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Corning Lotus Glass Will be Used on Samsung OLED TVs

Mon Feb 06, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET
Tags: Samsung, OLED TVs, Corning, Gorilla Glass, Lotus Glass (all tags)

It's also going to be used on handheld and IT devices.

Corning made a big impact with Gorilla Glass, boasting the strongest glass around which allows for thinner, lighter devices that still take a beating. Their newest creation is a bit different. It's called Lotus Glass, and it aims to give the best picture possible.

Samsung Mobile Display has just announced that it will be teaming up with Corning to put Lotus glass on new mobile products that sport OLED screen. This doesn't translate into immediate use on TVs, but then again, Samsung doesn't have an OLED out at the moment.

Samsung says that the partnership with its mobile division will lead to integration with more devices, including large OLED TVs.

Source: Engadget

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Samsung Pulls in $4.7 Billion Profit in 2011

Mon Jan 30, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET
Tags: Samsung, Industry Trends, Sales Figures (all tags)

That’s $1.8 billion more than 2010.

It’s no secret that Samsung’s been doing well, but as it turns out, the company is on a steep incline. They pulled in $42 billion in sales, $4.7 of which was pure profit. That’s a huge step over last year when they brought in $2.9 billion in profit.

Leading the charge was the cell phone division. Over 300 million phones were sold for a whopping $2.3 billion profit. The semiconductor business was no slouch either, bringing in $2 billion in profit. That’s $4.3 between the two, leaving TVs to make up much of the remainder.

Samsung’s LED sets boosted the company’s sales considerably and helped the division to increase numbers by 20 percent. They boasted $7.6 million in sales in 2011.

Source: Engadget

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Samsung's 2012 Blu-ray Player Lineup Includes One Compact and One Sporting HDMI Inputs

Wed Jan 11, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Tags: Blu-ray Players, 3D Blu-ray Players, Samsung, Ultraviolet, CES 2012 (all tags)

As you might expect, they also come packed with UltraViolet Disc to Digital for DVDs.

Samsung has more than a few Blu-ray players coming out in 2012 but they're highlighting two in particular as their flagship products. The first is a player with a surprisingly compact form-factor and the other can operate as a makeshift receiver.

Samsung's new BD-ES6000 changes things up significantly in terms of size. Samsung says that their new compact player is only slightly larger than a Blu-ray disc. It looks more like a Blu-ray drive for a computer than a player, but Samsung says you can still expect the kind of high-quality playback for both 2D and 3D discs as its bigger brothers.

The BD-E6500 goes in the other direction. Instead of the minimalist approach taken with the ES6000, Samsung has added a new function to the Blu-ray player. The E6500 gives you a pair of HDMI inputs on the back of the player that you can attach other components to, just like you would a receiver.

All of Samsung's players have at least one thing in common - a new video processor that can upconvert DVDs and low-resolution streaming video to 1080p. They also support Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD bitstream outputs.

Samsung's new players also give you the ability to register DVDs with UltraViolet and then access digital versions of those movies any time you want on any registered device. You can then pay to upgrade that copy to HD if you like.

Source: Samsung

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Samsung Announces New TVs at CES Including a 55" OLED

Wed Jan 11, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET
Tags: Samsung, LED TVs, Plasma TVs, OLED TVs, CES 2012 (all tags)

LG isn't the only company bringing a living room sized OLED to market in 2012.

Samsung kicked CES off with a bang, announcing new televisions in their plasma and LED backlit lines, but the big news is the company's 55" OLED display.

The folks at Samsung are referring to their new set as the Super OLED TV. It gives you everything you'd expect from an OLED set - fast response time, bright colors, deep blacks, slim design - and adds a few extra features. One of the most interesting is a Smart Interaction camera, which gives you Kinect-like voice and gesture control as well as facial recognition to easily switch user profiles. There's been no price announced for the Super OLED TV and no specific release date though Samsung does expect to have it on the market in 2012.

As usual, Samsung put a great deal of emphasis on their LED backlit sets. At the high end are the UNES8000 and UNES7500, both of which offer micro dimming for a brighter and more accurate picture as well as all the Smart TV features you've come to expect. One big change - they're utilizing a dual-core processor.

Samsung has plans for plasma as well, as shown by the PNE8000. The set features a new bezel design which includes a transparent border which Samsung says will create a more immersive experience. The 8000 also has the deepest black levels yet in Samsung's plasmas thanks to the Real Black Pro Panel.

All of Samsung's new higher-end TVs offer 3D and Smart TV capabilities as well as dual-core processors and a few other extras.

Source: Samsung

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Samsung Announces its Free the TV Challenge Finalists

Fri Jan 06, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Tags: Samsung, Smart TVs (all tags)

The second in the series of contests for app developers comes to a close at CES with three interesting applications competing for top honors.

Samsung knows that it isn't the hardware or the operating system that determines the success of a platform - it's the software. To spur on developers for Samsung's smart TVs the company launched a contest that rewards $100,000 to the best app. They were pretty happy with how it turned out in 2010 and the 2011 crop looks even better.

