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Transparent graphene speakers printed with inkjets, lo-fi musical windows are on their way
Add that magical material known as graphene to the list of things you can make with inkjet printers alongside OLEDs, solar panels, and light-bending metamaterials. Scientists at the Seoul National University used printers and a technique known as vapor deposition to leave a thin film of the graphite-based conductor on sheets of PVDF (poly vinylidene fluoride). By sandwiching the the PVDF between graphene electrodes and applying a current from a sound source researchers were able to create a flat and transparent loudspeaker that could be integrated into windows or screens. Don't expect this low-power sound source to replace your hi-fi though -- since it relies on the distortion-prone piezoelectric effect, it probably won't sound much better than the earpiece on your cellphone.
SK Telecom and LG U+ launch LTE in Seoul, fellow South Koreans seethe with envy
Frustrated by a lack of choice amongst LTE carriers? We sympathize, so join us while we ponder a relocation to Seoul where not one, but two major telcos -- SK Telecom and LG U+ -- have enabled access to the high speed protocol. Service began on July 1st for data devices (read: modems) while phones from Samsung and LG are scheduled to make an appearance this fall. While those in Seoul are already surfing at higher speeds, the LTE wave is slated to go nationwide by 2012 for U+ subscribers and in 2013 for those on SK. Still not enough 3GPP goodness for you? Add the nation's third major carrier KT and their Q3 LTE trials to the mix, and we'll know where to send you next time you're hankering for delectable download speeds with a side of spicy kimchi.
South Korea plans to convert all textbooks to digital, swap backpacks for tablets by 2015
Well, that oversized Kindle didn't become the textbook killer Amazon hoped it would be, but at least one country is moving forward with plans to lighten the load on its future generation of Samsung execs. South Korea announced this week that it plans to spend over $2 billion developing digital textbooks, replacing paper in all of its schools by 2015. Students would access paper-free learning materials from a cloud-based system, supplementing traditional content with multimedia on school-supplied tablets. The system would also enable homebound students to catch up on work remotely -- they won't be practicing taekwondo on a virtual mat, but could participate in math or reading lessons while away from school, for example. Both programs clearly offer significant advantages for the country's education system, but don't expect to see a similar solution pop up closer to home -- with the US population numbering six times that of our ally in the Far East, many of our future leaders could be carrying paper for a long time to come.
Apple sues Samsung again for copying the iPhone's design, this time in South Korea
As if Apple and Samsung's patent infringement catfight weren't distracting enough, Apple is recreating the legal spectacle in Samsung's home country of South Korea. Apple just filed a suit against Samsung Electronics in Seoul Central District Court, with Cupertino alleging that the Samsung Galaxy S copies the third-generation iPhone, according to a report from the online news site, MoneyToday. That closely matches the claims Apple made when it it sued Samsung back in April for "slavishly" copying the iPhone and iPad. Since then, Apple's expanded its case to include additional Samsung devices, including the Droid Charge, Infuse 4G, Nexus S 4G, Galaxy Tab 10.1, Galaxy S II, and a handful of others. Meanwhile, Samsung has attempted (in vain) to subpoena prototypes of Apple's next-gen iPhone and iPad. We wouldn't be surprised if Samsung abandoned its efforts to peek Apple's forthcoming products, but if this is, indeed, destined to be a case of déjà vu, Samsung might well strike back with a suit of its own.
Samsung brings Van Gogh 'paintings' to Korea via Smart TV, makes us reach for the absinthe
This is sort of strange. People in Korea are looking at masterpieces of Western art on a TV screen -- and not from the comfort of their laptops. It's all part of something called Rêve et Réalité (Dream and Reality), a Samsung-sponsored exhibition that brings some of the world's most celebrated works to Seoul's Hangaram Museum via four, 46-inch LEDs. The expo, on display until September, features some of the greatest hits from Claude Monet, Jean F. Millet and, most notably, Van Gogh, whose Starry Night has never been on display in Korea (and, as far as we're concerned, still hasn't). Televised docents provide background info on the artists, whose paintings are all transmitted via a giant Smart TV video wall that blurs out all semblance of texture and nuance -- much like that bottle of absinthe we're about to pound.
