Samsung Wants To Bring Web Browsing, Office Work To the TV (variety.com) 54
Samsung's 2019 smart TVs will allow consumers to browse the web, access their PCs and even edit work documents from the comfort of their living room couch. From a report: The company previewed a new feature dubbed Remote Access this week, which integrates both Samsung's own Knox security framework as well as remote access software from VMWare. Samsung stopped short on revealing key details about Remote Access. It did disclose that Remote Access will make it possible to remotely access a PC from a TV, which then seems to function as a gateway to the web, as well as a way to play PC-based games.
To use Remote Access, consumers won't have to just rely on their TV remote controls. Instead, it will also work with a keyboard, mouse, and other input devices. These may come in handy when consumers access what Samsung vaguely described as a "web browser-based cloud office service" to "access files and work on documents."
To use Remote Access, consumers won't have to just rely on their TV remote controls. Instead, it will also work with a keyboard, mouse, and other input devices. These may come in handy when consumers access what Samsung vaguely described as a "web browser-based cloud office service" to "access files and work on documents."
Ads? (Score:5, Informative)
I believe Samsung smart TVs both snoop on you [consumerreports.org] and force ads on the menu screen. There'll be a cold day in hell before I buy a Samsung TV - even though they look ok from other points of view.
It's annoying that you can't find any large screen dumb TVs at a reasonable price point anymore.
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If they open their OS to third party software manufacturers I am ok with it.
AdBlock will come promptly and squash the ads.
The problem is closed OS.
Can I write my own program that runs?
Can I edit the file to add advertisement URLs?
LG televisions do that ad thing too, BTW.
ADB requirement in Android CDD (Score:4, Informative)
Can I write my own program that runs?
Last I checked, one of the CDD requirements for getting the Google Play Store app on an Android device is that the device allow the user to enable Android Debug Bridge. So yes, if you have Android TV with Google Play, you can probably adb install your own program into a device's user space.
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Sony stopped being a monitor (Score:2)
My Sony Bravia just stopped being a monitor. Will only run through its internal an weak applications or a propert DVD player.
Could just be some very weird hidden setting, or some very weird hardware bug. But I strongly suspect a DRM like issue with the automated software updates.
So, Samsung want to own all computing?
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disable updates. sucks but it works.
my smart tv never EVER got an ip addr and never got an update.
if I don't like it OOTB, I won't buy it (as a TV). mostly I want it to be a monitor so I don't even bother trying to use it in any smart mode.
adding an ip addr just seems like a pandoras box. nothing good will come from it and the vendors are like wild west cowboys; they do whatever they want with no control over them. that's not something I will trust an internet endpoint to.
as for samsung, the rep is 'war
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It's good to see someone else who remembers Sony's CD rootkit fiasco and their abrupt stance on their Linux add-ons. I won't buy Sony anymore either. My children got me a PS2 many many years ago and I still have it, that's the one exception.
This is so exciting... (Score:2)
...that 24+ hours in, there are still only four comments. Samsung is clearly onto something.
Rinse, repeat. (Score:1)
Hey asshats. Weâ(TM)ve been down this road before. It does not work. Nobody wants their tv to be a computer.
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Two points:
A large percentage of people are single.
A large percentage of people with families own more than one television.
A lot of people with a TV don't actually watch a lot of TV.
In any case having a TV that can double as a computer monitor can be really enjoyable, and a dramatic increase in the value of your purchase. I've been happily using a TV as my primary monitor for over a decade now - connected to my desktop, consoles, and chromecast, as well as docking my laptop when I want more screen space on
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The whole reason
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Why wireless charging? That's the beauty of USB 3/C: one plug that can carry all the power and data you need. Over efficient wires, instead of a wireless interface that throws away 20-30% of the power.
I'm not quite sure how exactly licensing is handled, but TVs pretty much already all include HDMI, and often DisplayPort, as well as USB ports, so most of the licensing is probably already paid. All they really need to do is incorporate a USB hub that can break out the video signal and they'd be set.
Meanwhil
VNC over HTML5? (Score:2)
There seems to be open source doing that, and given the average quality of Samsungs attempts at SW don't make me very optimistic that their implementation will be more persistent, stable, secure and (ad-)free.
https://sourceforge.net/projec... [sourceforge.net]
https://kanaka.github.io/noVNC... [github.io]
I'll pass (Score:1)
Samsung would have to prove themselves after their past track record [vice.com].
