IT’S THE YEAR OF THE SMART TV

Judging from the new gizmos and Internet programs being displayed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, it is becoming increasingly apparent that vendors are betting on 2012 becoming the year of the smart TV. Some of the hardware and software unveiled on Monday: Yahoo! Connected TV, which adds online content to shows being watched on smart TV sets (i.e. those capable of being connected to the Internet), thereby allowing viewers to vote, shop, play during game shows, watch additional videos and photos — all via their remotes; Samsung’s voice controlled TV, which will apparently be introduced before Apple unveils its own voice-controlled set later this year; LG’s Magic Remote, which looks like a Nintendo Wii controller and is meant to be used by viewers like a computer mouse, pointing and clicking on various buttons and icons on the TV screen (Philips unveiled a similar technology called uWand); Google TV, included on several new smart TV sets, allowing users to search the web for news videos, sports scores, and games; M-GO from MediaNavi, a unit of Technicolor, which tracks what viewers watch and then makes recommendations for other shows based on their viewing habits; also tracking TV viewers’ habits will be Entourage, from Sony-owned Gracenote, which observes what products a viewer is watching and then makes recommendations about how to buy them.