Links from Feb 2020 - April 2020

Sorry for the lengthy delay here. It's been a pretty hectic season scrambling with the fallout of coronavirus issues. Lots of businesses have been struggling to secure funds and between work and some personal issues, I've been pretty swamped and not had the energy to sit down and hash out some posts I have sitting in the backburner. But the show must go on. So finally, here is a list of interesting links from the past couple of months here. Don't worry, the list isn't super large. I filtered out any news directly relating to the coronavirus.

So sit back, relax, and get caught up. Long weekend is coming up here, thank God. So add them to your reading list to enjoy on your veranda in some nice spring weather. Personally I plan to, probably get drunk and eat the two Trader's pizzas I'll pick up later tonight. Don't judge me.

Links from February 2020 ~ April 2020

Society, Culture, Lifestyle, etc.

And the new trailer for Train to Busan 2: Peninsula

Tech, Business, etc.

Korean news links (i.e. content I could't find English sources for)

LGU+, 클라우드 게임 무료 제공 인터넷 가입자로 확대 - LG U+ has their own game streaming service called 지포스나우 ("G Force Now" I guess) which has a free tier option that looks decent. The main draw is that the games seem to be hosted on U+ cloud servers that do all the heavy processing so your personal hardware setup is less important. Great for mobile gaming. Think about it like Google Stadia.
[iOS] 새로워진 파파고 미니를 만나보세요! - iPhone users of Naver's translator Papago will now see a "Papago Translate" option in their iOS share sheet to immediately translate highlighted text
모바일 VIEW 검색결과에 모먼트가 노출됩니다. - Naver's "Moments" feature for blog posts (think like Instagram's "Stories" feature) are now being presented in Naver search results. So if you want to really grab eyeballs on Naver search, try creating a "Moment" for your content.
삼성 “30초 손씻기, 갤럭시워치가 알려준다” - If you have a Galaxy Wear watch, it will alert you to wash your hands for 30 seconds. Not sure what else wearables are good for, personally.
카카오뱅크, 해외송금 수수료 무조건 5달러 - Users of KakaoBank can remit money abroad for just $5 during this promo period, regardless of amount.
라인웍스, 협업 기능 업데이트…답장-음성 메시지 등 추가 - Naver's LineWorks suite (think G Suite) got some updates. This virus quarantine did wonders for its adoption.
"화장품도 배달한다" 랄라블라, 요기요와 배달 서비스 시작 - The Yogiyo delivery app (mostly used for food) can now have cosmetics products from Lalava (previously called Watsons) delivered to you right away
‘폴더폰에도 AI가’…SKT·KT, 노년층 공략 - LG has a traditional form factor flip phone that makes use of a touch screen and incorporates the Genie AI assistant tech. I've seen that this form factor (with modern tech) is actually fairly popular in other markets too but hard to get outside Korea. Entrepreneur idea: buy up a nice stock and resell abroad.
온라인 수업과 학급 관리 고민, 밴드로 해결하세요! - Guide to using Naver Band to facilitate online classes, meetings, etc. Although not explicitly designed for this purpose, I actually do think Band is very well suited to this job. It's like a Facebook Group, but much more organized and conducive to chat/work.
코로나19로 비대면 확산…네이버 밴드도 미국서 인기 - Example of how some schools and churches in USA are using Naver Band during quarantine
클로바 음성메모도 Keep에서 확인하세요. - If you have a Naver smart speaker or use the Clova assistant app on your phone, voice notes that you create will appear in Naver Keep (yes, the Naver version of Google Keep).
통신 3사 통합 메시징앱 ‘채팅+’ 가입자 2천만명 돌파 - "Chat+" or "Chatting+" is the domestic Korean carrier's implementation of the RCS standard for text messaging that Google has been pushing abroad as the universal alternative to iMesssage. Turns out Chatting+ is slowly growing and maybe chipping away at KakaoTalk's dominance. Haven't tried this yet but I wonder if the standards adoptions works well across international lines. That was always iMessage's killer feature.
[앱리뷰] Z세대는 왜 ‘젠리’를 쓸까 - Turns out that a foreign app called Zenly is popular among young Koreans for live location sharing. It boggles my mind how apps like this function fine but the native location sharing features of Google Maps or Apple's Find My are hobbled here. If you are a foreigner dad and want to keep tabs on your family's whereabouts, this app could be a good option for you.
한국금융솔루션-신한카드, 외국인 전용 금융플랫폼 ‘핀셋 익스펫’ 출시 - I cannot believe this hasn't been translated into English anywhere that I could find, but Shinhan Bank is a partner in a new app called Finset that features a (hopefully growing) suite of financial services options directed specifically to expats/foreigners. The entire thing is still in Korean apparently (ironic) and it's fairly bare bones right now but let's check back and hope this expands. I know lots of English speakers who have been looking for something like this.
벅스, 이제 ‘누구(NUGU)’서도 연동된다 - If you have a NUGU-powered smart speaker (those produced by SKT, or associated SKT apps like T Map), you can now stream music from the BUGS Korean music streaming service
블로그 도메인 정책 변경 안내 - If you have a Naver blog, upcoming third-party-site cookie rules mean that you won't be able to use the "usernale.blog.me" domain if you happened to set up your blog that way. Your blog will need to revert to a blog.naver.com/username including for custom domains.

And finally, this:

Korea's MBC News did a piece on deepfakes which included this mashup of K-pop singer IU with Robert Downey Jr.'s face. pic.twitter.com/EUi10WjnYc
— 10원 Tips (@10wontips) April 22, 2020

10원 Tips

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