Massively Exclusive: Joel Bylos talks The Secret World's endgame (and a bunch of other stuff)
Funcom is ramping up the publicity for The Secret World this week, and Massively's getting in on the action via an exclusive interview with lead content designer Joel Bylos. Earlier we told you how TSW's devs are hard at work putting a supernatural (and conspiratorial) twist on some of the world's most well-known cities, and we recently sat down with Bylos to talk about everything from using Google Maps to navigate Funcom's version of New York, to the nature of the term "open world," to the use of random game objects by the player. Bylos also has some interesting things to say about The Secret World's sandbox elements and its endgame, and you'll find all that and more after the cut.
The Road to Mordor: Four more years, four more years!
While four years is not a nice round number -- or even a halfway number like five -- it's a substantial milestone for any MMORPG. Debuting in early 2007, Lord of the Rings Online introduced something we'd never seen before: a fully realized 3-D virtual Middle-earth where we could not only enjoy a deep MMO but explore the lands and meet the people we'd only read about before. It might not be a universal truth that all LotRO players are big Tolkien fans, but I'm sure enough that it's a sizable chunk of the playerbase. There's something special about the IP that gives a weight and richness to the game, especially when a long-time reader of the books is given leave to actually go on adventures through Eriador, Moria and Mirkwood. It's a giant sight-seeing tour of lore, a thrill with every brush one has with the source material. It's heady to consider that four years ago we were but starting on this journey, feeling out the mechanics of combat, crafting and pie-running. Four years later, LotRO has emerged to be one of the most significant MMOs of the past decade, growing strong with no signs of slowing down. Hit the jump as we reminisce about the ups, the downs, and the off-the-beaten-path hikes of our beloved game as it celebrates its fourth anniversary.
South Korea rolls out first commercial electric bus service, we are green with envy
The Seoul Metropolitan Government has just rolled out a world first by instating commercial, all electric bus service in the city. We've previously seen pilot programs and trials, but actual working commercial service has never been previously implemented. The program, developed in agreement with Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hankuk Fiber, and the buses themselves can run up to about 52 miles on a single charge (which takes about 30 minutes), and have a maximum speed of about 62 miles per hour. Though several other cities have small fleets of electric public transportation, Seoul has announced that half of its massive fleet of buses will be electric by 2020.
Google's South Korean offices raided by police as part of Street View investigation
Google may be trying to make nice and play ball with all the thoroughly outraged governments affected by its unintentional WiFi snooping with Street View cars, but that apparently hasn't been good enough for South Korea. Earlier this morning, Google's Seoul HQ was subjected to a raid and search operation by the cyber crime unit of the Korean National Police Agency, due to suspicions that it may have collected and stored data from WiFi networks without authorization. So it's the same old complaint the rest of the world's been dealing with, only the zeal of the methodology seems to have been turned up to 11. It'll be interesting to see if this raid uncovers anything more salacious than what we already know; we'll keep you posted if it does. [Thanks, D. Kim]
Korea starts testing 'recharging road,' might make it part of its public transport system
Time to set aside the chains of worry that have prevented us from jumping on the electric bandwagon -- Korean researchers have figured out a way to make us forget all about charging stations and cruising ranges with their magnetically recharging road. The Online Electric Vehicle (OLEV) you see here went into service yesterday and can now be found towing three bus-loads of tourists around a Seoul amusement park. It operates on a battery five times smaller than conventional EV juice packs and can collect its power through non-contact magnetic transmission from the recharging strips in the ground. We're also told running costs for this system are a third of what a typical EV would require, and should it prove successful and find itself expanded to the public transport system, only about 20 percent of bus routes would need to be electrified -- at bus stops, crossroads and the like -- with the rest being covered by the power stored inside the OLEV. Here's to hoping it all works out.
