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While enjoying the plush carpet and pleasant surroundings at the Samsung CES stand, we happened upon a charming TV, which promptly informed us the temperature was 51 degrees Fahrenheit and that stock in Apple was down by $2.56. What we’d stumbled upon was an RSS TV.
This is a really simple concept, but it’s one of the best things we’ve seen as a casual way of making TV a little better. The idea is that you can get up-to-date news, sport and weather information on-screen, all delivered via RSS in a really well designed and attractive way.
We think this is a pretty cool idea, and it has plenty of scope for use in all sorts of areas. It may not be brilliantly useful at home, but for City trader sorts, having stock info on screen while you watch a news channel might be really appealing. It also means that at the touch of a button you can get weather reports, news and other information.
From walking around Samsung’s stand, we got the distinct impression that integrating new functionality into its TVs was a priority. It also has TVs that integrate with Windows, to allow you to play back video and audio content, in a similar way to HP’s MediaSmart TVs.
We’ve been waiting for some time for a decent media streamer to hit the market, but perhaps it will never happen — instead we may see TVs which are as happy grabbing video off your computer as they are snatching TV signals out of the air. It’s pretty hard not to be excited about that. -Ian Morris
