2016년 2월 28일 일요일

Samsung and LG proved their design competitiveness at 'iF Design Award 2016' in Germany

On Feb 27, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics won 38, 28 awards respectively at the world renowned International Forum Design Awards,'iF Design Award 2016' in Germany.
LG Electronics won the three Gold awards, most among participating companies.

Samsung won the gold award for Serif TV which was praised for its design that blends harmoniously with the modern living space. 
 LG received an iF gold award for its LG Gram 15.6-inch laptop PC, Signature Refrigerator featuring ‘Knock’ concept under Kitchen category, Signature Washing Machine with an automatic detergent feeder and a twin washer mode.

Galaxy S6 and S6 edge, gear S2, chef collection built-in refrigerator, 360 cassette system air-conditioner were among Samsung’s winning products.



2016년 2월 24일 수요일

Google tops the list of most desired foreign company to work for in Korea.


Korean job seekers and university graduates picked Google as most desired foreign company to work for according to recent survey, conducted by employment portal JobKorea and Albamon on 2,007 job seekers on Feb.22.

Google led by clear margin as most desirable employer regardless of gender and major.
Google Korea ranked first (70.9 percent) followed by Apple Korea(25.9 percent),Starbucks Korea (16.9 percent), Nike Sports (14.4 percent) and Yuhan Kimberly (14.0 percent).

BMW Korea, Louis Vuitton, L’Oréal Korea, Adidas Korea and 3M Korea ranked sixth to tenth, followed by Microsoft Korea, Audi-Volkswagen Korea, Costco Korea, CitiBank, Standard Chartered Korea, eBay Korea, Sony Korea, Prada, P&G, and Homeplus.

37.2 percent of the respondents picked various employment benefits as #1 reason to work for foreign companies followed by the employee-friendly enviromnent (17.9 percent), opportunities to work abroad (17.5 percent) and high wages (14.6 percent).



2016년 2월 20일 토요일

Song Joong Ki vs Rain vs Lee Jin Wook: their new dramas to battle it out on the Wed/Thur slot


The three national television networks will air new dramas on the Wed/Thur slot in spring.
KBS 'Descendants of the Sun' and SBS 'Come Back Mister' will be aired on Feb 24th and MBC 'Goodbye Mr. Black' on Mar 16th.

What these dramas have in common is that all  male leads are  hot actors who served in the military recently in their 30's.


"Descendants Of The Sun" is Song Joong Ki's first drama since he returned from the military last may.
Fresh out from the military, the 31 year old is returning to steal the hearts of female viewers with his role as a soldier.
Showing off his toned and muscular body, Song Joong Ki proves that he’s more than just a pretty face. The countdown is on to his small screen return.

Rain is coming back to small screen in more than a year since his last drama "My Lovely Girl".
Even though it has been almost a decade since his glory days as a world star, the 34 year old still charms with his manly charisma. He is returning in March with a new drama "Please Come Back Mister" alongside Lee Min Jung.
This fantasy comedy-drama is based on the popular Japanese novel "Tsubakiyama Kacho no Nanokakan".


New drama series Goodbye Mr. Black has secured a leading man for Moon Chae Won (Princess's Man).
Cha Ji-Won (Lee Jin-Wook) is a UDT officer of the Navy Special Operations Force who falls into a life or death situation due to a friend's betrayal and seeks justice and revenge.
The role should be a perfect fit for the handsome and muscular Lee Jin Wook, who played as romantic guy (The Time I Loved You), relentless time traveler (Nine), or even a spy who represses his feelings (Spy Myung Wol).




2016년 2월 19일 금요일

A pair of pandas from China are coming back to Korea after 22 years.


A pair of pandas from China are coming back to Korea in 22 years.
China sent a pair of pandas to South Korea in 1994, but they were returned in 1998, when South Korea was hit by a severe economic crisis.

One of the biggest theme park in Korea, Samsung's Everland will welcome a pair of pandas from China and will be shown to the public in april.

The migration of the giant pandas will make Korea the 14th country that has giant pandas.
There are only an estimated 1,800 giant pandas left in the wild.
425 giant pandas live in Chinese zoos and there are only 50 pandas in 13 countries outside China.

Everland is is expecting more than 50% increase of Chinese tourists to the park and 300,000 visitors increase annually to see pandas.

The pandas pair will be on loan for 15 years for the purpose of joint research between Everland and China Wildlife Conservation Association.






2016년 2월 18일 목요일

The VR market's potential is limitless, Samsung Electronics seeks another growth chance in IoT era.

"The VR market's potential is almost limitless. We believe there are many opportunities to apply our industry, such as internet of things, scope of its application can be expanded to various areas, including communication, education and training," said Hong Won-pyo, president of Samsung SDS solutions division at CEO meeting held at Samsung Electronics Seocho building on 17th.

Samsung executives tried out virtual reality (VR) devices and discussed how to embrace the new technology at a weekly meeting on Wednesday.

Behind Samsung's push for the VR business is Vice Chairman Lee Jay-yong's will to make it a new revenue source. "VR has the growth potential to replace the smartphone, so we need to focus not only on making devices but on developing content to preempt the market," Lee reportedly told officials mapping out the company's future strategy.

Samsung is already one of the front-runners. In November, it put to market the Samsung Gear VR headset, at 129,800 won in the domestic market and $99 in foreign markets, and sold hundreds of thousands of the devices worldwide. Samsung's VR experience booth also stole the show at CES 2016 in Las Vegas last month.