LG OLED TV spotted in Korean store showing James Cameron's magnum opus
Wondering what the endcap for LG's 15-inch OLED TV would look like if you were able to go see it in South Korea? Wonder no more, our passport-less friend, as YouTuber eurozero captured footage of the thing doing its thing at a retail establishment in Seoul. That video is embedded below, showing off the display's thinness, but also reminding just how small a 15-inch display looks these days -- especially when sitting next to what appears to be a clothes dryer.
South Korean taxi drivers win right to watch TV in cabs, for now
You know, we've made plenty of jokes about the DMB mobile TV functionality found in seemingly every GPS unit released in South Korea, but it looks like taxi drivers in the country take their distractions seriously -- serious enough to go to court. That issue apparently came to a head recently when one cab driver challenged a $500 fine he received for watching TV while on the job, which had apparently become a relatively common means to beat boredom during traffic jams but was banned last year by a local regulation in the city of Seoul. While the court obviously didn't go so far as to condone the practice (watching TV while driving was apparently a factor in upwards of 200 accidents in the country last year), it did rule that the regulation in Seoul was illegal because it was based on a 1961 law that's been superseded. Cabbies shouldn't get too comfortable with their in-car rigs just yet, however, as we have a sneaking suspicion this won't be the final word on the matter. [Thanks, Badison]
PAX 2009: Dark mysteries of The Secret World
So, you may have heard: Funcom is taking famous myths, urban legends, pop culture, history and even things like the Rota Fortunae and blending it all into a game called The Secret World. We sat down with lead designer Martin Brusgaar and creative director Ragnar Tornquist at PAX 2009 to discuss the game and a few of its many secrets.The Secret World has a vibe unlike any other MMO or really game currently out there. Its premise is simple -- all the legends, myths and more are true. Atlantis is rising, vampires roam the night, 2012 is the beginning of a new fourth age and so on. The world is a dark, scary and magical place. Although, it's more of the first two than anything else.%Gallery-72395%
Epic Games Korea opens to work closely with local devs
Epic Games has opened a new subsidiary in Seoul, Korea, with plans to provide licensing services and support resources to development teams using its Unreal Engine. Epic Games Korea will be led by Ray Park, formerly the business and strategy development manager for Microsoft's in-game advertising company, Massive, Inc.While Epic Games has provided its Unreal Engine to teams in the territory for over five years, Park states the opening of a Korean subsidiary signifies Epic's "desire to collaborate more closely with the [local] game development community." Jay Wilbur, Epic Games' vice president of business development, noted Epic Games Korea would serve as "a hub for Unreal Engine access, knowledge and support in the Korean marketplace."Rumors of developer Silicon Knights moving to Korea in search of the support it claims to have never received from Epic Games could not be confirmed ... because we made it up for the sake of a bad joke. [Image Credit: Nanopaprika]
GDC09: Interview with The Secret World's creator, Ragnar Tørnquist pt. 2
So, with expansions, you said that you'll be starting out with New York, London, and Seoul, right? Yes. Those will be the first cities, the hub cities, available at the start of the game. Now, the gameplay takes you beyond that, yes? Oh yeah, absolutely. We're not doing all New York, or all of London, or all of Seoul. We are actually doing very tight and very constrained neighborhoods there. That's where you'll start your gameplay, but they won't be the large, huge open zones where you have tons of gameplay or tons of monsters. That will be left to areas like Egypt and New England, which will be more expansive and include more open-world mechanics and other things that we're not revealing quite yet. We will also be including more instanced and team-based areas as well. Regarding expansion packs, yeah, we're going to expand beyond what we already will include. It's not like we're going to run out of content, the world is a big place. Yes, I was going to ask if it will expand into more locations and cities throughout the world. Yes, it certainly will, but it won't be limited to just that. We have more interesting locations but they won't be limited to just our world. We will be including locations throughout time and space itself. I want to emphasize that this won't be something like Grand Theft Auto with magic, with a focus on huge, huge open cities. They are reasonably small places where you will start out and take the adventure from there. But one very