Monster Island (actually a peninsula)*

Pearls of witticism from 'Bo the Blogger: Kushibo's Korea blog... Kushibo-e Kibun... Now with Less kimchi, more nunchi. Random thoughts and commentary (and indiscernibly opaque humor) about selected social, political, economic, and health-related issues of the day affecting "foreans," Koreans, Korea and East Asia, along with the US, especially Hawaii, Orange County and the rest of California, plus anything else that is deemed worthy of discussion. Forza Corea!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Don't quote the KT. It'll just make them think they're a quality paper.

For news on the next generation of the iPhone (not the 3Gs but the 4G), the San Francisco Chronicle — which covers Apple's backyard — is quoting, of all sources, the Korea Times:

Those check boxes on your iPhone wish list? The latest rumor says a few of them are covered in the next-generation iPhone.

Korea Times quotes unnamed, high-ranking executives at KT, Apple's exclusive local partner in South Korea, as saying the iPhone 4G will have an OLED screen, support video chat and -- perhaps most surprisingly -- have a removable battery. It'll also reportedly have a dual-core processor, more powerful graphics and an improved camera. The officials say that KT's corporate clients will get the new phones in April as a "litmus test" before they're provided to local distributors in June.

Well, I guess this is plausible. After all, the iPhone has been doing extremely well since it was finally introduced into Korea, so there's good reason to believe that the market for a 4G phone would also be robust. Furthermore, South Korean cell phone consumers tend to have high expectations and strong opinions about such technology, so if there's something amiss with the new iPhone, the Korean market will sniff it out.

All in all, a smart move on the part of Apple, if the Korea Times story is true, though it would be weird that they have the scoop.

All this assumes that the 4G network is strong in Korea, about which I have no idea whatsoever. Anyone?

4 comments:

UnknownThursday, January 14, 2010 10:52:00 AM
Macworld, Pravda,PC World and a few other news sources are jumping with the KT article. I wonder if Apple will confirm this or deny it.
ReplyDelete
Replies
Todd TThursday, January 14, 2010 12:21:00 PM
Oh for God's sake! It's just an old rumor from early last year. Someone probably just googled "iphone 4g" and took the rumor as something more, without checking it.

Shame on western outlets following this!

http://gizmodo.com/5145151/iphone-4g-concept-is-a-macbook-in-a-phone
ReplyDelete
Replies
MikeInSeoulThursday, January 14, 2010 2:32:00 PM
It's worth noting that the "4G" in the name refers to the 4th generation of iPhone, not compatibility with "4G" networks.

4G isn't even completely standardized yet. Though, it's likely that Korea will be well-positioned for it as the 4G standard is likely be derived from WiMAX. WiMAX is big in Korea, marketed mostly by KT as "WiBro".

Luckily, most western sources mentioning this load of crap are blogs. Even news outlets mentioning it have only done so on their blogs thus far, rather than in print.

I wonder if they know that they are citing news from the same paper that republished an article from the Weekly World News last month?
ReplyDelete
Replies
MikeInSeoulThursday, January 14, 2010 3:11:00 PM
Also, Apple will neither confirm, nor deny the rumors - they never do.

But, if it has any shred of truth, they will surely try to unleash some minor hell on whoever originally spilled the beans.

I can't reach the Korea Times article right now, but it looks like the TRUE original source of the rumors was ETNews.
http://www.telecomskorea.com/smatphone-8689.html

Amazing that the list on Gizmodo is almost EXACTLY what they listed in the "new" rumors. Seems to be about on par with Korea news outlets at this point ...
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

Share your thoughts, but please be kind and respectful. My mom reads this blog.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Ask Kushibo.

My Google/Blogspot data shows that a lot of the 2 million people who have landed on my site (yes, that's the real number) are looking for cultural information on Korea (e.g., “When did Syngman Rhee die?” “What did the Indians bring to the first Chusŏk?’ etc., etc.), as well as practical or historical stuff.

That got me thinking that, hey, I have a master’s degree in Korean studies and a minor in Japanese studies, I’ve lived in Seoul far longer than most foreans my age (whether they're kyopo or non-kyopo), I teach introductory courses on Korea and its cultural trappings and history, so why not offer a free service where I attempt to answer people’s questions, point them in the direction of where they can get them answered, and/or offer my regulars (that’s you!) a chance to take a stab at some of this stuff, too.

So if there’s something you’d like to know from a “contrarian scourge,” click on ASK KUSHIBO and just ask a succinct question in the comments section below.

Oh, and play nice. Please don’t make me regret this.

九十五大怪獣란? 쿠시보의 몬스터 아일랜드란?

Pearls of witticism from 'Bo the Blogger: Kushibo's Korea blog... Kushibo-e Kibun...
Now with Less kimchi, more nunchi. Random thoughts and commentary (and indiscernibly opaque humor) about selected social, political, economic, and health-related issues of the day affecting "foreans" ("foreigners" in Korea be they kyopo or non-kyopo), Koreans, Korea and East Asia, along with the US, especially Hawaii, Orange County, and the rest of California, plus anything else that is deemed worthy of discussion. Forza Corea!

* Monster Island (actually a peninsula)

The name of this blog comes from a line in "Lisa on Ice," a beloved episode of The Simpsons, perhaps my all-time favorite television show (even though for several seasons there, it really did suck). Lisa is imagining being sworn in as president, but at the last minute, it is discovered that she failed P.E. (physical education) and she is thus "sentenced to a lifetime of horror" on Monster Island. "Don't worry," the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court confides in her, "It's just a name."

Fast forward to Lisa and other prisoners running in panic through a tropical jungle, chased by Godzilla-like creatures, including a monster turtle and a monster firefly.

"He said it was just a name!" Lisa screams to the man next to her. While he, too, runs for his life, the unidentified man calmly says, "What he meant is that Monster Island is actually a peninsula."

Anyway, I thought in some ways that punchline summed up modern-day Korea in a nutshell. For many people—foreigners and Koreans—the ups and downs and everyday travails of the Republic of Korea make it as precarious as a Monster Island would be (and with the DMZ being the only land border, it really is like an island). But it actually is a peninsula. Okay, it made sense in my head.

So as you can see, despite the hits I get from people looking for Japanese tentacle porn, it has nothing to do with anything salacious as that.