Android Tablet Gives Rare Glimpse At North Korean Tech 125
alphadogg writes "An Android tablet brought back from North Korea by a tourist has provided a glimpse at some of the restrictions placed on IT users in the famously secretive country. The Samjiyon is the third tablet to have gone on sale in North Korea. It was unveiled at a trade show in the capital, Pyongyang, last September and received some coverage on state television, but few westerners have had a chance to see it up close. The tablet was likely manufactured outside of North Korea and the hardware itself is fairly unremarkable, but the software and the usage restrictions placed on the device provide some insights about life in the country."
Re:North Korean Tech at it's best (Score:4, Insightful)
It's not NoKo tech. It's Chinese hardware and American (and other) software imported to NoKo.
Re: North Korean Tech at it's best (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: North Korean Tech at it's best (Score:5, Funny)
He/she was probably referring to the restrictions being put inside those tablets, and probably some big brother-style tech embedded in them
... what, are they running iOS then?
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and probably some big brother-style tech embedded in them
So you're saying that it runs vanilla Android?
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Since he only got to tinker with it in the shop, but didn't actually buy one, then he didn't get the chance to examine it's bowels closely.
Which part of brought back did you not understand. It is quite clear he bought it for the $200 USD.
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Which doesn't claim that he actually purchased it. Or indeed, if he did purchase it, it isn't at all clear if he'd have got an export license for it. I wouldn't assume that he'd have been allow
Re: North Korean Tech at it's best (Score:4, Informative)
To be fair, this was found at the gift shop of a restaurant. That is not exactly the place you would go for the best tech bargains.
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and a rip off.
Very likely they applied a "foreigner tax" similar to what were common (it probably still is) in Shenzhen, China in the 90's where many vendors applied a Chinese, Overseas Chinese and Everybody else price. The price I would pay for some veggies or fruit in a food stall were several times higher than the price a local paid. It's a practice that most people from affluent nations that have travelled to poor countries are familiar with, it should come as no surprise that the same is done in North Korea.
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I ran into the same thing in Lancaster County, PA. Apparently there's a price/tax structure for Amish/Mennonites and everyone else. I bought some items at a farm stand, and noticed that there were two registers - one used for 'locals' and the other for 'the English'. Not sure why there's a difference. I'm fairly certain the totals were different, but I'm not sure if it was the price or the tax.
Lame summary (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Lame summary (Score:5, Funny)
It's so restricted that the submitter couldn't.
Re:Lame summary (Score:4, Interesting)
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Welcome to the modern world, where page long summaries are given their own shorter summaries, because no one important wants actual details (and by "important" I mean people who aren't us). To change this would require finding journalists who know how to do journalism, and if we did find such people there would be so few of them that they'd have to focus on more important stuff.
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People smart enough to be real journalists go in to a field that pays more than journalism. Most of the time.
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Or perhaps the real world doesn't actually work the simplistic way young ideology likes to think. The hard cold reality of deadlines, market, and responsibilities outside of career get in the way of producing work of the caliber that dudes on the internet without enough time to read the article demand.
The people 'smart enough' and organized/driven enough to really shine aren't wasting their time posting on comments on Slashdot about articles they didn't read.
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Everything old is new again.
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There was the bombshell that it has Angry Birds preinstalled.
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Re:Lame summary (Score:5, Informative)
Wifi doesn't work (or perhaps is configured for a few preselected networks only). And the TV tuner only gets 4 channels, so you can't watch the channels being broadcast by South Korea. And it doesn't have Google's common apps.
That's really it... TFA is super-crap.
Re:Lame summary (Score:5, Insightful)
Summary:
I'm so glad I live in an enlightened democracy, instead of that totalitarian hell hole.
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Re:Lame summary (Score:4, Informative)
False [wikipedia.org]
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Aren't you happy that the DMCA means the taxpaye
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If he was not thrown in prison, then how was he released?
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Oh look a puff piece on a disgusting regime. Anything that could give this government even a shred of legitimacy should be boycotted.
RUNNING DOG of capitalist exploiter! You BRAINWASHED by PROPAGANDA of YANKEE IMPERIALIST!!! Want censor truth of glorious DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC of KOREA paradise for working mans and womans. NOT TO CRITICIZE BELOVED LEADER!!!!!!
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Yes! Go frack yourself Obama! Oh we weren't talking about a regime that circumcised their citizen's right? Lock people without reasons or warrants?
I feel like I'm in an episode of The Sopranos. :)
TV (Score:5, Informative)
The most interesting thing to me is that it includes an analog TV tuner, which is preset to only receive a handful of specific channels controlled by the state. I've never heard of an integrated TV tuner in a tablet.
The only other "unique" thing about the tablet is that he couldn't get the wifi to connect to anything, yet there is a web browser with 4 bookmarks to North Korean sites. The author surmises that it will only connect to hotspots that are proprietary in some way.