important thing to note is that this sounds like a very fragmented world. London, New York, Seoul, those cities are a long way away from each other. But we are creating, or at least trying to create, a pretty seamless world. This means there are ways of getting from London to New York very quickly, and we are focusing on that. You won't be just walking up to a plane, clicking on it, and getting a red line that quickly points to where you're going and boom, you're there. You will be moving in real-time from London to New York, just a lot quicker. There's alot of traditional MMO components that are around now. We're kinda in a new generation of MMO, and people are tired of World of Warcraft model and they're looking for something new. This is certainly in that realm. Are you guys trying to get away from traditional models, like crafting, and moving to something new? Ah, I can't really talk about crafting right now. What I can say is that while combat is a core focus, we really want other non-combat stuff in the game. We're just not going to be talking about them as of yet. But there will be gameplay that isn't all about fighting monsters or exploring. There will be other things that you will be able to do. Like you said earlier, like mysteries? That, yes, that also and there will be other ways for people to play in the game, to participate in the game, that isn't about traveling around the world. Exactly what that is, I can't say as of yet. Now, will there be a player driven economy? Well, I can't speak much about that now, but there will be ways for players to take part in the economy. Sorry for being so cryptic, but trying to keep this very focused and very narrow for now. And player guilds? Ah, we are going to have cabals, yes. There will be a point to making cabals, and it will play a very large role in the game, but exactly what that is I'm not going to say as of now. We are a game and we are focusing on the social aspects of the game. We are, in some aspects, a story driven game and alot of it you can play solo, but we really want to emphasize that it is an MMO. There will be stuff that will require you to team up with people in small groups and also in larger teams, without me going into deeper detail. I hate having to keep saying I can't talk about this stuff. Oh, so what about in-game factions? ...and I can't talk about that. *laughs* Ok, so what about the range between hardcore and casual? Yeah, well, we always say we're going to cover all of it, but the fact is that you can't the game for everybody. So I think we're leaning towards... *sighs* I wouldn't say the casual, because when you talk about MMOs and casual you usually end up at Club Penguin or something like that, and we're really not there. We're somewhere between halfway, I think. There's tons of stuff for the hardcore MMO players, like the whole skill based system and the tweaking that you do to those types of systems with numbers and all the items we'll have, and that will be a hardcore player's dream. But I think in terms of time investment and what's required of you, we're leaning towards the middle ground. It will be fun for MMO players, but it will be equally fun for someone who just likes the idea of a world that has a bunch of other people in it, is completely open, you can play it online, and you can chat, but doesn't feel so unfriendly and unwelcoming as other MMOs. So, would your target audience be someone who has played MMOs? I think a large part of our target audience is who are playing or have played MMOs. We want it to be different enough for them to come back or a game that is different enough to have them come to play it with their friends. In addition to action/adventure gamers who play games like Fable 2 for the Xbox 360 and just want to try their hand at something that's online and not feel completely eliminated and have something that's recognizable to them.We'd like to thank Ragnar for meeting with us at the GDC, and we're looking forward to more information on The Secret World!
BigBand Networks heads up first ever international SDV deployment
BigBand Networks knows a thing or two about making the transition to switched digital video, and now it can say that it helped flipped the first ever SDV switch overseas. The company, in conjunction with interactive TV middleware provider Alticast, has "added functionality to its switched digital video solution in preparation for deployments by Korean cable operators." Obviously, the opportunities for SDV outside of North America is significant, with many markets gasping for bandwidth just to get a handful of high-def channels out to the people. Research firm In-Stat actually asserts that "Asian deployments of SDV will grow at an average rate of 85% for the next four years, reaching $212M by 2012," and we can only hope that this is one method for greatly boosting the amount of HD content available outside of the US.
