korea

Competing against domestic technology giants including Samsung, Taiwanese phone maker HTC has closed its doors in South Korea.

The smartphone maker has long struggled against low handset sales in the Asian country, and has finally bitten the bullet and closed its South Korea office.

According to an official statement, the move has been made in order to "streamline operations" and improve efficiency across the whole company. "This is a hard decision that has direct impact on people who have contributed to the growth HTC has experienced the past several years," the company said in a statement.… Read more

YEOSU, South Korea--I'm a sucker for world fairs. They sell dreams and I'm ready to buy.

In 2005, the Aichi Expo in Japan sucked me in like a giant Roomba and I became hooked on its fantasy of a greener, robot-filled future.

That dream hasn't come true, but I still couldn't keep away from this year's small-scale expo here in Yeosu, South Korea, where robots are also reeling in the masses. … Read more

South Korea tops the charts for wireless broadband subscribers, according to figures from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The country is the first to pass 100 percent penetration for wireless broadband, according to data from the organization.

Worldwide wireless broadband subscriptions in OECD countries have shown healthy growth of over 13 percent in the last six months, and now total 667 million, up from 590 million in June 2011.

South Korea has 100.6 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, the OECD said. The agency's data -- based on the rate of high-speed Internet access versus population in South … Read more

LA JOLLA, Calif.--Cottages shouldn't stick out way over the edge of buildings, but when they've been picked up by mysterious forces and dropped out of the sky, that's exactly what can happen.

Welcome to Korean artist Do Ho Suh's "Fallen Star," a small, New England-style house that was unveiled in June atop -- and well out beyond the roof of -- the Jacobs Engineering School building at the University of California at San Diego here.

I've come to explore "Fallen Star" as part of Road Trip 2012, and though I'… Read more

South Korea was utterly destroyed by war 60 years ago. Today, it's replacing all textbooks in public schools with electronic tablets.

The country's rise from the ashes mirrors that of Japan after World War II, but it now lays claim to the title of most wired nation on Earth, with high Internet penetration rates and bold plans for high-tech tools like household robots.

Developers are building a Robotland theme park that's slated to open in 2016 in Incheon, home to Seoul's main international airport, which of course has free Wi-Fi and public terminals with Internet access. … Read more

SEOUL, South Korea -- Samsung's Galaxy S3 LTE hit stores in South Korea a few days ago, and the phone's popularity was plain to see at the tech giant's store here in the Gangnam district of Seoul.

Koreans swarmed around the oversized handset at the flagship Samsung D'light Shop, which is roughly equivalent to Apple stores.

The quad-core phone debuted on Korean carriers KT, LG U+, and SK Telecom this week. Samsung apparently sold 50,000 units on its first day.

Staff at the Samsung store say the phone's selling points are its battery life and speed, LTE support, and features like the ability to show a video feed in one window while using other functions. … Read more

Today we're cracking open the Apple Store Employee Guidelines book to reveal some of the tactics that the company uses to implant themselves in the minds of shoppers. A clear example of this psychological influence is the precision angle of every MacBook Pro notebook on display in the store. Take a look next time you're in an Apple store and you'll notice that they're all measured to a very specific incline degree.

At first glance, you might think that it's placed at the optimum viewing angle for passersby, but it's actually angled poorly to encourage customers to adjust the screen to their preferred position! The company hopes that the physical interaction with the device will show the generous viewing options and even encourage customers to explore further.… Read more

Competition regulators in Asia and Europe are ratcheting up the pressure on Google over charges of unfairly using its search dominance to compete with local rivals.

In Seoul, the Korean Fair Trade Commission, that country's antitrust agency, raided Google's offices this week, according to MLex, a subscription-only newsletter that focuses on European regulatory agencies. The agency raided Google's Seoul office last September, seeking information in its investigation of allegations that Google limits access to rival search engines on its Android mobile operating system.

And in Brussels, the European Union Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia sent a letter to … Read more

It's the tallest Lego tower ever, soaring to the heavens at more than 104 feet and setting a geek world record last week.

The Lego World Tower brought joy to the hearts of Koreans last week when it went up in Seoul's Olympic Stadium.

At 104 feet and 7 inches, it edged out a similar tower erected in France last year at 103 feet. It took some 4,000 Korean kids five days and half a million bricks to put it together. … Read more