The IT giant is focusing on developing content. At the Mobile World Congress that will open in Spain later this month, Samsung will release not only the Galaxy 7 smartphone loaded with VR functions but a 360-degree camera that can produce VR content, developed by Samsung Research America in the Silicon Valley.

Samsung is making related investments quite briskly, too. It invested $6 million in Baobab Studio, known for making VR content, last year-end, and an additional $25 million in WEVR, a U.S. venture firm that operates "Transport," a platform for distributing VR content, where people can produce VR images and share them. Last October, Samsung invested in 8i, a New Zealand company that was developing a technology that enables users to enter VR and feel their movements there.




2016년 2월 13일 토요일

A collaboration of the biggest groups from the 90's, Coolyote(Cool+Koyote) announced their first song on 12th.


A collaboration of the biggest groups from the 90's, Coolyote(Cool+Koyote)finally announced their first song officially on February 12th.

Except Cool's Yuri who is currently pregnant with her second child,  five members consisted of Cool's Lee Jae-hoon, Kim Sung-soo and Koyote's Kim Jong-min, Shinji, and Baekga finished recording new songs.
This song is produced by famous musician and composer, Yoon Sang, adding more excitement  to the scene.

Coolyote began a nationwide tour since the beginning of last December starting in Seoul and they will hold encore concert in Jamsil indoor stadium, seoul on Feb 20.
Also, they will continue Coolyote nationwide tour in Pohang indoor stadium on 27th.


2016년 2월 11일 목요일

Valentine's Day Pictorial Shoot ~Block B's Zico vs. Actor So Ji-Sub


Many Korean stars are revealing their photo shoot now that valentine's day is only a few days away.

In particular, Block B's Zico who made a comeback as a solo artist recently and singer and actor So Ji Sub captured fans' heart with their new released valentine's day pictorial showing their unique masculinity.


Zico has has caught the eyes of fans with freckle makeup and funny look on his face showing full of wit while eating chocolate and cakes in 'CeCi' pictorial shoot.
According to the magazine 'CeCi', Zico unveiled the top model pose without any special direction from staffs.

So Ji Sub showed off  masculine charms in his latest photo shoot for atstar1 magazine.
He presented feeling of roughness by munching on cake or dipping a cream with his finger holding cake in hand with minimal monotone Styling.





2016년 2월 8일 월요일

LINE and KakaoTalk on List of The 10 Most Popular Mobile Messaging Apps In The World


With Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp two years ago, mobile messaging apps have taken center stage thanks to the sheer weight of their ever-expanding user bases.
According to the the statistics portal, Statista.com, WhatsApp hits 900 million users as of January 2016.

LINE messenger of NAVER Corporation, Korea’s premier Internet company, operating the nation’s top search portal made #7 on the list with 212 million users on a monthly basis.

Korea's most-popular mobile messenger, KakaoTalk made #9 on the list with 48 million users as well.













2016년 2월 2일 화요일

Unpiloted urban maglev train at Incheon International Airport will be opened to the public on Feb 3.


Unpiloted urban maglev train which links Incheon International Airport to its surroundings will be opened to the public on Feb 3.
Anyone can use this public transport free of charge.

Government funded development of maglev technology started in the late 80s and the Incheon line is the first trial line in the Center for Urban Maglev Program which was established in 2006.

After 25 years of developing its own urban “maglev” train consisting of homemade components, the country is set to introduce the world’s second maglev in Feb.
Japan launched the world’s first urban maglev in Nagoya in 2005.

The urban maglev train, with a maximum speed of 111 kilometers per hour, runs the 6·1 km route with six stations linking Incheon International Airport with Yongyu.
This first domestically-developed urban maglev line will run every 15 min from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm everyday.

Incheon International Airport Corporation will operate the urban maglev railway line for free of charge as a pilot route for now.
However, Incheon International Airport Corporation can start charging according to future demand in consultation with the Ministry of Transportation and Incheon City.




Top Five Tablet Vendors Worldwide in 2015


Demand for electronics devices is weakening due to global recession, tablets, meanwhile, saw the most severe decline in shipments in 2015.
According to TrendForce. The global market research firm’s latest tablet shipment report shows a total of 168.5 million units of tablets were shipped last year representing a 12.2% drop from 2014.

“The saturation of the tablet market, the long life cycles of tablets themselves and the abundance of substitute devices were major factors that contributed to the large shipment decline,” said Anita Wang, notebook analyst for TrendForce. “Tablets were challenged by many large and small devices during 2015, from smartphones sized 5 inches and above to 2-in-1 PCs. Their demand diminished as a result.”

Apple retained its title of top tablet brand worldwide in 2015, but iPad shipments fell by as much as 22% year on year, from 63.4 million units in 2014 to 49.6 million in 2015. The decline in Apple’s annual tablet shipments exceeded the market average, and the brand likewise saw its worldwide market share shrank from 33% in 2014 to 29.4% in 2015. Wang noted that Apple’s lead in tablet shipments meant that the brand got hit the hardest by the impacts of the slowing global economy and the weak tablet demand. The increasing competition from rival brands also made it very difficult for Apple to hold on to its market share.

Samsung was again the No. 2 tablet brand worldwide in 2015. While the South Korean company saw its tablet shipments fell 18% annually to 33.5 million units, its market share fell by just 1.5% over the year to 19.9%. Product strategy played a large part in Samsung’s ability to keep its portion of the tablet market. Major changes were made to the product lines, including adjustments in specs and sizes. Furthermore, Samsung used its advantage in manufacturing small-size OLED panels and released several new tablets featuring this display technology.

No. 3 tablet vendor worldwide in 2015 is Lenovo followed by Amazon and Asus.