a high-profile blogger who belongs to the country’s largest po
Samsung betting big on Galaxy Tab 10.1

Jul 20, 2011

Samsung Electronics appeared to be full of confidence as it launched its second-generation tablet PC, the Galaxy Tab 10.1, in Korea on Wednesday at the company’s headquarters in southern Seoul. (Samsung Electronics Co.)Shin Jong-kyun, chief of the global electronics company’s mobile business unit, pledged to sell more than five times more tablets than last year, despite the first Galaxy Tab not ha
Korean consumers aim to take a bite out of Apple

Jul 19, 2011

Class action suit against U.S. giant set to be filed next month over location trackingKorea’s class action suit against Apple Inc. is taking shape as a team of lawyers from the Miraelaw law firm are gearing up to file thousands of suits together next month.So far, more than 23,000 people have taken part in the class action spearheaded by the law firm’s 36-year-old lawyer Kim Hyeong-seok.Kim was th
Hacker group launches online social network

Jul 19, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) -- Infamous hacker group Anonymous launched Monday its own social network after being rejected by Google's freshly-launched online community."Today we welcome you to begin anew," the hacker alliance said at the website anonplus.com, which it described as a platform to distribute information."Welcome to the Revolution -- a new social network where there is no fear... of censorsh
iPhone5 likely to debut in August: reports

Jul 15, 2011

The iPhone’s popularity is creating a buzz around the world with rumors of the smartphone possibly out during mid-August, according to reports. Tech media website Cnet said the rumor started with a notice posted by Gekko Ltd, a staffing firm located in the United Kingdom.Gekko said it is looking for full-time iPhone sales staff who were willing to work five days a week from Aug. 16 until Oct. 29 i
Lawyer pushes class action suit against Apple

Jul 14, 2011

A lawyer is pushing for a class action suit against Apple after he won a court battle last month over the iPhone’s location tracking.Apple Korea recently paid about 1 million won in compensation to attorney Kim Hyung-suk following a lower court’s ruling that the smartphone’s software violated his privacy.Kim, 31, and his company MiRaeLaw on Thursday began to collect applications for a collective l
VMware moves closer to customers with new solutions

Jul 13, 2011

At the top of VMware’s priorities for Korea, a nation becoming actively engaged in cloud computing, are plans for buttressing the firm’s localization initiative and moving closer to the business of its customers.“We need to get closer to the business of our customers and need to move up much closer, more to the consulting at the business level and become more vertically aligned so that our solutio
Number of smartphone users tops 15 mln in S. Korea

Jul 13, 2011

SEOUL, July 13 (Yonhap) -- The number of smartphone subscribers in South Korea hit 15 million this week, according to data from the country's three mobile operators released Wednesday. South Korean smartphone subscribers numbered 15.35 million as of Monday, including 7.8 million users at the industry leader SK Telecom Co., 5.45 million at KT Corp. and 2.1 million at LG Uplus Corp., the mobile carr
Half of Americans watch videos during work

Jul 13, 2011

About half of American adults watch online videos unrelated to work while on the job, a U.S. survey showed. Men watch twice as often as women.The study showed that 25 percent watch news clips and 15 percent view viral videos. Other popular choices were sports (11 percent) and television shows (9 percent). Some are bold enough to view full-length feature films (4 percent) and even pornography (3 p
Korea clears way for ‘Angry Birds’ to take on ‘StarCraft’

Jul 12, 2011

Apple Inc. customers in South Korea who couldn’t download Rovio Mobile Ltd.’s best-selling “Angry Birds” on their iPhones will soon be able to find out why flinging vindictive fowl at green hogs can be addictive. Korea scrapped rules yesterday requiring developers to have mobile games rated by the government, said Yi Ki-jeong, a manager at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in Seoul. The