[CES 2012] Samsung Free the TV Challenge 2011 Finalists Announced

Samsung Electronics today announced the finalists of the Samsung Free the TV Challenge 2011, the second annual contest that encourages developers to create apps that delight users with seamless, multimedia experiences on the largest screen in the home.

This year’s participants were invited to submit converged apps that enable interactivity between Samsung Smart TV and multiple screens such as smartphones, tablets or notebooks. Each app is evaluated based on the overall visual appeal of the app on each screen, the quality of the idea and the functional implementation. Winners will be announced at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, January 10-13, 2012 and stand to win a prize pool of US$225,000.

The finalists of the 2011 Challenge are:

FREQSHO – music fans can create their own music channel to stream music from any artist using a smartphone, tablet or TV. An easy-to-use search engine helps users quickly find their favorite artists and social connectivity allows them to follow the latest artist information and tweets in real-time.

Let’s Play Stop – an interactive word game that challenges players to come up with words that correspond to a random letter in five categories: country or city, body parts, fruits, colors and animals. The first person to complete the round with as many unique words as possible wins.

Party Shots – a fun, interactive way to enhance any party. Users simply download the app onto their smartphones, snap photos at the party and these photos will instantly be posted onto the Samsung Smart TV as part of a dynamic slide show. Photos may be customized with captions and stored via the app so that they can later be shared over the web.

Samsung Apps is the world’s largest and most popular HDTV-based application store. Consumers can choose from more than 1,000 apps worldwide that offer a wide array of interactive and customized content across categories such as video, music, news, sports, fitness and more. Free the TV Challenge finalists will also have the opportunity to make their app available through Samsung Apps, which currently averages 50,000 app downloads daily.

The winning Free the TV Challenge app, together with finalist apps, may be viewed at Samsung’s booth #12004 at the International Consumer Electronics Show.

Enabling the Development of Compelling Cross-Device Solutions with World-Class Tools

Converged applications create a richer, more engaging experience across the TV and another device such as a phone, tablet or computer. These apps may be classified as:

• Controller Apps that enable a second device to control an app on the TV
• Companion Apps that use a second device to provide additional information (eg. via web sites and social media sites) that is synchronized to and supplements what is shown on the TV itself; and
• Interactive Apps that optimize a second device for a secondary display; for example, allowing users to pause content on the TV and resume playback on the other device.

To further spur innovation on the industry’s preferred TV apps platform, Samsung reiterated its commitment to provide applications developers with the tools and information needed to build new, interactive experiences for the TV, even as the TV continues to evolve. Samsung’s Software Development Kit (SDK) for Samsung Smart TV uses a single SDK for apps across HDTVs, Blu-ray players and Blu-ray Home Theater systems, so that developers need only write applications once. By eliminating the barriers to development and enabling more versatile monetization for developers, Samsung has successfully built a robust and intuitive smart TV application developer ecosystem.

New features for the 2012 SDK includes enhanced support for “converged” or multi-screen apps. The new apps framework will be based on Javascript so more developers are able to create such converged apps for the TV environment. The SDK will also offer an improved Open Convergence Interface that supports the use of HID devices like USB mice, keyboards and game controllers in the apps, as well as industry-standard adaptive streaming that enables live and on-demand viewing of content in completed apps. Developers will also be able to incorporate in-app upgrades and ads to improve the user experience, as well as write basic functions that leverage Samsung Smart Interaction™ for gesture control and voice recognition.

The Samsung developer community continues to grow and currently has more than 2,000 active members. For more information on the developer community, please visit www.samsungdforum.com.