korean
Latest
Gboard for Android now supports Chinese and Korean
Google announced today that Gboard for Android is getting a handful of new languages including Korean and both traditional and simplified Chinese. The company said that those have been the most requested languages for Android -- they're already on Gboard for iOS -- and they join 20 others that are rolling out to Gboard for Android now.
Samsung's Bixby assistant is finally available worldwide
Samsung has faced a tough slog getting Bixby to the masses, but now its voice assistant is accessible in more than 200 countries including the UK, Australia, Canada and South Africa. It's been available in South Korea and the US since July, when it launched after months of delays. Part of Bixby's appeal is its positioning beyond that of a simple voice assistant. Samsung claims it learns over time, recognizing "natural language" to make interacting with your phone easier and more intuitive. It understands cross-application commands and thanks to deep integration it can be accessed without any interruptions to what you're already doing on-screen. So you can turn down screen brightness while scrolling through Facebook, for example. Users can also create custom voice commands. Instead of setting an alarm and turning on do-not-disturb mode individually, you could simply use "good night" as a shortcut.
Google expands mission to make automated translations suck less
What started with Mandarin Chinese is expanding to English; French; German; Japanese; Korean; Portuguese and Turkish, as Google has increased the languages its Neural Machine Translation (NMT) handle. "These represent the native languages of around one-third of the world's population, covering more than 35 percent of all Google Translate queries," according to The Keyword blog. The promise here is that because NMT uses the context of the entire sentence, rather than translating individual words on their own, the results will be more accurate, especially as time goes on, thanks to machine learning. For a comparison of the two methods, check out the GIF embedded below.
Drinky the robot is the perfect companion for lonely drunks
Well, OK. The truly perfect companion to a lonely drunk is a sympathetic human being, but Drinky is a close second. It can listen to your troubles without judgement while occasionally nodding and giving you a thumbs up, and it can clink glasses with you as if you're actually drinking with another person. Even better, the liquor it "drinks" heads straight to its jar-stomach, which you can recycle, if you know what we mean. The bro-bot was created by South Korean inventor Eunchan Park who was suddenly struck by loneliness while drinking on his own in Christmas 2012.
Get your Tree of Savior beta questions answered
Tomorrow's a big day for Tree of Savior, as the colorful fantasy title will begin its Korean closed beta. If you have questions about the beta test, MMO Culture posted a short interview that covers several of the details. The team's primary goal during the first closed beta test is to ascertain "development direction in the future." This will be done by letting gamers check out features like the circle ranking system, companions, and 28 playable classes. A post-beta wipe is confirmed as well. However, as 90,000 people have registered for Tree of Savior's test and only 3,000 of those will be admitted, the chances are not great that you can hop into the beta... at least for right now.
Tree of Savior will launch free-to-play, heads toward first closed beta
If you had any lingering doubts that Tree of Savior would be launching as a free-to-play title, best to put them out of your head now. The game will indeed be launching free-to-play, at least in Korea, with an undisclosed number of "extra" items in the cash shop (which will be revealed in the future). Recruitment for the first closed beta is already underway, with the first test starting on January 15th, 2015. This early test will be limited to 3,000 participants, and as it's for the Korean version, you'll need a Korean Nexon account. Some clarification regarding the game's class structure has also been posted; it lays out how players can move up to the more advanced classes at regular intervals. The first test features only 28 possible classes rather than the full 80 of the final game, but more options will be made available as the game moves through testing.
Rumor: Blade & Soul 2 is under development
If you're still holding out hope for a Blade & Soul release in North America, you have an admirable amount of patience. But a recent rumor might sink that hope a bit further. Website 2P.com claims to have insider information that points to the development of a Blade & Soul 2, which is good news if you're a fan of the game but bad news if you're still hoping to see an official release of the original. The Shanghai studio behind the concept art was a part of the original team responsible for the game's art direction, so it could very well point to something new in the works. Whether that means a sequel, an expansion, or even an actual release on this side of the pond is all up for speculation. It's too early to flag as anything but a rumor, although the concept art that's been leaked certainly looks as if it comes from the game in question.
