Korea Electric Power Corporation, the state-run electricity provider, has teamed up with KT Corp., the country’s largest telecommunications firm, to map a blueprint for creating a smart energy ecosystem.Holding a meeting at KEPCO’s new head office in Naju, South Jeolla Province Tuesday, the heads of the two firms signed an agreement on making the combined effort for the smart energy cause.“By working with KEPCO for convergence of telecommunications and energy technologies, KT will try to produce

Concerns are rising over the security of the digital currency bitcoin following hacking cases that allegedly took place for the first time in South Korea at local online bitcoin exchange Bitcore.A man surnamed Kim in the southeastern port city of Pohang filed a complaint with the Pohang Cyber Police Agency on Nov. 14, claiming that 15 of his bitcoins worth around 6.2 million won (based on the value of a bitcoin as of Monday) were stolen by an anonymous person operating from Bitcore on Nov. 11.An

Fingerprint sensor maker CrucialTec’s biometric trackpad module was picked as one of the world’s leading tech products by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the state-run Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency on Monday. The South Korean company’s BTP is a fingerprint recognition sensor, adopting the so-called nano packaging method, which allows the sensor to be slimmer and easily mounted on other products such as smartphones. The BTP can be utilized for various types of fingerprint

The chief of LG Uplus, the nation’s third-largest mobile carrier, pledged that the company would make the utmost effort not to be left behind in the era of fifth-generation networks. “We are standing at the tipping point of the 5G era where we will see the biggest changes unfold down the road,” LG Uplus vice chairman Lee Sang-chul said at an annual year-end media conference in Seoul Friday, vowing to brace for the next phase of the mobile network business. “How we are getting ourselves prepared

Samsung Group on Thursday announced its annual reshuffle, promoting 353 executives. The number of the promotions ― down from 476 in last year’s reshuffle and the lowest since 2008 ― signaled the conglomerate’s drive to streamline some of its oversized businesses including its sluggish mobile business wing, according to industry officials.“Samsung, as usual, rewarded those who had achieved great performance this year, and tried to keep the growth momentum by promoting executives in a wider range

Imagine people exploring the deep sea, taking pictures of the underwater landscape and exotic sea creatures and using Wi-Fi networks to share them on the spot through social media sites such as Facebook.Slowly but steadily, the underwater wireless communications technology environment is becoming a reality thanks to Singapore-based start-up Subnero’s pioneering researchers.Subnero’s wireless nodes. (Subnero)The 2-year-old start-up is dreaming of a new Internet revolution deep down in the ocean. 

Twitter is trying to make it easier for victims and witnesses of online harassment to report it. The short messaging service said Tuesday that the new tools will roll out to users over the coming weeks. It’s available now for a small group of Twitter’s 284 million members. Among other changes, the updates streamline the process for reporting abuse, especially on mobile devices. Twitter says it also made “behind-the-scenes improvements” that speed up response times to reported tweets and accounts

State investigators raided the headquarters of SK Telecom in Seoul on Tuesday over suspicions that the country’s top mobile carrier illegally collected its users’ health records.A joint team of prosecutors and government officials said they had seized documents and computer hard drives related to the health-care business of the company, which is suspected of gathering the information without the users’ consent.Task force officials said that SK Telecom’s headquarters was subject to up to seven ho

Swedish air purifier-maker Blueair has launched new models in South Korea to compete against premium products made by local rivals such as Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and Winix.The chief of the Swedish firm is confident that the new Blueair E series ― the 650E, 450E and 270E ― would appeal to Korean consumers. “Our vision is to enable people to breathe clean air, which is a basic human right,” said Bengt Rittri, the chief executive of Blueair at a media conference held in Seoul Tuesday.

