3D TVs selling but not popular

3D TVs selling but not popular

The market for 3D televisions in the United States has just taken off, though awareness of the technology has mainly been raised because of the World Cup.

Price is the biggest drawback, followed by suspected health risks and content issues, sources told The Korea Times.

``It's intriguing to see quite a few consumers ask about the advantages of 3D televisions. Interestingly, they are usually shocked by the high-end prices,'' said a clerk who works for a Best Buy store on Weyburn Avenue, Los Angeles.

Though 3D televisions are offering the best TV technologies that only top-tier manufacturers such as Samsung, LG and Sony can give, Samsung's top-featured 3D model ― the 55-inch LED-backlit 240Hz ― is priced at a staggering $7,000.

``I cannot find firm strengths to persuade customers to buy the sets,'' a sales representative said.

``I'd recommend customers to buy when it comes down to less than $2,000,'' he said. A market research firm In-Stat said 3D TVs will account for 20 percent of sales in the United States by 2013.

Market for 3D TV needs time to mature

A model wearing special 3D glasses watches a 3D program. The market for 3D televisions needs time to mature in the United States.

US consumers cautious for lack of content, tech glitches

By Kim Yoo-chul
Korea Times correspondent

LOS ANGELES, California ― With the economic recovery progressing, a growing number of American customers are ready to pay more to buy electronics products.

Encouraged by positive signs of strengthening consumer confidence, more shoppers are flocking to electronics stores either to upgrade their hand-held devices or to buy new ones. 

Also among the hot-selling items are liquid crystal display (LCD) televisions with light-emitting diode (LED) backlight.

So far, analysts have been forecasting a greater growth potential in the LED TV segment, as it is quite unclear whether the few premier buyers would be willing to pay to obtain pricier and software imperfect three dimensional (3D) televisions.

LED-backlit LCD televisions are on a smoother course in the U.S. market, the world's biggest consumers of electronics. 

Meanwhile, LED backlighting enhances black levels as well as contrast, making it possible to provide energy efficiency and a longer life for the television.

``We are receiving more customers making inquiries about the details of LED-backlit LCD televisions. We've seen a rapid sale increase in LED TVs and other electronic products that use LED as backlight over the past few months,'' said Cynthia J. Park, an employee at an electronics store near Wilshire Blvd.

Park said a series of promotional campaigns during the Independence Day holiday did pay off and further price cuts are expected.

N. Korea delays talks with UN command on ship sinking

North Korea has delayed military talks with the U.S.-led United Nations Command (UNC) originally scheduled for Tuesday to discuss the sinking of a South Korean warship in the West Sea in March.

The talks had been scheduled for 10 a.m. at the truce village of Panmunjeom, but the North’s military “requested a delay in the planned colonel-level meetings with the United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission representatives at Panmunjeom for administrative reasons," the UNC said in a statement. 

North Korea's military has proposed 10 a.m. Thursday at Panmunjom as the new date for the meeting, South Korean military authorities said. 

Why the reclusive state postponed the talks has yet to be clarified, a UNC official said. 

Tuesday’s meeting would have come four days after the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) condemned the sinking of the Cheonan in a presidential statement. The UNSC, however, stopped short of blaming North Korea directly for the sinking of the 1,200-ton frigate.

A South Korea-led multinational investigation concluded in May that North Korea was responsible for the sinking, which left 46 sailors dead. 

Pyongyang has denied this and threatened that any punishment would lead to war. 

North Korea originally rejected a UNC proposal to hold such military talks, but changed its stance on Friday, just before the UNSC’s adoption of the statement on the sinking.

Park Ji-sung on reserve for best team

Korea national soccer team’s captain Park Ji-sung has been put on the reserve list for the 2010 South Africa World Cup best team. 

Eurosport of Britain selected best 11 from the players at 2010 South Africa World Cup with grade points from professionals and netizens.

On the list of best 11 are Keisuke Honda (Japan), Diego Forlan (Uruguay) as two tops, David Villa (Spain), Wesley Sneijder (Netherland), Schweinsteiger (Germany), Giovanni dos Santos (Mexico) as midfielders, Nadir Belhadji (Algeria), John Mensah (Gana), Yuji (Japan), Philipp Lahm (Germany) as defenders, and Diego Benaglio (Swiss) as goalkeeper.

Park was on the list of honorary reserves. Eurosport said “Park was heartbeat of Korea midfield. He helped his team to advance to 16th with goal in game with Greece.”

Captain Park played full time in all four games, leading his team to the best 16 overseas for the first time, and became the “co-top Asian scorer with three goals, and won the largest number of games with 5 wins among Korean players.

