Xfinity Home has come a long way since its first launched back in 2012. Now Comcast said they will be opening the Xfinity platform for partner integration with the release of a Software Development Kit (SDK). The new software tool will allow devices from Comcast partners to work seamlessly with the Xfinity Smart Home platform, offering more features and personalization.
Since Samsung acquired Smartthings the company has make qualms about its intension the dominate the connected space. Today at its developers conference the company announced new software release the will help developers create solutions for the connected health, smart wearable and connected home market. The company said it is expanding its domain from personal wellness to preventive healthcare service.
Samsung has connected all the dots and has laid a foundation for a future in the connected home. Through its recent acquisition of SmartThings, they now have a platform to connect all their smart devices. They now have a connected home portfolio with touches every aspect of our daily lives. On the run up to IFA 2014 Samsung shared with us their plans for the future connected home and the Internet of Things (IoT).
To offer better quality content to households, content creators and distributors need to know that it is going to the intended person in a secure way. Therefore, service providers need to convince content distributors that they have the very best conditional access or Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems in place to protect the content from unlicensed distribution. That is why Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) like Entropic is collaborating with Cryptography Research to provide security for content from the hardware level.
According to a MarketsandMarkets recent market research report "Connected Living Room Market by Products (Smart/3D, LED/LCD/OLED TV, set top box, Home theater (Projector, Audio Equipment), Blu-ray player, Gaming console), Technology (Processor, Memory, Sensor, Connectivity) & Geography - Global Trend & Forecast to 2013 2020, the global Market is expected to cross US $957.65 Billion by 2020, at a CAGR of 6.8% rate from 2014 to 2020.
Pandora New Zealand has announced that they have partnered with Samsung Electronics New Zealand to offer Pandora Internet Radio on Samsung SMART TVs. Owners of new and existing Samsung SMART TVs (models dated from 2011 through to the new 2014 range) should be able to access Pandora’s music streaming service.
Google seems not to have given up on making a much bigger impact on the television and home entertainment market than it did with the Google TV. Their latest attempt is Chromecast TV, a television dongle that transform your ordinary TV into one that can connected to the internet directly and smarter. Chromecast TV is Promises to be a simple and intuitive solution to having a smart TV and only priced at US$35.
There are millions of homes in the UK with televisions that cannot connect to the internet directly. Therefore, any access to internet TV (Over The Top) services is done via the computer or some other smart devices such as a phone or tablet. With access to Youview still subject to availability in some areas, households now have another option from Sky called NOW TV.
It felt like a very short while ago 1080 HD TV was the must have television. I haven’t even swap out my Sony CRT yet saying I will wait until the price settle and the technology matured – yes, despite loving technology I’m not an early adaptor. Now, with the introduction of ultra HD 4K TVs I might have to skip HD to Ultra HD. 4K Television not only promise better quality pictures but bigger screens as well, with 50in being the minimum.
Netgear has expanded their range of smart TV solution NeoTV with NeoTV Prime. Unlike the other models NeoTV Prime comes with Google TV adding Netgear to the list of companies offering Google TV. The new addition to the Netgear family of streaming players offer advance flexibility to your home entertainment; NeoTV Prime allows you to easily search and find what you want to watch.