South Korea - page 2

370,000 people in South Korea are suing Apple

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iphone 8
Customers aren't happy about Apple's iPhone speed throttling.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The first ever class action lawsuit filed against Apple in South Korea involves 370,000 individuals — or the equivalent of one out of every 138 people who live in the country.

As with many of the recent lawsuits filed against Apple, this particular class action suit accuses Apple of purposely slowing down the speed of older iPhones with a software update. The group filed its suit with the Seoul Central District Court on Thursday, demanding 2.2 million won ($2,000) per person affected by the iPhone speed throttling.

Nearly 67,000 iPhone users in South Korea want to sue Apple

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iPhone SE 2 could cost $399 just like the first-gen iPhone SE
Users aren't happy about Apple throttling iPhone speeds.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple has been the subject of multiple class action lawsuits since admitting that it purposely throttles the speed of older iPhones. However, no lawsuit is quite as big as one that’s brewing in South Korea — where nearly 67,000 iPhone users have applied to join a suit against Apple.

The number of potential plaintiffs reportedly doubled over the course of Friday — from 34,000 applicants in the morning to 66,800 by the end of the working day, claims law firm Hannuri Law.

South Korean regulator wants answers from Apple about slowing old iPhones

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5 tips to fix an unresponsive iPhone screen
Apple has admitted to throttling older iPhone performance.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

South Korea’s broadcasting and telecom regulator, the Korea Communications Commission, wants an explanation from Apple as to why it purposely slowed down old iPhones.

“We are hoping to get some answers on whether Apple intentionally restricted the performance of old iPhones and tried to hide this from customers,” the KCC said in a statement.

Apple’s offices in South Korea raided on eve of iPhone X launch

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iphone x
Raid comes one day before the iPhone X goes on sale in the country.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Authorities in South Korea raided Apple’s offices in Seoul today, one day ahead of the launch of the iPhone X.

The exact reason for the raid isn’t apparent, although it reportedly concerns Apple’s business practices in the country. Nonetheless, it raises questions about whether the South Korean government may be trying to hurt Apple prior to the release of one of its most sought-after products in years.

iPhone X pre-orders sell out in minutes on Samsung’s home turf

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iphone x
Pre-orders in South Korea were incredibly strong.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The iPhone X may have greater levels of availability in Apple Stores than many predicted, but there’s one place you’ll struggle to get your hands on one: South Korea.

According to a new report, Samsung’s home turf experienced a massive surge of orders for the iPhone X when it was made available for pre-order, ahead of its November 24 launch. In total, the allocated iPhone X shipments for the country sold out within minutes.

South Korean prosecutors want Samsung boss jailed for 12 years

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Galaxy S8 Infinity Display
Vice-chairman is accused of involvement in major bribery scandal.
Photo: Samsung

Prosecutors are seeking a 12-year jail sentence for Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jae-yong, who is charged with playing a role in a bribery scandal involving Park Geun-hye, the former president of South Korea.

Four other Samsung executives are also charged, with prosecutors seeking sentences between seven and 10 years for each. However, Lee is credited as the “ultimate beneficiary” of the crime, hence the longer sentence.

South Korean government wants to hear about exploding phones

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The Note 7 was one of the last year's hottest phones. And not in the good way.
Photo: Hui Renjie

In the aftermath of Samsung’s exploding Galaxy Note 7 debacle, the South Korean government is set to make it mandatory for manufacturers to report instances in which their handsets burst into flames.

“When the new rules come into effect, phone makers will also have to immediately launch an investigation — right after the submission of the report — to prove if the fires or explosions were caused by flawed parts or external force,” an official from The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy is quoted as saying.

Steve Jobs exhibition will take place on Samsung’s home turf

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Steve Jobs, creator of the iPad and created on the iPad.
Staging a Steve Jobs exhibit in South Korea is like bringing a Note 7 to an Apple keynote.
Photo: Jeremy Martin

South Korea is Samsung country, but that’s not stopping a local museum in Guri, Gyeongg from staging an honorary exhibition to the late founder of Apple, Steve Jobs.

Featuring a range of Apple computers starting with 1977’s Apple II and running through to the iMac models Jobs oversaw upon his return to the company in the late 1990s, the exhibition will run until November 27.

Samsung will take $5.3 billion hit from Note 7 recall

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Galaxy Note 7 water wet
The Note 7 is all washed up.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Issuing a global recall for the Galaxy Note 7 is going to cost Samsung even more money than it expected.

Samsung released a statement to investors today revealing that its fiery phablet will hurt overall profits for the next two fiscal quarters, costing the company a total of $5.3 billion.

iPhone 7 will arrive on Samsung’s home turf next month

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iPhone 7
iPhone 7 is coming to South Korea on October 21.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

South Korea’s three mobile network providers will reportedly start selling the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus from October 21, according to reports coming out of the country.

The news comes at a bad time for South Korea’s Samsung, which is still reeling from a costly recall of its exploding Galaxy Note 7 handsets, which it reportedly rushed to market to beat Apple to the next great smartphone.

Apple could troll Samsung by putting a store in its backyard

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Samsung
This could very well be a future arial shot of the Seoul street layout.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple has been opening plenty of Apple stores in China, but it could go even further into East Asia with a brand new retail store — based directly across the street from Samsung’s headquarters in Seoul, South Korea.

We guess Tim Cook’s been taking trolling notes again!

