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Samsung Wants To Bring Web Browsing, Office Work To the TV (variety.com)
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."
I believe Samsung smart TVs both snoop on you 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.
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.
I bought a Samsung TV last month and I gotta say the UI, to be kind, sucks. 2 examples:
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.
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?