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Android Tablet Gives Rare Glimpse At North Korean Tech

Posted by samzenpus on from the best-korean-tablet dept.

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."

35 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. Lame summary by master_kaos · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You know, maybe it would be actually nice to list a few examples of the restrictions in the summary to see if I care to even read the article or not. (Yeah, yeah I know this is slashdot, who even reads the article.. even more reason to post examples)

    1. Re:Lame summary by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's so restricted that the submitter couldn't.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:Lame summary by barlevg · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The article doesn't actually go into too much more detail (TV tuner only has access to two channels and can't be re-tuned, can't access the internet...), so it's not really the fault of the summary.

    3. Re:Lame summary by evilviper · · Score: 4, 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.

      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
    4. Re:Lame summary by quenda · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Summary:

      • * The software is locked down so that counter-revolutionaries are unable to modify the firmware, as approved by Dear Leader.
      • * Any attempt to bypass these restrictions can have you thrown in prison.
      • * All communications to or from the device are intercepted by the State Security Apparatus.
      • * Even telling people of the existence of this surveillance system can have you tortured and imprisoned indefinitely without trial .

      I'm so glad I live in an enlightened democracy, instead of that totalitarian hell hole.
       

    5. Re:Lame summary by Qzukk · · Score: 3, Informative

      False

      Skylarov was arrested by the FBI and jailed for allegedly violating the United States' Digital Millennium Copyright Act

      --
      If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
    6. Re:Lame summary by avgjoe62 · · Score: 2
      Go to the seventh quote down, the one by G. J. Goschen from 1894 on this page: obligatory xkcd comic

      Everything old is new again.

      --

      How come Slashdot never gets Slashdotted?

    7. Re:Lame summary by dbIII · · Score: 2

      What makes it even more bizzare is that the code he "broke" is the same one that was written about by none other than Julius Caesar. That's right, Adobe's big secret was uniformly shifting letters a few positions in the alphabet. They called for the arrest of Skylarov but not for the arrest of Kellogs for putting a device that could break Adobe's code on the back of cereal boxes (the code wheel toy) or the arrest of all the children that have used the thing.
      Aren't you happy that the DMCA means the taxpayer gets to pay for such stupidity? Keeping someone in jail for around a year and running a court case, even one which gets thrown out on day one, isn't cheap and Adobe didn't directly contribute a cent to it.

  2. TV by Dan+East · · Score: 4, 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.

    --
    Better known as 318230.
    1. Re:TV by MichaelSmith · · Score: 5, Informative

      I've never heard of an integrated TV tuner in a tablet.

      Thats quite common with mobile phones in South Korea.

      --
      http://michaelsmith.id.au
    2. Re:TV by _merlin · · Score: 4, 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.

    3. Re:TV by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 4, 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

  3. When you turn it on... by ackthpt · · Score: 2

    It turns you in.

    I wonder how many North Koreans could even afford such a device.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    1. Re:When you turn it on... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2, Interesting

      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 see shopping centers, with parking lots full of cars. But wait ... didn't your government tell you that North Korea was a dirt poor economic basket case? What is going on? Either North Korea really isn't as poor as you were told, or else PDRK agents have infiltrated Google and replaced 120,000 sq km of satellite photos. You decide.

    2. Re:When you turn it on... by Pulzar · · 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.

      --
      Never underestimate the bandwidth of a 747 filled with CD-ROMs.
    3. Re:When you turn it on... by number11 · · Score: 2

      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.

    4. Re:When you turn it on... by BeerCat · · Score: 2

      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", clearly it's "as many as will want to save up"

      --
      "She's furniture with a pulse"
    5. Re:When you turn it on... by cdrudge · · Score: 4, 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?

    6. Re:When you turn it on... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Small towns? Just compare Hamhung, North Korea's second largest city and Busan, South Korea's second.

      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, 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.

    7. Re:When you turn it on... by DigiShaman · · Score: 2

      Most of that was built prior to the fall of the USSR. Almost of their buildings and most of their infrastructure is in a dilapidated state. Power generation is kept at a minimum accept for the core parts of the capitol and during the great games season. For repairs that can be done, it's just the facade.

      The nation is falling a part, and so is their military hardware.

      The next famine they have, I'm willing to bet the Kim dynasty rule will be over with military infighting over who will take over. Regardless who wins that civil war, the victor still wont be friendly to the US. Regardless, N.Korea is on borrowed time and the top echelon knows it!

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    8. Re:When you turn it on... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2, Interesting

      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 when the US government tries to shovel propaganda in my direction. Especially when there is objective evidence, such as satellite photos, that contradict the official party line.

    9. Re:When you turn it on... by DigiShaman · · Score: 5, Informative

      There have been walk-through documentaries of people taking a trip to N.Korea. The before and after images of pre and post Soviet Union era is remarkable. Once the USSR fell, China was the only major supplier. Today, support is limited and N.Korea is effectively on its own. Which is ironic given the heavy emphasis on Juche philosophy of self-reliance. You've seen the NASA imagery from space showing N.Korea a virtual black hole in comparison to neighboring nations, right? There is little to no electricity being used.

      I'm also married to a Chinese woman. Actually, she prefers being identified as Shanghainese for obvious reasons. The Chinese are not monolithic in culture. Which BTW is perfectly normal given the vast history and massive size of its nation. Anyways, I've traveled the countryside with her. Not some western group tour guide, but an actual you're-on-you're-own-don't-get-lost-because-no-one-will-save-you sort of trip. The disparage in wealth in China is incomprehensible to most Americans. It's bad enough even in the major cities (pan handlers being pimped out, etc). But get out into the country side and you will haggle over the cost of using a public restroom for only a few fen. Good grief!!

      Was my government lying about China and how bad the "societal reboot" was caused by the cultural revolution? Absolutely not! Mao Zedong was something of a "Hugo Chevez" for his time. Bombastic and (most importantly) incompetent. Millions died due to the miss management in resources under the idea of Communism. It was only after the economic reforms of the late 70s did things improve; vastly so.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
  4. Re:North Korean Tech at it's best by jtownatpunk.net · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's not NoKo tech. It's Chinese hardware and American (and other) software imported to NoKo.

  5. Oh goody a preview of the future! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Given the war on general purpose computing , North Korea is far ahead of us technologically. We won't get this level of responsible computing for at least a few more years.

  6. Yet by Billly+Gates · · Score: 5, Funny

    Still less restrictive than a Windows Surface

    --
    http://saveie6.com/
    1. Re:Yet by ozmanjusri · · Score: 4, Funny

      And about as common...

      --
      "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
    2. Re:Yet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      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.

  7. Re: North Korean Tech at it's best by PixetaledPikachu · · Score: 3, Insightful

    He/she was probably referring to the restrictions being put inside those tablets, and probably some big brother-style tech embedded in them

  8. Re: North Korean Tech at it's best by noh8rz10 · · 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?

  9. Re: North Korean Tech at it's best by DigiShaman · · Score: 2

    Packet capture everything coming and going out of it. I'm curious to know what exactly it "phones home" and if there's any correlation to user input or function engaged on the device.

    --
    Life is not for the lazy.
  10. Re:puff piece by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    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!!!!!!

  11. Re: North Korean Tech at it's best by Gadget_Guy · · Score: 3, 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.

  12. Read the Propraganda by Ottibus · · 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 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.

    1. Re:Read the Propraganda by Ottibus · · Score: 2

      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.

  13. Re: North Korean Tech at it's best by lxs · · Score: 2, Insightful

    and probably some big brother-style tech embedded in them

    So you're saying that it runs vanilla Android?