Central bank sees U.S. slowdown, eurozone crisis casting shadow over Korean economyThe Bank of Korea kept its key interest rate unchanged the 12th month in a row, maintaining its cautious monetary policy due to external macroeconomic factors of the eurozone crisis and the U.S. slowdown.The central bank’s monetary policy committee froze the seven-day repurchase rate at 3.25 percent on Friday, unwilling to apply the brakes as it did in the first half of last year, despite stable exports and growth

Samsung also plans to release the latest smartphone in Korea, U.S. this monthChinese consumers will be able to get hold of Samsung Electronics’ new flagship smartphone “Galaxy S3” this weekend as Korea’s biggest tech firm secured mobile carrier deals with China’s three telecom giants.Samsung Electronics will offer TD-SCDMA 3G smartphones with China Mobile, CDMA phones with China Telecom and WCDMA with China Unicom, it said in a press release.“We have been closely collaborating with China’s mobil

KPIC chief says mid-level manufacturing should be automatic, clean and easyAbout 25,000 parts are needed to make a single automobile. And almost 90 percent of those parts are developed by small and medium-size enterprises through the delicate craftsmanship, manufacturing process and techniques of molding, casting, plastic working, welding, and heat and surface treatments.The situation is pretty much the same for making mobile handsets and ships in which Korea maintains global competitiveness.The

Experts call for clear guidelines before Kakao launches serviceTension between Korea’s leading mobile carriers and Kakao, a mobile messenger tech firm, is growing as the latter will introduce a mobile telephone service in the latter half of this year.Kakao Talk has begun offering a test version of its mobile Voice over Internet Protocol, named Voice Talk, to over 4 million worldwide users wishing to try its new service either on their iPhones or Android-based smartphones. Voice Talk will be free

Samsung Electronics, Korea’s biggest tech manufacturing firm, has released its all-new laptop computer line with high-performance multimedia applications, targeting young consumers.The laptop, named “Series 5 Boost,” in 15-inch and 17-inch display models, is embedded with the latest audio and video software and hardware, the company said on Sunday in a press release.It has audio speaker systems provided by the U.S.-based JBL, with subwoofers that can process low-pitched audio frequencies into hi

 Top business-to-business software firm eyes expansion in handling large data setsWhen people generally think of open-source platforms in Korea, Google’s Android immediately comes to mind due to the wide use of smartphones and tablet PCs in the business-to-consumer space.But in the business-to-business world, U.S.-headquartered Red Hat provides the world’s leading open-source operating systems for enterprises’ data-processing servers.Working “behind the scenes,” it’s unknown to the general publi

Gangnam in southern Seoul is one of the busiest districts in the city, and that means slower traffic ― including on mobile phones. Given the Korean trait of always being in a hurry and wanting information quickly, this can be a source of frustration.SK Telecom, the country’s largest telecommunications company, is offering a test-version of multicarrier network services in the district to relieve this problem, which is expected to increase as 4G long term evolution grows.Backed by SK Telecom’s tw

Consumers will soon be able to enjoy watching high-resolution content on their mobile devices LG Display, the world’s second-largest display maker, has developed a new five-inch display panel for smartphones.The display giant said Monday that it has for the first time in the world developed the small-sized, full high-definition LCD panel using advanced high performance in-plane switching technology.Measuring the new panel’s density at 440 pixels per inch, the company said the image quality shown

LG-Hitachi Water Solutions plans to develop a facility in Yeosu where it can reuse the city’s sewage water as a clean source for the city’s industrial complex.The company said Friday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Yeosu government to invest in the infrastructure, which will be able to treat and recycle 35,000 tons of sewage and cost 45 billion won ($40 million). It did not give any development timeline for the project. However, the reusable water will be supplied to Ye