South Korean electronics giant Samsung has upgraded its Smart TV range. The upgrades were announced at CES international 2012, Samsung promises “smarter interaction, smart content and smart evolution,” or simply put, a better TV.
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The shiny new additions to Samsung’s Smart TV range include:
Remote free options
Much like Microsoft’s ultra-successful Kinect, Samsung now wants its TVs to respond to human gestures, face recognition and voice control. The newer TVs will come standard with dual-microphones and an HD-camera. Turning on the TV or changing channels can be done by simply uttering the words “Hi TV” or “Channel up/down”. The volume, meanwhile, can be increased by pointing a hand at the TV.
A ‘PC-lite’ experience
The current range of Samsung Smart TVs come with downloadable apps. Samsung plans to extent this functionality even further, changing its AllShare service (cloud services) to “AllShare Play”. Users will now be able to pull content manually from mobile devices or other Smart TV’s. Samsung will further customise each TV with one of three software packages, namely “Family Story, Fitness and Kids”.
Truly future-proof
The term “future-proof” is bandied around like an ill-fitting marketing term whenever a new device is launched. Samsung, though, aims to live up to this statement. Samsung TVs will now have system-on-chip technology which reportedly integrates with “Samsung’s Evolution Kit”. How this will work is still unknown.
According to president and head of the consumer electronics division at Samsung Electronics Boo-Keun Yoon, this is Samsung’s “best new TV experience”:
“The TV is the heart of our homes, and is the central device that connects our family at the end of a long day. For Samsung, this means providing the future of Smart TV now — through new TVs that recognise and respond to you, connect your family in and out of the home, and offer amazing new content options personalised to your lifestyle and needs. Further, to extend the new TV experience and equip families with future technologies, Samsung has created the ability to scale up your TV each year — ensuring the best new TV experience for years to come.”
