If you own a OnePlus phone, you may soon be able to control your smart lights or control music playback through an interface that appears when you plug it in. That's because Android's Google Assistant-powered ambient mode has started rolling out to t...
After first teasing it in September, Google has detailed exactly how its new Assistant ambient mode will work on smartphones. The idea is to make your phone more useful by while it's charging by letting you see Google photo images, play music, contro...
At their original list price of $180, Sony's sporty WF-SP700N true wireless, noise cancelling earbuds were already a solid deal. Today, Amazon has an even better offer. The WF-SP700N in black are on sale for $99.95 -- that's an $80 savings.
Google wants to put your device to work even when it's charging or resting on a living room table or kitchen counter. Today at IFA, the company announced Ambient Mode for Google Assistant. The new feature will turn the latest Android devices into sma...
Earlier this year, Samsung revealed their line of QLED TVs, but what was more interesting was a feature that relied on the QLED’s accurate color representation and an algorithm that literally made your Samsung TV disappear into the wall behind it. Aptly referred to as Samsung’s Ambient Mode, this feature allowed the TV to go from being a big black square when switched off, to a subtle, elegant frame that was barely visible. The algorithm created by Samsung could exactly generate an image of the wall behind it, creating a believable illusion that the TV could practically ‘disappear’ when not in use. The Ambient mode featured a gallery of themes to choose from, allowing the screen to display floating weather updates and even scenery that complimented the space around it. Partnering with Dezeen, Samsung launched its Ambient Mode Design Competition to crowdsource a few more themes. Here are a few that blew us away!
These themes all capitalize on the QLED technology that allows for near-accurate color representation. The designs create illusions of floating objects and extended spaces, giving your smart television much more than the ability to be a screen that plays back TV shows and movies. Some of the Ambient Mode themes turn the television into a painting, some into art pieces that give notifications or tell the time, while others transform the screen into a whiteboard of sorts. Some even allow the TV to behave like a mirror or a window into an imaginary room, showcasing how far televisions and displays have come in the past few years! The entries for the Dezeen x Samsung TV Ambient Mode Design Competition will be on display at IFA 2018 in Berlin.
Designs Courtesy: Dezeen x Samsung TV Ambient Mode Design Competition
Samsung’s been all about making the television pretty both when switched on as well as off. 2016’s Serif TV may have kickstarted the movement, and I’ve been pretty vocal about how much I hated it (a subjective opinion), but what Samsung does now, two years later, is nothing short of remarkable. Its latest series of QLED TVs come with what’s known as an ambient mode, that through the power of image capturing and incredible algorithms, turns the TV invisible, barring the beautiful thin bezel that you barely notice!
The Samsung TV’s Ambient mode is pretty marvelous since it does a rather believable job of making your television seem like glass. Relying on the QLEDs to produce near-real-life color reproduction, the TV can replicate the color of the wall behind, and it even comes with a weather indicator and clock that seem to float off the surface of the wall (cleverly even applying a calculated drop shadow effect on the visuals as well as the TV’s bezel, taking into account the tv’s thickness). What you’re left with is a TV that literally looks like a black-bordered piece of glass. Have a patterned/textured wall behind your TV? Never mind! Samsung’s Smart Things app allows you to click a picture of your television and its background with your phone and the television’s AI runs algorithms to generate a map that calculates AND aligns the pattern behind the TV. It’s just magical how the TV’s colors and even brightness match real-life to make it seem like the screen you’re looking at isn’t a cluster of pixels, but a transparent material. You’ve got the option to choose between weather and time displays, a seemingly transparent landscape painting, and the option to display your photos as a collage of wall-mounted pictures. The results in the video look incredible for sure, and that algorithm is nothing short of magical. I especially love the designers’ attention to detail by adding shadows behind the bezel too, uplifting the experience and completing the illusion. I’ll be waiting to see the TV for myself though, although on the basis of the images I have to say it’s miles ahead of that hideous Serif-esque monstrosity they called a television!
If you own a OnePlus phone, you may soon be able to control your smart lights or control music playback through an interface that appears when you plug it in. That's because Android's Google Assistant-powered ambient mode has started rolling out to t...
After first teasing it in September, Google has detailed exactly how its new Assistant ambient mode will work on smartphones. The idea is to make your phone more useful by while it's charging by letting you see Google photo images, play music, contro...
At their original list price of $180, Sony's sporty WF-SP700N true wireless, noise cancelling earbuds were already a solid deal. Today, Amazon has an even better offer. The WF-SP700N in black are on sale for $99.95 -- that's an $80 savings.
Google wants to put your device to work even when it's charging or resting on a living room table or kitchen counter. Today at IFA, the company announced Ambient Mode for Google Assistant. The new feature will turn the latest Android devices into sma...
