Links for Feb 2018

It's time for another link roundup. Stuff I read in February that interested me. Got a fairly large list for you this month. Plus all the links related to the Olympics over on another post. So let's dive in.

Links for February 2018

General Tech stuff

•  GPS Independence: S. Korea to Build 'Korean Positioning System' by Putting Up Seven GPS Satellites | BusinessKorea  - as much to do with commercial/industrial independence as military/security
•  Kakao’s AI voice recognition service available on Hyundai, Kia vehicles - I think it's going to be interesting to see how this all plays out. We take for granted that Google, via Android and Android Auto and Google Home, will be the default AI we interact with. But the absence of Google in Korea (I'll leave the reasons for that up to you to debate among yourselves) has really given Kakao and Naver room to beef up in these areas. It's not hard to imagine a scenario where Naver, already making big investments/partnerships in Europe, transitions to multi-lingual systems (Naver Map could be step 1), and with partnerships with automakers, gives Europe (always suspicious of Google anyway) a huge EU market to grab market share. I can imagine the EU giving the green light to Naver Clova-powered interfaces in Hyundai self-driving car models, if anything as a way to stick it to Google. Don't count these Korean companies out. The next five years will be real interesting. 
•  Xiaomi looks to expand its IoT segment with a boost from Naver's Clove AI | TechRadar  - Korean AI already tapping that big China market. Call me crazy but I see a future where Google takes the North and South American markets, the Indian market, the UK market, but large swaths of Asia, Africa, Europe are loses for the big G. 
•  10 South Korean Startups Powering Into 2018 - makers of Azar get a shoutout, but from what I hear Azar is just what horny college kids use for anonymous nude chats that will end up screen-capped and posted online. Tread carefully with that one. 
•  Here to create indoor maps of crowded venue with Naver bots, also in 3D - Telecompaper 
•  Naver founder Lee Hae-jin leaves company board - still owns about 3-4% stake. Think the news/keyword meddling controversies are making them rethink how they present their ownership/management.
•  Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem - Piece about Korean startup culture and festival 2018
•  Lotte enlists AI to help it find new employees-INSIDE Korea JoongAng Daily 
•  Comment Aggregator Searches for Proof of Ulterior Motives on Naver News | Be Korea-savvy 
•  Introducing SK Telecom's rising star, Nugu - Another AI speaker
•  South Korea identifies Flash 0-day in the wild | ZDNet 
•  KakaoTalk, Facebook Preferred Online Channels for News Access | Be Korea-savvy 
•  Facebook Korea actively participating in Korea Internet Corporations Association : Business : News : The Hankyoreh  - unlike that big bad "G" company who just won't play along!
•  Anti-Google Alliance in Europe: Naver Working with More and More Startups in Europe | BusinessKorea  - This.
•  ‘Naver V Vietnam’ users surge tenfold in 2 years 
•  NBoard - PSA: if you've been accessing your Naver Mail via POP (such as by importing your Naver Mail into G-mail, as I previously detailed [10원 Tips: Send/Receive Naver Mail in G-mail]), be aware you need to make a small settings change. Change POP port 110 to port 995 instead
•  Big in South Korea: Our 6 Favorite Korean Games - Android Apps on Google Play  - Google picks some power games to showcase
•  PSA: Gboard for Android now supports Korean input. : korea - The old Google Korean Input keyboard app was OK, but you had to tap/peck to input Korean. Smooth swiping was only for English. Apparently the Gboard beta now let's you swipe in Korean too. I thought about trying it, but I'm fully content on SwiftKey at the moment. Can switch and swipe between Kor/Eng perfectly. 
•  What does Strava data tell us about North Korea?  - Neat way to look at this data

Cryptocurrency stuff

•  Fever of Crpytocurrency Mining: Cryptocurrency Fever Kindles Scarcity of Parts for Mining PCs | BusinessKorea 
•  North Korea stole 'billions of won' in cryptocurrency last year | ZDNet 
•  Line preparing to enter bitcoin trade in Japan-INSIDE Korea JoongAng Daily 
•  Number of cryptocurrency app users drops in Korea 
•  Woori Bank testing Ripple's blockchain technology 
•  Naver’s Interest in Cryptocurrency: Naver’s Line to Launch Cryptocurrency Business in Japan | BusinessKorea 

This Korean Life

•  [Provincial News] Yongsan offers free Korean classes to foreigners 
•  Vehicle restriction troubles civil servants in Sejong City - turns out this eco-friendly showpiece city has a severe lack of public transport and is just a big abandoned lot car park city. Oops. 
•  One thing North Korea has that the South doesn't: Google Maps | Asia Times  - TIL: South Korea is now the only country (other than tiny island nations) where Google Maps can't give you directions. Doh. 
•  Seoulites line up to get a taste of Tartine Bakery-INSIDE Korea JoongAng Daily  
•  Sejong vs. Severance - preparation was key-INSIDE Korea JoongAng Daily  - Two good articles doing a good job of contrasting these two similar events with very different outcomes
•  Emergency guideline compliance saved patients in hospital fire 
•  Kim Yul-hee blends pansori, reggae - you do you, girl. 
•  Napa Valley winery brings barrels to Seoul-INSIDE Korea JoongAng Daily 
•  Hard Rock Closing Korea Locations - In Discussions with 'Potential Franchise Partners'  - Goodbye to an old legend. Actually I didn't even realize any of these were still going after the Itaewon one closed up shop. 
• KT TV channel guide - via Reddit, a TV guide for Korean TV. Coming from KT cable provider but most of the channels will run the same schedule on all providers. Tap the channel name, see what's on. Wish you could search specific shows and see when they're on. Korean only but simple and intuitive.
•  Migratory ravens plague Suwon-INSIDE Korea JoongAng Daily  "...noise pollution with their incessant caws as well as waste pollution with their feces..."

