South Korea has overhauled its public transport network with recharging roads , where the vehicles use power from buried electric strips in the road. It was invented at the University of California, before South Korea adopted it for an amusement park. More

Shipping containers in my mind are forever associated with grim situations seen in TV shows like Dexter or The Wire, but in South Korea they can also be observatories for viewing sunsets. Erected on the harbor of Songdo New City in Incheon, five shipping containers were recycled and placed together aiming sky-wards for the best possible glimpse of the close of daylight. They’re angled at either 10, 30 or 50 degrees, offering various views across the water, with stairs and ramps inside so people can walk through them. [ ANL Studio via Deezen via Inhabitat ]

Apple and HTC might each be trying to patent a fancy capacitive stylus , but it looks like the good people of South Korea have stumbled on a decidedly more low-tech (and delicious) solution to using their phones in the winter: sausages. Apparently snack sausages from the CJ Corporation are electrostatically compatible with the iPhone’s capacitive touchscreen, leading many to use them as a “meat stylus” in the cold weather, rather than remove a glove. And it’s not just a joke; apparently South Korean snack sausage sales are soaring. We don’t know if anyone’s managed to combine this bit of amazing hackery with the bacon iPod sleeve yet, but we do know that we just registered meatstylus.com — anyone care to send in some local sausage test results? South Korean iPhone users turn to sausages as a cold weather ‘meat stylus’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:13:00 EST.

Yo Carl Sagan, we found the fourth dimension! It was hiding in a South Korean movie theater all this time, and you can go try it out for the eminently affordable $15.80 a pop. CJ-CGV, an enterprising Korean cinema operator, has been offering its 4D experience for a year now, but Avatar ’s sellout success has led it to open three more “4D plexes.” The way the company finally cornered that elusive fourth dimension is by engaging all five senses: moving seats, wind, water sprinkling, lasers, and synthetic smells are all used in time with the movie. Sure, it’s a gimmick and takes a loose interpretation of what the word dimension means , but at least it’s unlikely you’ll fall asleep during the movie, as some of us may or may not have done while watching the 3D screening. Avatar available to watch in 4D, but only in Korea originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 10:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Another day, another Snapdragon handset. It’s kind of fun to consider a phone with a thousand megahertz processor common these days, isn’t it? We already knew LG’s Arena Max would have built-in WiFi , but now we can put a face to the name as well as a few other select specs. Wireless connectivity will be augmented with Bluetooth and GPS modules, which will be cozying up to a 5 megapixel camera unit at the back and a 3.5-inch touchscreen up front. The Cyon branding tells us Korea will be the inevitable first destination, though the rest of the world is expected to follow swiftly

In the cut-throat world of high tech manufacturing, “going rogue” is an ever-present temptation — and no one, from AMD to LG , is immune from scandal. For the latest bit of corporate shenanigans, look no further than Applied Materials, who installs and maintains Samsung’s chip manufacturing equipment — prosecutors in South Korea have accused the company of stealing the latter’s semiconductor technology and leaking it to Hynix Semiconductor (who ranks third in the world in the manufacture of NAND flash, behind Samsung and Toshiba). According to the AP, eighteen people have been indicted in the case so far, including the vice president of Applied Materials Korea. We just hope they didn’t get the idea from us! That is definitely not the message we’re trying to impart with this site. Samsung, Hynix, Applied Materials in corporate espionage shocker! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds

That Korean-language version of the XT701 we saw recently is starting to make more sense now that we know exactly what was up Moto’s sleeve: meet MOTOROI. The company’s very first Android-powered phone for South Korea takes most (but not all) of its cues from its China Unicom-branded doppelganger, featuring a 3.7-inch WVGA display, 8 megapixel camera with 720p video capture, HDMI-out, and — like most phones sold in and around Seoul — support for T-DMB television tuning. Like the Droid , it’s available with a home charging dock that’ll turn it into a handy alarm clock; unlike the Droid, though, the MOTOROI features multitouch browsing out of the box similar to the Milestone in Europe. The oddly-named phone (is “ROI” acceptable for short?) launches early next month on SK Telecom.

Korean Air subsidiary Jin Air has a new trick up its sleeve for entertaining passengers going to and fro South Korea. The airline is now offering a 16GB PSP Go to rent for in-flight gaming. No clue what games are on the device, but it’s probably the best 4,000 won (about $3.50) you can spend — assuming, that is, there’s more than a sudoku app. Korean Air subsidiary renting out PSP Go consoles for in-flight gaming originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 16 Jan 2010 07:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .

Korean Air subsidiary Jin Air has a new trick up its sleeve for entertaining passengers going to and fro South Korea. The airline is now offering a 16GB PSP Go to rent for in-flight gaming. No clue what games are on the device, but it’s probably the best 4,000 won (about $3.50) you can spend — assuming, that is, there’s more than a sudoku app. Korean Air subsidiary renting out PSP Go consoles for in-flight gaming originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 16 Jan 2010 07:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Though its market share pales against the home teams, Motorola has maintained a continued presence in South Korea for some time — and seeing how the company is going all-in with Android globally, it makes sense that they’d be launching it here, too. Enter the alleged XT720, a localized version of the XT701 that’s seeing duty on China Unicom on the other side of the Yellow Sea. Rumor has it this will be coming to SK Telecom, but details are sketchy and conflicting: Mirae Asset Research says the phone will feature a 5 megapixel cam while the source of this picture here says it’s 8; they’re also quoting the screen as a 3.7-inch 480 x 640 unit, but clearly, it’s going to be WVGA if the pic is legit. The research firm believes we’ll see this launch next month which would likely make this the first high-end device out of Moto to feature BLUR ; whether that’s a good thing or not, though, is strictly a matter of personal opinion. Motorola XT720 spreading Android, BLUR to South Korea?