Gold farmers connected with $38 million money laundering bust
We've heard about gold farmers tangling with the law before, but this is pretty extreme from initial accounts we've turned up. So while a few of the details coming out of Korea are still a bit hazy, it seems a money laundering operation (working with gold farmers and MMO account thieves) was busted this week while trying to move $38 million between Korea and China. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency stated the operation was headed by a man named Jeong who, with a number of other individuals in Korea, was caught wiring the $38 million in illicit funds. Korean news site dongA reports: "Jeong and his ring reportedly sold the game money illegally produced in China using cheap labor and virus programs. They are believed to have taken a commission of three to five percent of the money traded to purchase game money."
2nd Qualifying round of the official 3v3 Arena Tournament ends
In the midst of the hubbub over the Worldwide Invitational 3v3 Arena tournament and the MLG PC Circuit tournaments in San Diego and Orlando, the official 3v3 Arena Tournament seems to have fallen by the wayside -- At the least, people don't seem to remember it much. It looks like it's looking to burst back onto the scene in a big way, though, as Blizzard announced the end of the 2nd qualifying round of the tournament today. The next round will see the winning teams from the 1st and 2nd qualifying rounds facing off in live matches in Boston, Madrid, Seoul, and Taipei in the coming months. The list of first round winners has some familiar faces in it already. MLG San Diego winners Frag Dominant will be competing in the Boston event, WWI winner Council of Mages will be competing in Seoul, and WWI runner up Improved Clicks will be headed to Madrid. There's no word yet on which teams won the 2nd round, or when the next round's matches will take place, or whether we'll get live streaming from the events. We'll be sure to let you know all the details right here as soon as they're available though.
Joystiq looks at South Korea's PC Baang culture
No PlayStation, No Nintendo, No Sega. In a sprawling metropolis on the brink of a technological revolution what place would eschew console gaming? It was South Korea, and for the longest time there was an embargo against Japanese made imports. In the embargo's wake an unstoppable PC gaming utopia and a molding of an anomalous social culture evolved. With the government push for broadband access and the proliferation of PC Baangs, online PC-game rooms, a remarkable 70% of South Korean internet users have played some kind of MMOG. The Korean MMOG invasion on the western market has spurned resentment but some MMOs like Nexon's Maple Story found a successful niche. What is fascinating, are not the endless failed imports or the lucky few that do succeed in the US but the radical differences in our gaming cultures. Joystiq's Geoffrey Brooks is residing in Seoul, South Korea for the summer. Indulging his senses in this part of the world Brook posits about South Korea's PC Baangs and the masterful technological wired revolution and contrasts it to the lagging-behind United States. It's a must read, especially if you know nothing of the PC gaming culture in South Korea other than asking "isn't Starcraft big there?"
Counting Rupees: Korea bangs
Each week Jeff Engel and Geoff Brooks contribute Counting Rupees, a column on the business behind gaming: I've temporarily relocated to Seoul for the summer to work for a consumer electronics firm, so I thought I'd spend a little time detailing some of the differences in gaming culture here in South Korea, and the impact that infrastructure has on the gaming business. In short, there are two notable differences in the Korean gaming industry relative to the United States. First, PC games are significantly more popular than console games; and second, gaming is much more mainstream in Korean culture than it is even now in the States. These differences have created structural factors in the country that have profoundly shaped the nature of the industry from a business perspective. Perhaps the most salient factor is cultural - there is, as far as I can tell, almost no stigma attached to gaming in the country (at the least, it's viewed as a mainstream activity). A number of Korean acquaintances have commented on the Korean fascination with the new and fashionable: when one co-worker went apartment-hunting with a real estate agent, the agent refused to show him any houses that had been previously occupied, on the assumption that they would be of little interest. And part of that fascination seems to be technological, indicating a possible cause of Koreans' embrace of gaming as a form of entertainment. Indeed, I've seen countless people using a DS or PSP on the subway... and my cheap, used cell phone has more free games on it than I've played on any phone since I began using them in the first place.
