as you would have noticed from rather formal city wear and clean private automobiles in metropolitan Seoul, modern Koreans are specky neat about outer looks for appearance in others eyes, and on device : concern in resale value . and care for any electronics with LCD panels began on early digital cameras whose bad or dead pixels were easily noticeable mostly from much-lower resolution than today . that was for front surface film . but with the influx of iPhones and iPads, more concern rose for the whole body, front and back .
vendors gave out cheap screen films during the earliest full-screen cell phones, but easily scratched and a notch-higher price with sufficient durability came with AGF with PureMate brand of protection films, offering applying services at selective locations . then for wrapping the whole device : SGP’s “incredible Shield” line caught seeming buyers . however the early models soon gave yellowing colors inside the stuck portions .
and among an array of local brands, reputable 3M kept steady lines but too elastically soft for my taste, while I kept most of my devices in Japan’s local Power Support line, not widely sold in South Korea aside from larger telecommunication branches including KT Olleh Square in downtown Seoul and Olleh Avenue South of the Han River in KangNam . their’s was the only thumb-print resistance model that allowed clear vision through, for it is much easier to make one with rough matt surface, thus harder to distinguish crisp lines .
so the current LCD screen protection film preference battalion in South Korea is divided into PureMate, SGP, 3M and Power Support – all adhering to each user’s personal taste – of which I belong to the latter .
all the while, a small Korean company was gaining momentum with American material, researched and manufactured in the UK Great Britain England . flexible and durable material has been with us as “incredible Shield” above, but they up’ed the ante to pinch, bang hammer and even drill on their proud protection films .
and by the time iPhone 5 was released with iPad Mini and Retina Display they were poised with aggressive B2B marketing to poise themselves as a top seller in South Korea with continuingly innovative designs, including a thinnest film to insert even when attaching a rear-fitting case .
and in a funny trial of paradox when Apple hasn’t yet began selling iPhone 5 in South Korea yet : as their above ‘intension Panel’ (thick front screen shield than film) for iPhone 5 launching event : they are giving out matching rear-side film if you purchase this Week until Friday 23rd November .
they just also introduced this hard-plastic case out-lining iPhone 5’s own horizontal seam :
I just tried their iPad Mini film for front AND back, where you have either glossy transparent OR matt thumb-print resistant option for the front, while the back comes in thumb-print resistant . and no surprise here, for the thumb-print resistant front is too coarse to read tiny letters imprinted on iPad Mini, more-over because the device is a shrunk iPad 2 thus NOT Retina Display . you even feel (not hear) the scratch as you swipe pages, although NOT as extreme as squeaking a chalk over a chalk-board .
so still untested, while they may have reached their durability goal, more improvement needed to achieve true thumb-print resistant technology with improved transparency . makers who state thumb-print resistant models have to made with ruff surface, opting the easy-way out : should begin carving them for the blind to recognize .
Where to Buy [ Tesla 102 Stores ]
Tesla 102’s original name seems to be 102 for their web-page and product names still reflect this, and a wide array of stores carrying their brand products :
- mighty Harrods in London, and the rest is South Korea, folks :
- Apple-endorsed stores : a# Shop and Concierge (very incomprehensible name for an Apple Premium ReSeller or what-ever, but they are about the most varied locations unlike earlier competitors who stick to epidome shopping crossings AND nice Applish interior)
- larger telecommunication branches of KT and SKT cellular carriers,
- major department stores : ShinSeGae and HyunDai,
- and even HomePlus supermart run by above ShinSaeGae,
- as well as Korean Fuji Film On-Line STore,
- lastly they even operate their direct-run kiosk at the entrance of CGV iMAX Theatre ! on the sixth floor of the reverable iPark Mall atop YongSan KTX bullet train Station ~ Tel.02-2012-1819
[ Visit to Tesla 102 Office HeadQuarters on NamSan (South Mountain) SEOUL ]
fortunately, with a spice of Luck I had my share of the All-American Dream, soon-after even the gaie sejour a Paris, Thanks to the old Ernest Hemmingway and the Sea, actually for his pleasant memoirs when he was young, Really but again that is another story .. although I am NOT a fan of the Korean counterpart, where you have to get rich quickly any-which-way to stumble out of war-torn days among a much-similar mass-populace AND betrayed by the usual combo of local supposed-friends, I began having HOPE for the land and its people, after teaming-up with a small-but-potential i.T. information technology company, and touring nuclear power plants along Korean shores to meet their much-responsible technicians . and here is an impressive glimpse of another young local company, staffed with hopefully able youngsters :
yes you can simply imput the address onto iPhone – BUT better either of Daum or Naver maps, for the new Apple map contained in iOS6 is bare-bone, compared to Google which finally caught-on recently, which they dumped – but will triangulate here since it is located smack in the middle of mighty land-marks : YongSan US Base to the South, Hilton Hotel to the West and Hyatt to the East . so yes, it is atop NamSan translating to South Mountain . if you want to get healthy and exercise : you can hike-up either from
- Seoul KTX Train Station or Subway Line 1 or 4 Seoul Station – all inter-connected underground – Exits 10 or 11 then up East towards HooAmDong,
- (closest) again a station South at Subway Line 4 Exits 2 or 3 and further East then up North through the old Seoul residential area,
- OR Seoul Subway Line 6 NokSaPyeong Station Exit 2 and up North through HaeBanCheon’s modest old mountain-side neighborhood,
however their employees take the bus :
- number 402 from Seoul Train Station, going through HanNam expatriate district South to the posh KangNam, or
- number 405 from City Hall “ShiChung” and NamDaeMun (South Market), again passing HanNamDong but this time piercing iTaewon (where GLBT, G.i’s, hungry English teachers and curious Koreans cross path) and South to the French residence of BanPo,
easy with “JeonGeuk Bus” (nation-wide bus) App, and get off at “HooAm YankSooTeo” meaning HooAm (name of the safe neighborhood) natural mountain water . meaning, there /should/ be a pleasant watering-hole just North of here ..
be a Boy Scout and go by my direction alone, and at the worst : you will get lost the /real/ Korean residential neighborhood old Seoul used to be .. before the KangNam real-estate boom, just South of the Han River from here . anyone you ask directions here won’t be the nasty, spoiled student you teach 😉
and this is just like working in the 8th arrondissement in Paris, with a view of the Eiffel Tower ! for you are right below its Korean counter-part : NamSan Tower, although there is no way to hike up straight ahead -_-
Tesla 102 head-quarters is an alley down South, parallel to this mountain-top road stretching from Hilton Hotel at West to Hyatt Hotel on East, with a futuristic European electronics magnate Philips show-room a bus station East from here .
when you get down look for this glass building as reference point, right next to which is your distination . and as you will notice from the mural and name panel on the ground floor : this building is a Korean temple 0o0 um, the post-Modern version adapted to metropolitan life duh
4th floor of this walk-up building is Tesla 102 office and you can either bring-in LCD screen films already bought OR can purchase here, with CASH though . after inquiry, the actual personnel who appears on their instruction video will come to stick their product onto your glitzy new iPhone 5 or iPad Mini or Retina Display ~
“I saw Nichola Tesla swimming on top of Taipei 101”
– Korea Tech BLog, mid-November 2012 –
