It’s no secret that consumers are spending less time in front of their TV’s and more time with their tablets and smartphones. Samsung is hoping to end that trend by offering a new line of Smart TV’s that are just as versatile and connected as any of your handheld devices.
Samsung kicked off CES this year by unveiling their brand new “flagship” TV, the F8000. While the picture on the 3D LED F8000 is certainly very pretty, the most notable thing about the set is how it bridges the gap between TV’s and PC’s: the F8000 is equipped with a quad-core processor, which Samsung says will allow the TV to load apps nearly instantaneously.
All of Samsung’s new Smart TV’s (including the F8000,) will come equipped with Samsung’s Smart Hub UI, which unifies all of the content available from streaming video services, your traditional cable or satellite TV channels, and your social networks onto a single interface. If you search for a show on Smart Hub, it’ll tell you when new episodes of that show air on traditional TV channels, show you a listing of which episodes of that show are available on services like Netflix or Amazon Instant, and it’ll also show you if any of your friends are talking about that show on Facebook or Twitter. Like many of Samsung’s more recent TV’s, Smart Hub can be controlled either with motion-controlled gestures, voice commands, your smart phone, or a traditional TV remote.
People who just bought a Samsung TV shouldn’t feel like they were shortchanged out of these new features, either: Samsung will be releasing an “Evolution Kit” upgrade that will add all of the F8000’s Smart Hub features, as well as its quad-core processor, onto earlier models of Samsung TV’s. The Evolution Kit is compatible with most of the TV’s that Samsung has produced within the last year, and the upgrade can be applied by simply snapping the Evolution Kit into a compartment located on the back of your TV.
Samsung has yet to announce the price and release date for the F8000 and the Evolution Kit.