Top executives at Samsung Electronics’ mobile business unit will step down to take responsibility for the sluggish mobile business this year, according to sources Monday. Market watchers had expected the anticipated reshuffling, as Samsung had signaled that it would take action to streamline its oversized mobile business down the road. Lee Don-joo, chief of the mobile business unit’s strategic marketing office, Kim Jae-kwon, chief of the global operations office and Lee Chul-hwan, head of the mo

Woowa Brothers, the operator of South Korea’s largest mobile food ordering and delivery service app, Baedal Minjok, said Thursday it has raised 40 billion won ($36 million) from U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs in a new funding round.The investment bank said it will have additional funding plans for the Korean startups, which are based on an innovative idea, to help it beef up marketing efforts and increase its footing in the global markets. “With the new round of investment, Woowa Brothers wi

The Korea Racing Authority, South Korea’s public agency to promote horse racing, has long been trying to change the negative public perceptions on the industry and to make horse race parks across the nation family-friendly places.The scene at Seoul Racecourse Park in Gwacheon City, however, showed that these efforts have yet to bear any fruit. “It will be next to impossible to improve the park’s environment,” said a former employee of KRA who described the park as nothing short of a gambling den

Facebook is launching a new free mobile app for its popular Groups feature that lets users create and interact with communities on the site, whether they’re based on hobbies, geography or culture.More than 700 million of Facebook’s 1.35 billion members use Groups, according to the company. It says the site hosts hundreds of millions of groups, which people use talk to others who share their religion, to plan holiday dinners, or to discuss hobbies or health issues. The new app is meant to make ac

Netflix on Tuesday announced that it would debut its film and television show streaming service in Australia and New Zealand early next year as it continues expanding internationally.A Netflix library of television shows, films, documentaries and original content will be available when the service launches in March.Netflix did not disclose what it plans to charge for subscriptions in the countries but promised a “low monthly price.”Subscribers will be able to watch Netflix shows using tablets, s

Facebook’s WhatsApp is adding encryption so messages cannot be deciphered when stored or traveling between devices, boosting efforts by technology companies to thwart snooping by hackers and government spies. WhatsApp, which was acquired by Facebook for $22 billion this year, is working with startup Open Whisper Systems to enact the change, the companies said today. Open Whisper Systems said in a blog post that it has been working on encryption with the mobile-messaging service for the past six

Despite being hailed as a game changer in the world of tech, head-mounted virtual reality displays are still short of delivering a fully immersive experience for users because the technology is still too static and doesn’t require active physical movement.The Omni VR treadmill is out to change this. Virtuix, the U.S. startup that created the Omni, says it is certain to provide a wholly different experience ― one in which virtual reality can be a true reality. “We want to take virtual reality bey

Quantum dot technology will not have a significant impact on the global TV and display markets, while organic light-emitting diode could be a game changer, said Michael Grund, managing director of Merck Korea.Quantum dot is a rising technology that can effectively enhance the efficiency and resolution of displays by just putting a thin layer of nano-crystals on the backlight of a liquid crystal display.“The QD technology will not be a game changer in the TV market,” he said at a news conference

Most of Samsung Group’s second-half recruits this year are science and engineering majors, reflecting the company’s push for software development, according to industry sources. Samsung Group’s affiliates have been announcing from last week the results of the recruitment for the second half of the year, which began in September.Among some 4,500 new hires at the 25 Samsung affiliates who went through weeks of tests and assessments to get into South Korea’s largest conglomerate, most were science

Samsung SDS, an information technology services provider, made a splash in its debut on the Korean bourse Friday with its market value becoming the sixth largest in the domestic market. The stock closed at 327,500 won ($298), bringing the market capitalization of the Samsung Group affiliate to 25.3 trillion won ($23 billion). The figure is slightly lower than that of the nation’s leading steel manufacturer POSCO at 25.6 trillion won. The head office of Samsung SDSAttending the IPO ceremony at th

Celebrating the anniversary of its move to a new head office in Gwanghwamun, central Seoul, on Thursday, Microsoft Korea introduced a range of positive changes achieved through its initiative to put mobile and cloud technology first at the workplace.The company said this would become the new norm for other companies in the future. The Korean branch of the software giant announced last year that it would transform its new Seoul headquarters into a ‘Freestyle Workplace,’ aimed at enhancing product