Data Firmware

Elote in Korea

I had to laugh when I read this article:

Photo source: Newsis

Home plus, the Korean arm of U.K. food giant Tesco, has introduced a recipe for corn on its website with an interesting name: "drug corn."
The recipe calls for sautéing canned corn with butter, mayonnaise, cream and sugar. [Korea Times]

For those of you who grew up in areas with a large Mexican population, this might sound a lot like the elote that the old grandfather pushing his cart sells at baseball games. Ah, memories... This Homeplus version of "?????" seems more a ploy taking advantage of recent Honey Butter Mania to promote some imported products (that Tesco canned corn and parmesan), so I guess its mostly done with corn off-the-cob. Mmm but look at those cobs there... my mouth is watering, though my ?? is having mixed feelings.

I wonder how long until the chaebols start ripping off the paleteria man? ;-)

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Air Quality card in Google Now in Korea

I noticed a new card appearing yesterday in my Google Now stack, an Air Quality card:


Must have been that breezy winter storm that cleared the air, because that seems to be the cleanest Ive ever seen it. Ive blacked out my location, which was accurate to the "-gu" level.

I quite like this feature, as I used to have a bookmark in Chrome to check out the air quality. I wonder if Google noticed this in my web history and thats why it started displaying the card? Id be curious to know if any other Google Now users in Korea are seeing this.

It seems the info is provided by the "Korea Environment Corporation"; when you tap the bottom of the card, it takes you to their, how can I put it lightly, non-mobile-optimized homepage.

I did a quick Google search for "Google Now air quality card" and saw nothing in the results. Could it be a new feature? Any one outside Korea seeing it? Maybe a nice little Christmas gift for us Korean Google fans? ^_^

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Bing Maps shows driving directions in Korea

Following up from my last post, I further explored Bing Maps coverage of Korea, and discovered that it provides driving directions in English for within Korea. This is a fairly big deal, as that makes Bing the only free mapping service I know of that can do this in English.

Google, of course, provides public transit directions in English, but does not provide driving routes in Korea (again, see here or here for reasons why that is). Naver and Daum of course provide both driving and public transport routes, but are limited to Korean-langauge only. So if youre planning a drive in Korea, and dont read hangul well, or simply find using English easier, try planning your journey in Bing Maps.



The downside is that the directions are confusing, as they only include turn-by-turn steps without the actual street names. Youll need to follow along very closely, clicking the text of each step to view the appropriate step on the map. This makes it most suitable for pre-planning a local, short-range drive. It would be very difficult to utilize this for a longer journey.

Let me show you what I mean.

Bing Maps driving directions in Korea

Last time we visited Lotte World, so lets plan a drive from Lotte World in Seoul down to popular Haeundae Beach (???????) in Busan.

See this route for yourself on Bing here.

Bing Maps driving directions

Bing correctly identified my origin and destination, and planned an accurate driving route. The problem is, youll notice, that the step-by-step turn directions are very vague. "Right turn, 0.3 miles" is useful, but really only so if I know onto which road to turn.

Bing Maps driving directions

Clicking that instruction ("Right turn, 0.3 miles") will show you the maneuver on the map, which gives you an idea of what to do, and shows that that right turn should be onto Olympic-ro. But having to do this with every single step makes it inefficient for all but the shortest journeys.

Other services compared

We can contrast Bings offerings with those of the other major portals.

Naver Maps driving directions

Daum Maps driving directions

Interestingly, both Naver and Daum predict a travel time of exactly 4 hours 42 minutes. Bing gave 4:21 and 4:35. Make of that what you will. Unlike the Bing directions, you can see in the Naver image the step-by-step route guide includes the names of the streets, as is expected. In Daum you would see the same after clicking the arrow to expand.

Side note: You can see in the Daum imagery that Olleh Navigation (?? ??) is also an option. This is a full turn-by-turn navigation app [Android / iOS] that is quite popular in Korea, and functions similarly to the Google Maps "Navigation" feature in other countries. Unfortunately its only available in Korean. You can see it in action here, but personally I find it a bit distracting to be yelled at by a robotic Korean female voice when I miss the proper turn.
There are other choices for full nagivation apps that work in Korea. Check this Reddit post for popular suggestions, including the also popular ??? [Android / iOS] app.

How about Google? Its interface is available in English, but of course, no driving directions. So what does it offer?

Google Maps transit directions

Google Maps flights

Google does show public transit routes with English descriptions, while the stations and lines are in Korean, but no driving routes. Surprisingly, it also recommended a flight!

Overall, its nice to see Bing being a pioneer in offering free English mapping in Korea. Over at the official Bing blog, they talk about the process for elaborating and detailing these updated maps:

We’ve integrated a full stack of services for our users, including address geocoding (both new and old address formats), business search, as well as directions and traffic. Notice the high level of detail within the maps. You can see just about every amenity within Korea including building footprints, landmarks on the map and even soccer fields! [Bing Blogs]

The generous English labeling on its maps, and English driving directions, are great, but Im not sure how ultimately useful it is right now. Still, its worth checking out, and I hope they continue to expand their offerings.

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360° YouTube videos in Korea

If youve never watched a 360-degree movie on YouTube, you should give it a try. You can move your Android phone all around and it acts as a window onto the scene-- you see what youd see if you were looking in that direction. Some of the 360 videos Ive seen out there are amazing.

UPDATE 2015-08
Well the word is out. There is now a fairly large number of 360° videos available that are set in Korea, and it is growing every day. I wont bother updating anymore with every single new item I find. Just search for yourself. Some of these are very cool, and if you have a Cardboard viewer (I picked one up for less than $4 on G-Market), are pretty immersive. I like the map below your feet on this tour of Changgyeonggung palace:
? YouTube - Tour of Korea - Changgyeonggung Palace, Seoul [360 Video]

UPDATE 2015-07:
It seems even North Korea has gotten the 360° treatment!
? YouTube - North Korea 360 Video ( Young Pioneer Tours - 2015 June Tour )
Additionally, big-name boy group Infinite have gotten on the 360 bandwagon.
? YouTube - ????(INFINITE) "Bad" Official MV (360 VR)

UPDATE 2015-06:
YouTube user ????(Verest) 360 VR features several 360° videos of K-pop dance rehearsals (among other things), including videos from girl-group Bambino (???, images slightly NSFW). Boy, we are just a step or two away from, well, you know. Heres one of the Bambino videos:



Verest seems to be a new-media contents group, so we might expect more such 360 videos from them. Watch their YouTube page and Facebook page for more. Hat Tip to /u/icecreammachine for posting this.

And, here are some examples from YouTuber LittleKing. One was taken at Herb Island, the other while wake-boarding near what appears to be Cheongdam Bridge (?) in Seoul. The quality on these arent that great, but you can check them out here (links work best when opened on your Android phone):
? YouTube - 360 Degree Video Korea Herb Island
? YouTube - 360 Degree Video Korea Wakeboarding 

Another nice example here from inside the grounds of Changgyeonggung Palace:
? YouTube - Tour of Korea - Changgyeonggung Palace, Seoul [360 Video]

All of these were found by keeping an eye on this YouTube search for "korea" filtering for "360°". I set-up a Google Alert for it.

There are loads of sites in Korea (palaces, temples, festivals) just waiting to get the full-on 360 treatment. So K-bloggers, get your special cameras out there! Id love to be able to feature more such videos in the future, and if you do find any other 360° YouTube videos in Korea, let me know in the comments.

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