Here’s a graphic from the Korea Times detailing the Avengers 2 (Avengers: Age of Ultron) shooting schedule for Seoul. Filming will run March 30 to April 14 and Disney is tight lipped on which stars might be present. As part of a deal with the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism the movie studio will be refunded up to 30% of their spending costs. Filming will also take place in Johannesburg, Aosta Valley, London, and Burbank, CA. Continue reading
Here’s an infographic summarizing the impact of the new Korea-Canada Free Trade Agreement. For those living in Korea, look forward to cheaper beef prices as Canada joins the listing of beef importers: US, New Zealand, and Australia. Korea agrees to cut import tariffs on Canadian beef by 40% over the next 15 years. Interestingly, Canada was banned from exporting beef to Korea for 9 years following a mad cow outbreak. The Korea Times reports that Korea is the first Asian country to make an FTA with Canada.
The local news outlets are having a field day covering the Samsung (out-of-warranty) “battery swelling” issue today. A quick search of 삼성 갤럭시 노트 배터리 (Samsung Galaxy Note battery) yields a ton of news stories. This is the third Samsung phone affected by battery swelling. Today, the Korean Consumer Agency announced that Samsung will replace Galaxy Note mobile phone batteries, free of charge. While the Note phones were made in 2011 and are now out of warranty, there’s no reason for a battery to fail so quickly- unless it has a quality defect. (Note: I still have a working iPad 1 and iPhone 3GS with good battery life more than four years after they launched.) They’ve pushed Samsung into admitting that the swelling of lithium-ion batteries in phones is not normal. Samsung Service had previously deceived people into think that this was a “natural phenomenon” of normal lithium-ion phone batteries nearing the end of their life cycle. They can’t use that excuse anymore. Continue reading
Starbucks Reserve, the chain’s premium cafe, is set to enter the Korean market. A branch will open in (Seoul) Gangnam District’s trendy Apgujeong neighborhood. A coffee explosion has taken place over the last 5 years and chains are exploring ways to differentiate themselves. Single-origin coffee beans and drip-coffee are the new specialties.
Other chains, such as Tom N Toms and Hollys Coffee, are following suit with single-origin coffee beans and boutique type cafes. Cafes provides an excellent social experience and that may be the key to what makes them so popular here.
Korea’s first Bitcoin ATM went online at Coffee Sedona in the COEX complex in Seoul yesterday. The ATM machine exchanges Korean Won for Bitcoins and visa versa. The Bitcoin ATM does not require photo ID or biometric data to make transactions. Continue reading
KT (Korea Telecom) is the latest in a string of companies with stolen customer data. This time, the records of 12 million accounts were compromised. The theft included names, phone numbers, bank accounts, email addresses, and job information.
Hyundai moves to 16th place out of the 23 car makers ranked by Consumer Reports for 2014. This is the second year that it’s slipped. The American Tesla Model S was their top pick.
Hyundai was also ranked poorly for dependability by JD Power. That ranking comes from reported problems for the prior 12 months with ranking according to dependability (Hyundai took 27th place out of the 31 ranked brands). GM, with many cars designed and built in Korea, ranked highest with 8 segment awards.