CES 2014

Samsung's Multi-Link automatically knows to search for videos and information related to what you are watching.

Samsung has redesigned its smart remote for 2014. It offers voice, motion, and direct control as before, but with enhanced usability. The Smart Hub feature it controls now will let you surf the web as you watch TV and multitask in a split screen mode. Manufacturers have determined that most TV viewers are surfing the web on their computers and/or using their smart phones to talk, text, or surf as they watch TV. The show was alive with redesigned Internet TV features to satisfy this increasingly ADD social trend.

Samsung Electronics thinks your home should be smart – as long as it’s filled with Samsung Smart TVs, Samsung home appliances, and Samsung smartphones that are all connected and managed through Samsung’s Smart Home platform. Samsung’s Smart Home is designed to enable homeowners to control and manage many of the devices in their homes via a single, simple app. The devices that Samsung envisions to be part of the Smart Home ecosystem will include refrigerators, washing machines, Smart TVs, digital cameras, smartphones, and wearable devices (such as the Galaxy Gear). In the beginning, Samsung Smart Home will offer three features: Device Control, Home View, and Smart Customer Service. Device Control provides what you would think from the name: the ability to monitor and control home gear, such as turning the house HVAC on/off or changing lighting scenes. Interestingly, Smart Home will offer a voice command function on all of the controller devices. According to Samsung, “Users can also use chat control on their smartphone app as a fun, convenient way to communicate with their devices.” (Only as long as the appliances don’t start talking back…) Home View will allow users to view their home in real-time thanks to cameras built into Samsung appliances. (So, that means no walking around in the kitchen in your underwear…) The Smart Home’s Smart Customer Service will notify customers “when it’s time to service appliances or replace consumables, and provides assistance in after-sales servicing.” The company has developed a dedicated Smart Home software protocol (SHP) to facilitate communication between Samsung devices as well as (hopefully) other manufacturers’ appliances and devices.

Sennheiser has announced that they moving into the realm of the gamer with the introduction of two new PC gaming headsets: G4ME™ ZERO and G4ME™ ONE. Working in conjunction with Sennheiser was Io-Interactive (part of the Square Enix group that made games like the Hitman and the Kane & Lynch franchises.) The partnership included the Io-Interactive developers using Sennheiser equipment and headsets when creating the audio for their game releases. The goal was for he headset user to experience at home precisely what the developers intended in the studio. It's a pretty novel approach to mixing audio for games. The headphones themselves have been designed with not only comfort and ergonomics taken into account, but also with extra attention to things gamers need like: better noise canceling in the microphone, a boom that mutes the mic when raised, and volume controls in the ear cup. While G4ME™ ONE is focused on the home user, allowing for breathable long-wearing earcups, G4ME™ ZERO is made for tournament play, with a foldable design, hard carry case, and aviation level sound isolation factored into the design process. What all this will mean in real-time usage remains to be seen, but overall, I'm excited to see what Sennheiser brings to the lan-party.

The two biggest TV trends happening at CES are higher-than-HDTV resolution and ultra-large screens. According to Sanus, both trends mean that heavier-duty-than-normal mounts will be required to deal with the increased weight of the larger, higher-rez screens.

Sharp has big plans in the works for HDTV and UHDTV. According to the company’s presentation at CES, they’ve placed more 60-inch-plus HDTVs in homes over the last 3 years than any other maker. And they plan to keep the emphasis on big going forward in their 2014 Ultra HDTV and HDTV models, along with a new product category that the company calls Quattron+ (more on that in a bit).