Along with Ji-sung on the honorary reserve list are Andes Iniesta (Spain), Kevin Boateng (Ghana), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Thomas Muller (Germany), Assamoah Gyan (Ghana), Robson de Souza (Brazil), Alexis Sanchez (Chile), Winston Reid (New Zealand), Stephane Grichting (Swiss), Ryan Nelson (New Zealand), Nagamoto Yuto (Japan) and Richard Kingson (Ghana) 

Kim Joo-ri to vie in Miss Universe 2010

The 22-year-old Kim Joo-ri will compete in the 2010 Miss Universe pageant in Las Vegas, Aug. 23. / Korea Times file

Miss Korea Kim Joo-ri has a chance to become the next face of the international community when she competes in the upcoming Miss Universe 2010 in August, fans and media are speculating alike.

The 22-year-old has seen her fair share of fame over the last year, since she was crowned Miss Seoul 2009. A graduate of the Russian Bolshoi Ballet School, the trilingual Kim recently placed seventh in the 2009 Miss World Competition. In fact, she is the first representative from South Korea to participate in two of the four global beauty pageants (composed of the Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss International and Miss Earth contests). 

Kim, who has lived abroad in both England and Russia, hopes to become either a ballerina or a diplomat _ following her idol, Audrey Hepburn _ in the future. Either way, the optimism emanating from the young lady is clear in her every action. 

``I hope people don't give up on their dreams,’’ Kim told The Korea Times in an interview last year. ``I never thought I would come this far, but I have. If you really want to become Miss Korea, go for it and the same goes to everything else!’’ 

The 59th Miss Universe pageant will take place Aug. 23 in Las Vegas. 

Mobile Web usage climbs during nighttime

Internet usage through mobile devices rapidly rises between 7 p.m. in the evening and midnight, a study found on Friday.

According to Daum Communications, the country’s leading Internet software provider, the use of the mobile Web rises during the lunch hours and surges in the evening from 7 p.m. when workers usually leave their office. The portion of internetusers going online using their cell phone reached 28.5 percent of the total web traffic between 7 p.m. and 12 a.m. The usage rate of the mobile Web reaches its peak at 9 p.m. 

Koreans increasingly access the Web via handsets, spurred by the launch of Apple’s iPhone and a slew of other smartphones. The country’s mobile carriers are also scurrying to increase the number of free Wi-Fi zones and to introduce competitive data plans in an effort to boost wireless Internet usage.

A customer tries out the new iPhone 4 at the Apple store in Ginza, Tokyo, on June 24. The handset is expected to be launched in Korea this month. Bloomberg

Nine-tailed fox revamped

The realm of Korean horror is not restricted to ghosts.

Every culture seems to have its own version of a femme fatale. In Korea, it would have to be the nine-tailed fox. 

Called “gumiho,” the nine-tailed fox is often depicted as a sly animal that transforms into a beautiful woman, seduces men and consumes their livers. 

KBS’ “Grudge: The Revolt of Gumiho” revamps the frightening image of the nine-tailed fox. KBS

Sound familiar? Yes, she is a man-eater. 

While Hollywood may have upped the gore-ante on the prototype with Karyn Kusama’s “Jennifer’s Body” (2009) -- a bloody flick about a man-eating demon (played by Megan Fox); Korean television is going in the opposite direction with their femme fatale icon.

KBS’ “Grudge: The Revolt of Gumiho,” which started airing on Monday, centers on a nine-tailed fox who is intent on protecting her half-human, half-fox offspring from harm. 

“The most important theme of the drama is a mother’s instinctive love for her daughter,” “Grudge” actress Han Eun-jeong, who is playing Gumiho, said at a press conference last Thursday. 

SBS is taking it a step further with their upcoming drama “My Girlfriend is a Gumiho,” where “Brilliant Legacy” actor Lee Seung-gi plays a wealthy hero who falls in love with a nine-tailed fox (played by “The Naked Kitchen” actress Shin Min-a). The series promises to be more of a romantic comedy than a tale of horror.

“Grudge: The Revolt of Gumiho” airs on Monday and Tuesday nights at 9:55 p.m. on KBS 2 TV.　

“My Girlfriend is a Gumiho” is slated to start on Aug. 11 on SBS.

In-your-face chillers



An increasingly tech-savvy audience demands a new spin on the haunted house-concept. 

Yeouido’s 63City and amusement park goliaths Seoulland and Lotte World rose to the occasion with their 5-D and 3-D attractions. 

While Lotte World’s Ghost House caters to children with its mini 3-D film-experience, both 63City and Seoulland brought in a state-of-the-art system from Japan to give thrill-seeking adolescent and adult viewers a scream-inducing jolt. 

At 63City’s Wax Museum, where the 5-D theater is located, and Seoulland, the viewer enters a circular room and picks one of the stools in the middle. The door shuts, leaving the audience enveloped by a wraparound, ceiling-length, seamless screen. Stools rotate, encouraging viewers to catch the action from every angle, but they come in handy, in fact, for ducking and evading. 

