Tag: smartphones

The facial recognition requirement is supposed to help stop crime:

Face recognition will be mandatory when setting up a new smartphone starting Tuesday, local media reported.

Under the new rule, new users must verify their identity through facial recognition when they buy a new smartphone, whether online or in person, according to relevant authorities.

The requirement applies to the country’s three major mobile carriers, SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus, as well as low-cost mobile carriers.

Previously, users were required only to present an identification card to activate a smartphone. Under the revised system, an additional step has been added that requires users to take a photo of their face through the PASS authentication app.

The government said the measure is aimed at preventing crimes such as voice phishing and smishing that are often carried out using smartphones activated with stolen or forged identification.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

I am totally for students keeping their phones in their lockers during the school day:

Korea may soon join a growing list of countries moving to ban mobile phones in classrooms, as the policy idea is gaining increasing support from teachers, parents and politicians here.

According to lawmakers and education administrators on Sunday, Rep. Cho Jung-hun and 10 other lawmakers of the ruling People Power Party are pushing for a countrywide ban on the use of phones and other smart devices in schools to protect the mental health of students.

“Many countries, including the United States and France, are trying to restrict phone use through legislation as social media addiction becomes a serious problem. This is also true in Korea, where 25 percent of children aged between 3 and 9 and 40.1 percent of those aged between 10 and 19 were found to be overly dependent on smartphones,” they said, explaining the reason for proposing the bill. “To protect their mental health, we are proposing to restrict the use of smart devices in schools unless permitted for educational or emergency purposes.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Only Japan and Korea mandate that cameras have a shutter noise. This is supposed to help prevent people from taking unwanted photos of others. However, there are plenty of third party camera apps that remove the shutter noise which makes this regulation worthless. It seems the vast majority of Koreans now realize this:

Eight in 10 South Koreans think they should be able to decide whether to mute or enable their camera shutter sound on their phones, a survey showed Sunday.

According to a survey conducted by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission from Oct. 23 until Saturday on 3,476 respondents, 86.2 percent of those polled answered “yes” when asked if they think individuals should be able to adjust the camera shutter noise settings. Muting the camera shutter sound is disabled for all devices manufactured in Korea.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

There is now one less major mobile phone manufacturer:

LG Electronics said Monday it will withdraw from the mobile business after years of money-losing performance amid intensifying competition with bigger rivals. 

The South Korean tech powerhouse said in a regulatory filing that its mobile communications (MC) unit will no longer produce and sell handsets after July 31, citing its long slump and fierce competition in the industry. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but according to the article LG Electronics has accumulated $4.4 billion in debt from the lack of mobile phone sales.

South Koreans know how to dominate online reactions and this Wall Street Journal reporter is finding that out:

The Wall Street Journal’s “mocking” review of Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Fold smartphone has caused a controversy here as some internet users have criticized the U.S. newspaper for posting an “insensitive” video on YouTube.

Critics said Monday the paper’s journalist should have offered a thorough and independent review of Samsung’s latest smartphone in the video rather than focused on ridiculing it.

In February, Samsung unveiled its first foldable smartphone and the device is set to hit the U.S. market April 26, but the phone has been criticized by U.S. reviewers as the top layer of the display easily peels off, which can cause serious damage to the screen. 

WSJ reporter Joanna Stern posted the video review of the Galaxy Fold, Friday (local time). In the three-minute video, the reporter put a sausage inside the screen of the smartphone, showed clips of peeling a banana and orange and folded a colored piece of paper.

The video has gone viral logging more than 570,000 hits as of 3 p.m. Monday, but has generated negative responses from some viewers, recording 22,000 thumbs-downs while having 10,000 thumbs-ups. More than 4,400 people left comments on the video, many expressing anger over mocking the device by putting a sausage and other objects inside the smartphone.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link and view the review below.

It is pretty surprising that Samsung’s new foldable phone would have this many problems right before its release:

A number of U.S.-based tech reporters reviewing Samsung Electronics’ potentially game-changing mobile device, the Galaxy Fold, reported faults after just a few days of use.

Reporters from CNBC, Bloomberg and The Verge have each tweeted pictures and videos showing faults with the folding screen of the Galaxy Fold devices they were given this week to review ahead of the phone’s U.S. release on April 26.

Steve Kovach, tech editor for CNBC, tweeted in the early hours of Thursday morning, Korea time, a video of his Galaxy Fold that showed the left hand of the screen flickering and flashing white with a bold black line splitting the screen in two, presumably along the point where the screen folds when it is closed. The video was captioned “After one day of use…”

The Galaxy Fold is designed to open like a book to become a 7.3-inch display tablet. The cover of the phone — the front when it is folded — is a 4.6-inch screen that works like a conventional smartphone. In all three reported cases, it is this internal folding screen that was defective.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

I am curious to see how durable and useful this foldable smartphone is going to be:

Samsung Electronics Co. plans to launch its first foldable smartphone in March, along with a fifth-generation (5G) network-powered Galaxy S10, industry sources said Monday.

According to the sources, the South Korean tech giant plans to unveil the flagship Galaxy S10 smartphone in February, followed by the presumed foldable Galaxy F and another edition of the Galaxy S10 that runs on the 5G network in March.

The outlook came after Samsung Electronics President Koh Dong-jin, who heads the mobile business, said last week that the company will release a foldable smartphone within the first half of 2019. Koh said the shipment volume of the foldable smartphone will be at least 1 million.

Industry watchers said Samsung is expected to showcase the upcoming foldable smartphone in the Mobile World Congress in February, ahead of the official launch in the following month.

The much-awaited foldable smartphone, however, is not expected to support the 5G network.

While the price of the foldable smartphone has not been decided, industry watchers said it may cost around 2 million won (US$1,770). The steep price is expected to limit sales.

Samsung said the upcoming foldable smartphone will fold inward, and will sport a 7.4-inch screen when unfolded and have a 4.6-inch display like a regular smartphone when folded. [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

I can’t remember anything like this happening before with a major manufacturer stopping production of an electronic device due to safety reasons:

Samsung has permanently halted production and sales of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone after failing to correct a problem that was causing the devices to burst into flames.

The loss of one of its flagship smartphones is a major embarrassment for Samsung , which was forced to recall 2.5 million Note 7s shortly after the device went on sale in August.

The South Korean firm attempted to fix the problem by switching battery suppliers and updating the smartphone’s software. Company executives issued a slew of apologies.

But when replacement phones were issued, a number of customers reported that those devices also caught fire, including one aboard a passenger jet.

Samsung on Monday advised all customers to stop using the phones, sending its shares tumbling by 8% in Seoul. The world’s biggest smartphone maker said Tuesday it was killing off the phone entirely.  [CNN]

You can read more at the link.