Vindictus highlights its new character with fashion silhouettes
When you think about it, catwalk struts are seriously underused as a means of introducing new content to an MMO. Vindictus is taking the genre in a bold new direction with its latest reveal. The Korean reveal page for the new character makes it clear that Arisha is bringing a whole new style to the game. That style is... well... style, perhaps? Seriously, the trailer doesn't reveal anything but a silhouette. Datamining has revealed that she's a hybrid melee/magical character, although that could go a lot of different routes. Still, you can get a very shadowy peek at her in the trailer past the break. Based on that, she'll attack primarily with six-inch heels and fishnet stockings because hot pants, heels, and plunging necklines are crazy useful in combat.
First look at Civilization Online's beta
Civilization Online's first beta test is in full swing and Steparu has some impressions based on last night's initial test. First off, you need a Korean ArcheAge account to access XLGames' Civ MMO, but for now, we can live vicariously through Steparu, who describes the game as a "3rd person RTS with RvR mechanics." Be sure to check out the entire impressions article as well as an hour-long video that we've embedded after the cut.
Take a little look at TERA's newest class
The newest class in TERA is live on the Korean servers right now, and even if you don't normally play an Elin, you might be curious to see what it's all about. That's a little more problematic if you don't speak Korean, but lucky for you there's a whole preview of the upcoming class available now on Steparu. It should give you a good idea of what to expect when this update comes out stateside. Dark Elin start at level 55 and have a variety of new skills and abilities for players to use. Embedded past the break is a preview of a Dark Elin fighting one of the game's signature BAMs, showing off the class mechanics in brief and giving an idea of what it's like to play one. Check out the video past the break, and take a look at the full preview for a more in-depth look at the class.
ArcheAge gives import progress report
Wondering what's going on with ArcheAge and when-oh-when will we ever see it in North America and Europe? While Trion Worlds is still being cagey with its time frame, CM James Nichols gave a progress report to give us some info as to what the team is doing. Nichols reported that the team is tackling several hurdles, including connecting the game to Trion's billing system, setting up the server architecture, and translating over a million words for those of us that don't speak Korean. He said that players should expect any changes to the Korean version to be "very minimal," so players shouldn't expect huge new features or differences. He urged patience for those looking to beta test ArcheAge: "We're just as excited to get to the point where we can invite external testers, but expect the closed testing period to last at least a few months." [Thanks to Dengar for the tip!]
League of Legends tournament cheaters fined $30,000
With $2,000,000 US in prize money up for grabs in the League of Legends World Championship tournament, last week's accusations of cheating by several teams threw the e-sports scene into chaos. Several teams were accused of looking across the room at the enemy team's minimap, which was on display for audience members. Riot Games initially announced that nobody had looked at the minimap, but as viewers at home dug through the recorded streams, the evidence of cheating mounted. This week Riot carried out a full review of each match that was called into question, investigating both the incidents of players peeking at the opposing team's map and the impact on the match. One team was cleared of all misconduct, three were issued warnings for unsportsmanlike conduct, and Korean team Azubu Frost was fined 20% of its winnings. The $30,000 fine will be donated to Riot Games' charity programme in Korea.
Core Online says hello to the world
We have a new MMO on the block, and its name is Core Online. Entwell introduced the fantasy title with a spiffy website that's unfortunately only in Korean at the moment. According to Steparu.com, Core Online's been in development for over three years. It boasts at least eight classes that fall in line with fantasy terminology, including the Magician and Warrior. Core Online will also offer a cross-server PvP battle system. We will wait and see how Core Online attempts to stand out in the extremely large crowd of gorgeous-looking Asian MMOs, but for now we'll have to be content to scope out the few screenshots below. %Gallery-167641%
NTT DoCoMo preps automatic translation from Japanese through Android, leaves no one an island
Japan's unique language makes calls to other countries a challenge: locals often don't have much choice but to brush up on someone else's language or hope there's a Japanese speaker on the other end of the line. If all goes well with NTT DoCoMo's planned Hanashite Hon'yaku automatic translation service, international calls will be as comfortable as phoning a store in Nagano. As long as a subscriber has at least an Android 2.2 phone or tablet on the carrier's moperaU or sp-mode plans, the service will automatically convert spoken Japanese to another language, and reverse the process for the reply, whether it's through an outbound phone call or an in-person conversation. The service will bridge cultures starting from November 1st, when it will translate from Japanese to Chinese, English or Korean. Indonesian, Thai and five European languages are coming later that month. If you're not that patient, NTT DoCoMo will provide a holdover on October 11th through Utsushite Hon'yaku, a free Word Lens-like augmented reality translator for Android 2.3 that can convert text to or from Japanese with a glance through a phone camera.