Culture / History

•  Netflix to push boundaries of Korean media content 
•  Chuncheon: A kaleidoscope of images 
• K-league Korean soccer games streaming site. Via this post on Reddit, but when I tried (in Korea) I got region geoblocked. Maybe only works abroad?
•  Naver TV releases list of most popular videos, channels in 2017 
•  YouTube FanFest  - end of Feb event in Seoul featuring a variety of local YouTube stars
•  V TOP 10  - Naver V's top videos
•  Korea goes 'cyberpunk' 
•  [Yongsan Legacy] Discovering Broadway on Yongsan Garrison - Neat autobiographical oral history type piece of growing up on Yonsang. Recommended read.  
•  iss053e210 - Windows on Earth  - great space station shot of Korea
•  Official YouTube Blog: Updates to YouTube Live streaming - Not Korea related per se, but pretty sure that official promo pic demonstration live YouTube chat is the old Eat Your Kimchi couple, right?

Lost in translation

•  Why Korean Machine Translation is TERRIBLE | Google vs. Bing vs. Naver - YouTube  - GoBilly video where he demos some bad translations. I thought he picked poor examples because the results were still halfway decent IMHO, at least for an online translator. 
•   Naver to improve outdated online dictionaries for 11 languages 
•  [Copy Editor’s Comment] A controversy from which lessons can be learned - on all sides : International : News : The Hankyoreh  - I hadn't realized this got so much traction abroad. Interesting look at what happens when Western media seize on a translation of a Korean article. Reminds me of the times I've seen "... according to the Korea Times publication out of Seoul" and think "oh boy..."

Korean language news 

(stuff I didn't see English articles for)

•  쌍용차, 애플 카플레이 되는 ‘2018 티볼리’ 출시 - 지디넷코리아 - New Tivoli models will have navi screens that pair with Apple & Android Auto. Can't imagine the Google Map navigation will be real useful. Is it just me who thinks 미러링 is a weird  word? 
•  한성숙 네이버 "클로바 익스텐션 키트 2월 오픈" - 지디넷코리아  - more expansion on the Clover AI platform via Clover Extension Kit. Start building that chatbot!
•  파파고 iF Design Award 2018 .. : 네이버블로그 - Papago (Naver's translator app) got some design award in Germany. It really is a good looking app. More intuitive than Google Translator app, I think. 
•  네이버랩스, 차량 IVI 기기 ‘어웨이’ 일반용 출시 - 지디넷코리아 - looks like Naver has their own Android Auto type connection mirror system "Away"
•  카카오모빌리티, 카풀업체 ‘럭시’ 252억에 인수 - 지디넷코리아 - Kakao bought up a carpool app. Starting to see why Kakao Taxi became the overall private transport app Kakao T. We'll see carpooling and car rental options inside it, along with the taxi and parking.
•  모바일 그린 라이프, 알약M - Your absolute favorite Korean security app, Alyak (you know, the little pill guy) has a revamped Alyak M app out for mobile. Good image revamp after their hack last year.
•  네이버랩스, 키즈 웨어러블폰 ‘아키’ MWC 출품 - 지디넷코리아 - Naver's got a kids smartwatch out now, similar to this one by Kakao.
•  위젯으로 더 편리하게 지도앱 사용하기! : 네이버 블로그 - Like with Kakao Map and Kakao Bus, you can now add Naver Map widgets to your home screen to easily keep an eye on when that bus or train is coming. 
•  YouTube Korea Blog: 3천명 팬들의 뜨거운 함성 속에서 열린 축제의 장! 유튜브 팬페스트 코리아 2018 라이브 쇼 현장을 공개합니다.  - More on the YouTube Fan Fest that was held in Seoul. 
• NAVER 개인정보보호 블로그 : 네이버 블로그 - Holy cow. An expose on "sexcam phishing." Looks like those private, "leaked," screencapped, hidden cam videos you know you never watch are very frequently linked to extortion. Kids, remember, no matter what somebody says, if you post something on the internet, someone will save it and repost it. We really need more tech literacy about this issue. People need to know just because something is "live" doesn't mean it's not being recorded. We also need stricter enforcement. Guys who leak girls' videos or pictures, whether of strangers or exgirlfriends, are pretty scummy. And demanding money otherwise? Pathetic. And demanding money then leaking anyways? Loser. Shit like this is why frankly I'm glad to be a man, and with a body nobody would want to film. Stay safe out there, folks. 

Thanks for reading. See you next month.