SCI/TECH: Internet Technology on Display at APEC in South Korea

The leaders of the world and other VIPs were given demonstrations of the newest in internet technology at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. One of the main attractions was WiBro, wireless high-speed internet access that will be available to South Koreans next year. The real star, perhaps, was "Albert Hubo," a four-foot five-inch two-legged robot with the head of Albert Einstein.



The South Koreans are beginning to really compete in the world market in just about every field, from automobiles to cell phones. I've had three LG phones and I've been very satisfied with them. The Korean cars have pretty much left me cold, but judging from the numbers I see on the road, others are more enamored than I am. As for the robot with Albert Einstein's head, I think I would prefer, well, something a little less human. It sort of gives me the creeps.

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So that's why Bush is over there visiting, eh? To play with the robots!

S. Korean cars will take some time to pick up any market share, which is hard to do if people aren't buying your cars. I can remember back in the 70's, the same thing held true about Japanese cars. Of course, we were all in love with the muscle cars then.

I had a SK tv set for years, not a bit of a problem, except I lost the remote control. It was a Samsung, which you could get for "inexpensive" (cheap) money. Samsung is still around, but not quite in tune with the US buyer yet. Visit their homepage - it's nothing we are accustomed to - too rookie.

I don't own any Samsung products, but their site doesn't look all that "rookie" to me. Their HDTVs are the Official HDTVs of the NFL. That must say something.

product.samsung.com...

[edit on 2005/11/20 by GradyPhilpott]

I just got one of those samsung d600 mobiles, impressive piece of kit, what really wows people is the tv output, where whatever u do on camera goes on tv! impressive for playing back videos you've taken, also sounds outstanding quality, and acts as mp3 player with 512MB storage.

[edit on 20-11-2005 by sardion2000]

[edit on 20-11-2005 by sardion2000]

KIA is a Korean company. Someone voted their SUV as being the cat's meow or some such. The Korean cars don't impress me on any level. Their heavy and underpowered and get terrible gas mileage. The ten-year warranties and the decked out interiors and power everything seem to wow the public, but if it ain't got the technology under the hood, it's all for naught.

[edit on 2005/11/20 by GradyPhilpott]

lol Thanks grady, I don't know what happened to my last post but that is exactly how my uncle describes his KIA. He claims it gets upwards to 30 MPG but I was skeptical.

Allthough that may be as you say(can't offer my opinion cuz I dont drive) they will get better over time if they have even half-competitent R&D labs and direction.

[edit on 20-11-2005 by sardion2000]

I think they'll catch up in time. The cars are better than they were ten years ago when they had a terrible reliability rating. I asked a friend back then how he liked his and he said he wished he had bought two--one to drive and one for parts.

Just wanted to let you guys know from a personal perspective. My family recently bought a 2005 KIA Sedona minivan. Couple of points:

One, the comment about the R&D labs is right on the money, they're good. The 04 vans had a pretty severe "Wallow" when high speed manuevers were made, the 05's had corrected the problem entirley.

Two, the van is heavy, true, but it still gets about 20 mpg which slightly lower than what Dodge and the rest of detroit advertised.

Three, underpowered? not from what I can tell. Yes, I've driven it. I prefer my dad's civic, but the van will move out in a hurry if you want it to.

Four, the fit and finsh is far superior to dodge, which we looked at when buying, as well as toyota and one other. This may not seem like a lot to some people, but it absolutely MURDERED the dodge in the interior. The toyota was nice, but $12000 more. To us, if the interior is not nice, why buy it if you won't enjoy the ride?

We bought the van for $17000 dollars. The toyata was upper 20s, the dodge was mid 20s. There was no comparison. None. The phase the Koreans are in is capturing market share. They sell the vehicles at very little profit in order to wean people off the rest of the carmakers. From what I can tell, it's working like a charm.

These cars are solidly built and extremely resonably priced. True, they're heavy, but give them about 3 years to get up to speed.

NMS

I think this article pretty much tells it like its with the Korean cars at this stage of the game. To a lot of people, things that are mentioned in this article won't mean much, but they do to me. I have a 2003 Honda Accord LX with the 2.4L DOHC i-VTEC 160hp engine with about 42k on it. I never ceased to be amazed at the absolute integrity of that vehicle. It gets about 26 mpg under the worst of conditions and about 34 on the highway and I never want for power. I paid about 19.5k for it and I'm a believer.

www.caranddriver.com...

www.caranddriver.com...

[edit on 2005/11/20 by GradyPhilpott]

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
I don't own any Samsung products, but their site doesn't look all that "rookie" to me. Their HDTVs are the Official HDTVs of the NFL. That must say something.

product.samsung.com...

[edit on 2005/11/20 by GradyPhilpott]

Contrast that page with where I landed..
www.samsung.com...
Welcome to the official homepage for SAMSUNG

And I wasn't rating their products as rookie....they have some very good electronics. Eastern advertising (as in their web page) tends to appeal to a different person than western.

I remember the first time I was in Tokyo. Here's an example of a TV commercial over there, obviously targetting the Japanese buyer:

On the TV was a solemn young man standing in a cave by the edge of the sea, one foot up on a rock, staring out to the horizon. His right arm, clutching something in his hand, was extended toward the horizon. Not a word, not a musical note, the entire length of the commercial.

What was he holding? A cup of yogurt.

That's all I meant.

[edit on 20-11-2005 by jsobecky]

KIAs are horrible horrible cars. Im amazed that people actually buy the damn things. I feel sorry for the guys dad that bought the new one, he'll regret it soon enough, unless he lives in total denial like those who drive the new beetles. Don't get me started on those.

