Samsung at CES: Let's release everything!

CES wouldn't be the show it was if there weren't a good-ish amount of product launches, and man alive, Samsung didn't disappoint.

The main highlight has to be the new Luxia range of LED backlit LCD screens, with the 6000, 7000 and 8000 series all bringing some nice looking sets to the TV party.

Of most interesting note was the appearance of Yahoo!'s Widget Channel... interestingly no mention was made of Intel's efforts this time, unlike LG.

In fact, given a number of companies have launched a similar hardware set today, it speaks volumes that Yahoo! decided to attend this launch, with VP Patrick Barry saying a few words... although it could be because Samsung is the largest LCD manufacturer in the world.

Open platform

"By making the platform open, we are giving users a choice, and we're allowing developers ready access to those consumers. All of this is made possible with Yahoo!'s Widget engine, deploying today through Samsung," intoned Barry.

However, the fun didn't stop there. There was a refresh for the LCD 750 with a redesign for the 240Hz way of thinking, and the PDP 850 with FilterBrite for true blacks on a plasma screen etc, etc.

But don't go thinking it was a total TV-fest, because there was an amusing / scary demonstration of how haptics can help a range of devices.

During a normal demo a loud buzzing sound rang out around the room... and it felt a little like the walls were caving in. Luckily it was just the buzz of a mobile phone... but wait, that's not a mobile!

It's the new Samsung P3 MP3 player, with haptic technology, widgets and a 0.39 inch profile. It might look the business, but you couldn't help feel that there was a certain... iPod Touchy-ness about the idea.

And of course there were a whole host of other ideas, with the home cinema area and image capture categories taking centre stage.

The new BD-P4600 Blu-ray player was probably the best of the rest, with around a million connection options (USB, MP3, JPG, WiFi, DivX, AND some live streaming from Netflix and Pandora). It's also so slim (1.5in thin in fact) that it can even be hung on the wall, and discs play and eject far quicker than usual. Snazzy.

And, with a deep breath taken first, here are the rest of the releases from the press conference: 22in 3D monitor with glasses for gamers and movie watchers, the HT-BD8200 Blu-ray sound bar with more wireless connectivity than you can shake a stick at.

Massive flash

Then there's the HMX-H106 SSD camcorder, with the world's largest 64GB flash drive on a camcorder (nice) which can shoot in full HD, take 4.7MP stills and generally make you feel all fancy.

Oh, and the HZ10W digital camera made an appearance as well... packing a 24mm wide angle lens with 10x optical zoom, it apparently inspires a "new level of creativity". Hi def video comes as and option as well, which we prefer to PR speak phrases.

We'll let Dr Jong Woo Park, Samsung President of Digital Media Business, tell you all about the company's overriding message:

"Besides Samsung, there are other companies trying to do the same this as we are, so why is Samsung better? Because we have the best infrastructure to bring about a truly seamless experience.

"Internally we have a broad product portfolio, from LCD displays to multimedia devices, and we're vertically integrated to offer these benefits [to the consumer]."

Or in other words, we are Samsung, we have lots of divisions and we like making money out of all of them.

From CES 2009.