The little girl featured in the 5-D short “The Room” is one of the scariest aspects of the experience. Make sure to look at where she is pointing. 63City

LG faces critical test with Optimus series

LG Electronics on Monday announced the launch of its flagship Android smartphone Optimus One with Google via 120 carriers worldwide in the third quarter. 

LG's first global smartphone will be a make-or-break test for its mobile division president, Ahn Seung-kwon, who is struggling to rejuvenate the ailing smartphone business. 

 

Ahn Seung-kwon

Ahn gained fame for leading the development of LG’s hit feature phone Chocolate in 2006, as then head of LG’s mobile research center. Propelled by the huge success of the Chocolate, he grabbed the top position at LG’s mobile division in 2007, and since nurtured LG’s mobile business as a major cash cow.

POSCO to finalize Indonesia plant deal soon

DAEJEON — POSCO and Indonesian steelmaker PT Krakatau Steel are to finalize a deal soon to build a $5-7 billion integrated steel mill in the Southeast Asian country, Indonesia’s Investment Coordinating Board Chairman Gita Wirjawan said.

The joint venture between two countries’ largest steelmakers will break ground within the next few months, he said in an interview with The Korea Herald. 

The plant will be located in Cilegon, northwest Java with an output target of 6 million tons. It will have 3 million tons of capacity by the end of 2013. 

The project is one of significant achievement by the agency’s “one-stop” investment service policy launched in February, Wirjawan noted. 

“It’s simplifying the decision-making process under one roof, without having to go through a number of different ministries to set out a project,” he said. 

Founded in 1973 as an Indonesian ministry, the BKPM has worked as a proactive advocate and matchmaker for investors to boost domestic and international investment by creating a conducive investment climate.

“We’re trying to find smart capital,” said Wirjawan, who has been involved in advising the government and private sector in many Asian countries with respect to corporate restructuring, mergers and acquisitions and strategic sales. “We’re encouraging not just to buy our product, but to build a power plant too. So that’s value-added. This has never been encouraged by the government in the past but now we’re consciously doing it.”

As the biggest economy in Southeast Asia, worth $650 billion, Indonesia holds unpredictable potential for growth and investment, the minister said. Gaining recognition as the region’s only member of the G-20, the country expects its economy to size up to $1 trillion by 2014. 

Concern grows over cities in the red

Concerns have been growing over the financial health of local governments here following Monday’s declaration by Seongnam City of a moratorium on its debts. Seongnam, one of the wealthiest cities in the nation, became the first municipal government to default on its debt. 

The city in Gyeonggi Province owes 520 billion won ($432 million) to the Land & Housing Corporation and the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs for its new town project in the Pangyo district. 

“Considering the city’s current financial situation, it is impossible to repay the money in a short period or at once,” Mayor Lee Jae-myung said at a press conference.

The National Assembly Budget Office reported Tuesday that the total budget deficit of local governments amounted to 7.1 trillion won last year. 

The portion of their self-reliant revenue sources, including regional taxes and non-tax receipts, made up 52.2 percent on average, a 1.4 percent decrease from 2008.

The new office building is cited as one of the reasons for the financial difficulties of Seongnam City, which announced a moratorium on its debt Monday. Kim Myung-sub/The Korea Herald

Past sex criminals face electronic anklet

Prosecutors will be able to request that sex offenders who were not already given an electronic anklet be electronically tagged after a legal revision takes effect Friday.

The revision allows authorities to retroactively apply the anklet to criminals convicted before the law took effect in 2008.

Prosecutors may now request that the court place the device on convicted sex offenders within three years of their release, should they believe there is a risk of a repeat offense. The maximum period has also been raised from 10 to 30 years.

A total of 6,916 sex offenders could be tagged under the law, according to the Justice Ministry and the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office.

Prosecutors will select those who committed more than two offenses or abused a victim yonger than 13 and will request a court order to place an anklet on them, said officials.

The revision to the electronic anklet law was made in March following a series of high-profile sex crimes against children.

“Though we will take every precaution in enforcing the revised law, we plan to respond forcefully to sex offenders with the electronic anklet, which is one of the best measures against sex criminals,” said a prosecution official.

The average repeat offense rate of offenders is 14.8 percent, which the official said added to the argument for the traceable anklet system to be reinforced.

The Supreme Prosecutor’s Office established last week a set of guidelines on the selection and processes of the retroactive anklet sentence, which will be sent out to all 57 prosecutorial offices nationwide, said officials.

Some, however, argue that the anklet is not the answer.

Earlier this year, a convicted rapist cut off his anklet and escaped, though he did not commit any other offense before he was apprehended.

The ministry will introduce stronger anklets by the end of August, said officials.

The new law has met some criticism for the retroactive application of the anklet system.