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The most interesting thing to me is that it includes an analog TV tuner, which is preset to only receive a handful of specific channels controlled by the state.
In a state where all the channels are controlled by the state, is it really significant that the channels that a TV bought there can tune is also controlled by the state? What difference does it make?
Re:TV (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah,it is important, because in Asia you can relatively easily point your antenna across the border and get overseas channels if your TV can tune/decode them. In Vietnam you can pick up Cambodian, Thai and Chinese TV channels, and the TV sets sold there have a massive array of options to let you choose colour standard, field rate, audio subcarrier frequency, etc. to ensure that you can decode and view anything you can receive. DPKR doesn't look so kindly on such features.
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Yeah,it is important, because in Asia you can relatively easily point your antenna across the border and get overseas channels if your TV can tune/decode them. In Vietnam you can pick up Cambodian, Thai and Chinese TV channels, and the TV sets sold there have a massive array of options to let you choose colour standard, field rate, audio subcarrier frequency, etc. to ensure that you can decode and view anything you can receive. DPKR doesn't look so kindly on such features.
You can pick up those channels in Australia if you've got a big enough dish.
The problem for the average NRNK'er is that getting the equipment is difficult. They could probably trade some rice and eggs across the border, but minefields and machine guns are a bitch to deal with.
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Except the tablet's TV tuner is res
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As someone else here pointed out, it's apparently fairly common in the ROK.
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No it's significant that it has a TV tuner at all because most western tablets don't
But many asian mobile phones DO have TV tuners. It seems a natural extension that they would put them in tablets also.
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VHF TV channels can routinely travel 100miles+. That would mean at least the southern-half of the country could be exposed to TV broadcasts from South Korea from across the border.
However, radio is probably much better. AM/MW radio can travel up to 1,000 miles, and can be received with as little as a coil of wire (see: fox-hole radios). Simple AM radio can be extremely tiny, so easy to hide, and easy to make with a handful of electronics components and some skill.
South Korean TV isn't analog anymore (Score:2)
Therefore there is no way that the tablet in question will be able to pick up any SK TV broadcast even if it was not restricted.
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South Korea has a history of international broadcasting. If citizens of NK could tune-in the signal, the south would be only too happy to keep an analog tower transmitting near the DMZ. It's probably only because the north has locked down receivers so much that the south isn't even trying anymore.
And besides that, you're talking about a TV tuner connected to a CPU... There's very much a possibility of custom software taking the digital signal from the analog tuner, and decoding it. There's some difficul
Re:TV (Score:5, Informative)
I've never heard of an integrated TV tuner in a tablet.
Thats quite common with mobile phones in South Korea.
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TFA also says the tablet has YouTube replaced by an NK state substitute on their national intranet. So you can enjoy videos of military parades and lolztastic NK propaganda.
Re: TV (Score:2)
Re:TV (Score:5, Interesting)
I've never heard of an integrated TV tuner in a tablet.
When I was in Seoul a few months ago I was surprised to learn that almost all smartphones in Korea include a integrated TV turner, complete with antenna. You could see all these people commuting on the train watching broadcast TV - Even on flip-phones.
http://modernseoul.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/south-korea-vs-qatar-cell-phone-tv.jpg [wordpress.com]
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Not a bad idea. I never understood why so many music players don't also come with radio tuners.
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In several countries, especially in Europe, this would make you subject to a TV licence [wikipedia.org], which can be quite hefty. In Norway that is $400–500 a year, other countries vary. In South Korea [wikipedia.org], instead, it is only $30, so I guess people do not care as much. Sometimes TV licences are on a per-user or per-household basis instead of per-device, so maybe Koreans already pay for this at home.
Also, there are additional
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In Italy, the SIAE (the local branch of the MAFIAA) routinely raids weddings to levy fines to anyone playing recorded music (most people hire live musicians instead nowadays, given how expensive the licence is).
I wonder what happens if they try raiding a (real) mafia wedding...
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Is it 1seg or analogue? I don't know about Korea but in Japan and a few other countries they have a digital system that uses "segments", with channels allocated a different number of segments based on its requirements (mobile/SD/HD etc.) All channels are mandated to have a 1seg version that mobile devices can receive. It only runs at 15fps and some low resolution but is supposed to work better in urban areas.
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I had a $50 Chinese dual simcard phone which had a TV tunner and an ugly small antenna in 2008 :) It looked like a ripped off Nokia phone but sometimes it was better than the nokia.
The reception was ok if the Antena was in proper direction.
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It is still being sold (for $35).
See this for example: http://www.lelong.com.my/emusic-tv-mobile-phone-white-colour-bestrade-133750967-2013-08-Std-P.htm [lelong.com.my]
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My el cheapo Android tablet from China has an inbuilt TV tuner, complete with a decent sized antenna. It's analogue TV only, so it's no good to me but interesting nonetheless.