Samsung stops shipping Galaxy Note 7 after phones explode

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Apple should steal a lot of the Note 7's features, except the exploding one.
Photo: Samsung

Samsung’s new Galaxy Note 7 smartphones have barely made it into the wild, but early reports of the devices exploding in customers’ homes may have caused the company to delay shipments.

In a statement to news outlets today, Samsung said it delayed shipments to do product-quality tests, however, local reports from South Korea reveal the company may be investigating whether the device is prone to spontaneously burst into flames.

Apple Car may use hollow batteries to stay cool

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Charging the Apple Car.
Apple is making revolutionary batteries for its car.
Photo: Motor1

Apple might team up with “expert technologists in batteries” from South Korea to create hollow lithium-ion power cells that will fuel the upcoming Apple Car, according to a new report.

While the name of the South Korean company hasn’t been revealed due to a nondisclosure agreement with Apple, it’s supposedly comprised of just 20 people. The South Korean team reportedly joined Apple’s secretive Project Titan automotive effort earlier this year, and the battery innovations could help the Apple Car stand out from the competition.

Apple settles ‘unfair’ service agreement on Samsung’s home turf

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South Korea's fair trade watchdog persuaded Apple to change its conditions.
Photo: Olly Browning/Pixabay

Apple has revised a so-called “unfair” business agreement concerning the conditions South Korean repair service providers must work under in order to do business as part of the Apple Authorized Service Provider Program.

South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) had complained that Apple had the ability to terminate contracts with local businesses without any prior notification, and without taking responsibility for losses incurred by its withdrawal of the Authorized Service Provider label.

Robot vacuum tries to suck up sleeping woman

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Paramedics work to free a woman from the grips of her robot vacuum. Photo: Changwon Fire Service
Paramedics work to free a woman from the grips of her robot vacuum. Photo: Changwon Fire Service

Robot vacuums might be having a moment.

Should sales suddenly spike, it may be because of the unintentional endorsement from a South Korean woman, who made news when her hair got sucked up by her robot vacuum.

The woman had to make a “desperate” call to her local fire department and paramedics spent about a half-hour trying to free her hair, according to the newspaper Kyunghyang Shinmun.

While such a device allows you to nap while your floors get cleaned, its seems like a bad idea to sleep in its path.

Apple Testing 65-Inch iTV Panels With Korean Supplier [Rumor]

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The next version of Apple TV may allow you to take your viewing with you wherever you go. Photo: Apple
The next version of Apple TV may allow you to take your viewing with you wherever you go. Photo: Apple

Are we finally getting closer to the existence of the Apple TV set Steve Jobs told Walter Isaacson he had “finally cracked?”

According to a new rumor/report from the South Korea-based Korea Herald, an “unnamed” South Korean display manufacture is currently making 65-inch organic light emitting diode (OLED) panel samples for Apple’s proposed “iTV,” which the company expects to “be mass-produced next year.”

Ending Soon: Supercharge Your Smartphone Camera With The 3-In-1 Lens Kit [Deals]

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CoM - LensKit

Whether you’re snapping photos at a party, at the office, or just around your neighborhood, it’s great to have a smartphone that can make every one of those photos count. But there are some limitations to the camera that is built into your smartphone — such as a lean selection of lenses. Namely, one.

This Cult of Mac Deals offer gives you what you need to supercharge your smartphone camera — a 3-in–1 lens kit for only $24! Having these lenses in your back pocket gives you artistic versatility so you can adapt to any photo opportunity. And you can get this kit right now at a savings of 65%!

The Universal Hands-Free Car Kit: Sync Your Smart Device To Your Car Stereo [Deals]

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Cult of Mac Deals is offering an elegant, simple solution to put an end to “station frustration” once and for all, courtesy of the team at Bazaared. This device allows you to share any audio output (including Pandora and Spotify) from your iPhone, iPod, or any other device with a 3.5mm audio socket by simply tuning in your car radio to the frequency you choose on the transmitter.

With the Universal Hands Free Car Kit, if it’s playing through your device it’s playing in your car and Cult of Mac Deals has it for just $19 for a limited time!

Keyboarding Reinvented Specifically For Your iPad [Deals]

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The Touchfire keyboard has all the functionality of a standard keyboard, but in a paper-thin, transparent rubber that fits directly on your screen. You can still view the entire screen right through the keyboard with the ability to touch and swipe as if nothing was there – and Cult of Mac Deals has it for $42 for a limited time!

The Touchfire is a true Kickstarter success story. The creators Steve Isaac & Brad Melmon jump started the process on Kickstarter and with a goal of $10,000 they ended up blowing it out of the water with raising more than $200,000! Since their campaign ended in 2011 they’ve been in full force delivering one of the most revolutionary iPad products to consumers around the globe.

Samsung Secures Sharp LCD Supply With $112 Million Investment

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Sharp has this morning announced a ¥10.4 billion ($112 million) investment from Samsung that will provide the latter with a 3% stake in the company. It makes Samsung the biggest individual shareholder in the Japanese display maker, and secures its access to Sharp’s LCD panel supplies.

The investment comes at a time when Sharp has been struggling. The company received a $4.4 billion bailout from the banks in October 2012, and its iPad display orders from Apple were recently cut as consumer demand shifted to the smaller iPad mini, which Sharp is not involved with.

Samsung Says Apple Stole Notification Center

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notification-center

While Apple fans will argue that Android copied iOS, it’s hard to deny that Apple didn’t take a little bit of inspiration back from from Android, too. Its Notification Center is an almost identical copy of Android’s — that’s easy to see no matter which side of the fence you’re on. In fact, Samsung’s now using this as another reason to sue Apple in South Korea.