There's a reason they're so cheap. Its the stuff you dont see. Ooooo wow a nifty interior, fancy plastic molding and stuff. Your not going to care too much about it when your pushing your little kia down the side of the road. Or after you hear how much you have to pay in labor alone to get it repaired. Low quality parts, terrible design...its all under the hood.

I think the only people that buy kias are those who dont do their research, or those who know absolutely nothing about anything automotive, they see the nifty interior and feel the car has a steady kick to it, so they buy it because its a couple thousand cheaper then that toyota,honda,etc...thats just my opinion though I guess.

Japanese cars are the best cars hands down. Nothing beats them in reliability. Better designed and enginered, far superior to any domestic, korean, GERMAN, etc etc etc...You want something worth your money, you buy japanese. My nissan has close to 200k on it and the only thing Ive done heavy repairs is put in a new clutch and alternator (both of which I screwed up) and it still runs great.

Guess Im a little off topic, the kia thing kind of triggered me Move along...

Originally posted by PlausibleDeniability
KIAs are horrible horrible cars. Im amazed that people actually buy the damn things. I feel sorry for the guys dad that bought the new one, he'll regret it soon enough, unless he lives in total denial like those who drive the new beetles. Don't get me started on those.

There's a reason they're so cheap. Its the stuff you dont see. Ooooo wow a nifty interior, fancy plastic molding and stuff. Your not going to care too much about it when your pushing your little kia down the side of the road. Or after you hear how much you have to pay in labor alone to get it repaired. Low quality parts, terrible design...its all under the hood.

I think the only people that buy kias are those who dont do their research, or those who know absolutely nothing about anything automotive, they see the nifty interior and feel the car has a steady kick to it, so they buy it because its a couple thousand cheaper then that toyota,honda,etc...thats just my opinion though I guess.

Japanese cars are the best cars hands down. Nothing beats them in reliability. Better designed and enginered, far superior to any domestic, korean, GERMAN, etc etc etc...You want something worth your money, you buy japanese. My nissan has close to 200k on it and the only thing Ive done heavy repairs is put in a new clutch and alternator (both of which I screwed up) and it still runs great.

Guess Im a little off topic, the kia thing kind of triggered me

Move along...

That's a personal attack.

For your information both my parents are engineers, and I'm going to be one. We're not stupid. I built a full sized hovercraft for a school project. 35 mph on 8 hp.

Anyway, we did our research and the KIA came out on top. All that stuff you say isn't "under the hood" is bull. The thing runs just as well as our 97 dodge caravan, which is what we had before now. Unless you've gone around dismantling KIAs or can link to some place that does, and show me "all the stuff it doesn't have", stop attacking people who buy KIAs.

There's no question Honda and Nissan make better cars, but the Koreans still kill them as far as pricing. The price difference was not a "couple thousand dollars", it was about $6000 difference between the dodge and KIA, and the dodge was the closest one in price. We had several chronic problems with the caravan, including a bad transmission.

Have you acually LOOKED at the KIAs recently? OR are you operating off of 5 year old data and experience?

NMS

well gradyPhilpott in responce to people like your friend who wishes he had bought two kia's (one for parts )
Kia has had a ongoing sale in wich you buy one and get another of equal or lesser value for FREE .
Heres for planing for the brake down lane.

Originally posted by NothingMakesSense
That's a personal attack.

For your information both my parents are engineers, and I'm going to be one. We're not stupid. I built a full sized hovercraft for a school project. 35 mph on 8 hp.

Anyway, we did our research and the KIA came out on top. All that stuff you say isn't "under the hood" is bull. The thing runs just as well as our 97 dodge caravan, which is what we had before now. Unless you've gone around dismantling KIAs or can link to some place that does, and show me "all the stuff it doesn't have", stop attacking people who buy KIAs.

There's no question Honda and Nissan make better cars, but the Koreans still kill them as far as pricing. The price difference was not a "couple thousand dollars", it was about $6000 difference between the dodge and KIA, and the dodge was the closest one in price. We had several chronic problems with the caravan, including a bad transmission.

Have you acually LOOKED at the KIAs recently? OR are you operating off of 5 year old data and experience?

NMS

First off, it wasnt a personal attack, so chill out. Second, if you did your research, KIA wouldn't have come out on top, unless your just researching price. Just look at Grady's link.

My rant about whats under the hood of a KIA ISNT CRAP, its 100% true. I repair cars for a living, so I guess that makes me a mechanic, and guess what, YES I've worked on kias. Not to mention there's a kia IN MY DRIVEWAY, not my vehicle, thank god, but my roomates. My roomate is studying to be a computer engineer of some sort, so who do you think has to fix his damn kia.

I don't know why you keep mentioning dodge, I have a bone to pick with them too, but if I say anything I'll have all kinds of people jumping down my throat. And what don't you understand about the price, there's always a reason for something being so cheap, look at GEO for example

Good on you with the whole engineering thing. I built a doghouse once, but that doesn't mean I have any clue about constructing my own home. Unless I skipped a line somewhere, I didnt read anything about you having any experience in the field, so how can you argue the quality and dependability of even the most basic parts and pieces under of the hood of ANY year kia?

[edit on 21-11-2005 by PlausibleDeniability]

I got a KIA Sportage for a cheap winter vehicle Man I never had so many little things go wrong with a vehicle in such a short time. Air condition went, the fan for the heater went so no heat (fun for a winter vehicle) Power windows went, The handle to open the back broke off along with various knobs inside. The driver side door no longer opens from the inside.
Plus the cup holders block everything when you have a cup in them the stereo center heater vents etc...

It still runs like a champ but dam its a piece I would never buy one again no matter how cheap they are.

GradyPhilpott I have to agree with you on that Albert Hubo robot that just seems wrong and creepy. The Asimo type headS are far better IMO

[edit on 21-11-2005 by ShadowXIX]

[edit on 21-11-2005 by ShadowXIX]