When you turn it on... (Score:3)
It turns you in.
I wonder how many North Koreans could even afford such a device.
TOP level government workers (Score:2)
TOP level government workers
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I wonder how many North Koreans could even afford such a device.
Probably a lot more than you think. Try this: Use Google maps to look at Seoul, South Korea. Put it in "satellite" mode. Now pan north about thirty miles. You will see a very green strip of land devoid of any human features. That is the DMZ. Keep going north. You will soon see lots of signs of human activity again. You are now looking at North Korea. Now zoom in. You will see roads. Paved roads. With cars on them. You will see houses, not as big as in the south, but not shacks either. You will
Re:When you turn it on... (Score:5, Insightful)
You should follow you own advice and look at places other than the capital. It's pretty common for capitals of dictatorships to be at a significantly higher level of standard of living compared to the rest of the country..
Pick one of the smaller cities and zoom in.. you are indeed going to see lots of randomly scattered shacks.
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Pick one of the smaller cities and zoom in.. you are indeed going to see lots of randomly scattered shacks.
That is true for most countries on the planet. Agriculture doesn't pay well, especially on small scale and when not assisted by the government. Small towns cannot support large industrial base. If you drive on county roads in the USA you will see plenty of towns that haven't changed in last 100 or 200 years - except some have a gas station.
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Small towns? Just compare Hamhung, North Korea's second largest city [goo.gl] and Busan, South Korea's second [goo.gl].
Note that most of Hamhung's south part is fertilizer plant's territory
Note how small it is compared to Busan - FFS, Busan's comparable in size with Pyongang [goo.gl], except one's sprawled around and another one's compact.
Note how abruptly civilization is cut and just about 1-2km west it's randomly scattered shacks.
Re:When you turn it on... (Score:5, Interesting)
Parking lots for of cars? According to this several year old article, there's less than 30,000 cars for a country of 24m people. DFW airport has approximately enough parking for all of NK's vehicles.
Regardless, a $200 LCD screen that is useless for the average citizen seem to be an expensive luxury item where a car, if they somehow got permission to own one, may be necessary just to get around. How many people in the US or Europe have a vehicle but don't have a tablet?
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According to this several year old article
What article?
there's less than 30,000 cars for a country of 24m people.
Why should I believe your "report" instead of believing Google's photos?
$200 LCD screen
$200?? Tablets like this sell in China for less than $50 at full retail. Probably less than half that in quantity directly from the factory.
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The nation is falling a part, and so is their military hardware.
Do you have any evidence to support this assertion? Or are you just parroting what your government told you to believe?
I have no first hand knowledge of North Korea (and I doubt you do either). But I grew up in America and heard lots of stories about the terrible conditions in Communist China. Then I went to China. I lived there for years, made dozens of friends, married a Chinese woman, started a family, started a business. It was absolutely nothing like what I was told. So I am extremely skeptical w
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Read the Propraganda (Score:2)
I am extremely skeptical when the US government tries to shovel propaganda in my direction.
You should be skeptical of all propaganda, but it does tell you a lot about the country that produces it. Try reading some North Korean propaganda: http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm [kcna.co.jp] and tell me what sort of country produces something like that.
So while I am certain that life in North Korea is nothing like we are told, I douubt that it is significantly better than it appears to be from the outside.
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Try reading some North Korean propaganda
I can't because I don't understand Korean. But years ago, I remember reading the same sort of ridiculous claims, in English, about China. Then I learned Mandarin, and learned to read Chinese. I went back and read some of those documents in the original Chinese. The English translations put out by the US government were complete distortions of what was actually said. They would take common idioms like "raining cats and dogs" and translate it literally, when that clearly was not the real meaning (and Chi
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Try reading some North Korean propaganda
I can't because I don't understand Korean.
You make a valid point about translations provided by adversaries, but the link I gave was in English and provided directly by North Korea.
Something familiar... (Score:2)
You should be skeptical of all propaganda, but it does tell you a lot about the country that produces it. Try reading some North Korean propaganda: http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm [kcna.co.jp] and tell me what sort of country produces something like that.
Let's take a look at some of the current articles, shall we?
War Veteran Delegates Leave
Delegation of Korean War Veterans of Russia Leaves
S. Korean Believers Slam IS's Interference in Election
S. Korean Students Protest against IS's Interference in Election
DPRK's Victory in War Marked in Bulgaria, Czech Republic
Anniversary of Korean People's Victory in War Celebrated in Various Countries
Kim Jong Un Meets Women Soccer Players
Kim Jong Un Watches Men's Soccer Match
Hey, it looks pretty similar to Slashdot to me!
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Today the heavy bullshit is piled onto successful democratic leftist South American countries, particularly those in the ALBA group. They're all communist hellholes ruled by brutal dictators dontcha know.
