Showing posts with label smart. Show all posts
Showing posts with label smart. Show all posts

Samsung vows to expand Smart Home platform, add third-party gadgets

Colin West McDonald / CNET

Samsung is plotting an expansion to its Smart Home platform, opening up the service to make it work with third-party technology.

Ahead of IFA 2014, a major tech trade show that kicks off this week in Berlin, the South Korean smartphone-maker says you'll be able to activate air conditioners, robot vacuum cleaners and smart LED lightbulbs via its S Voice voice-recognition tech on your Galaxy smartphone, or Samsung smartwatch.

Smart Home is Samsung's attempt at taking control of your house -- and everything in it -- connecting all your tech on a single network, making it theoretically simpler for you to control your appliances. With Apple revealing its HomeKit technology earlier this year, there's plenty of focus on how tech will infiltrate our homesteads -- and Samsung doesn't want us to forget that its also in the mix.

Several weeks ago Samsung acquired open smart-home platform SmartThings, and in July became part of Thread, a consortium of companies aimed at creating standards for connected device technology.

Unfortunately, however, Samsung hasn't mentioned any specific third-party products or services that are going to be added to its Smart Home portfolio, instead making reference to futuristic scenarios like locking your door and monitoring security cameras from your smartphone, checking how much electricity is being used by your appliances, or using geolocation to turn on your lights and air-con.

Samsung says it will open up Smart Home to developers later this year, at which point we'll hopefully see third party companies get involved in making their gadgets compliant. Expect more news at Samsung's Developer Conference, which kicks off on 11 November in San Francisco, and much more tech news this week from IFA in Berlin.

Tags: IFA 2014 Gadgets Tech Industry Samsung About the author

Tomorrow Daily 043: Time traveling with VR, smart cruise ships, and the Telephoto MegaFon

: Time traveling with VR, smart cruise ships, and the Telephoto MegaFon Your browser does not support the audio element.

Here are some links and notes for all the things on the show today:

Scientists use virtual reality to create the illusion of time travel for study participantsRoyal Caribbean's "Quantum of the Seas" smart cruise ship sets sail in NovemberFuji Xerox made a megaphone with a sniper scope for yelling at individual people from far away Into It: HBO's Silicon Valley and Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls for consolesUser feedback: Your #TDBloodPaint tweets, and our Phonetographer of the Day

Of course, you can find us everywhere on social media. Like, follow, and heart us as you desire!

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Ralph Lauren biometric smart shirt debuts at US Open

The Polo Tech has sensors that fit next to the skin. Ralph Lauren

The tennis courts at the US Open this year will be hosting more than just competitors lofting high-tech rackets. Ralph Lauren is using the event to debut the Polo Tech, a compression shirt with biometric sensors that acts like an extremely sophisticated fitness band without having anything around your wrist.

Sensors are knitted into the core of the shirt and include an accelerometer, gyroscope, and heartbeat monitor. The information is collected by a data module and fed into an iOS app that monitors stress levels, calories burned, respiration, heartbeat, and energy output. An athlete can adjust training by breathing more deeply, increasing exertion to hit a target heart rate, or focusing on reducing stress in competitive situations.

Related stories Google Doodle honors tennis great Althea Gibson Babolat connected racket scrutinizes your every tennis move Wimbledon: Tech behind world's most prestigious tennis tournament

The Polo Tech shirts won't make appearances on any tennis stars during the actual tournament play. Marcos Giron, currently ranked as the top singles player in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, will test the shirt during practice rounds and will try making adjustments based on the information gleaned from the sensors.

Some of the ball boys (women's shirts are still under development) at the US Open will be sporting the shirts. Look for the ball collectors wearing the tight black shirts with a yellow polo horse, rather than the ones wearing the looser traditional polo-style shirts.

Ralph Lauren himself isn't sitting around coding software and designing sensors. The clothing company partnered with OMsignal, a biometrics clothing maker, for the shirt. OMsignal is currently offering its version of the shirt and black-box data collector for preorder at $199 (about

Thalmic announces smart glass compatibility with Myo gesture control arm band

Smartglasses equips deskless workers with the computing and communication power they never had, all with the flick of a wrist. By integrating the Myo armband, workers can stay focused on the task at hand while reliably interacting with smart glasses through simple and natural gestures."