Three apps are competing for the top spot, the most practical of which is a music app called FRESHQ. Using a smartphone, tablet or the TV itself, you can stream music from your favorite artists and follow their various social media outlets at the same time.

Let's Play Stop is a game that pits players against each other with a goal of coming up with unique word corresponding to a particular letter. There are five different categories to keep things varied.

Party Shots is an interesting one that's definitely a niche app. Simply download Party Shots to your smartphone and take photos. Those pictures will then be put onto your TV as a part of a slide show. It may not be great for everyone's party but we could definitely see this one taking off in clubs and other commercial settings.

Source: Samsung

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Samsung's New Home Theater Systems Offer 2D to 3D Conversion and Tube Amplifiers

Thu Jan 05, 2012 at 02:00 PM ET
Tags: Samsung, Home Theater Systems, Blu-ray Players, Home Theater In A Box (all tags)

You'll also find built-in Wi-Fi and access to Samsung Apps.

Samsung has been making some changes to its home theater systems in the last few years and this year's models are certainly taking things up-market a bit.

The company's new home theater systems - the 7.1 channel E6730W and 5.1 channel E5500W - include more than just the traditional receiver and speaker combination. For starters, they pack a Blu-ray player that does 2D to 3D conversion so you can enjoy your existing Blu-rays with a bit of extra pop.

More interesting though is the addition of tube amplifiers to the higher end E6730W. The system combines "The crystal clear sound quality from a digital amplifier with the warmer tone qualities of vacuum tubes." The tubes are visible from the front and top of the system too, giving you a piece of hardware that's bound to impress some folks.

Source: PC Magazine

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Sony Sells its Share of LCD Venture to Samsung

Wed Dec 28, 2011 at 10:00 AM ET
Tags: Sony, Samsung, LCDs, Industry Trends (all tags)

The sale will net Sony nearly $1 billion to gain cash and cut costs.

After some speculation over Sony's plans moving forward, the company finally announced that it will be selling a nearly 50% share of a joint LCD venture to Samsung, making the South Korean manufacturer the majority shareholder by a good margin.

"In the longer term, Sony will have the freedom to source TV panels from all suppliers," writes the DisplaySearch research firm. "With more panel sourcing flexibility, Sony can reduce the use of Samsung panels, and focus on differentiating its LCD TV products."

Not only will this allow Sony to better separate its products from Samsungs, but it will let the company shift its market a bit. Instead of trying to please everybody all of the time, Sony is aiming at high-end sets for high-end consumers.

Source: TWICE

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Samsung Teases "The Future of Smart TV" at CES 2012

Thu Dec 22, 2011 at 10:00 AM ET
Tags: Samsung, Smart TVs (all tags)

They're saving the details for January, but they want you excited now. Get excited!

Samsung has something big planned for CES 2012 in January and they want folks to get excited. They've released a video to get people pumped and to hint at some of the things coming in the near future.

Samsung says that we can look forward to "the future of Smart TVs" which brings up so many possibilities. It could be a Samsung Google TV - one was rumored for CES 2011 after all. It could, of course, be some sort of proprietary hardware and software suite that has nothing to do with what's out there today.

Samsung says that there are a few hints in the video, but that nothing will be officially revealed. With just one or two viewings under our belts, all we saw of note was the final clip which showed tablet use to interact with the set - anything we missed?

Source: Samsung

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Samsung Provides Panels to Other Manufacturers but Doesn't Want You to Know About It

Wed Dec 07, 2011 at 12:00 PM ET
Tags: Samsung, LG (all tags)

Samsung has ordered that Australia based Kogan stop advertising the use of Samsung panels.

It's common knowledge that manufacturers often sell parts to other brands, often buying parts in return. That's not something that companies want you to know about though, especially when those parts are going to companies more focused on value than quality.

Kogan, an Australian TV maker, recently advertised publicly that Samsung and LG components are used in its TVs, with the message that a value conscious consumer would be better off buying Kogan than the major brands. Samsung was not happy about this and issued a cease-and-desist order.

Kogan founder and CEO Ruslan Kogan, argues that there's nothing wrong with telling the consumer where you get your parts and that there's no reason to try and conceal the truth.

Source: Engadget

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Sony, Samsung, and Panasonic Team Up to Work on 3D Glasses Standardization

Tue Nov 15, 2011 at 10:00 AM ET
Tags: Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, XpanD 3D, Industry Trends, 3D Glasses, 3D (all tags)

Fully cross-compatible Active 3D glasses are on the way. Wait, this sounds like something we've heard a few times before...

If 3D TV is really going to take off in the way that manufacturers want it to, it's really got to get its act together. The big companies need to get together and make a decision on how to standardize it, or at least make glasses compatible across brands.

The group of Sony, Samsung, Panasonic and Xpand 3D are working together to create glasses that will work with any TV or movie theater that uses the Xpand 3D standard, which, we're assuming, it what's used by Active 3D televisions.

The upcoming glasses will play nice with both IR and Bluetooth enabled RF glasses so you won't have to worry about what your TV or projector uses. Other companies on board with this initiative include Toshiba, Sharp, and Mitsubishi.

Source: Engadget

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