Samsung Isn't Bothering With Windows 8 Tablets

 

You may have seen reports on how underwhelming the Windows RT tablet has done on the market as of late. However, as of CES 2013, the Windows Surface Pro is on its way and may be what consumers are looking for, if their wallet is deep enough. Alongside Windows are other companies looking to make Windows 8 tablets, but as for Samsung, they've decided to not join in the fight. 

Mike Abary, Samsung's senior vice president has given Windows 8 the cold shoulder as far as tablets go. He says that Windows 8 doesn't interest enough US consumers, leaving not much demand for them. 

With his interview with CNET, he states: 

There wasn’t really a very clear positioning of what Windows RT meant in the marketplace, what it stood for relative to Windows 8, that was being done in an effective manner to the consumer. When we did some tests and studies on how we could go to market with a Windows RT device, we determined there was a lot of heavy lifting we still needed to do to educate the customer on what Windows RT was. And that heavy lifting was going to require pretty heavy investment. When we added those two things up, the investments necessary to educate the consumer on the difference between RT and Windows 8, plus the modest feedback that we got regarding how successful could this be at retail from our retail partners, we decided maybe we ought to wait.

Drexel University Puts MacBooks Into Vending Machines

The traditional vending machine where you go for a bottle of Coke is no more, at least not at Drexel University in Philadelphia. In place of soda and water, they've created a MacBook vending machine (or the MacVending as we call it) that allow students to rent out a 15-inch MacBook Pro if a student were to forget theirs at home. 

Simply scan your student ID and you can take one of the 12 MacBooks for your own for five hours before paying $5 for each additional hour. Of course, there are security measures employed to make sure nobody runs off with one of their $1500 odd dollar laptops. This provides an excellent resource for students, especially when something urgent comes up and you're short a computer. Drexel plans to bring iPad vending machines as well if this new program is well received. 

Sony To Provide 4K Streaming Content

Along with Sony's latest 4K OLED TV announcement, we can expect to see the very first 4K video distribution service from them as well. This has been a prominent issue for early adopters who are concerned with how much actual content will take advantage of the 4K resolution. 

Think of it as a Netflix for 4K content. This will help sell and promote the 4K market that Sony is trying to create. While this is a dandy idea, take a second and think about your Internet connection. As you can imagine, High Definition that go as high as 4K may not play too nicely with your bandwidth. It is still nonetheless a push from Sony that we will see within the near future. There has yet to be anymore details from Sony but we expect a launch in the US sometime in the summer. 

Sony Unveils Their 4K OLED TV, Unfortunately A Prototype As Of Now

It's Sony's time to shine and they've got 4K OLED to show off at CES today. Back in 2007, Sony outed the first OLED TV that was a measly 11 inches that was met with lackluster enthusiasm from the crowd, as you can imagine. Bigger is always better, or so the saying goes. However now in 2013, they're back with a vengeance and have come out with something much bigger and more impressive.

It has been confirmed that a 56 inch 4K OLED TV prototype is in the works and has been revealed on the CES floor. As you can imagine, 4K displays has been a goal for many manufacturers and to say the least, the quality is stunning. The quality of the OLED display aims to show much crisper and "organic" color and picture and with the combination of 4K resolution, you might not ever take your eyes off it after the first look. Sadly, we have to keep in mind that this is still a prototype with no announcement on pricing or availability yet, but you can bet Sony's 4K resolution and OLED combo will cost a pretty penny. 

Samsung Flexs Its Big 85-inch TV Muscles

It's big. 85-inches of HDTV is about to come your way and knock you down. This Ultra High Definition TV is what Samsung is showing the world today at CES. With an unique industrial design that reminds one of a drawing board, it is suspended off the ground and can tilt up and down, is the UN85S9. While it may have an ugly name, let me reassure you that the ugly stops there. 

As if it is floating in the midair, Samsung's behemoth will be one heck of a display to have in your living room, granted your living room is even big enough to house this beast. Along with the TV comes a 2.2 speaker system that borders the display itself. Unfortunately, 4K resolution will not be coming with Samsung. Instead, they will be focusing on upscaling 1080p content to fit the Ultra HD standards. For the UN85S9, this is done through a 1.35 GHz quad-core A15 processor. There is yet to be any information on pricing but Samsung plans to release the UN85S9 sometime in March. 

UrbanHello Wins Innovations Award At CES With A Home Phone

Home phones are becoming much less prominent than a decade ago now that we have cell phones with us at all times. There's no point in having a home phone just to receive calls when your mobile device serves the exact same function. Yet UrbanHello, a new French company was awarded the sought-after "Innovations Award" this year at CES for their new "Smart home phone" design that may just convince us otherwise. 

The UrbanHello phone is an intelligent device that knows when you're holding it up to your ear or when you've put it down. When answering calls by holding it up, the phone will automatically project HD sound through the earphones and when placed down, the loudspeakers come on. This makes conference calls and hands-free calling so much more convenient. 

It is a quickly setup device as well as UrbanHello promises the ease of "Plug-and-Play"; the three words that we love to hear. To keep things simple, the phone comes equipped with the essential mechanical buttons needed to dial and get your way the device. Two OLED displays located on top and on the bottom of the handset show the relevant information. To help with energy-saving, the displays are self activated only when the phone is in use. 

As with a lot of new startup ideas, they look to Kickstarter and the power of crowd-sourcing for help. Head on over to their campaign page to support the design and idea.

Invoxia AudiOffice Is The All-in-One And One-for-All Dock

Invoxia has updated its AudiOffice dock that serves as an ideal set-up that solves one of the obvious problems most docks have: calling. Most docks require you to remove your phone to answer a call, making it an overall inconvenient experience. AudioOffice solves this issue through a built-in handset which you can use for phone calls instead. The AudiOffice rocks a Cortex A8 processor to run with iOS, and with the newest update, Android as well. 

With two more additional speakers from its four in the old version, AudiOffice projects high quality sound for conference calls and music out of its six inVivo Acoustic technology enhanced speakers that is designed for HD sound. Not only are normal phone calls able to take advantage of the AudiOffice, but VOIP communications such as Skype can too. 

The new AudiOffice is compatible with all mobile devices and even your PC with included USB cables. It will available for $299 on Invoxia's website and will be released during Q1 of this year.