Thalmic Labs has partnered with several companies to create software for various applications. Developer APX Labs has built software for outdoor field work; Augmedix has created software for doctor-patient interactions in the health care field; Bridgit has created software for construction workers; and Recon has built a platform for deskless workers such as bike couriers.

You can get an overview of how the two devices might work together in the video below, and the company has posted a series of videos on its YouTube channel for a more in-depth look at each application. You can also check out a compatibility chart on the Thalmic Labs blog post.

Tags: Crave Gadgets About the author

Samsung to expand smart TV content offerings at IFA

Samsung

Samsung plans to add a host of services and games to its smart TV portfolio, including Skype and the popular racing game Need for Speed Most Wanted.

The South Korea Electronics giant announced Tuesday that its content expansion would be unveiled next month in Berlin at IFA 2014, Europe's largest consumer electronics trade show. Other games to be made available for free download include Gameloft's Real Football 2014 and Com2us' Golf Star, a realistic golf simulator incorporating real-life physics.

Skype video call services such as group video and full HD video calls will be available for use on 2014 Samsung smart TV models with built-in cameras.

The games can be downloaded through Samsung's Smart TV Games Panel, a user interface unveiled in January at CES that offers an array of games users can play on their TVs. In addition to using the TV's remote control, users can control their games with a variety of other devices, including smartphones.

"At Samsung, the television is more than just a screen -- it is a window to the world, providing new experiences, new discoveries and new possibilities," Won Jin Lee, Executive Vice President of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics, said in a statement. "Samsung customers will be able to enjoy even more entertaining and easy-to-use content on the Samsung Smart TV."

Tags: IFA 2014 Mobile Mobile Apps Samsung About the author

Will Roku bring smart TVs into the cool crowd?

Sarah Tew/CNET

Smart TVs have long been exiled to the outcast table, but Roku televisions may be arriving at just the right time and the right price -- cheap -- to move connected televisions into the mainstream.

Roku is integrating its popular TV streaming-box capabilities for the first time into television sets from TCL and Hisense, big Chinese manufacturers that are making their largest concerted pushes into the US with the Roku lines. Originally announced in January at the Consumer Electronics Show, Roku sets from TCL are now available for preorder from Amazon and to be sold by major retailers in the coming weeks, with the Hisense TVs set to hit stores late next month, the companies said Monday.

Most importantly, they're priced to move. A 32-inch set from TCL, for example, costs $229.

Related links: Roku TVs marry cheap prices, proven smarts (hands-on) Roku TVs by Hisense and TCL (pictures) Roku TV unveiled: Television sets with Roku streaming built-in CEO: Roku's future is TV's future (Q&A)

An affordable price tag and Roku functionality may finally get consumers excited about smart TVs. While the segment is growing, about two-thirds of North American TVs shipped are still "dumb," according to researcher NPD. And many smart TV purchases end up with the connectivity feature hardly used, if ever.

"Part of the reason why adoption of smart TVs has been so bad, for the most part, is they have been terrible," said Paul Gagnon, director of global TV research for NPD Display Search, rattling off a list of typical flaws: overly complicated, poor user interfaces, proprietary protections that mean every system is different from the next and few are updated frequently. But as more video moves online and more people want streaming video on the biggest screen, online connectivity in a television is increasing as a consideration for buyers.

If a simple, affordable smart TV becomes a household usage standard, it would change not only how people watch TV but also how programmers make TV available. Knowing the masses are set and able to watch online programming, more TV networks could make more content available in more ways -- NBC and ESPN already took this leap by putting tons of extra content online for the Olympics and World Cup, respectively, only to see their ratings soar. Viewers also have a better shot at their TV working seamlessly with the other ways they want to watch -- want to head upstairs to watch the rest of the show in bed on a tablet? TVs running off the same Internet system can do it more easily than ever. And cord cutters, start rejoicing: this may be the line of TVs that are built for you.

"Roku TV is...made for the way people use TV today," said Anthony Wood, founder and CEO of Roku.

Premium price no more

The No. 1 smart TV brand in the US is Vizio, though not because it rules market share generally -- that's Samsung's turf. It's the lack of any price premium for the feature. "Vizio is charging almost no money for it," said NPD's Gagnon. "It's a good example of what consumers want."

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