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Yeah. Kind of a shame to basically throw away the "Smart" part of the TV that way, but so long as the manufacturers continue to prove themselves both untrustworthy and incompetent, what else can you responsibly do?
And then there are all the people who happily pay to install an Amazon or Google home surveillance system in order to play music and do web searches by voice. It's hardly surprising that sleazy manufacturer behavior is rampant.
Do they think it's 2003 still? (Score:1)
Who wants this? The TV in our living room gets used very little. My daughter plays video games on it occasionally, and we might turn it on twice a month.
My daughter watches most things on her phone and my wife uses her tablet. From what I see from her friends, it's not much different in other households. The exception being homes with toddlers. But good luck doing office work when they want to watch Barney, or whatever it is they watch these days.
I have a projector in the basement that I'll watch movies
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I don't want precisely this, because I don't trust Samsung. But I would like this kind of functionality in or near my television, for the purpose of accessing remote resources. In practice, I'm just going to use a long HDMI cable since I already have it and it will work, but it would be more convenient for me if I could do it through the network, since I have to pull network cable to that location anyway.
The better to monetize Samsung's customers (Score:2)
New ... (Score:2)
... attack surface. Cool.
Hope they fix their UI first (Score:3)
1) Every time you change the input to TV, or use the guide, the bottom half of the screen turns into an ad. Very annoying.
2) You can set an HDMI input to game mode to cut down on lag. But when I turn off my PS4 that HDMI input goes away. It comes back when you turn the PS4 on, but so much for switching inputs before turning on the PS4. That's annoying. What is frustrating is, when the HDMI comes back it forgets it's a game system. So you have to reconfigure it. Every. Fucking. Time.
I could go on and on but just take my word for it, I think I like Congress more than this TV's UI. Had I known I'd have never bought this TV.
Ummm, NO (Score:2)
No, no no no no no no no no.
I do not want to browse the web on my TV anymore than I want to watch TV on my phone.
Watching a movie on my phone feels like I'm viewing it through the gun slit of a tank. I have a 55" TV, why the hell would I want to watch a movie on something small enough to fall between the couch cushions?
But hey, if you want to watch 2001 A Space Odyssey on a 4" screen, be my guest.
A new record! (Score:2)
That signature really clicked with me. I mean, it just pops. It even made my stomach rumble and flutter... oh, wow!
I hope you're not tracking my errors here. I admit to lowering the signal to noise ratio, but really, I was just needling you, so feel free to turn the tables and dust me in return.
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That signature really clicked with me. I mean, it just pops. It even made my stomach rumble and flutter... oh, wow!
You're more than welcome to use my sig whenever and wherever you like, and I would be simultaneously horrified and flattered if you decided to get it immortalized as a tattoo.
Sadly, I suspect my sig has no meaning to a lot of people, especially anyone under ~30. If you asked most people what "33 1/3rd" meant or what it had to do with, they'd draw a blank.
Nonetheless, I'm tempted to have it carved on my tombstone.
Stereo, albeit only about 25dB (Score:2)
Us old guys gotta click together.
AndroidTV and FireTV (Score:3)
I recently picked up an Amazon Fire TV (not the dongle, a TV with it built in)
Since it is based on AndroidTV, I can load in most Android apps on it without issue. I currently have both Microsoft's Remote Desktop and Valve's SteamLink apps working quite well. I also have a SSH client, VNC client, full web browser, and more. I have a full sized keyboard and mouse attached, plus I also have an AirMouse attached (accelerometer based mouse movement) which has a full keyboard on it too, but in the form factor of a normal TV remote. This handles casual cases plus full on gaming needs too.
Samsung on the other hand seems to be pushing their own proprietary bullshit, or requiring VMWare!? Yeah, no thanks. Why do we need to wait until 2019 to get features that have been around for 2-4 years already, but with better compatibility with the existing tools?
Color me excited! (Score:1)
It's WebTV 2.0!
Next up, they'll introduce a great bar code reader that you can use to "Web Enable" magazines...
Samsung wants to bring ads, viruses to your TV. (Score:1)
When your TV is an Internet-connected computer, you get all the problems of an Internet-connected computer.
Malware, ransomware making your TV useless, targeted ads, spying by corporations and governments, hackers...
Get a safeTV instead.