LG teases its new quad-core superphone: Snapdragon S4 Pro is awesome, device still vague (video)
While Qualcomm let the Snapdragon out of the bag a little early, LG's now caught up and launched a (Korean-only) teaser site for its next LTE smartphone. Promising a second-generation quad-core experience, the new flagship device will offer better power management and graphics performance thanks to the Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset beating away at its core. There's space on the site for another five videos, which should hopefully give us a little more detail than what we've been able to glean from FCC filings. Thumb your Korean dictionary ready and check out LG's first taster after the break.
LG launches 13.3-inch X Note Z350 / 14-inch Z450 laptop with third-gen Intel Core power, WiDi and an SSD
Evidently, "Ultrabook" isn't a "thing" in South Korea. Or, at least not in the translated press release we've just gotten our mitts on. LG is getting the weekend started right with a proper successor to the Z330, and the X Note Z350 is absolutely a looker. It's a 13.3-incher that does its best to appear just like every other Ultrabook currently on the market, boasting a typical silver motif with black chiclet keys and a glossy LCD. A smattering of palm rest stickers work to further mar things, but the third-gen Intel Core i5 / i7 within makes up for most of that. We aren't told what kind of GPU is under the hood (we're putting our bucks on Kepler, for the record), but there's room for an SSD and a built-in Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) module to beam out 1080p content sans cabling. Pricing, battery life and most other particulars are being kept under wraps for now, but we'll be keeping an ear to the ground for more. Update: Looks like a 14-inch Z450 is also on tap, but outside of the diagonal screen space, mum's the word on specifications.
Korean government raids Blizzard over alleged Diablo III wrongdoing
Blizzard is on the hot seat as the Korean Fair Trade Commission raided the studio's Seoul office to gather evidence as to whether or not Blizzard violated the country's law. The FTC performed the raid due to allegations that Blizzard is refusing to refund players who purchased and were attempting to return Diablo III. Dissatisfied customers who couldn't log into the game were denied a full refund by Blizzard, which said that it was under no obligation to do so under the game's contract. The studio claims that it has a strict policy of "no refunds" in the country if a product is used. The players turned to the FTC for help, and the commission responded by launching an investigation. The investigation will sort through the seized documents and evidence to see if there is a possible violation of Korea's electronic commerce and commercial contracts law. The FTC confirmed that it had received "many complaints" from Diablo III players but did not comment further on the investigation. Blizzard has since vowed to increase server capacity but is not budging on the refunds.
Apple Korea to replace iPads, iPods to comply with regulations
Apple changed its after-sales policy in Korea and is now offering a "best in the world" replacement plan for Korean customers with defective products, according to a report in The Korea Herald. In compliance with its global return policy, Apple previously replaced a defective product with a refurbished one. Now, the company has a new set of standards in Korea that will provide customers with a new unit when a defective product is returned within 30 days of purchase. Apple started replacing defective iPhones with new units back in October 2011 and recently said it will apply the same policy to the rest of its products, except the iMac. The change was prompted by a bill that went into effect on April 1. The bill requires companies to adhere to the country's stringent after-sales policy or state on the product packaging what terms the consumer loses when it buys a product that does not comply. [Via The Next Web]
Korea loosens regulations on mobile phone sales
Korea is establishing a new policy that'll let customers buy phones and service separately, according to a report in MK Business news. Wireless customers will be able to shop for phones from a variety of retailers including supermarkets, malls and manufacturers like Apple. Even phones bought overseas can be activated as long as the handset uses the same frequencies as the Korean carrier. Once they buy their phones, customers can subscribe to a calling and data plan later. This is a significant change from current policy, which forces customers to get their phones directly from the carrier and sign up for service immediately. Reaction to this change is mixed in the Korean country. Some experts hope this will loosen the grip that carriers have on the Korean mobile marketplace. Others think this may harm consumers who will have to pay more for service because carriers may stop offering discounts. The new policy is expected to go into effect today, May 1. [Via Electronista]
Mobile Miscellany: week of March 5th, 2012
Not all mobile news is destined for the front page, but if you're like us and really want to know what's going on, then you've come to the right place. This past week, one clever individual has repackaged HTC's Beats equalizer for use on any Android smartphone, and we've also come across news of additional language support for Siri that's set to arrive later this year. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the "best of the rest" for this week of March 5th, 2012.