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The satellite photos are exactly why I believe the so-called "party line" that North Korea is backwards.
North Korea at night [zenfs.com]
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So you're saying that the Chinese standard of living increased drastically from when you were a child to when you were an adult?
People remember things from long ago. You need to extrapolate on that.
I still remember my uncle warning me about travelling on trains in Japan, because people would carry human waste in buckets for the fields. He was there in 1946.
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How can we tell? It was a mere basket case until the 1970s when it turned into an utter hellhole.
It's had an artificial famine for decades that hasn't stopped.
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A little bit of both. NK has built nice-looking dummy villages within sight of the DMZ and also likes to build unused structures in the capital for propaganda purposes (like that big ominous empty hotel tower rumored to be made entirely of cast concrete, with no reinforcement). They even have an amusement park that sits unused until a foreigner wants a visit, then they'll fire it up and bring in a few busloads of random people to surround you so the place doesn't seem desolate.
And keep in mind that those de
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I did what you suggested, spent about 10 minutes looking around.
Yes, there are buildings, and yes there are cars. But, I saw hardly any cars (mainly buses, and only a handful of those), and I also didn't see any parking lots. So, either I completely missed it, or you're seeing something I'm not.
Just for kicks, I looked up a list of the world's poorest countries, and picked #1, Congo. While I don't see as many industrial/high-rise buildings in the cities (definitely many more individual homes) I see more car
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As the article says, not very many. It's $200 (USD), and the average income of a North Korean is $100/month.
Traditionally (at least in the west), a wedding ring was meant to cost one month's wages.
A car typically costs around 6 month's wages (or more)
A house used to be 3 years' salary (though with mortgage bubbles, it's common for a mortgage to be anything up to 10x salary)
So, 2 months for the average DPRK citizen to be able to afford one of these? Makes it a pretty desirable object. Therefore, there will be many in NK who will want one of these, based purely on the price. So, in answer to "how many of them", cle
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Traditionally (at least in the west), a wedding ring was meant to cost one month's wages.
A car typically costs around 6 month's wages (or more)
A house used to be 3 years' salary (though with mortgage bubbles, it's common for a mortgage to be anything up to 10x salary)
Interesting, I hadn't seen or heard of these figures before, but a quick Google search reveals you're right in many Western cultures.
From the looks of it, I underpaid for wedding ring (about 0.5 months salary); slightly overpaid for car (around 7 months salary); and don't own a house.
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Don't feel bad mate. In the UK, the only sensible option is to emigrate to Kazakhstan...
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I wonder how many North Koreans could even afford such a device.
According to TFA, it cost $200, two months' wages. Of course, that was at the hotel gift shop, and it's entirely possible that NK hotels are as good at gouging customers as hotels in other places, and that it might have been quite a bit cheaper from some other store.
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I wonder how many North Koreans could even afford such a device.
According to TFA, it cost $200, two months' wages. Of course, that was at the hotel gift shop, and it's entirely possible that NK hotels are as good at gouging customers as hotels in other places, and that it might have been quite a bit cheaper from some other store.
As most NK peoples couldn't even afford the room, these are probably for sale to Chinese who go to NK on business and are stupid enough to buy one, when they could get something much better back home.
Oh goody a preview of the future! (Score:4, Interesting)
Given the war on general purpose computing [boingboing.net] , North Korea is far ahead of us technologically. We won't get this level of responsible computing for at least a few more years.
Yet (Score:5, Funny)
Still less restrictive than a Windows Surface
Re:Yet (Score:5, Funny)
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I know its funny but it also kind of makes me angry to hear something so ignorant. Why is the Surface an example of a restrictive device, why not the iPad. And lets be very clear that the surface pro is actually a computer and the least restrictive device.
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The ipad is also an example of a restrictive device. Wow, this is complicated.
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DPRK smuggled one in a while back and reverse engineered it. They figured if that was all the tech we had, we'd be an easy conquest. Hence their new missile program.
Walled Garden (Score:1)
I thought Apple tablets were a walled garden! This sounds even worse, except for the garden part. The TV tuner part is useful, and would be useful on North American tablets for watching local digital television, except its so much more fun to waste bandwidth by broadcasting data redundantly over limited spectrum, and not just that, but terrestrial digital tv broadcasts are free, and where's the fun in that... make people pay for what they can otherwise get for free.
Tourist? (Score:1)
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Korean version of 'Angry Birds.' (Score:2)
Among several foreign software packages on the tablet is a Korean version of 'Angry Birds.' The game's maker, Rovio, didn't respond to requests for comment on its inclusion in a North Korean tablet.
That's because it's counterfeit, you fool! Look at the photo. It's clearly a hackjob. Pay particular attention to the failure to properly use an alpha channel around elements on the screen.