KT’s decision to bar internet access for Samsung’s Smart TV may end up in court. Samsung has hinted they may sue KT for compensation of damages as they enforced an internet restriction for apps and services accessing from Samsung Smart TV.

A long-term infliction of such unfair treatment could incur substantial damages on our consumers, which is why we are planning to swiftly resolve the issue through a possible compensation lawsuit.

KT is the largest internet service operator in South Korea and about 250,000 Smart TV owners will be affected with the decision.

Korea Telecommunications Commission (equivalent to FCC) said that KT’s move was inappropriate and may penalize them for violating laws.

Via

KT in South Korea has announced that they’ll cut off internet access to apps on Samsung’s Smart TVs from tomorrow. The move is a result of excessive bandwidth used by apps on these internet-enabled TVs.

KT is the largest fixed-line operator in South Korea and there are about 1 million Smart TVs in Samsung’s domestic market.

Excessive electricity use can cause a wide scale blackout, as we have experienced in September last year. Likewise, over-burdening the internet inevitably hurts other users.

Completely cutting off the access seems a bit harsh. Perhaps, KT and Samsung could work a way around or throttle internet speed when accessed from a Smart TV.

Source

Samsung earlier this week announced ST77 ultra-slim camera for the South Korean market. The camera is just 16.9mm thick, weighs 101g and features a f2.5 lens, which according to Samsung is useful in low-light situations.

The camera can shoot images in resolution of up to 16.7 megapixel, has a 25mm wide-angle lens, 5x optical zoom, 720p HD video recording support and various other photo-enhancing features like Funny Face, Picture in Picture, Magic Frame, Smart Filters and more.

The camera will sell in two colors – black and white for 169,000 won.

Samsung today confirmed the sales of Galaxy Note in South Korea. Samsung in its domestic market have managed to sell over 700,000 units since its launch that helped Samsung to capture a 66 percent market share in the LTE market in January. One thing to note here is that this number reflects sales to channel and distributors and not end consumers.

Samsung’s LTE-equipped Galaxy Note went on sale in late November in South Korea and surpassed over a million units globally in December.

The global sales of Galaxy Note is expected to rise further with the impending launch in the United States market.

Samsung has announced a new netbook targeted at children in the South Korean market. The NC110-Pororo is inspired by an animated cartoon series – Pororo the Little Penguin and comes with the characters etched onto the display lid.

In addition to the trendy design, the netbook is pre-loaded with episodes of Pororo the Little Penguin, movie, puzzle and a coloring game.

On the hardware front, NC110-Pororo is equipped with Intel’s 2nd generation dual-core Atom processor, 10.1-inch display, Wi-Fi, HDMI and more.

The netbook will go on sale in South Korea from February 6 for 509,000 won ($452).

Engraving gives a personal touch to a gadget and with the same intention Samsung is offering an engraving service to Galaxy Note buyers in South Korea. Till March 31, consumers purchasing Galaxy Note can engrave their devices with a special message at Samsung’s Digital Plaza stores.

The laser engraving will be done on the battery cover and will offer a variety of fonts to suit user’s “personality.”

Samsung has announced that its Galaxy S II smartphone has reached a new milestone in South Korea. They’ve sold over 5 million Galaxy S IIs in their domestic market to channels and distributors in just nine months of its launch.

Samsung says Galaxy S II is one of the few phones in Korea to reach such a milestone and has been enjoying decent sales since its launch.

Samsung’s Korean smartphone market share stood at 53 percent for 2011.

Samsung has released a new color of its Series 7 Gaming laptop. Clad in Yellow, Samsung says the trendy color will appeal to new generation gamers and women. The official notebook of WCG 2011 (World Cyber Games), Series 7 Gaming notebook comes with Glass Flake coating to protect from scratches, four different types of performance modes, backlit keyboard, 17.3-inch full HD LED display, Intel Quad-core i7 CPU, 1TB HDD, 8GB RAM and more.

The 2D version of this notebook will sell for 2,570,000 won (US$2228) and 3D variant for 2,810,000 won (US$2437).

After launching the 4-inch and 5-inch Galaxy Players in South Korea, Samsung has been announced a smaller version – Galaxy Player 3.6 (YP-GS1) for its domestic market. Samsung says users can take advantage of the device by using it for educational purposes or can even use it as a device to make or receive calls over Bluetooth.

The Galaxy Player 3.6 runs Android 2.3 OS and comes with features like SoundAlive, 3.65-inch display, Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, 8 or 16GB of memory and more.

It will sell for 200,000 won (US$173).

Samsung yesterday announced the last missing phone from its new mobile nomenclature. The Galaxy M (SHW-M340) is South Korea-only for now and will be available on Korean operators – SKT, KT and LG U+. The Galaxy M is a 9.9mm thin phone that comes with a metallic back and features a 4-inch Super AMOLED display, 1GHz processor, Android 2.3 OS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, DMB, 3MP camera, 4GB internal memory and 1650mAh battery.

The phone will be available in three colors – Platinum Silver, Blue Back and Lavender Pink for 500,000 won ($434).