The Verge - Samsung at CES 2012: Smart TV, ultrabooks, Galaxy Note for AT&T, and a washing machine

Samsung will merge Bada OS into the Tizen project

2012-01-14T18:26:54Z

In an interview at CES 2012 this week, Samsung's Tae-Jin Kang has revealed his company's intention to fold Bada OS into the Intel-backed Tizen open source OS project. Bada is, or was, Samsung's homebrew effort at developing its own operating system, an effort that we were dubious about from the start. After failing to find much traction with its Wave handsets, Samsung is now wisely deciding to abandon hope of going it alone in the cutthroat mobile OS realm and is joining up with a development project that offers an opportunity for collaboration with others.

That's not to say that Tizen has much better prospects that Bada would've had on its own. Tizen is the new badge placed upon MeeGo, the formerly promising Linux-based OS that Intel...

Samsung Smart Window demonstration (video)

2012-01-14T01:05:04Z

We always thought the window was pretty mature technology, but Samsung's here at CES to prove us wrong. The Smart Window, currently in prototype phase, casts a touch-controlled interface onto transparent glass with ambient light. Samsung was demonstrating a whole range of applications, from Twitter to Microsoft Office, all touch-controlled and viewable directly on the glass. Images are viewable in daylight, and there's a nighttime mode that uses side-lighting and flipped colors. You can even draw some virtual blinds to control the flow of light. It's difficult to see how Samsung might turn this into a commercial product, but it definitely looks more useful than a transparent TV.

Samsung's Series 9 3D all-in-one PC and monitor hands-on photos

2012-01-13T22:39:05Z

We've been finishing up our look at Samsung's CES booth and came across a few more entries for its Series 9 products — a 27-inch all-in one PC plus a 27-inch monitor. One of the more unique features of the all-in-one was its 1080p 2D / 3D display, though we couldn't imagine actually using WIndows in 3D mode for any length of time. It looked fine in 2D mode, however, and does present a good option for those who want to use their all-in-one as a smaller home theater device. There isn't much detail on the full specs, but we do know there's an Intel Core i7 processor and a Radeon HD6730M graphics card with 1GB of dedicated video RAM.

As for the Series 9 display, it runs at 2,560 x 1,440, but doesn't include the 3D features found in the...

The best of Samsung's 2012 TV lineup: 75-inch Series 8 LED, 55-inch OLED, and 4K prototype display

2012-01-12T21:25:46Z

As per usual, Samsung announced a boatload of TVs during its press conference earlier in the week, so we hit the floor to pull out the highlights. The most stunning display was certainly the 55-inch OLED prototype, which we heard should be on sale by the 2nd half of the year. The viewing angles were superb, the bezel was nearly invisible, and the back was essentially a giant metal mirror — certainly one of the nicest products we've seen this week. As for products shipping sooner, Samsung's Series 8 LED TVs were nearly as impressive as the OLED and support Samsung's smart interactions. They're also even bigger — the screen tops out at 75 inches. The Series 7 and Series 8 TVs also support the new smart evolution upgrade kit, though we...

Samsung to offer FiOS smart TV app with 26 live channels, claims they'll be first to offer it

2012-01-12T17:01:11Z

Yesterday morning, we heard that LG will offer a FiOS app in its smart TVs that will let users access 26 channels of live TV, and now Samsung has announced that it will have the same app and content available on its smart TVs and connected Blu-ray players. Despite its announcement coming a day later than LG, Samsung is claiming that it'll be the first company to offer this access (though there's no launch date given from either company). Just like LG's FiOS app, Samsung will have access to 10,000 VOD titles from Verizon Flex View and only FiOS customers are eligible to use this app. The race is now on to see if Samsung can back up its words and get the FiOS smart TV app into the marketplace ahead of LG.

Samsung's Optical SmartHub streams media through AllShare Play

2012-01-12T03:20:07Z

To go along with Samsung's new AllShare Play technology, the company is launching a streaming media device know as the Optical SmartHub. There's a wireless router built-in, so you can set this box up as your primary access point and use it to serve media up from an external hard drive (there's no internal storage). If you use Samsung's AllShare Play, you can access your content anywhere you can get online, not just across a local network, so this makes for an ideal media streamer if you don't want to leave your computer running constantly. There's also a "smart backup" feature for Android phones — if you have the corresponding SmartHub app, you can back your phone's content up onto the Optical SmartHub. You can also manually back up...

Samsung's AllShare Play media streaming hands-on video

2012-01-12T01:25:17Z

At a stage in the middle of Samsung's gigantic CES booth, the company showed off the latest updates to its AllShare technology. The big star of the show was AllShare Play, a DLNA-powered service that lets you beam your media across devices running Samsung's AllShare software. In Samsung's demo, we were able to access files on a laptop running AllShare software through a Galaxy Note; we could play video directly on the device, but we were also able to beam it Airplay-style to a Wi-Fi-enabled TV that was on the same local wireless network as the Galaxy Note.

The big update is that you can access files from anywhere, not just when you're on a local network — so if you have a home computer you can leave running at all times, you can access...

Samsung Smart TV with 'Smart Interaction' (hands-on video)

2012-01-11T19:01:41Z

We just got a chance to check out Samsung's Smart TV tech at CES 2012, and we've got a hands-on video for you. The TV features Samsung's "Smart Interaction" tech, using two unidirectional mics and an integrated webcam for motion and voice control — users can turn the TV on or off, change the volume, activate apps, and search the web. The TV can also identify users with face recognition via the integrated webcam. Be sure to check out our Samsung storystream for more information on their showings at CES 2012.