Tag: smartphones

This will be a great innovation for which ever smartphone manufacturer is able to perfect this technology:

Apple is working with partners in the United States and Asia to develop new wireless charging technology that could be deployed on its mobile devices as soon as next year, according to people familiar with the plans.

Apple is exploring cutting-edge technologies that would allow iPhones and iPads to be powered from further away than the charging mats used with current smartphones, the people said, asking not to be identified as the details are private. The iPhone maker is looking to overcome technical barriers including loss of power over distance. A decision on implementing the technology is still being assessed, they said.

With iPhones and iPads generating more than three-quarters of Apple’s revenue, new technologies can give its devices an edge and help the company sell products at a premium in a slowing market. Samsung Electronics, Sony and Google are among rivals that have released wirelessly charged smartphones that still require proximity to a charging plate.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link.

USFK personnel looking to get a phone through a Korean telecom company will no longer receive the same subsidies that Korean consumers receive unless they remain in country at least two years:

The South Korean government has ruled that cellphone subsidies given to thousands of U.S. servicemembers stationed there on short tours were illegal, officials said Tuesday.

The Korean Communications Commission fined LG U Plus 186 million won (about $161,000) for violating the country’s Mobile Distribution Law, which bars handset subsidies for customers committed to anything less than a 24-month contract.

Thousands of U.S. servicemembers in South Korea are stationed there on one-year tours — particularly at bases north of Seoul where 2nd Infantry Division soldiers often serve unaccompanied.

LG U Plus counts about 7,200 U.S. Forces Korea servicemembers, civilians and others as subscribers, according to a KCC official who spoke with Stars and Stripes on Tuesday.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link.

Fans of Apple products in Korea will soon be able to purchase the company’s newest product the iPhone 6S:

Korean consumers waiting for Apple’s new iPhone 6S and 6S Plus will not be able to get hold of them until the end of next month at the earliest.

Apple on Monday said the new iPhone series will hit the market on Oct. 9 and 10 in 40 countries including Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, and Taiwan but not in Korea.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link.

If parents can use technology like this to monitor their kids imagine what companies or the government could monitor?

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — “Smart Relief” is a mobile app for parental control of Android smartphones. South Korea’s government funded the app, which alerts parents to possible bullying based on its monitoring of phrases and words used in smartphone messages and in online searches. The developer says it can also give parents insight into the worries or preoccupations of their children.

Such apps are criticized in South Korea as an invasion of privacy but their use is burgeoning, particularly after the country’s telecoms regulator ordered monitoring applications be installed on the smartphones of Koreans aged 18 and below. Smart Relief is not one of the 15 apps authorized for use in that program but shares similar features with them.

—

The app monitors about 800 words and phrases in messages including:

Threat, kill, shut up, violence, destroy, handicap, crazy, prostitute, garbage, thief, porn, suicide, pregnancy, inn, obscene, sex, sexual crime, sexual relationship, prostitution, motel, beer, rape, adultery, run away from home, outcast.  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link. 

Samsung Pay coming to US and South Korea this summer, compatible w/ 30mill … http://t.co/TIfKpI5Tap

— South Korea Daily (@SouthKoreaDaily) March 1, 2015

Here is the latest in the continuing smartphone wars:

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. is gearing up to unveiled its all new flagship smartphone at this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, hoping to put the company back in the ring with arch-rival Apple Inc., corporate sources said Sunday.

The flagship, widely expected to be called the Galaxy 6, aims to lay the foundation for Samsung to recapture the No. 1 smartphone manufacturer title that it lost late last year following lackluster sales of its Galaxy S5 and strong sales of Apple’s first large-screen iPhone 6.

The launch is expected to take place at 2:30 a.m. on Monday (Korea time) at a dedicated “Unpacked” event.

Samsung is also hoping that the new smartphone may help it outpace Chinese upstarts, such as Xiaomi Tech and Huawei Technologies Co, which have made strides, particularly in the world’s second-largest economy.

The combination of Apple’s super popular iPhone and challenges by Xiaomi and Huawei caused Samsung to suffer an “earnings shock” last year.

Company sources said that the new Galaxy, which was called “Project Zero” in its development stage, emphasizes a completely new form factor with importance placed on the materials used to make the phone.

In the past, Samsung’s flagships have taken a beating for using “flimsy” plastic, but the company in more recent months has been churning out devices with metal frames, such as the Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Alpha, or with all aluminum uni-body designs in the cases of the A3, A5 and A7.

Besides the build quality, Samsung said through official teasers that the new phone will have better internals in the form of a more powerful processor, memory capacity, camera and streamlined software, which will enhance the overall performance and user experience.

The new Galaxy, which could well come in the conventional flat and dual-curbed screen “Edge” variants, will have a Samsung Pay system pre-installed. The system based on LooPay technology allows users to use the phone like a credit card. Unlike Apple’s payment system that requires special terminals, the LooPay arrangement allows it to work with existing credit card readers.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but it is going to be interesting to see if consumers prefer the old credit car technology that Samsung is banking on or the built in Apple Pay technology in the iPhone?

North Korea may be importing these smartphones, but they are connected to North Korea’s internal Internet which still allows the regime to control what information the public can access:

North Korea’s smartphone imports from China surged to a record high last year, a sign of a growing number of people there being connected to the net, according to data released Friday.

North Korea brought in US$82.8 million worth of smartphones from China in 2014, almost double the amount recorded a year earlier, according to the Seoul-based Korea International Trade Association.

It marked the largest volume since 2007, when related data were introduced.

Imports of portable data-processing devices, including laptops, also jumped 16 percent on-year to $23 million in 2014 despite a 3-percent decline in the North’s overall imports from China in the year.

Around 10 percent of the communist nation’s 24-million residents reportedly use smartphones, with its 3G network run by Koryolink, a joint venture with an Egyptian company, Orascom Telecom. [Yonhap]

People living on border areas with China have long been secretly using cell phones off of Chinese towers so maybe some of these smartphone buyers will be doing the same thing to access the Internet as well.

Models showcase LG Electronics Inc.’s latest G Flex 2 smartphones with curved display at an event in Seoul on Jan. 22, 2015. The G Flex 2, with a Full HD 5.5-inch display, will become LG’s second smartphone that boasts a display curving inward from top to bottom and slightly from right to left, though slightly smaller than its 6-inch predecessor. (Yonhap)