Gaming, NFT and video chat. These are few of the tech spurts we have seen in the past year or so, and they are certainly not going away, something Samsung has understood well and is trying to converge these into a single device. The South Korean company’s 2022 line-up of smart TVs will be an interesting one if we go by the early announcements made at the annual tech exhibition CES. The vision assimilates a range of features, from cloud-based gaming services to NFTs and video chat while watching TV.

For the gaming community

Later in the year, Samsung will launch on its select Smart TVs Samsung Gaming Hub, which will act as a streaming discovery platform, powered by Tizen. The idea is to allow game streaming providers make their libraries available to TV viewers. To ensure there is enough choice, the company has announced partnerships with NVIDIA GeForce NOW, Google’s Stadia and Utomik, besides holding out the promise of more partnerships in the coming days. The hub will allow easy search of titles, purchase of games and instant play of games. Game controllers will be able to pair with the new Gaming Hub. And there is the streaming aspect. Users will have access YouTube to follow streamers to watch gaming content.

“As a game streaming discovery platform, the Samsung Gaming Hub was created to support the gaming ecosystem and build on the company’s extensive legacy of delivering incredible hardware and software for better gaming experiences,” Samsung said in a statement.

What remains to be seen is whether the Hub will be exclusively available to a few 2022 Smart TVs or will it make way to slightly older models.

Watch Together

Born in the early days of the pandemic, family members and friends are constantly looking for ways to spend time together, even if it means virtually. So watching movies together but remotely has become a reality. For example, last year Apple launched SharePlay using which everyone can watch movies and TV shows in sync on a FaceTime call. The feature supports Disney+ and other streaming apps like NBA, Paramount+ and, of course, Apple TV+.

Samsung is taking the trend a step further with a new Watch Together app which will allow friends to video chat during a TV show or movie.

Support for NFTs

Making the Smart Hub smarter will be support for NFTs. The platform will have an app that will allow users to discover and purchase NFTs on Samsung’s MICRO LED, Neo QLED and The Frame TV models later this year. “With demand for NFTs on the rise, the need for a solution to today’s fragmented viewing and purchasing landscape has never been greater,” the company has told The Verge.

The Eco Remote can convert routers’ radio waves into energy

Eco-friendly stride

Last year at CES, the South Korean electronics giant grabbed headlines with its solar-charging remote. This year, its Eco Remote can convert routers’ radio waves into energy to stay fully charged. Though several companies have tapped into radio frequency (RF) harvesting for a long time, the technology works best for low-power devices. The remote will still be able to take advantage of solar charging but will also take small amounts of power from radio waves from things like your Wi-Fi router.