Posts tagged Android
Glorious Leader video game plots North Korean tale
May 16th
An Atlanta-based start-up game studio has set North Korea as the ambitious target of its first video game.
Moneyhorse Games revealed some demonstration gameplay video and screenshots from the game, “Glorious Leader,” earlier this week. It’s due out towards the end of 2014 and will be available on Android and possibly other platforms, according to Jeff Miller, who runs the company.
Miller said his inspiration for the game came from an interest with North Korea.
Gamers will play the role of Kim Jong Un who, as he prepares to play a friendly basketball game against Dennis Rodman and friends, is forced to give up More >
Review: The North Korea travel app
May 16th
Whether you’re heading to Pyongyang on an organized tour or fancy a spot of armchair North Korean travel, there’s now an app for that.
Last week, London-based Uniquely Travel launched what it calls the “ultimate travel guide” to the DPRK. The app, available for iOS and Android, contains details on just over 350 items of interest for tourists, including hotels, restaurants, museums and beauty spots.
You can delve into the entries in the app in two ways. One is through a comprehensive alphabetical list organized by category and the other is by region, divided by North Korean county and then major cities.
The app provides More >
Lost phone found in Pyongyang?
Feb 28th
A smartphone that was lost in South Korea has apparently surfaced in Pyongyang.
A South Korean Internet used posted a screenshot from Google’s Android Device Manager that shows the phone on Sungri Street (승리거리) in Pyongyang. The page says the location accuracy is 75 meters.
Curtis Melvin, author of North Korea Economy Watch and authority on places in the DPRK, told me Sungri Street runs through the central district in Pyongyang. It’s marked on Google Maps and is the road that dissects Kim Il Sung Square.
It hasn’t been possible to verify the story, but the SHV-E210S is the model name of a Samsung Galaxy More >
Did North Korea pirate Angry Birds?
Nov 11th
One of the surprises in North Korea’s recently-launched Samjiyon (삼지연) tablet was the inclusion of Angry Birds, the globally-popular game that involves shooting animated birds to destroy structures and animated pigs.
In July, when I was reviewing the Samjiyon, I contacted game-maker Rovio to ask about its inclusion in the device. Despite several attempts to get comment, the company never replied.
Last week, The Washington Post managed to have a bit more luck.
A spokesman for the developer said via e-mail: “Angry Birds Rio has not been localized into Korean, and Rovio Entertainment has no affiliation with the version of the game being shown on the Samjiyon More >
Exclusive: North Korea’s Samjiyon tablet — Made in China?
Aug 4th
One of the most interesting questions surrounding North Korea’s Samjiyon tablet is its source. State media reports not withstanding, the tablet is almost certainly not made in North Korea — the country just doesn’t have the electronics manufacturing capability to design products like tablet computers from the components up.
And anyway, why bother? Companies in Taiwan and China offer many finished tablet designs that are widely used, even by well-known western brand names, so why go through the work and expense of designing something from scratch?
North Korea’s IT expertise is in software and that’s where the Samjiyon is very North Korean. There More >
Review: Samjiyon tablet
Aug 1st
North Korea, like the rest of the world, is getting hooked on tablet computers. In the last year, state media has highlighted three different tablet computers that are now, according to the reports, available in the country.
The latest of these, the Samjiyon (삼지연), is also on sale to foreigners and one of the tablets was recently purchased by a tech-savvy tourist. The tourist, Michael, doesn’t want to use his surname, but I’ve spoken extensively with him via e-mail, phone and Skype video chat about the tablet and how it performs.
The Samjiyon first appeared to the world at the 8th Pyongyang Autumn International Trade More >
Samjiyon Android tablet debuts at Pyongyang trade fair
Sep 28th
A North Korean company says it has developed a tablet computer based on Google’s Android operating system, according to reports from the 8th Pyongyang Autumn International Trade Fair currently taking place.
There’s little actual information on the tablet computer, which was shown in photo coverage by the Associated Press and North Korean state TV. It’s made by a company called “Chosun Computer,” which doesn’t appear to have received any previous coverage in western or North Korean media.
You can see the AP photo on The Wall Street Journal’s Korea Realtime blog, which also talks about the computer. The AP didn’t run a story from More >
